v59_0139 - CIRENAICA - CIRENE Hemidrachme

CYRENAICA - CYRENE

(6th - 5th centuries BC)

Cyrene, a port city located in Cyrenaica, was founded by Dorian settlers from the island of Thera around 630 BC. They were headed by Battus, the mythical ancestor of the Battides who reigned over Cyrene for two centuries. The city was famous for the cultivation and harvesting of silphium, one of the most sought-after medicinal plants of antiquity, which has now disappeared. The city, independent, was in the Egyptian orbit. It did not fall under Persian rule. The city, after the death of Arcésilaus IV, the last descendant of the Battides, Cyrene became a democracy in the middle of the 5th century BC..