581 of Barka and Hesperides sided with him; so that he was strong enough to force the Kyreneans to a disadvantageous treaty. They covenanted to pay 500 talents,-to surrender to him half of their war-chariots for his ulterior projects—and to leave him in possession of Apollonia. While he plundered the merchants in the harbour, he proclaimed his intention of subjugating the independent Libyan tribes, and probably of stretching his conquests to Carthage'. His schemes were however frustrated by one of his own officers, a Kretan named Mnasikles; who deserted to the Kyrenæans, and encouraged them to set aside the recent convention. Thimbron, after seizing such citizens of Kyrênê as happened to be at Apollonia, attacked Kyrênê itself, but was repulsed; and the Kyreneans were then bold enough to invade the territory of Barka and Hesperides. To aid them, Thimbron moved his quarters from Apollonia; but during his absence, Mnasikles contrived to surprise that valuable -port; thus mastering at once his base of operations, the station for his fleet, and all the baggage of his soldiers. Thimbron's fleet could not be long maintained without a harbour. The seamen, landing here and there for victuals and water, were cut off by the native Libyans, while the vessels were dispersed by storms?. The Kyrenæans, now full of hope, encountered Thimbron in the field, and defeated him. Yet though reduced to distress, he contrived to obtain possession of Teucheira; to which port he invoked as auxiliaries 2500 fresh soldiers, out of the loose 1 Diodor. xviii. 19. 2 Diodor. xvii. 20. The Kyre næans invite aid from the Egyptian Ptolemy, who sends Ophellas thither. death of Thimbron. Kyrenaica mercenary bands dispersed near Cape Tænarus in Peloponnesus. This reinforcement again put him in a condition for battle. The Kyrenæans on their side also thought it necessary to obtain succour, partly from the neighbouring Libyans, partly from Carthage. They got together a force stated as 30,000 men, with which they met him in the field. But on this occasion they were totally routed, with the loss of all their generals and much of their army. Thinbron was now in the full tide of success; he pressed both Kyrênê and the harbour so vigorously, that famine began to prevail, and sedition broke out among the citizens. The oligarchical men, expelled by the more popular party, sought shelter, some in the camp of Thimbron, some at the court of Ptolemy in Egypt'. I have already mentioned, that in the partition after the decease of Alexander, Egypt had been assigned to Ptolemy. Seizing with eagerness the opportunity of annexing to it so valuable a possession as the Kyrenaic Pentapolis, this chief sent an Defeat and adequate force under Ophellas to put down Thimbron and restore the exiles. His success was complete. All the cities in the Pentapolis were reduced; Thimbron, worsted and pursued as a fugitive, was seized in his flight by some Libyans, Ophellas as and brought prisoner to Teucheira; the citizens of which place (by permission of the Olynthian Epikydes, governor for Ptolemy), first tortured him, and then conveyed him to Apollonia to be hanged. A final visit from Ptolemy himself regulated the affairs of the Pentapolis, which were incorporated annexed to the dominions of Ptolemy, under viceroy. 1 Diodor. xviii. 21. CHAP. XCVII.] KYRENE UNDER PTOLEMY. 583 with his dominions and placed under the government of Ophellas1. It was thus that the rich and flourishing Kyrênê, B.c.322. an interesting portion of the once autonomous Hellenic world, passed like the rest under one of the Macedonian Diadochi. As the proof and guarantee of this new sovereignty, we find erected within the walls of the city, a strong and completely detached citadel, occupied by a Macedonian or Egyptian garrison (like Munychia at Athens), and forming the stronghold of the viceroy. Ten years afterwards (B.c. 312) the Kyrenæans made an attempt to emancipate themselves, and besieged this citadel; but being again put down by an army and fleet which Ptolemy despatched under Agis from Egypt, Kyrênê passed once more under the viceroyalty of Ophellas3. and hopes He accepts tion of Agathokles. To this viceroy Agathokles now sent envoys, B.C. 308. invoking his aid against Carthage. Ophellas was Position an officer of consideration and experience. He of Ophellas. had served under Alexander, and had married an the invita Athenian wife, Euthydikê,-a lineal descendant Ag from Miltiades the victor of Marathon, and be- He collects longing to a family still distinguished at Athens. In inviting Ophellas to undertake jointly the conquest of Carthage, the envoys proposed that he should himself hold it when conquered. Agathokles 'Arrian, De Rebus post Alex. vi. ap. Phot. Cod. 92; Diodor. xviii. 21; Justin, xiii. 6, 20. 3 Diodor. xix. 79. Οἱ Κυρηναῖοι τὴν ἄκραν περιεστρατοπέδευσαν, ὡς αὔτικα μάλα τὴν φρουρὰν ἐκβαλοῦντες, &c. 3 Justin (xxii. 7, 4) calls Ophellas "rex Cyrenarum ;" but it is noway probable that he had become independent of Ptolemy-as Thrige (Hist. Cyrênês, p. 214) supposes. The expression in Plutarch (Demetrius, 14), Οφέλλᾳ τῷ ἄρξαντι Κυρήνης, does not necessarily imply an independent authority. colonists from Athens and other Gre cian cities. (they said) wished only to overthrow the Carthaginian dominion in Sicily, being well aware that he could not hold that island in conjunction with an African dominion. To Ophellas', such an invitation proved extremely seducing. He was already on the look out for aggrandisement towards the west, and had sent an exploring nautical expedition along the northern coast of Africa, even to some distance round and beyond the Strait of Gibraltar2. Moreover, to all military adventurers, both on sea and on land, the season was one of boundless speculative promise. They had before them not only the prodigious career of Alexander himself, but the successful encroachments of the great officers his successors. In the second distribution, made at Triparadeisus, of the Alexandrine empire, Antipater had assigned to Ptolemy not merely Egypt and Libya, but also an undefined amount of territory west of Libya, to be afterwards acquired; the conquest of which was known to have been among the projects of Alex 1 Diodor. xx. 40. 2 From an incidental allusion in Strabo (xvii. p. 826), we learn this fact that Ophellas had surveyed the whole coast of Northern Africa, to the Straits of Gibraltar, and round the old Phenician settlements on the western coast of modern Morocco. Some eminent critics (Grosskurd among them) reject the reading in Strabo-ȧñò тoû 'Opéλa (or Οφέλλα) περιπλοῦ, which is sustained by a very great preponderance of MSS. But I do not feel the force of their reasons; and the reading which they would substitute has nothing to recommend it. In my judgment, Ophellas, ruling in the Kyrenaica and indulging aspirations towards conquest westward, was a man both likely to order, and competent to bring about, an examination of the North African coast. The knowledge of this fact may have induced Agathokles to apply to him. 3 Arrian, De Rebus post Alex. 34, ap. Photium, Cod. 92. AïуνптоV μὲν γὰρ καὶ Λιβύην, καὶ τὴν ἐπέκεινα τάυτης τὴν πολλὴν, καὶ ὅ,τι περ ἂν πρὸς τούτοις δόριον ἐπικτήσηται πρὸς δυομένου ἡλίου, Πτολεμαίου CHAP. XCVII.] OPHELLAS ASSISTS AGATHOKLES. 585 ander, had he lived longer. To this conquest Ophellas was now specially called, either as the viceroy or the independent equal of Ptolemy, by the invitation of Agathokles. Having learnt in the service of Alexander not to fear long marches, he embraced the proposition with eagerness. He undertook an expedition from Kyrênê on the largest scale. Through his wife's relatives, he was enabled to make known his projects at Athens, where, as well as in other parts of Greece, they found much favour. At this season, the Kassandrian oligarchies were paramount not only at Athens, but generally throughout Greece. Under the prevalent degradation and suffering, there was ample ground for discontent, and no liberty of expressing it; many persons therefore were found disposed either to accept army-service with Ophellas, or to enrol themselves in a foreign colony under his auspices. To set out under the military protection of this powerful chief-to colonize the mighty Carthage, supposed to be already enfeebled by the victories of Agathokles-to appropriate the wealth, the fertile landed possessions, and the maritime position, of her citizens-was a prize well calculated to seduce men dissatisfied with their homes, and not well informed of the intervening difficulties'. Under such hopes, many Grecian colonists joined 1 Diodor. xx. 40. πολλοὶ τῶν ̓Αθηναίων προθύμως ὑπήκουσαν εἰς τὴν στρατείαν· οὐκ ὄλιγοι δὲ καὶ τῶν ἄλλων Ελλήνων, ἔσπευδον κοινωνῆσαι τῆς ἐπιβολῆς, ἐλπίζοντες τήν τε κρατίστην τῆς Λιβύης κατακληρουχήσειν, καὶ τὸν ἐν Καρχηδόνι διαρπάσειν πλοῦτον. As to the great encouragement held out to settlers, when a new colony was about to be founded by a powerful state, see Thucyd. iii. 93, |