Greek city of Cyrene in Northern Africa
Bronze 16mm (3.3 grams) Autonomous issue struck circa 100 A.D.
KYPЄINAΩΝ, Draped female bust right.
Draped male bust right.
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Cyrenaica (Greek:
Κυρηναϊκή Kūrēnaïkē,
Arabic: برقه,
Barqah) is
the eastern coastal region of
Libya and also an
ex-province or state ("muhafazah"
or "wilayah")
of the country (alongside
Tripolitania and
Fezzan) in the
pre-1963 administrative system. What used to be Cyrenaica in the old system is
now divided up into several "shabiyat"
(see
administrative divisions in Libya). In addition to the coastal region,
i.e. historical Cyrenaica, the former province, during the Kingdom and the
Italian era extended to the south to include the entire eastern section of the
country.
The ancient Greeks founded several colonies on its coast and developed
several major cities. The most important foundation was that of Cyrene in 631
BCE by colonists from the island
Thera,
who had left the island because of a famine.[1]
Their commander Aristoteles took the Libyan name Battos.[2]
His dynasty, the Battaid, maintained itself in spite of heavy resistance by the
Greeks in neighbouring cities.
The east of the province was called Marmarica (no major city), but the
important part was in the west, comprising five cities, hence known as the
Pentapolis: Cyrene
(near the modern village of Shahat) with its port of
Apollonia (Marsa Susa), Arsinoe or
Teucheira (Tocra),
Euesperides or Bernice (near modern
Benghazi)
and
Barce (Al
Marj) – of which the chief was the eponymous Cyrene.[1]
The term "Pentapolis" continued to be used as a
synonym for
Cyrenaica. In the south the Pentapolis faded into the
Saharan tribal
areas, including the pharaonic oracle of
Ammonium.
In 525 BCE, after taking Egypt, the Persians took the Pentapolis.[1]
They were followed by
Alexander the Great in 332 BCE, who received tribute from these cities after
he took Egypt.[1]
The Pentapolis was formally annexed by
Ptolemy I Soter and it passed to the
diadoch
dynasty of the Lagids, better known as the
Ptolemaic dynasty. It briefly gained independence under
Magas of Cyrene, stepson of Ptolemy I, but was reabsorbed into the Ptolemaic
empire after his death. It was separated from the main
kingdom by
Ptolemy VIII and given to his son
Ptolemy Apion, who, dying without heirs in
96 BCE, bequeathed it to the
Roman Republic, which gave it its current name, Cyrenaica.
Roman
province
Northern Africa under Roman rule.
Although some confusion exists as to the exact territory Rome inherited, by
78 BC it was
organized as one administrative
province
together with Crete.
It became a senatorial province in 20 BC, like its far more prominent western
neighbor
Africa proconsularis, and unlike Egypt itself which became an imperial
domain sui generis (under a special governor styled
praefectus augustalis) in
30 BC.
The
Tetrarchy reforms of
Diocletian
in 296 changed the administrative structure. Cyrenaica was split into two
provinces: Libya Superior comprised the above-mentioned Pentapolis with
Cyrene as capital, and Libya Inferior the
Marmarica (only significant city now the port Paraetonium), each under a
governor of the modest rank of
praeses.
Both belonged to the
Diocese of Egypt, within the
praetorian prefecture of
Oriens. Its western neighbor
Tripolitania, the largest split-off from Africa proconsularis, became part
of the
Diocese of Africa, subordinate to the
prefecture of Italia et Africa. After the earthquake of
365, the capital was
moved to
Ptolemais. After the Empire's division, Cyrenaica became part of the
East Roman (Byzantine) Empire, bordering Tripolitania. It was briefly part
of the
Vandal Kingdom to the west, until its
reconquest by Belisarius in 533.
Christianity
According to one tradition, Saint
Mark the Evangelist was born in the Pentapolis, and later returned after
preaching with
Saint Paul in
Colosse (Col 4:10) and
Rome (Phil 24; 2
Tim 4:11); from Pentapolis he made his way to
Alexandria.[3].
Christianity spread to Pentapolis from Egypt; Synesius of Cyrene (370-414),
bishop of Ptolemais, received his instruction at Alexandria in both
the Catechetical School and the
Museion, and he entertained a great deal of reverence and affection for
Hypatia, the
last pagan
Neoplatonist, whose classes he had attended. Synesius was raised to the
episcopate by
Theophilus,
patriarch of Alexandria, in 410 A.D. Since the
First Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D., Cyrenaica had been recognized as an
ecclesiastical province of the
See of Alexandria, in accordance with the ruling of the Nicaean Fathers.The
patriarch of the Coptic Church to this day includes the Pentapolis in his
title as an area within his jurisdiction.[4]
The Eparchy of the Western Pentapolis was part of the
Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria as the
Pope of Alexandria was the Pope of Africa, The most senior position in
The Holy Synod of the Coptic Orthodox Church after the Pope was the
Metropolitan of
Western Pentapolis, but since its demise in the days of
Pope John VI of Alexandria as a major Archiepiscopal Metropolis and now
being held as a Titular See attached to another Diocese.
After often being destroyed and then restored, during the Roman period it
became a mere borough but was, nevertheless, the site of a
bishopric.
Its bishop, Zopyros (Zephyrius is a mistake), was present at the
First Council of Nicaea in
325. The
subscriptions at
Ephesus (431) and
Chalcedon
(451) give the names
of two other bishops, Zenobius and Theodorus. The see must have disappeared when
the
Arabs conquered the
Pentapolis
in 643-44.
Although it retained the title "Pentapolis", the ecclesiastic province
actually included all of the Cyrenaica, and not just the five cities and
Pentapolis remains included in the title of both Popes of the
Coptic Orthodox Church and the
Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria.
Islam
Cyrenaica was conquered by the Islamic Arabs during the tenure of the second
caliph,
Omer Bin Khattab, in 643/44,[5]
and became known as Barqah after its new provincial capital, the ancient
city of
Barce. After the breakdown of the
Ummayad caliphate, it was essentially annexed to Egypt, although still under
the same name, under the
Fatimid caliphs and later under the
Ayyubid and
Mamluk sultanates.
Ultimately, it was annexed by the Turkish
Ottoman Empire in 1517 (it was mentioned in the full style of the Great
Sultan as the
vilayet of Barka, alongside Tripoli, with which it had been joined); its
main cities became
Benghazi
and
Derna.
Modern
history
The Italians occupied Cyrenaica during the
Italo-Turkish War in 1911 and declared it an Italian
protectorate on 15 October 1912. Three days later, the
Ottoman Empire officially ceded the province to the
Kingdom of Italy. On 17 May 1919, Cyrenaica was established as an Italian
colony, and, on
25 October 1920, the Italian government recognized
Sheikh Sidi Idriss as the leader of the
Senussi, who was granted the rank of
Emir until in 1929.
In that year, Italy "derecognized" him and the Senussi. On 1 January 1934,
Tripolitania, Cyrenaica, and
Fezzan were
united as the Italian colony of
Libya.
There was heavy fighting in Cyrenaica during
World
War II between the
Allies and the
Afrika
Korps of the
German Wehrmacht. In 1942 the
British occupied Cyrenaica and administered it until 1951.[6]
On 24 December 1951, Cyrenaica became part of the
Kingdom of Libya and Sidi Idriss was proclaimed
King Idris I. On 1 September 1969, after the overthrow of the
al-Sanussi
dynasty by
Muammar al-Gaddafi, Cyrenaica has occasionally witnessed anti-regime,
nationalist activity, such as a military rebellion at
Tobruk in 1980.
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