The city of
Cyrene was a Greek colony,
founded in the seventh century BC (631 BC) upon the oracle advice
of Delphi, on one of the best verdant regions of Eastern Libya's
Green Mountain, by immigrants, or refugees according to some sources,
from the island of Thera (or today's Santhorini). The city was also known
as Qourina, which as you can see is the same as Cyrene: Qourina (QRN) > *Qyrine > Cyrene
(CRN). The prosperity of Cyrene was founded on the silphium plant,
pictured on all Cyrenaican coins, where it resembles a stylised leek.
The plant, once grew only in Libya, is now extinct and apparently its
dying out was a grievous blow to the Greeks.
Similarly, Cyrene was one of
the Libyan Amazon queens who, according to legend founded a city
with that name (Cerne) along the coast. The Greek goddess Ceres,
a Hellenic form of African Isis, the Corn-goddess, was also known
as Qer, Ger
or Cer, and therefore Qourina appears to be the Libyan form of Qer, which
Graves also connects with the name Garamantes. Whether the city of
Cyrene or Qourina was in existence before the Greeks arrived, and whether
it was the same as the Amazonian Cerne, we may never know. But given
the advanced state the city had attained during the short period
of Greek occupation, and given the fact that Leptis Magna, Sabratha and
Tripoli were all in existence well before the arrival of the Phoenicians,
one can safely assume that the city was in existence
way before the Greeks arrived. During the excavation of
the Roman Theatre, it was found to overlie
in part a market, and this market
was falso found to overlie an even earlier market. The Roman Theatre was
built after the earthquake and is considered as one of the last
theatres to be built under the Roman emperors.
Two hundred years later, the Greeks established four
more cities: Apollonia (Sousa), Ptolemais (Tolmeita),
Taucheira (Tokra) and Berenice (Benghazi). When the Romans took over,
or were handed over, the Cyrenaican area in the first century BC, they
called the region the Pentapolis (The Five Cities). Among the best attractions
are the landscape of the area, the Eastern Basilica, some ancient
Greek inscriptions and mosaics, and the Roman
rock grottos, which cut into the scarp
of the rock and separated from the Sacred Way by a retaining wall. Three
of them formed a sort of nymphaeum, made of chair-like baths cut out
of the rock, in which the bather sat in a niche, each containing a recess
for a lamp. In the Sacred Laws of the sacred stelae, discovered by the
Italians, the nymphaeum were used in connection with Artemis, where girls
go down to the nymphaeum of Artemis in rite of purification on the eve
of marriage.
In ancient times Cyrene acquired the status of
being one of the largest cities in the Mediterranean, and reached
its peak in the 4th century BC. In the 2nd century AD. a series
of violent rebellions sent the city in turmoil. After the massacres
of the Jewish Revolt of 115 AD, the city began to recover, especially
under the patronage of the Libyan Emperor Septimius Severus. But
its final blow arrived with the great earthquake of 365 AD,
where the city was reduced to ruins; only to be rebuilt again.
The Venus of Cyrene is back home
During the recent meeting between the Italian Prime Minister Silvio
Berlusconi and the Libyan leader Col Muammar al-Qaddafi Italy
has agreed to pay Libya US$5 billion as compensation
for its occupation of the country from 1911 to 1943. Apparently,
as a gesture
of goodwill,
Berlusconi
would also hand over to Libya the statue of Venus of Cyrene, an ancient
statue taken by Italian troops from the ruins of Cyrene
during the wars.
