Page:History of Greece Vol IV.djvu/59

BATTIAD PRINCES AT KYRENE. 41 the oekist (about 630-590 B.C.), and sixteen years of his son Arkesilaus (about 590-574 B.C.), a second Battus 1 succeeded, called Battus the Prosperous, to mark the extraordinary increase of Kyrene during his presidency. The Kyrenteans under him took pains to invite new settlers from all parts of Greece with out distinction, a circumstance deserving notice in Grecian lolonization, which usually manifested a preference for certain races, if it did not positively exclude the rest. To every new- comer was promised a lot of land, and the Delphian priestess strenuously seconded the wishes of the Kyrenreans, proclaiming that " whosoever should reach the place too late for the land- division, would have reason to repent it." Such promise of new land, as well as the sanction of the oracle, were doubtless made public at all the games and meetings of Greeks, and a large number of new colonists embarked for Kyrene. The exact num- ber is not mentioned, but we must conceive it to have been very great, when we are told that during the succeeding generation, not less than seven thousand Grecian hoplites of Kyrene perished by the hands of the revolted Libyans, yet leaving both the city itself and its neighbor Barka still powerful. The loss of so great a number as seven thousand Grecian hoplites has very few parallels throughout the whole history of Greece. In fact, thi:? second migration, during the government of Battus the Prosper- ous, which must have taken place between 574-554 B.C., ought to be looked upon as the moment of real and effective coloni- zation for Kyrene. It was on this occasion, probably, that the port of Apollonia, which afterwards came to equal the city itself in importance, was first occupied and fortified, for this second swarm of emigrants came by sea direct, while the original colo- nists had reached Kyrene by land from the island of Platea through Irasa. The fresh emigrants came from Peloponnesus, Krete, and some other islands of the ./Egean. To furnish so many new lots of Ian 1, it was either necessary, or it was deemed expedient, to dispossess many of the Libyan Peri- oski, who found their situation in other respects also greatly 1 Respecting the chronology of the Battiad princes, see Boeckh, ad Vindar. Pyth. iv, p. 265, and Thirge ; Histor. Cyrenes, p. 127. se<}