Page:History of Greece Vol IV.djvu/60

42 HISTORY OF GREECE. changed for the worse. The Libyan king Adikran, himself among the sufferers, implored aid fiom Apries king of Egypt, then in the height of his power ; sending to declare himself and his people Egyptian subjects, like their neighbors the Adyrmachidae. The Egyptian prince, accepting the offer, despatched a large military force of the native soldier-caste, who were constantly in station at the western frontier-town Marea, by the route along shore to attack Kyrene. They were met at Irasa by the Greeks of Ky- rene, and, being totally ignorant of Grecian arms and tactics, experienced a defeat so complete that few of them reached home. 1 The consequences of this disaster in Egypt, where it caused the transfer of the throne from Apries to Amasis, have been noticed in a former chapter. Of course the Libyan Perioeki were put down, and the redivi- sion of lands near Kyrene among the Greek settlers accomplished, to the great increase of the power of the city. And the reign of Battus the Prosperous marks a flourishing era in the town, and a large acquisition of land-dominion, antecedent to years of dis- sension and distress. The Kyrenoeans came into intimate alli- ance with Amasis king of Egypt, who encouraged Grecian connection in every way, and who even took to wife Ladike, a woman of the Battiad family at Kyrene, so that the Libyan Peri- ceki lost all chance of Egyptian aid against the Greeks. 3 New prospects, however, were opened to them during the reign of Arkesilaus the Second, son of Battus the Prosperous, (about 554-544 B.C.) The behavior of this prince incensed and alienated his own brothers, who raised a revolt against him, se- ceded with a portion of the citizens, and induced a number of the Libyan Periffiki to take part with them. They founded the Greco-Libyan city of Barka, in the territory of the Libyan Aus- chisae, about twelve miles from the coast, distant from Kyrene by sea about seventy miles to the westward. The space between the two, and even beyond Barka, as far as the more westerly Grecian colony called Hesperides, was in the days of Skylax provided with commodious ports for refuge or landing : 3 at whal Herodot. iv, 159. Herodot. ii, 180-181 J Herodot. iv, 160; Skylax, c. 107; Hekatseus, Fiagm. 300, ed. Klansen.