Page:History of Greece Vol IV.djvu/61

ARKESILAUS THE SECOND. 43 time Hesperides was founded we do not know, but it existed about 510 B.C. 1 Whether Arkesilaus obstructed the foundation of Barka is not certain ; but he marched the Kyrenrcan forces against those revolted Libyans Avho had joined it. Unable to resist, the latter fled for refuge to their more easterly brethren near the borders of Egypt, and Arkesilaus pursued them. At length, in a district called Leukon, the fugitives found an oppor- tunity of attacking him at such prodigious advantage, that they almost destroyed the Kyrenrcan army, seven thousand hoplites (as has been before intimated) being left dead on the field. Arkesi- laus did not long survive this disaster. He was strangled during sickness by his brother Learchus, who aspired to the throne ; but Eryxo, widow of the deceased prince, 2 avenged the crime, by causing Learchus to be assassinated. That the credit of the Battiad princes was impaired by such a series of disasters and enormities, we can readily believe. But it received a still greater shock from the circumstance, that Bat- tus the Third, son and successor of Arkesilaus, was lame and deformed in his feet. To be governed by a man thus personally disabled, was in the minds of the Kyrenaeans an indignity not to be borne, as well as an excuse for preexisting discontents ; and the resolution was taken to send to the Delphian oracle for advice. They were directed by the priestess to invite from Mantineia, a moderator, empowered to close discussions and provide a scheme of government, the Mantineans selecting Demonax, one of the wisest of their citizens, to solve the same problem which had been committed to Solon at Athens. By his arrangement, the regal prerogative of the Battiad line was terminated, and a republican government established seemingly about 543 B.C. ; the dispossessed prince retaining both the 1 Herodot. iv, 204. 8 Herodot. iv, 160. Plutarch (De Virtutibus Mulier. p. 261) and PolyiB- nus (viii, 41) give various details of this stratagem on the part of Eryxo j Learchus heing in love with her. Plutarch also states that Learchus main- tained himself as despot for some time by the aid of Egyptian troops from Amasis, and committed great cruelties. His story has too much the ail of a romance to be transcril ed into the text, nor do I know from what authority it is taken.