Their object accomplished, the Persians returned to Egypt[2], leaving Barca, by desire of Pheretime, in possession of those who had been spared for their adherence to the family of Battus. The cruelties of Pheretime were visited upon her as those of Herod were afterwards punished; for we are told that she was eaten alive by worms, and died in the greatest torments.
The account which has descended to us of Cyrene and Barca, (with that of the various tribes of Northern Africa,) from the pen of the father of history, concludes with the death of Pheretime; which is believed by Herodotus to have been a judgment of the gods for the cruelties of which she had been guilty.
From this time the Cyreneans as well as the Libyans, with whom they appear to have been intermixed, are little alluded to in history till the conquest of the Persian empire. We are informed by Aristotle that, in his time, Cyrene was a republic; and we may perhaps suppose that, on the extinction of the family of Battus, that form of government took place which had been recommended by Demonax; although the Cyreneans may possibly have been tributary to, or under the protection of, Persia. At the period when the dispute concerning the limits of the countries took place between the people of Cyrene and Carthage, we may presume, from the account transmitted of it by Sallust, that democracy was the established form of government at Cyrene; and Strabo has informed us, that the Cyreneans continued to be governed by their own laws, till the reduction of Egypt by the Macedonians. After the death of Alexander, Cyrene became the prey of contending adventurers, and was at length delivered into the hands of Ptolemy by Ophellas; although that general is supposed to have obtained for himself the sovereignty of at least a part of the country. Magas, the brother of Ptolemy Lagus, reigned in Cyrene for fifty years; and it continued to be a part of the empire of the Ptolemies, some of whom resided there at different periods, till it was made over by his father to Apion, an illegitimate son of Ptolemy Physcon, who left it in his will to the Romans. The senate accepted the bequest, but allowed the several cities to be governed by their own laws; and the country was in consequence a prey to civil discord, and exposed to the tyranny and violence of many rival pretenders to supremacy. Lucullus in some measure restored tranquillity, when he visited it during the first Mithridatic war; but the evil was never finally removed till the whole of the Cyrenaica was reduced to the form of a Roman province. This event happened about twenty years after the death of Apion, and seventy-six before the birth of Christ: we find the country afterwards, in the time of Strabo, united with Crete in one government.
The most flourishing period of Cyrene was probably that of the Ptolemaic dynasty, and of the two or three centuries which preceded it; an epoch when Grecian art was in the highest perfection, and literature in great estimation.
At the time when the city, on account of an insurrection, was destroyed by the Roman people (who afterwards, however, rebuilt it,) it is probable that the temples were spared; for the architectural remains of those which we have described are decidedly Greek of an early style; and the same may be observed with respect to many of the tombs, although in these we may find examples of architecture in the style of many different periods.
Philosophy and literature were diligently cultivated at Cyrene; which gave birth to Aristippus, the founder of the sect distinguished by the name of Cyrenaic, and to many other celebrated men; among whom we may reckon Callimachus and Eratosthenes, Aristippus the younger, Anniceris, Carneades, &c.
The philosophy of Aristippus appears to have inculcated, that the soul has two particular motions, or sensations,—those of pain and pleasure; that all pleasures are alike; and that virtue is only to be esteemed inasmuch as it conduces to our gratification. Carneades denied that any thing could be perceived or understood in the world, and was the first philosopher who introduced an universal suspension of assent: he pretended to discover an uncertainty in the most self-evident notions; and vigorously opposed the doctrine of the stoics in his attempt to confute Chrysippus. When Carneades was sent as ambassador to Rome, with Diogenes the stoic, and Critolaus the peripatetic, he pronounced a very learned dissertation upon justice, which strongly convinced all his auditors of its value and importance in society: in another speech, however, the philosopher confuted all the arguments which he had established in his first discourse; and gave no existence at all to the virtue which he had just before strongly recommended. The Roman youth were so captivated with the eloquence and the reasoning powers of Carneades, that they are said, on this occasion, to have forgotten their usual amusements and thought of nothing else but philosophy. The effect produced upon the public mind was at all events so strong, that Cato the censor gave immediate audience to the Athenian ambassadors in the Senate; and dismissed them in haste, expressing his apprehension that they would corrupt the opinions of the Roman people[3].
Cyrene appears to have not long survived the introduction of Christianity into Northern Africa; for we find it described as—a mass of ruin—by Synesius, who lived in the time of Theodosius the younger. It is probable, that when the bishopric was transferred to Ptolemais, this once beautiful city no longer existed; and it is certain that the remains of Christian churches at Mersa Suza and Ptolemeta, (the Apollonia and Ptolemais of antiquity,) are superior in every respect to those which are found at Cyrene, and apparently of much more recent construction.
In returning from Cyrene to Bengazi, we proceeded by a different route from that which we had taken in approaching it; and passed through a country rich in vegetation, and producing abundance of grain; in which we observed frequent traces of building, particularly on the elevated spots of ground.