It may be supposed that the two last kings of Cyrene still inclined to Persia. A Delphic response as transmitted by Diodorus Siculus[168] has been considered by several scholars[169] to belong to the time of Battus IV, since in demanding the settlement of Libya it emphasizes the royal authority of the suppliant, who appears as Battus Aristoteles. Parke therefore believes that we have here a statement meant to strengthen Battus IV in a time of political difficulty. If this is so we must interpret the resistance of Barka to the Persians in 484 as a revolt against the King. The Egyptians rose against Persia in the same year[170] and in 462, when they rose a second time, they received Libyan aid.[171] It is at least known that Arkesilaos IV planned a campaign in Egypt that year,[172] but whether to aid the rebels or the Persians, we do not know. Whatever the case, when the remnants of the Athenian expedition returned from Egypt through Cyrene in 457,[173] they were not molested, showing that by this time Persian control of Cyrene had ended. Chamoux indeed believes,[174] like Jenkins, that the new coin-types which appear in the city after 470 indicate the state’s independence and its liberation from the Persian yoke.
If we attempt to summarize the little information we possess on Arkesilaos IV, we may see him as an energetic autocrat, strengthening his power with new colonization, drawing closer his ties with the desert oases, increasing the circulation of his coinage, maintaining relations with the Greek sacred centres (Delphi, Olympia, Athens), claiming rule over the other cities of Cyrenaica,[175] a patron of culture, and a breeder of thoroughbred horses. In the first half of the 5th century the north portico of the Agora was extended, and a heroon built over the tomb of Battus I. In the same period the nearby shrine of Opheles was replaced by a temple.[176]
How was it that the Battiad monarchy held its ground as an active political regime when monarchy had died out almost completely over most of Greece? The geographical isolation of Cyrene certainly helped to delay in some measure the state’s social development, and its strong Dorian element probably displayed a conservative attitude in favour of monarchy, like its Spartan kindred. Persian influence certainly prolonged Battiad rule beyond its natural term. Social factors also had their effect; relations with the Libyans encouraged the perpetuation of a monarchy for reasons of prestige. Moreover Cyrene possessed broader areas of fertile soil for expansion than most of the states of mainland Greece, and this delayed the development of the small peasant as member of a compact aggressive group, or the crystallization of a hoplite class to claim its share of power. Cyrene further retained its economic independence in the sphere of food-supply to a greater extent than most of the Greek states, and as an exporter of agricultural produce could purchase from overseas the crafts products and luxuries which she needed. This situation was apt to delay the development of domestic crafts. Heichelheim rightly observed[177] that the tyrannies of mainland Greece could not maintain themselves for long because of the limitedness of their economic bases; the Bat-tiads, for their part, disposed of considerable areas.
But a time came when Battiad policy contradicted itself. Trade expanded beyond the limits within which it could be conducted as a royal monopoly; colonization reached its natural bounds of development within the existent settled area and the demand of the kings for colonists who would support their rule led to the growth of a population whose economy endangered the existence of large aristocratic estates. Thus a constellation of political forces was created which hastened the end of the monarchy. When Persian support was removed, the regime collapsed, never to recover.
The written sources for Cyrenean history from the end of the Battiad dynasty to the rise of Alexander the Great are few and fragmentary. Heraclides of Pontus[178] places the death of Battus son of Arkesilaus IV “after the foundation of a democratic regime”, but there is no information on its nature or details. As a completely democratic regime was not introduced till after 401, and was preceded by a struggle between the aristocracy and the demos, we must assume that a restricted democracy was in power, not participated in by all classes of the people. It is here relevant to note, however, that some time in the second half of the 5th century, apparently, the west portico of the Agora was replaced by a building for public assembly.[179] The steles of the Cyrenean Demiurgi,[180] which appear first in the middle of the 5th century, moreover, make public the accounts of an administrative body of the state responsible to the city and therefore reflect democratic procedure. It may be assumed that the royal properties were now entrusted to the city’s elected officials, who included the demiurgi, for they dispose of considerable revenues from agricultural lands which defrayed, inter alia, the expenses of various cults (see below, p. 87). It may also be supposed that the royal priestly functions now passed into the hands of a High Priest elected by the state; such a priest, at any rate was at a later period annually appointed and gave his name to the year (ἱερεὺς πώνυμος).[181]To what extent the city reverted to the organization inaugurated by Demonax, it is impossible to know, least of all because his reforms are a subject of controversy.[182] It is difficult to solve this problem on the basis of information on the magistracies of an earlier period, although ephors are known to have existed in Thera and in Crete.[183] On the other hand, the archons and council (βουλή) referred to at Barka[184] in connection with the events of 484, might suggest the renewal of democracy in that town.
In the middle of the 5th century the tetradrams of Cyrene, Barka and Euesperitae manifest technical and artistic progress,[185] perhaps indicating the end of the monarchy. These coins are imitated closely by the rulers of Lycia between about 450 and 430,[186] and the reason for the link may have been the Cyrenean import of silver bullion from Lycia. Before 435 Cyrene was minting gold coins, which bore the symbols both of Cyrene and Barka, thus declaring an alliance between the two states.[187] It is clear that Cyrenean trade had gained considerable impetus with the fall of the Battiads, and this was expressed in these years by her transfer from the Attic to the Asiatic monetary standard, thus strengthening Cyrene’s economic ties with Egypt and the eastern Aegean, more especially with Rhodes and Samos.[188]
Arkesilaos appears to have entertained relations with Athens,[189] but after his death, on the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War, the Cyrenean cities, as Dorians, presumably inclined to Sparta, but did not intervene in the hostilities, although the Spartan Gylippus received aid from Cyrene in 413, and himself helped Euesperitae to repel a Libyan attack.[190]
Barka had manifested signs of independence under the monarchy, and had begun to pursue an independent policy from about 450; in the treaty between her and Cyrene she was the senior partner, and her decisions seem to have been decisive. Teucheira was subject to her in the middle of the century,[191] a relationship expressed in the coins of both cities.[192] Pseudo-Scylax too, writing in the mid-4th century, distinguishes between the cities subject to Cyrene and those subject to Barka,[193] and in later literature (Aeneas Tacitus, Titian, Ptolemy) the people of Barka are referred to as a separate entity. This division was doubtless rooted in geographical factors, principally in the eroded and broken waterless area separating the two cities. In the years after 435 Barka’s coinage develops steadily, whereas Cyrene’s is static, and her position would seem to have been one of depression and inferiority in those years. Nevertheless, as the general artistic level of the coins rose throughout the country, a growing uniformity is traceable, to be interpreted as the result of intensified freedom of movement between the urban centres. The ancient highway that leaves Cyrene south-westward for Zavia Beida (Balagrae) is quarried in the rock and lined on both sides by rockcut tombs of the 5th and 4th centuries.
175
‘King... of great cities’, according to Pind., V
182
Schafer, for example, rejects completely the democratic character of his reforms, thus impugning the authority of Herodotus, whose account he regards as anachronistic.