During the course of this expedition, it appears, the Persian army
advanced as far as Hesperides, and reduced many of the Libyan tribes
to subjection: these, together with Kyrênê and Barka, figure among
the tributaries and auxiliaries of Xerxês in his expedition against
Greece. And when the army returned to Egypt, by order of Aryandês,
they were half inclined to seize Kyrênê itself in their way, though
the opportunity was missed and the purpose left unaccomplished.[99]
[99] Herodot. iv, 203-204.
Pheretimê accompanied the retreating army to Egypt, where she died
shortly of a loathsome disease, consumed by worms; thus showing, says
Herodotus,[100] that “excessive cruelty in revenge brings down upon
men the displeasure of the gods.” It will be recollected that in the
veins of this savage woman the Libyan blood was intermixed with the
Grecian. Political enmity in Greece proper kills, but seldom if ever
mutilates or sheds the blood, of women.
[100] Herodot. iv, 205.
We thus leave Kyrênê and Barka again subject to Battiad princes, at
the same time that they are tributaries of Persia. Another Battus
and another Arkesilaus have to intervene before the glass of this
worthless dynasty is run out, between 460-450 B. C. I shall not at
present carry the reader’s attention to this last Arkesilaus, who
stands honored by two chariot victories in Greece, and two fine odes
of Pindar.
The victory of the third Arkesilaus, and the restoration of the
Battiads, broke up the equitable constitution established by
Demônax. His triple classification into tribes must have been
completely remodelled, though we do not know how. For the number
of new colonists whom Arkesilaus introduced must have necessitated
a fresh distribution of land, and it is extremely doubtful whether
the relation of the Theræan class of citizens with their Periœki, as
established by Demônax, still continued to subsist. It is necessary
to notice this fact, because the arrangements of Demônax are spoken
of by some authors as if they formed the permanent constitution of
Kyrênê; whereas they cannot have outlived the restoration of the
Battiads, nor can they even have been revived after that dynasty was
finally expelled, since the number of new citizens and the large
change of property, introduced by Arkesilaus the Third, would render
them inapplicable to the subsequent city.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
PAN-HELLENIC FESTIVALS — OLYMPIC, PYTHIAN, NEMEAN, AND ISTHMIAN.
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