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Libya's second largest city Benghazi, has a history which extends from when the city was first inhabited in the 6th century BCE to the present day. Throughout its history, the city has been continuously conquered by different Ancient and Colonial forces. ==Ancient Greek colony== Modern Benghazi lies in the province of Cyrenaica, an area which was heavily colonised by the Greeks in antiquity. After the war of Othomi in 464-460 B.C. the Messenians settled in Naupaktos. In 399 B.C., expelled once more by the Spartians, they took final refuge in Euesperides. The Greek city that existed within the modern day boundaries of Benghazi was founded around 525 BC. It was called Euesperides and was one of five important cities in Cyrenaica known as the Pentapolis — the other four were the chief city Cyrene, its port Apollonia, Taucheira, and Barca. Euesperides was probably founded by people from Cyrene or Barca on the edge of a lagoon which opened from the sea. At the time, the lagoon may have been deep enough to receive small sailing vessels. The name Euesperides was attributed to the fertility of the area, and gave rise to mythological associations with the garden of Hesperides.〔Ham, Anthony, ''Libya'', 2002, p.156〕 The city was located on a raised piece of land opposite what is now the Sidi Abeid graveyard, in the Eastern Benghazi suburb of ''Sebkha Es-Selmani'' (Es-Selmani Marsh).〔Göransson, Kristian: ''The transport amphorae from Euesperides: The maritime trade of a Cyrenaican city 400-250 BC'', Acta Archaeologica Lundensia, Series in 4o No. 25, Lund/Stockholm 2007, 29.〕 Euesperides is first mentioned by ancient sources in Herodotus' account of the revolt of Barca and the Persian expedition to Cyrenaica in c.515 BC; the punitive force sent by the satrap in Egypt conquered most of Cyrenaica and reached "as far west as Euesperides".〔Herodotus, ''IV.204.''〕 The oldest coins minted in the city date back to 480 BC. One side of the coin has an engraving of Delphi, whilst the other has an engraving of a silphium plant. Silphium once formed the crux of trade from Cyranaica because of its use as a rich seasoning and as a medicine. Euesperides's coinage suggests that it must have enjoyed an intermittent autonomy from Cyrene in the early 5th century, because Euesperidean coins had their own types, distinct from those of Cyrene with the legend EU(ES). An inscription found in modern Benghazi and dated around the middle of the 4th century BC, shows that the city had a similar constitution to that of Cyrene, with a board of chief magistrates (ephors) and a council of elders (gerontes). The city was located in hostile territory surrounded by inhospitable tribes, and had a turbulent history. The Greek historian Thucydides mentions a siege of the city in 414 BC. by Libyan tribes who were probably the Nasamones. Euesperides was saved by the chance arrival of Spartan general Gylippus and his fleet, who were blown to Libya by contrary winds on their way to Sicily.〔Economou, Maria, ("Euesperides: A devastated Site" ), ''Digital Library and Archives, Virginia Tech'', August 1993, Accessed February 6, 2009.〕 Another important event in the city's history was the assassination of the Cyrenean king Arcesilaus IV. The King used his chariot victory at the Pythian Games of 462 BC. to attract new settlers to Euesperides, where Arcesilaus hoped to create a safe refuge for himself against the resentment of his own people in Cyrene. This proved totally ineffective, since when the King fled to Euesperides during the anticipated revolution (around 440 BC), he was assassinated, thus terminating the almost two hundred year rule of the Battiad dynasty. Cyrenaica was a supporter of Alexander the Great and subsequently became part of the Ptolemaic Kingdom. Later in the 4th century BC, during the unsettling period which followed Alexander's death, the Euesperides backed the losing side in a revolt led by the Spartan adventurer Thibron; he was trying to create an empire for himself, but was defeated by the Cyreneans and their Libyan allies. After the marriage of Ptolemy III to Berenice, daughter of the Cyrenean Governor Magas, around the middle of the 3rd century, many Cyrenaican cities were renamed to mark the occasion. Euesperides became Berenice and the change of name also involved a relocation. Its desertion was probably due to the silting up of the lagoons; Berenice, the place they moved to, lies underneath Benghazi's modern city centre. The Greek colony had lasted from the 6th to the mid-3rd centuries BC. The remains of this settlement were discovered in the early 1950s by Mr. Frank Jowett. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of Benghazi」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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