Читать онлайн "Jews and Greeks in ancient Cyrene" - Эпплбаум Шимон - RuLit

The question whether the Ptolemies appointed a permanent deputy over the entire country has not been sufficiently clarified. We hear only of one governor (Ptolemy Sympetesis) under Euergetes II, who also acted as viceroy during his visit to Rome.[344] The case of Philo son of Castor, commander of the king’s bodyguard and strategos under Ptolemy V,[345] is less certain, and Bengtson regards him as the governor solely of the Libyan regions, but not of the country as a whole.

There is no doubt that an administrative distinction, if not a complete separation, was made between the settled country districts and the Libyan tribal areas.[346] Ptolemy Euergetes II in his testament distinguishes between the cities and the remainder of the country;[347] this distinction satisfactorily explains the duties of Philammon the Libyarch “over the places about Cyrene” at the end of the 3rd century B.C.[348]. These tribal areas were, it seems, under the surveillance of an appropriate commissioner, and as time went on came to be regarded juridically as χώρα βασιλική, i.e. royal domain.

Despite Ophelias’ failure and the demagogic motive of his expedition, Cyrene’s interest in the Syrtic region, more especially under Ptolemaic rule, was serious. If some settlement had been found acceptable both to Cyrene and to Carthage in the 4th century, in the the 3rd the frontier stood 280 kilometres further west of the Altars of the Philaeni, in the vicinity of Euphrantas Pyrgos (Εύφράντας πύργος),[349] today Gasr Zaphran in Tripolitania. It is unknown when this Cyrenean advance took place, but it may be noted that there are traces of Jewish settlement of the 3rd century B.C. on the coast of the Syrtic Gulf,[350] and this may be a remnant of the temporary advance of the Ptolemies, whose dynasty is credited with the first settlement of Jews in Libya. Whatever the case, Ptolemaic coins are common about Carthage from this time on,[351] and the Punic capital began to strike coins on the Greek model when the Ptolemies passed from the Attic to the Phoenician standard, in order to assist their trade with both Phoenicia and Carthage. Testimony to such contacts is provided by finds of hellenistic pottery at Lepcis,[352] and Cyrenean coins bearing the palm tree are again common among Ptolemaic currency at this time.[353] These data therefore permit us to assume that even if the Ptolemaic advance westward was made in the course of a war, the collision ended with an agreement beneficial to both sides, and apparently with the withdrawal of the Ptolemies to their former frontier.[354]

The trade with the Syrtis and Egypt will help to explain the systematic development of the Cyrenean ports by the Ptolemies: Magas strikes coins bearing the representation of a trireme,[355] the seahorse[356] and the trident.[357] He may well have developed Apollonia, where a mint began to operate in the 3rd century;[358] the harbour was already well protected (πανόρμος), according to Pseudo-Scylax,[359] by the middle of the 4th century, but the city-walls are now known to belong to its last years,[360] and may have been the work of Magas. The splendid tower-flanked west gate with its distinctive inner vantage-court would suit an early hellenistic date.[361] To the south-east of the enceinte, north of the present east-west main road, building remains containing 4th century and hellenistic sherds were disclosed during World War II and recorded by the writer in 1944, suggesting that the town had extended outside the hellenistic walls in that period. In the first part of the 3rd century Apollonia was separated from Cyrene and promoted to the status of an independent city, in the opinion of several scholars,[362] who base their view on the fact that the city’s name does not belong to the same class as the names Ptolemais, Berenice, etc., which are associated, it is said, with the work of Ptolemy III; it would therefore be more ancient. Jones attributed the conversion of the harbour to a city to the reforms of Ecdalus and Demophanes, but his conjecture seems to be without the support of evidence, since the name Apollonia does not appear before the 1st century B.C.,[363] whereas the city of Berenice existed on its new site at least by the middle of the 3rd.

The east gate of Ptolemais belongs typologically to the earlier hellenistic age, but the city was evidently refortified under Euergetes II, for the west gate was built in 158 B.C.[364] Ptolemais became a large city, even if one excludes from its area its southernmost quarter on the mountain escarpment, which remained uninhabited although within the wall, and contained only the Akropolis.[365] The city’s area approximates to that of Cyrene, and its hippo-damian plan probably belongs to this period; it existed at least from the 2nd century B.C. One gets the impression that Ptolemais was designed to be the country’s effective new capital, and even to rival Alexandria. Its source of agricultural supply was the Plain of Barka to the south, but the city itself was separated from the Plain by a mountainous range running parallel with the shore and commanded no more than a narrow coastal tract. Hence the inhabitants must have engaged primarily in trade and crafts; Ptole-mais’ buildings were rich and important. Here too, Ptolemy III opened a mint.[366]

Magas’ great interest in the control of the sea arose no doubt from his predicament as seceder from Egypt. It was also necessary in order to protect Cyrenean commerce against piracy, a grave factor in this period. Crete was a special centre of piratical activity, and lay across Cyrene’s approaches to the Aegean. Hence the treaty signed by Magas with the Oreioi of Crete[367] in the second half of his reign would have been one of his efforts to restrain piracy, at a time when peace prevailed between himself and Ptolemy Philadelphus. This period further corresponded with that of Philadelphus’ Island League (270-250), with which he was able to control the Aegean and to check piratical raids.

Euesperitae also was an object of the dynasty’s development activity, but here the operation was more radicaclass="underline" the entire city, which was situated among the lagoons along the northern shore, was moved westward to the edge of the present harbour,[368] and its name changed to Berenice, in honour of Magas’ mother or of his daughter, wife of Ptolemy III Euergetes. The pottery evidence suggests this may have taken place as early as the end of the third quarter of the 4th century, when pottery on the old site appears to end,[369] but Vickers believed that the analysis of coin finds there points to a transfer as late as the middle of the following century.[370] The name of the old site represented by the initial “E”, still appears on coins at the beginning of the 3rd century,[371] while an inscription from Alexandria belonging to the first half of the same century, bears the text Ξενάρατος Χαρμαντίου Βερνικεὺς ἀφ’ Ἑσπερίδων;[372] hence the transfer may well have begun somewhat before Ptolemy III’s reign.[373]