KYRENE AND OPHELLAS. 429 tlir time of Alexander. It would appear that the trade with the native African tribes, between the Gulfs called the Greater and Lesser Syrtis, was divided between Kyrene (meaning the Kyre- naic Pentapolis) and Carthage — at a boundary point called the Altars of the Philasni, ennobled by a commemorative legend ; immediately east of these Altars was Automala, the westernmost factory of Kyrene.' We cannot doubt that the relations, com- mercial and otherwise, between Kyrene and Carthage, the two great emporia on the coast of Africa, were constant and often lu- crative — though not always friendly. In the year 331 b. c, when the victorious Alexander over- • ran Egypt, the inhabitants of Kyrene sent to tender presents and submission to him, and became enrolled among his subjects.^ "We hear nothing more about them until the last year of Alex- ander's life (324 B. c. to 323 b. c). About that time, the ex- iles from Kyrene and Barka, probably enough emboldened by the rescript of Alexander (proclaimed at the Olympic festival of 324 B. c, and directing that aU Grecian exiles, except those guilty of sacrilege, should be recalled forthwith), determined to accomplish their return by force. To this end they invited from Krete an officer named Thimbron ; who, having slain Ilarpalus after his flight from Athens (recounted in a previous chapter), had quartered himself in Krete, with the treasure, the sliips, and the 6000 mercenaries, brought over from Asia by that satrap.5 Thimbron willingly carried over his army to their assistance, in- tending to conquer for himself a principality in Libya. He landed near Kyrene, defeated the Kyrenean forces with great slaughter, and made himself master of ApoUonia, the fortified port of that city, distant from it nearly ten miles. The towns of Barka and Hesperides sided with him ; so that he was strong enough to force the Kyreneans to a disadvantageous treaty.
- Strabo, xvii. p. 836; Sallust, Bell. Jugurth. p. 126.
- Arrian, vii. 9,12; Curtius, iv. 7,9; Diodor. xvii. 49. It is said that
Jlie inhabitants of Kyrene (exact date unknown) applied to Plato to make laws for them, but that he declined. See Thrige, Histor. CyrenOs, p. 191 We should be glad to have this statement better avouched. ^ Diodor. xvii. 108, xviii. 19 ; Arrian, De Eebus ; post Alcxandr. vi. apiwi Pliotium, Cod. 92 ; Strabo, xyii. p. 837.
