Editing Libya (section)

=== Ancient Libya ===
{{main|Ancient Libya|Libu}}
[[File:Leptis Magna Arch of Septimus Severus.jpg|thumb|left|[[Leptis Magna]]]]

The coastal plain of Libya was inhabited by [[Neolithic]] peoples from as early as 8000 BC. The [[Afroasiatic languages|Afroasiatic]] ancestors of the [[Berber people]] are assumed to have spread into the area by the [[Late Bronze Age]]. The earliest known name of such a tribe was the [[Garamantes]], based in [[Germa]]. The [[Phoenicia]]ns were the first to establish trading posts in Libya.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/herod-libya1.html |title=The Histories', Book IV.42–43 |publisher=Fordham University |date=August 1998 |author=Halsall, Paul |access-date=5 February 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130409023843/http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/herod-libya1.html |archive-date=9 April 2013  }}</ref> By the 5th century BC, the greatest of the Phoenician colonies, [[Carthage]], had extended its [[hegemony]] across much of North Africa, where a distinctive civilization, known as [[Punic]], came into being.

In 630 BC, the [[Ancient Greece|ancient Greeks]] colonized the area around [[Barca (ancient city)|Barca]] in Eastern Libya and founded the city of [[Cyrene, Libya|Cyrene]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+ly0015) |title=Cyrenaica and the Greeks |publisher=Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress |access-date=5 February 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120922002705/http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+ly0015) |archive-date=22 September 2012  }}</ref> Within 200 years, four more important Greek cities were established in the area that became known as [[Cyrenaica]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.historyfiles.co.uk/KingListsAfrica/AfricaLibya.htm |title=History of Libya |publisher=The History Files |date=20 October 2011 |access-date=5 February 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130128173621/http://www.historyfiles.co.uk/KingListsAfrica/AfricaLibya.htm |archive-date=28 January 2013 }}</ref> The area was home to the renowned philosophy school of the [[Cyrenaics]]. In 525 BC the [[Persian people|Persian]] army of [[Cambyses II]] overran Cyrenaica, which for the next two centuries remained under Persian or Egyptian rule. [[Alexander the Great]] ended Persian rule in 331 BC and received tribute from Cyrenaica. Eastern Libya again fell under the control of the Greeks, this time as part of the [[Ptolemaic Kingdom]].
[[File:Roman emperor Septimius Severus, 200-11; Altes Museum, Berlin (26307681078).jpg|thumb|200px|[[Septimius Severus]], the first Roman emperor native to [[Roman Africa]], was born in Leptis Magna.]]
After the fall of [[Carthage]] the Romans did not immediately occupy [[Tripolitania]] (the region around Tripoli), but left it instead under control of the kings of [[Numidia]], until the coastal cities asked and obtained its protection.<ref name="be202">[[#Bertarelli|Bertarelli]], p. 202.</ref> [[Ptolemy Apion]], the last Greek ruler, bequeathed Cyrenaica to Rome, which formally annexed the region in 74 BC and joined it to Crete as [[Creta et Cyrenaica|a Roman province]]. As part of the [[Africa Nova]] province, Tripolitania was prosperous,<ref name="be202" /> and reached a golden age in the 2nd and 3rd centuries, when the city of [[Leptis Magna]], home to the [[Severan dynasty]], was at its height.<ref name="be202" />

On the Eastern side, Cyrenaica's first Christian communities were established by the time of the Emperor [[Claudius]].<ref name="be417">[[#Bertarelli|Bertarelli]], p. 417.</ref> It was heavily devastated during the [[Kitos War]]<ref name="ro364">{{cite book |ref=Rostovtzeff|last=Rostovtzeff|first=Michael|title=Social and Economic History of the Roman Empire|location=Oxford|year=1957|edition=2|publisher=Clarendon|page=364}}</ref> and almost depopulated of Greeks and Jews alike.<ref>[[Cassius Dio]], lxviii. 32</ref> Although repopulated by [[Trajan]] with military colonies,<ref name="ro364" /> from then started its decline.<ref name="be417" /> Libya was early to convert to [[Nicene Christianity]] and was the home of [[Pope Victor I]]; however, Libya was also home to many non-Nicene varieties of early Christianity, such as [[Arianism]] and [[Donatism]].