Editing Cyrene, Libya (section)

===Classical period===
[[File:Temple of Zeus - Cyrene.jpg|thumb|The Temple of Zeus, Cyrene]]
In the fifth century BC, perhaps as a consequence of the Persian intervention, Cyrene's influence over the other Greek cities in Cyrenaica seems to have solidified into institutionalised political control.{{sfn|Rosamilia|2023|p=21}} The city was prosperous and construction of the Temple of Apollo, [[Temple of Zeus, Cyrene|Temple of Zeus]], [[Temple of Demeter, Cyrene|Temple of Demeter]], and structures in the Agora date to this time.{{sfn|Rosamilia|2023|p=21}} Cyrene's chief local export through much of its early history was the medicinal herb [[Silphium (antiquity)|silphium]], which may have been used as an [[abortifacient]]; the herb was pictured on most Cyrenian coins. Silphium was in such demand that it was harvested to extinction by the end of the first century BC.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Parejko|first=Ken|date=2003|title=Pliny the Elder's Silphium: First Recorded Species Extinction |journal=Conservation Biology|volume=17|issue=3|pages=925–927 |doi=10.1046/j.1523-1739.2003.02067.x|jstor=3095254 |bibcode=2003ConBi..17..925P |s2cid=84007922}}</ref> Cyrene also made money from raising of horses and the transhipment trade between Egypt, the Aegean, and [[Carthage]]. It was a landing point for Greeks seeking to visit the oracle of [[Ammon]] at [[Siwah]].{{sfn|Kenrick|2013|p=4}} 

[[Arcesilaus IV]] won the chariot race at the [[Pythian Games]] in 462 BC and at the [[Ancient Olympics|Olympic Games]] in 460 BC, in celebration of which Pindar wrote the ''Fourth'' and ''Fifth Pythian Odes''. Following this victory, he organised a new wave of Greek settlement at Euesperides. Some time after this however, the Cyreneans monarchy was abolished in obscure circumstances and the tomb of his ancestor Battus I was destroyed.{{sfn|Kenrick|2013|pp=3 & 39}}{{sfn|Rosamilia|2023|p=22}} In 454 BC, Cyrene gave refuge to the remnants of an [[Ancient Athens|Athenian]] army that had been [[Wars_of_the_Delian_League#Egypt|defeated by the Persians in Egypt]].{{sfn|Rosamilia|2023|p=22}} In the following years, Barca seems to have become the dominant city in the region{{sfn|Rosamilia|2023|p=23}} and Cyrene was regularly in conflict with the other Greek cities of Cyrenaica and with the Libyans.{{sfn|Kenrick|2013|p=3}} In 414 BC, during the [[Peloponnesian War]], [[Spartan army|Spartan forces]] travelling to [[Sicily]] were driven to Cyrenaica by adverse winds and Cyrene provided them with two [[trireme]]s and [[maritime pilot|pilots]] to lead them to Sicily.<ref>{{cite book |author=Thucydides |title=The Peloponnesian War |edition=The Landmark Thucydides |editor-first=Robert B. |editor-last=Strassler |publisher=Touchstone |location=New York |year=1998 |at=sec.7.50 }}</ref>{{sfn|Kenrick|2013|p=3}} 

Towards the end of the fifth century BC, one Ariston took control of the city, put five hundred leading Cyreneans to death and exiled others. It is possible that he attempted to establish a radical [[democracy]] on the Athenian model. A group of 3,000 [[Messenia]]ns who had been expelled from [[Naupactus]] by the Spartans arrived in Cyrene in 404 BC and joined forces with the exiles, but were almost all killed in a battle, after which the Cyrenean exiles and the followers of Ariston reconciled. The surviving Messenians settled at Euhesperides.{{sfn|Rosamilia|2023|pp=23-24}} There are some signs that civic conflict continued over the following century.{{sfn|Rosamilia|2023|p=25}}

During the fourth century BC, Cyrene clashed with [[Carthage]] over the [[Gulf of Sidra|Syrtis]] and the trans-Saharan trade routes that ended there. The border was established at the [[Altars of the Phileni]]. Cyrene may also have extended its control eastwards to [[Sallum|Catabathmus Magnus]]. Cyrene constructed a [[Treasury of the Cyreneans|treasury]] at Delphi between 350 and 325 BC.{{sfn|Rosamilia|2023|p=25}} When [[Alexander the Great]] conquered Egypt in 331 BC and marched west to visit the oracle at [[Siwah]], the Cyreneans sent an embassy to declare their friendship; they did not come under Macedonian control. An inscription records that during a famine in the late 320s, Cyrene sent over 800,000 [[medimni]] of grain (ca. 40,000,000 [[litre]]s) to the cities of Greece and the Macedonian royal family.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Dobias-Lalou |first1=Catherine |title=Account of Cyrene about grain supplies |url=https://igcyr.unibo.it/igcyr010900 |website=Inscriptions of Greek Cyrenaica |access-date=17 September 2023}}</ref>