Histories

Now in the time of Battus the founder of the colony, who ruled for forty years, and of his son Arcesilaus who ruled for sixteen, the inhabitants of Shahhat [21.866,32.833] (inhabited place), Al Jabal al Akhdar, Libya, AfricaCyrene were no more in number than when they had first gone out to the colony.

But in the time of the third ruler, Battus, who was called the Fortunate, the Pythian priestess warned all Greeks by an oracle to cross the sea and live in Libya [17,25] (nation), AfricaLibya with the Cyrenaeans; for the Cyrenaeans invited them, promising a distribution of land;

and this was the oracle:

1. “Whoever goes to beloved Libya [17,25] (nation), AfricaLibya after
2. The fields are divided, I say shall be sorry afterward.”

So a great multitude gathered at Shahhat [21.866,32.833] (inhabited place), Al Jabal al Akhdar, Libya, AfricaCyrene, and cut out great tracts of land from the territory of the neighboring Libyans. Robbed of their lands and treated violently by the Cyrenaeans, these then sent to Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt together with their king, whose name was Adicran, and put their affairs in the hands of Apries, the king of that country.

Apries mustered a great force of Egyptians and sent it against Shahhat [21.866,32.833] (inhabited place), Al Jabal al Akhdar, Libya, AfricaCyrene; the Cyrenaeans marched out to Irasa and the Thestes spring, and there fought with the Egyptians and beat them;

for the Egyptians had as yet had no experience of Greeks, and despised their enemy; as a result of which, they were so utterly destroyed that few of them returned to Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt. Because of this misfortune, and because they blamed him for it, the Egyptians revolted from Apries.[*](In 570 B.C.; cp. Hdt. 2.161.)