Cyrenaïca

Cyrenaïca, the name of the district in northern Africa whose capital was Cyrene (q.v.). In its widest limits it stretched from the borders of Carthage to the Chersonesus Magna or northern headland of the Gulf of Plattea (Gulf of Bomba). The productions of Cyrenaïca mentioned by ancient writers are corn, oil, wine, honey, fruits of all kinds, cucumbers, truffles, cabbage; flowers yielding the richest perfumes; a rare plant called silphium (still abundant), from which was obtained a famous medicinal gum-resin; and its horses. The first settlements in Cyrenaica were made by a Spartan colony in 631 B.C. The earliest cities were Teuchira and Hesperis, then Barca, a colony from Cyrene; and these, with Cyrene itself, and its port Apollonia, formed the original Libyan Pentapolis; subsequently, Hesperis became Berenice; Teuchira, Arsinoë; while Barca was eclipsed by its port, which became a city with the name of Ptolemais. Cyrenaica at length became Roman, and under Constantine was constituted into a province as Libya Superior. In the 7th century it was overrun by the Arabs, and now nearly corresponds with Barca (q.v.).