Arcesilaus III of Cyrene (, flourished 6th century BC) was the sixth Greek

Cyrenaean Cyrene, also sometimes anglicization of names, anglicized as Kyrene, was an ancient Greeks, ancient Greek Greek colonization, colony and ancient Romans, Roman Cities of the Roman Empire, city near present-day Shahhat in northeastern Libya in Nor ...

King and was a member of the

Battiad dynasty The Battiadae, or Battiads (), were the ruling dynasty of the Greek city-state of Cyrene, in modern Libya. Battus I, who founded Cyrene in 631 BC, was also the founder of the dynasty. The Battiads were overthrown in 440 BC. List of members ''T ...

. He succeeded his father as king of Cyrene in 530 BC, ruling until he was killed by Cyrenaean exiles around 515 BC.

Ancestry

Arcesilaus was the son of the fifth Cyrenaean King,

Battus III Battus III of Cyrene, surnamed The Lame (, flourished 6th century BC) was the fifth Greek Cyrenaean king and a member of the Battiad dynasty. Battus was the son and only child of king Arcesilaus II and queen Eryxo. His paternal grandfather ...

and queen

Pheretima ''Pheretima'' is a genus of earthworms found mostly in New Guinea and parts of Southeast Asia. Species belonging to the genus ''Pheretima'' have a clitellum, which is a band of glandular tissue present on segments 14 to 16. Individuals are her ...

. His sister was Ladice, who married the

Ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...

ian

Pharaoh Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian language, Egyptian: ''wikt:pr ꜥꜣ, pr ꜥꜣ''; Meroitic language, Meroitic: 𐦲𐦤𐦧, ; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') was the title of the monarch of ancient Egypt from the First Dynasty of Egypt, First Dynasty ( ...

Amasis II Amasis II ( ; ''ḤMS'') or Ahmose II was a pharaoh (reigned 570526 BCE) of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt, the successor of Apries at Sais, Egypt, Sais. He was the last great ruler of Ancient Egypt, Egypt before the Achaemenid Empire, Persian ...

. Although his maternal grandparents are unknown, his paternal grandparents were the queen

Eryxo Eryxo (; flourished 6th century BC) was a Greek woman, who was a Queen of Cyrenaica and was a member of The Battiads dynasty, the family that ruled Cyrenaica and Cyrene. From the ancient Greek sources, she appears to be the first Greek Cyrenaean ...

and king Arcesilaus II.

First reign and exile

When his father died in 530 BC, Arcesilaus became the new king. In 525 BC, Arcesilaus made an alliance with King

Cambyses II of Persia Cambyses II () was the second King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning 530 to 522 BCE. He was the son of and successor to Cyrus the Great (); his mother was Cassandane. His relatively brief reign was marked by his conquests in North Afric ...

. Cambyses had recently conquered Egypt and added the country to his empire.

Herodotus Herodotus (; BC) was a Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus (now Bodrum, Turkey), under Persian control in the 5th century BC, and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria, Italy. He wrote the '' Histori ...

describes his character as a ‘great rumpus‘. About 518 BC, Arcesilaus could no longer accept the Cyrenaean constitutional changes introduced by his late father and the Greek lawmaker, Demonax, and demanded the restoration of his ancestral rights. He was supported by his mother. In the civil struggles that followed, Arcesilaus was defeated and fled to the Greek island of

Samos Samos (, also ; , ) is a Greek island in the eastern Aegean Sea, south of Chios, north of Patmos and the Dodecanese archipelago, and off the coast of western Turkey, from which it is separated by the Mycale Strait. It is also a separate reg ...

, while his mother fled to the court of king Euelthon in

Salamis, Cyprus Salamis (; ; ) was an ancient Greek city-state on the east coast of Cyprus, at the mouth of the river Pedieos, 6 km north of modern Famagusta. According to tradition, the founder of Salamis was Teucer, son of Telamon, king of the Greek is ...

. Pheretima sought troops from the king of Salamis, but he declined her request. In Samos, Arcesilaus recruited men for his army by promising to grant them land in Cyrene. Once he got his army together, he travelled to the oracle at

Delphi Delphi (; ), in legend previously called Pytho (Πυθώ), was an ancient sacred precinct and the seat of Pythia, the major oracle who was consulted about important decisions throughout the ancient Classical antiquity, classical world. The A ...

to consult about his future in Cyrene. The priestess stated to him that his family would have a kingship in Cyrene for eight generations under four rulers named Battus and four rulers named Arcesilaus. She advised him to make no attempt to keep power beyond that period. She also advised him to be careful in how he treated the Cyrenaean citizens and that if he were cruel to them, they would go against him. Arcesilaus subsequently ignored the priestess' advice.

Restoration and death

Arcesilaus returned to Cyrene with his army and was able to regain power, driving his political opponents out of Cyrene and into exile. His supporters received their land, but out of fear of a backlash (and ignoring the oracle's advice), Arcesilaus left Cyrene and went to the Cyrenaean town of Barca, whose governor, Alazir, was his father-in-law. While in the marketplace in Barca with his father-in-law, some Cyrenaean exiles recognised Arcesilaus. The exiles approached the two men and killed them. Arcesilaus was buried near his paternal ancestors in Cyrene. Arcesilaus was succeeded by his mother, who ruled Cyrene until her death in 515 BC. After her death, she was succeeded by Arcesilaus's only son, Battus IV.

Sources

, The Histories, Book 4.

*https://www.livius.org/ct-cz/cyrenaica/cyrenaica.html *http://www.mediterranees.net/dictionnaires/smith/cyrene.html {{s-end 6th-century BC Greek people 6th-century BC births 510s BC deaths Kings of Cyrene 6th-century BC monarchs

Ancestry

First reign and exile

Restoration and death

See also

Sources