The Cinyps () or Cinyphus (Κίνυφος), was a small

river A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...

in ancient

Libya Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya border, the east, Sudan to Libya–Sudan border, the southeast, Chad to Chad–L ...

, and the site of a

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

colony of the same name, founded by the

Sparta Sparta was a prominent city-state in Laconia in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (), while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement in the Evrotas Valley, valley of Evrotas (river), Evrotas rive ...

Dorieus Dorieus (died c.510 BC; ) was a Spartan prince of the Agiad dynasty who is mentioned several times in Herodotus. The second son of Anaxandridas II, he was the younger half-brother of Cleomenes I and the elder full brother of both Leonidas I and Cl ...

. The town only existed for a short time, due to conflicts with the

Carthaginians The Punic people, usually known as the Carthaginians (and sometimes as Western Phoenicians), were a Semitic people, Semitic people who Phoenician settlement of North Africa, migrated from Phoenicia to the Western Mediterranean during the Iron ...

, and the local tribe of the Macae. Today the river is known as the Wadi Caam or Ka'am.

Sources

The source of the river is in the eighty-kilometer long Wadi Taraglat, at the coastal end of the Wadi.

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 ...

erroneously stated that the source was near the Hill of Graces, some two hundred and sixty kilometers inland.

History

The Greek colony of Cinyps was established by Dorieus of

around 515 or 514 BC. Angered by the choice of Cleomenes as king of Sparta, Dorieus left the

Peloponnese The Peloponnese ( ), Peloponnesus ( ; , ) or Morea (; ) is a peninsula and geographic region in Southern Greece, and the southernmost region of the Balkans. It is connected to the central part of the country by the Isthmus of Corinth land bridg ...

with a group of like-minded Spartans, with the aide of guides from

Thera Santorini (, ), officially Thira (, ) or Thera, is a Greek island in the southern Aegean Sea, about southeast from the mainland. It is the largest island of a small, circular archipelago formed by the Santorini caldera. It is the southernmos ...

. The new town was founded at the mouth of the Cinyps.

described this region as "the fairest part of Libya". The colony was expelled by the

, along with the local tribe of the Macae, after a short duration of about three years. The

Phoenicia Phoenicians were an Ancient Semitic-speaking peoples, ancient Semitic group of people who lived in the Phoenician city-states along a coastal strip in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily modern Lebanon and the Syria, Syrian ...

n colony of

Leptis Magna Leptis or Lepcis Magna, also known by #Names, other names in classical antiquity, antiquity, was a prominent city of the Carthaginian Empire and Roman Libya at the mouth of the Wadi Lebda in the Mediterranean. Established as a Punic people, Puni ...

was nearby, and the Greek town was probably seen as a threat. The Macae were a local Libyan tribe, and were employed as

mercenaries A mercenary is a private individual who joins an War, armed conflict for personal profit, is otherwise an outsider to the conflict, and is not a member of any other official military. Mercenaries fight for money or other forms of payment rath ...

by the Carthaginians. At a later time, when Leptis Magna was part of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

, springs in the Cinyps were the source of the water used in the

Hadrian Hadrian ( ; ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. Hadrian was born in Italica, close to modern Seville in Spain, an Italic peoples, Italic settlement in Hispania Baetica; his branch of the Aelia gens, Aelia '' ...

ic baths. The water was diverted using an aqueduct built by Quintus Servillius Candidus from AD 119 to 120.

Mythology

In Greek mythology,

Guneus In Greek mythology, the name Guneus or Gouneus (; Ancient Greek: Γουνεὐς derived from ''gounos'' "fruitful land") may refer to: *Guneus, a man from Pheneus and father of Laonome, wife of Alcaeus. Through his daughter, he was the grandfath ...

, one of the surviving combatants from the

Trojan War The Trojan War was a legendary conflict in Greek mythology that took place around the twelfth or thirteenth century BC. The war was waged by the Achaeans (Homer), Achaeans (Ancient Greece, Greeks) against the city of Troy after Paris (mytho ...

, is said to have gone to

and settled near the Cinyps, although other traditions have him drowning at sea.'' Bibliotheca'', Epitome of Book 4, 3.11ff.; 6.15.

Tzetzes John Tzetzes (; , Constantinople – 1180, Constantinople) was a Byzantine poet and grammarian who lived at Constantinople in the 12th century. He is known for making significant contributions in preserving much valuable information from ancien ...

Lycophron Lycophron ( ; ; born about 330–325 BC) was a Hellenistic Greek tragic poet, grammarian, and commentator on comedy, to whom the poem ''Alexandra'' is attributed (perhaps falsely). Life and miscellaneous works He was born at Chalcis in Euboea, a ...

, 899

Archaeology

Archaeologists have uncovered a Greek

necropolis A necropolis (: necropolises, necropoles, necropoleis, necropoli) is a large, designed cemetery with elaborate tomb monuments. The name stems from the Ancient Greek ''nekropolis'' (). The term usually implies a separate burial site at a distan ...

dating from the third century BC in the modern Wadi Caam. The cemetery consists of a series of box-shaped stone urns, with lids in the shape of a sloping roof, containing ashes and bones. Various types of ceramics have also been found.

References

{{coord, 32, 32, N, 14, 27, E, display=title, region:LY_type:river_source:GNS-enwiki Rivers of Libya Spartan colonies Greek colonies in Libya Ancient Greek archaeological sites in Libya