Tocra, Taucheira or Tukrah, is a town on the coast of the Marj District in the

Cyrenaica Cyrenaica ( ) or Kyrenaika (, , after the city of Cyrene), is the eastern region of Libya. Cyrenaica includes all of the eastern part of Libya between the 16th and 25th meridians east, including the Kufra District. The coastal region, als ...

region of northeastern

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 ...

, founded by Cyrene. It lay 200 stadia west of Ptolemais. Today it is a coastal town west of Marj.

History

Founded by the Greeks and considered by some to be part of the

Pentapolis A pentapolis (from Ancient Greek, Greek ''penta-'', 'five' and ''polis'', 'city') is a geographic and/or institutional grouping of five cities. Cities in the ancient world probably formed such groups for political, commercial and military rea ...

of Cyrenaica, at a later period it became a

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

colony (Tab. Peut.), and was fortified by

Justinian I Justinian I (, ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was Roman emperor from 527 to 565. His reign was marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovatio imperii'', or "restoration of the Empire". This ambition was ...

. (Procop. ''de Aed.'' vi. 3.) Taucheira was particularly noted for the worship of

Cybele Cybele ( ; Phrygian: ''Matar Kubileya, Kubeleya'' "Kubeleya Mother", perhaps "Mountain Mother"; Lydian: ''Kuvava''; ''Kybélē'', ''Kybēbē'', ''Kybelis'') is an Anatolian mother goddess; she may have a possible forerunner in the earliest ...

, in honour of whom an annual festival was celebrated. (Synes. Ep. 3.) In the city fortifications from the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine periods have been found.

Name

Taucheira, Teucheira, Tauchira or Teuchira (

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 ...

: , ,). Under the

Ptolemies The Ptolemaic dynasty (; , ''Ptolemaioi''), also known as the Lagid dynasty (, ''Lagidai''; after Ptolemy I's father, Lagus), was a Macedonian Greek royal house which ruled the Ptolemaic Kingdom in Ancient Egypt during the Hellenistic period. ...

it obtained the name of Arsinoe (Arsinoë) (Greek: ), after Arsinoe II of Egypt, named by her brother and husband,

Ptolemy Philadelphus Ptolemy II Philadelphus (, ''Ptolemaîos Philádelphos'', "Ptolemy, sibling-lover"; 309 – 28 January 246 BC) was the pharaoh of Ptolemaic Egypt from 284 to 246 BC. He was the son of Ptolemy I, the Ancient Macedonians, Macedonian Greek general ...

. Later it became known as Tocra or Tukrah or Tokara, and then Al Quriyah or El Agouriya in

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

. It is the same town erroneously written by

Diodorus Diodorus Siculus or Diodorus of Sicily (; 1st century BC) was an ancient Greek historian from Sicily. He is known for writing the monumental universal history '' Bibliotheca historica'', in forty books, fifteen of which survive intact, b ...

(xviii. 20). It is still called Tochira.Cf. Della Cella, ''Viagg.'' p. 198; Pacho, ''Voyage,'' p. 184.

Agriculture

On a relatively small scale, residents of the town grow watermelon, cantaloupe, grapes, almonds, and tomatoes; but it is most famous for its figs.

Notes

References

External links