Libya before the

Libya before the Arab invasion of the territory of modern Libya had separate histories until Roman times, as Tripolitania and Cyrenaica, both on the coast. The interior of modern Libya was in the hands of Berber tribes settled in the oases. Tripolitania was originally a group of Phoenician colonies established during the V century BC C. which then became dependent on Carthage. The Phoenicians founded in zone three large colonies: OEA (now Tripoli), Labda (better known by the name which later gave the Romans: Leptis Magna) and Sabrata, in an area that became known collectively as Tripolis (tri cops , Three Cities). Carthage and its African territories (which was Tripoli, Tripoli, as the Romans called him) came under Roman rule in 146 BC C. after the Third Punic War. However, Tripolitania was not integrated into the empire, but assigned to an ally of Rome, King of Numidia.A century later, Julius Caesar deposed the king of Numidia, he had supported his rival Pompey in the civil wars of Rome and its territory annexed to the Roman Empire, organizing Tripolitania as a province. The economic importance of Tripoli came from his character as a port terminal of the caravan routes crossing the Sahara and joined the Merranean coast to Lake Chad and Timbuktu. Across the Gulf of Sirte, Cyrenaica was settled by the Greeks, Egyptian culture efore territory Empire that had been part of for thousands of years at different intervals. Dorian settlers founded Cyrene in the seventh century C. on a fertile plateau some 20 miles inland with regular rainfall. Over the next hundred years, four important Greek colonies were established in the area: Barca (Merja) Euhesperides (later Berenice, present Benghazi) Teuchira (later Arsinoe, present Tocra) and Apollonia (Marsa Susa), the port of Cyrene.Together with Cyrene, they were met together as Pentapolis. The fertile coastal plain where they are named after the most prosperous of these cities, Cyrene. The Greek cities of Pentapolis resisted attempts at annexation Egyptians and Carthaginians, but in the year 525 BC C., the army of Cambyses (son of Cyrus the Great, king of Persia), after conquering Egypt, also came to the Cyrenaica, which remained under Egyptian rule (ruled or not this was by the Persians) during the next two centuries. Later, in 331 BC C., Cyrene was conquered by Alexander the Great, incorporated into the Ptolemaic Egypt. Ptolemy VIII bequeathed Cyrenaica to his natural son Ptolemy Apion, which, at his death, at 96 a. C., left his kingdom as an inheritance to Rome. Cyrenaica became a Roman province which also includes Crete in 74 BC C. Regardless of the political changes, the economy and culture flourished in the Pentapolis.Cyrene became one of the artistic and intellectual centers of the Greek world. For example, during the fourth century C. Kymaro Body Shaper Cyrenaic school flourished, a philosophical school that taught a doctrine that defined hedonistic happiness as the sum of human pleasures, possibly taking inspiration from the mild climate of the area. For over 400 years, Tripolitania and Cyrenaica were prosperous Roman provinces. Proof of this are the imposing ruins of Leptis Magna (birthplace of the Roman emperor Septimius Severus), near modern Tripoli, witnesses to the vitality of the region, where populous cities and even smaller cities enjoyed the benefits of urban life , just as in any other corner of the empire. However, Roman rule was confined to the coast, leaving the interior of the Berber tribes (eg the end of the first century AD, was not occupied the arid coast of the Gulf of Sirte, enabling communication by land between both provinces).However, both areas retained different characteristics: the first Punic, Greek second. Under the rule Ptolemaic, Cyrenaica had been established in a large Jewish community, whose size had been increased with the arrival of thousands of deportees following the failed Jewish revolt against the Romans and the destruction of Jerusalem (70). At 115, the Jews of Cyrenaica rose in a revolt that soon spread to Egypt and Palestine. The rebellion was put down to 118, but not before Cyrene was assaulted, robbed and suffered massacres by Jewish rebels. It took a century to recover its prosperity Cyrene. With the partition of the empire in 395, Cyrenaica was assigned to the Eastern Empire while the western Tripolitania remained inside. This division was reflected also in the religious field.