Listed 4 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "EVESPERIDES Ancient city KYRINAIKI".
The settlement lay on a low hill, now partly occupied by a cemetery,
between salt marshes that were then lagoons linked with the sea by the present
inner harbor of Benghazi. Probably settled from Cyrene early in the 6th c. B.C.,
it was replaced ca. 247 by a new city, on the coast a little to the SW, named
Berenice in honor of the wife of Ptolemy III. The change of location is almost
certainly due to the silting-up of the lagoons. Berenice ceased to exist by the
11th c. A.D., and Benghazi (named after a holy man, Ibn-Ghazi) did not arise until
the 15th c. During the period 1835-1911, when Benghazi was expanding under Turkish
rule, many stones from Euesperides were removed. In 1946 Hellenic potsherds were
found beside the salt marshes, and in 1950-51 a collection of surface sherds was
made. The ground plan of an ancient city, with streets, insulae, and houses, extending
between the Muslim cemetery on the top of the hill and the salt marshes, was revealed
by air photography, which also shows parts of the city walls, enclosing an area
ca. 750 x 350 m. The quantities of Hellenic pottery excavated in 1969 confirmed
the rediscovery of Euesperides. Stratified levels were found going back from the
Early Hellenistic period to the 6th c. B.C. Most of the houses were of mudbrick
on stone foundations.
Occasional finds of mosaic floors, etc., attested the position of
Berenice under Benghazi and its cemeteries. Excavations (1971-74) in the old Turkish
cemetery of Sidi Khrebiesh revealed remains of buildings and pottery from Hellenistic
until Byzantine times and part of a late town wall. A stele of the 1st c. B.C.
found in 1972-73 refers to civil disturbance and attacks by pirates. Inscriptions
of the 1st c. A.D., found previously, mention the separate magistrates of the
Jewish community and a synagogue.
Near Benghazi are several sites of legendary interest. The Hesperides
with their golden apples were said to have occupied a luxuriant sunken garden
for which several natural hollows in the plain about 10 km E of Benghazi provide
a plausible setting. One of them has an underground pool, which possibly accounts
for the location of the river Lethe there. Lake Tritonis is thought to be Ain
es-Selmani, and it has been suggested that the hill of Euesperides itself between
the lagoons might represent the island mentioned by Strabo (17.3.20).
O. Brogan, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
Hesperides or Hesperis (Hesperides, Hesperis), afterwards Berenice (Berenike: Ben Ghazi, Ru.), the westernmost city of the Cyrenaic Pentapolis, stood just outside the E. extremity of the Great Syrtis, on a promontory called Pseudopenias, and near the river Lathon. It seems to have derived its name from the fancy which found the fabled Gardens of the Hesperides in the fertile terraces of Cyrenaica; and Scylax distinctly mentions the gardens and the lake of the Hesperides in this neighbourhood, where we also find a people called Hesperidae, or, as Herodotus names them, Euesperidae. Its historical importance dates from the reign of the Ptolemies and it was then named Berenice after the wife of Ptolemy III. Euergetes. It had a large population of Jews. (Strab. xvii. p. 836; Mela, i. 8; Plin. v. 5; Solin. 27, 54; Ammian. Marc. xxii. 16; Steph. B. s. v. Hesperis; Hierocles, p. 733, where the name is Beronike; Stadiasm. p. 446, Bernikis; Itin. Ant. p. 67, Beronice; Tab. Peut., Bernicide; Ptol. iv. 4. § 4, viii. 15. § 3.) Having been greatly reduced by that decline of commercial importance and those ravages of the barbarians which were so severely felt by all the cities of the Pentapolis, it was fortified anew by Justinian, who also adorned it with baths. (Procop. de Aedif. vi. 12.) Its name is sometimes as an epithet for Cyrenaica, in the form of the adjective Berenicis. (Sil. Ital. iii. 249; Lucan ix.524: Beechey, Della Cella, Pacho, Barth.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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