FURTHER READING
William Y. Adams, “Th e First Colonial Empire: Egypt in Nubia,
3200–1200 b.c.,” Comparative Studies in Society and History
26 (1984): 36–71.
Th omas Barfi eld, Th e Nomadic Alternative (Englewood Cliff s, N.J.:
Prentice-Hall, 1993).
Jerry Bentley, Old World Encounters: Cross-Cultural Contacts and
Exchanges in Pre-Modern Times (New York: Oxford University
Press, 1993).
Manfred Bietak, Avaris: Th e Capital of the Hyksos (London: British
Museum, 1996).
John Boardman, Th e Greeks Overseas: Th eir Early Colonies and
Tra d e (London: Th ames and Hudson, 1980).
John Boardman and N. G. L. Hammond, eds., Th e Cambridge An-
cient History, 2nd ed., Vol. 3, Th e Expansion of the Greek World
Eighth to Sixth Centuries b.c. (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge
University Press, 1982).
John Chapman and Helena Hamerow, eds., Migrations and Inva-
sions in Archaeological Explanation (Ox ford, U.K.: Archaeo-
press, 1997).
Roger Cribb, Nomads in Archaeology (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge
University Press, 1991).
Moshe Dothan and Trude Dothan, People of the Sea: Th e Search for
the Philistines (New York: Macmillan, 1992).
Carol Dougherty, Th e Poetics of Colonization: From City to Text in
Archaic Greece (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993).
Brian M. Fagan, Th e Great Journey: Th e Peopling of Ancient America
(Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2003).
Clive Gamble, Th e Palaeolithic Settlement of Europe (Ca mbridge,
U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1986).
A. J. Graham, Colony and Mother City in Ancient Greece (Manches-
ter, U.K.: Manchester University Press, 1964).
János Harmatta, ed., History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Vo l. 2 ,
Th e Development of Sedentary and Nomadic Civilizations: 700
b.c. to a.d. 250 (Paris: UNESCO Publishing, 1994).
Herodotus, Th e Histories, trans. Aubrey de Sélincourt (Harmond-
sworth, U.K.: Penguin Books, 1954).
John Iliff e, Africans: Th e History of a Continent (Ca mbridge: Ca m-
bridge University Press, 1995).
Geoff rey Irwin, Th e Prehistoric Exploration and Colonisation of
the Pacifi c (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press,
1992).
Steven J. Mithen, Aft er the Ice: A Global Human History (London:
Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2003).
number of months and returned home with all speed to
give their countrymen an account of the island.
Th e Th erans who had left Corobius at Platea, when they
reached Th era, told their countrymen that they had
colonized an island on the coast of Libya. Th ey of Th era,
upon this, resolved that men should be sent to join the
colony from each of their seven districts and that the
brothers in every family should draw lots to determine
who were to go. Upon this the Th erans sent out Battus
with two penteconters, and with these he proceeded to
Libya; but within a little time, not knowing what else
to do, the men returned and arrived back off Th era.
Th e Th erans, when they saw the vessels approaching,
received them with showers of missiles, would not allow
them to come near the shore, and ordered the men to
sail back from whence they came. Th us compelled, they
settled on Platea.
In this place they continued two years, but at the end
of that time, as their ill luck still followed them, they
went in a body to Delphi, where they made complaint at
the shrine to the eff ect that they prospered as poorly as
before. Hereon the Pythoness made them the following
answer: “Know you better than I, fair Libya abounding
in fl eeces? Better the stranger than he who has trod it?
Oh! Clever Th erans!” Battus and his friends, when they
heard this, sailed back to Platea: it was plain the god
would not hold them acquitted of the colony till they
were absolutely in Libya. So they made a settlement on
the mainland directly opposite Platea, fi xing themselves
at a place called Aziris.
Here they remained six years, at the end of which time
the Libyans induced them to move, promising that they
would lead them to a better situation. So the Greeks left
Aziris and were conducted by the Libyans toward the
west, their journey being so arranged, by the calculation
of their guides, that they passed in the night the most
beautiful district of that whole country, which is the
region called Irasa. Th e Libyans brought them to a
spring, which goes by the name of Apollo’s Fountain,
and told them, “Here, Hellenes, is the proper place for
you to settle; for here the sky leaks.”
During the lifetime of Battus, the founder of the colony,
who reigned forty years, and during that of his son
Arcesilaus, who reigned sixteen, the Cyreneans continued
at the same level, neither more nor fewer in number than
they were at the fi rst. But in the reign of the third king,
Battus, surnamed the Happy, the advice of the Pythoness
brought Greeks from every quarter into Libya to join the
settlement. Th us a great multitude were collected together
to Cyrene, and the Libyans of the neighborhood found
themselves stripped of large portions of their lands.
From Herodotus, Th e History, trans.
George Rawlinson (New York: Dutton
and Co., 1862).
(cont inues)
724 migration and population movements: further reading