What is it about?
The five city-states of Cyrenaica (today’s eastern Libya) were in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC under Ptolemaic rule. In Roman time (since 96 BC), they came under the authority of the provincial government. In both cases, through the institution of a federal assembly, they were concerned in being politically better represented and in celebrating common cults in honour of the local highest deities, that is Zeus Ammon and Apollo, and of the Ptolemaic King, later of the Emperor. During the 2nd century AD the cities of the league became six through the addition of Hadrianopolis: the Pentapolis was called thereupon Hexapolis. The main political centre was Cyrene.
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Why is it important?
For the first time is here gathered and discussed all the evidence about the federal institution of Cyrenaica: historical, epigraphic and archaeological sources confirm its existence and make clear its character mainly for the Roman imperial time, as it became the provincial assembly.
Perspectives
This article offers a historical and archaeological survey, both comprehensive and detailed, of the common political and religious patterns of an ancient landscape annexed in the wider frame of an imperial power.
Lorenzo Cigaina
Universitat Regensburg
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This page is a summary of: „Penta-/Hexapolis von Libya“. Städtebünde und provinzialer Kaiserkult in Cyrenaica, Klio, January 2017, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1515/klio-2017-0004.
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