The numismatic chronicle and journal of the Royal Numismatic Society

168 E. S. G. ROBINSON.
it is so uncertain no argument at all can be based
on it. Can we find any more adequate explanation of
the character and date of these pieces ? I think we
may, but in order to do so it will be necessary first
to summarize the history of the last quarter of the
fourth century at Gyrene.
In the year before the death of Alexander the
Great, party strife was so violent in the city that
one of the factions fled to Cydonia in Crete, where
they succeeded in persuading Thimbron, the successor
of Harpagus and thus the disposer of very
considerable resources, to assume their protection,
and attempt their reinstatement. After various turns
of fortune the Macedonian adventurer succeeded in
investing the city, and so stringent was his pressure
that, in spite of the previous purge, party dissensions
again
showed themselves within the walls. The
wealthy citizens fled, some to Thimbron, some to
Ptolemy. The satrap of Egypt, eagerly seizing on the
occasion, sent an expedition to reinstate the wealthy
exiles. This expedition was successful, though Thim-
bron and the Cyrenaean demos joined hands to face
the enemy, and towards the end of the year Ptolemy
arrived to finish the conquest in person. We are not
informed what the nature of the settlement was, but
presumably the position of the wealthy exiles was
established at the expense of the demos, while
Ophelias, one of Ptolemy's lieutenants, was left at the
head of a Macedonian garrison.
This arrangement was not destined to last long ;
313, when Ptolemy was occupied with Antigonus,
revolt broke out afresh, but was soon crushed by
an expedition under Agis and Epaenetus. A new
in