herodotus

those Libyans who had received them and who had also revolted fromKyrene, and the Libyans fearing him departed and fled towards theEastern tribes of Libyans: and Arkesilaos followed after them as theyfled, until he arrived in his pursuit at Leucon in Libya, and therethe Libyans resolved to attack him. Accordingly they engaged battleand defeated the Kyrenians so utterly that seven thousand hoplites ofthe Kyrenians fell there. After this disaster Arkesilaos, being sickand having swallowed a potion, was strangled by his brotherHaliarchos,[145] and Haliarchos was killed treacherously by the wifeof Arkesilaos, whose name was Eryxo. 161. Then Battos the son ofArkesilaos succeeded to the kingdom, who was lame and not sound in hisfeet: and the Kyrenians with a view to the misfortune which hadbefallen them sent men to Delphi to ask what form of rule they shouldadopt, in order to live in the best way possible; and the Pythianprophetess bade them take to themselves a reformer of their State fromMantineia of the Arcadians. The men of Kyrene accordingly maderequest, and those of Mantineia gave them the man of most repute amongtheir citizens, whose name was Demonax. This man therefore having cometo Kyrene and having ascertained all things exactly,[146] in the firstplace caused them to have three tribes, distributing them thus:--onedivision he made of the Theraians and their dependants,[147] anotherof the Peloponnesians and Cretans, and a third of all theislanders.[148] Then secondly for the king Battos he set apart domainsof land and priesthoods, but all the other powers which the kings usedto possess before, he assigned as of public right to the people.162. During the reign of this Battos things continued to be thus, butin the reign of his son Arkesilaos there arose much disturbance aboutthe offices of the State: for Arkesilaos son of Battos the Lame and ofPheretime said that he would not suffer it to be according as theMantineian Demonax had arranged, but asked to have back the royalrights of his forefathers. After this, stirring up strife he wasworsted and went as an exile to Samos, and his mother to Salamis inCyprus. Now at that time the ruler of Salamis was Euelthon, the samewho dedicated as an offering the censer at Delphi, a work well worthseeing, which is placed in the treasury of the Corinthians. To himhaving come, Pheretime asked him for an army to restore herself andher son to Kyrene. Euelthon however was ready to give her anythingelse rather than that; and she when she received that which he gaveher said that this too was a fair gift, but fairer still would be thatother gift of an army for which she was asking. As she kept sayingthis to every thing which was given, at last Euelthon sent out to hera present of a golden spindle and distaff, with wool also upon it: andwhen Pheretime uttered again the same saying about this present,Euelthon said that such things as this were given as gifts to womenand not an army. 163. Arkesilaos meanwhile, being in Samos, was