Cyrenaica

Cyrenaica was a Roman province on the northern coast of Africa between Egypt and Numidia; it had been formerly Greek. That area is now the eastern part of the Mediterranean coast of Libya.

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The province consisted classically of five cities, the Pentapolis— Cyrene (near the village of Shahat) with its port of Apollonia (Marsa Susa), Arsinoe (Tocra), Berenice (Benghazi) and Barca (Merj)— of which the chief was the eponymous Cyrene. After the earthquake of 365 the capital was moved to Ptolemais. In the south Cyrenaica faded into the Sahara.

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Conquered by Alexander the Great, it passed to the Ptolemies, then to Rome. It was separated from the main kingdom by Ptolemy VIII and given to his son Ptolemy Apion, who, dying without heirs in 96 BC, bequeathed it to the Roman Republic.

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Although some confusion exists as to the exact territory Rome inherited, by 78 BC it was organised as a province with Crete, until the reforms of Diocletian in 300 changed all of the provincial administrations.

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Roman: Roman or Romans has several meanings, primarily related to the Roman citizens, but also applicable to typography, math, and several geographic locations....

Province: This article is about political regions. See geologic province for geological meanings....

Africa: Africa is the world's second-largest continent and second most populous after Asia. At about 30,244,050 km² (11,677,240 mi²) including its adjacent islands, it covers 20.3 percent of the total land area on Earth. With over 800 million human inhabitants in 54 countries, it accounts for abou...