Arcesilaus I or Arcesilaus I of Cyrene (Greek: ο Ἀρκεσίλαος; flourished 7th

7th century BC

The 7th century BC started the first day of 700 BC and ended the last day of 601 BC.The Assyrian Empire continued to dominate the Near East during this century, exercising formidable power over neighbors like Babylon and Egypt. In the last two decades of the century, however, the empire began to...

 and 6th century BC) was the second Greek king of Cyrenaica

Cyrenaica

Cyrenaica is the eastern coastal region of Libya.Also known as Pentapolis in antiquity, it was part of the Creta et Cyrenaica province during the Roman period, later divided in Libia Pentapolis and Libia Sicca...

 and the second king of the Battiad dynasty

Battiadae

In Greek mythology, the Battiadae are descendants of Battus, the founder of Cyrene. A famous descendant of Battus and thus one of the Battiadae was Callimachus, the Greek poet and the best known member of the Neoteroi....

.

Ancestry

Arcesilaus was the son of Battus I

Battus I of Cyrene

Battus I of Cyrene was the founder of the Greek colony of Cyrenaica and its capital, Cyrene. He was the first king of Cyrenaica, the first Greek king in Africa, and the founder of the Battiad dynasty.-Background:...

, the first king of Cyrenaica and Cyrene

Cyrene, Libya

Cyrene was an ancient Greek colony and then a Roman city in present-day Shahhat, Libya, the oldest and most important of the five Greek cities in the region. It gave eastern Libya the classical name Cyrenaica that it has retained to modern times.Cyrene lies in a lush valley in the Jebel Akhdar...

. Arcesilaus’ paternal grandparents were the Cretan

Crete

Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...

 Princess Phronima and the distinguished Therean

Santorini

Santorini , officially Thira , is an island located in the southern Aegean Sea, about southeast from Greece's mainland. It is the largest island of a small, circular archipelago which bears the same name and is the remnant of a volcanic caldera...

 nobleman called Polymnestus.

Reign

Very little is known on the life and reign of Arcesilaus. He succeeded to the throne after the death of his father in 600 BC. Herodotus

Herodotus

Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria and lived in the 5th century BC . He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...

 says that the number of people in Cyrene during his reign remained equal to the original number of settlers under Battus. Arcesilaus died in 583 BC and was buried near his father.

Offspring

His son, Battus II

Battus II of Cyrene

Battus II of Cyrene, sometimes called Eudaimon or the Latin equivalent Felix, was the third Greek king Cyrenaica and Cyrene and a member of the Battiad dynasty.-Ancestry:...

, succeeded him. Arcesilaus also had a daughter called Critola

Critola

Critola was a Libyan Greek Princess of Cyrenaica and its capital Cyrene and was a member The Battiads dynasty. She was the daughter of Arcesilaus I the second king of Cyrenaica, while her mother is unknown. Her paternal grandfather was the first King Battus I and her brother Battus II would be...

.

Sources

• Herodotus, The Histories, Book 4.
• Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology at Google Books
• Cyrene in A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, by William Smith (1873)