Ptolemais or Ptolemaida (Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

: Πτολεμαίς) was one of the ancient capitals 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...

. It was probably named after Ptolemy III Euergetes

Ptolemy III Euergetes

-Family:Euergetes was the eldest son of Ptolemy II Philadelphus and his first wife, Arsinoe I, and came to power in 246 BC upon the death of his father.He married Berenice of Cyrene in the year corresponding to 244/243 BC; and their children were:...

. Its Latin name in Roman times was Tolmeta, from which the modern Libya

Libya

Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....

n town of Tolmeitha

Tolmeitha

Tolmeitha, Tolometa, or Tolmeita is a tiny village in the northern Cyrenaica region of eastern Libya, some east of Benghazi, near Ad Dirsiyah...

 (Arabic طلميثة) derives its name.

The town was most probably founded in 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...

 or 6th century BC by settlers from Barka

Barca

Barce was an ancient Greek colony and later Roman, Byzantine, city in North Africa. It occupied the coastal area of what is modern day Libya...

. Soon it became one of the founding city-state

City-state

A city-state is an independent or autonomous entity whose territory consists of a city which is not administered as a part of another local government.-Historical city-states:...

s of the Pentapolis

Pentapolis

A pentapolis, from the Greek words , "five" and , "city" is a geographic and/or institutional grouping of five cities...

 federation. In 331 BC the union was dissolved after all of its towns surrendered to Alexander the Great. After his death the area formed part of the Ptolemaic empire

Ptolemaic Egypt

Ptolemaic Egypt began when Ptolemy I Soter invaded Egypt and declared himself Pharaoh of Egypt in 305 BC and ended with the death of queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt and the Roman conquest in 30 BC. The Ptolemaic Kingdom was a powerful Hellenistic state, extending from southern Syria in the east, to...

. In early 1st century the region was conquered by Rome

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

 and became a separate province.
Roman Tolmeta had no local water supply, but Roman architects built a conduit from the hills and stored the water in eighteen huge galleries under the forum, about fourteen feet high by ten feet wide. These are in perfect repair and were rediscovered during the Italian occupation. In the course of military operations against rebels, it was discovered that the rebels used the underground as a place of hiding; two or three hundred men could easily be hidden in them.

In 365

365

Year 365 was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Augustus and Valens...

 a major earthquake

Earthquake

An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. The seismicity, seismism or seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time...

 struck the region and destroyed all of the five major cities of the area (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...

 with its port Apollonia

Apollonia, Cyrenaica

Apollonia in Cyrenaica was founded by Greek colonists and became a significant commercial centre in the southern Mediterranean. It served as the harbour of Cyrene, to the southwest...

, Arsinoe

Taucheira

Taucheira, Tukrah or El Agouriya , is a town on the coast of the Marj District in the Cyrenaica region of northeastern Libya, founded by Cyrene. It lay 200 stadia west of Ptolemais. Today it is a coastal town west of Marj.-History:...

, Berenice

Benghazi

Benghazi is the second largest city in Libya, the main city of the Cyrenaica region , and the former provisional capital of the National Transitional Council. The wider metropolitan area is also a district of Libya...

, Balagrae and Barca

Barca

Barce was an ancient Greek colony and later Roman, Byzantine, city in North Africa. It occupied the coastal area of what is modern day Libya...

). Ptolemais survived the tragedy in relatively good condition, and it was there that the most important authorities were moved. It served the role of a capital of Cyrenaica until 428, when it was destroyed by the Vandals

Vandals

The Vandals were an East Germanic tribe that entered the late Roman Empire during the 5th century. The Vandals under king Genseric entered Africa in 429 and by 439 established a kingdom which included the Roman Africa province, besides the islands of Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia and the Balearics....

. During the reign of Justinian I

Justinian I

Justinian I ; , ; 483– 13 or 14 November 565), commonly known as Justinian the Great, was Byzantine Emperor from 527 to 565. During his reign, Justinian sought to revive the Empire's greatness and reconquer the lost western half of the classical Roman Empire.One of the most important figures of...

 the city was rebuilt, but it never regained its powers and was again destroyed by the Arabs in the 7th century.

Buried in the sands, the town's ruins have been remarkably well preserved. West of the city stands a conspicuous and tower-like Hellenistic mausoleum, and there is also a Greek theatre cut into the hillside behind the city. It is probably the only well-preserved Roman capital of a province in the world. In 2001 the archaeological mission from the Warsaw University started the excavations there. It is estimated that the town covers 2.5 square kilometres, excluding the city walls and large necropolis surrounding it.

External links

• Ptolemais - home page (Polish, English)
• Excavations - preliminary reports
• Ptolemais survey, Libya (nondestructive archaeology)
• Ptolemais City