4.160.4
After this disaster, Arcesilaus, being worn down and having taken a drug, was strangled by his brother Learchus; Learchus was deftly killed by Arcesilaus' wife, Eryxo.
ch. 161
4.161.1
Arcesilaus' kingship passed to his son Battus, who was lame and infirm in his feet. The Cyrenaeans, in view of the affliction that had overtaken them, sent to Delphi to ask what political arrangement would enable them to live best;
4.161.2
the priestess told them bring a mediator from Mantinea in Arcadia. When the Cyrenaeans sent their request, the Mantineans gave them their most valued citizen, whose name was Demonax.
4.161.3
When this man came to Cyrene and learned everything, he divided the people into three tribes; note of which the Theraeans and dispossessed Libyans were one, the Peloponnesians and Cretans the second, and all the islanders the third; furthermore, he set apart certain domains and priesthoods for their king Battus, but all the rest, which had belonged to the kings, were now to be held by the people in common.
ch. 162
4.162.1
During the life of this Battus, these ordinances held good, but in the time of his son Arcesilaus much contention arose about the king's rights.
4.162.2
Arcesilaus, son of the lame Battus and Pheretime, would not abide by the ordinances of Demonax, but demanded back the prerogatives of his forefathers, and made himself head of a faction; but he was defeated and banished to Samos, and his mother fled to Salamis in Cyprus.
4.162.3
Now Salamis at this time was ruled by Evelthon, who dedicated that marvellous censer at Delphi which stands in the treasury of the Corinthians. Pheretime came to him, asking him for an army to bring her and her son back to Cyrene;
4.162.4
Evelthon was willing to give her everything else, only not an army, and when she accepted what he gave her, she said that it was fine, but it would be better to give her an army as she asked.
4.162.5
This she said whatever the gift, until at last Evelthon sent her a golden spindle and distaff, and wool, and when Pheretime uttered the same words as before, he answered that these, and not armies, were gifts for women.
ch. 163
4.163.1
Meanwhile Arcesilaus was in Samos, collecting all the men that he could and promising them a new division of land; and while a great army was thus gathering, he made a journey to Delphi, to ask the oracle about his return.
4.163.2
The priestess gave him this answer:
“For the lifetimes of four Battuses and four Arcesilauses, eight generations of men, Loxias grants to your house the kingship of Cyrene; more than this he advises you not even to try.
4.163.3
But you, return to your country and live there in peace. But if you find the oven full of amphora, do not bake the amphora, but let them go unscathed. And if you bake them in the oven, do not go into the tidal place; for if you do, then you shall be killed yourself, and also the bull that is fairest of the herd.”
This was the oracle given by the priestess to Arcesilaus.
ch. 164
4.164.1
But he returned to Cyrene with the men from Samos, and having made himself master of it he forgot the oracle, and demanded justice upon his enemies for his banishment.
