During theIron Age andClassical antiquity,Libya (from GreekΛιβύη:Libyē, which came fromBerber:Libu) referred to the area of North Africa directly west of theNile river (Modern dayLibya,Tunisia,Algeria andMorocco), not to be confused with the modern country ofLibya, which only represents the eastern part of the territory at the time. Ancient Libya was one of the three parts of the world of the ancients (Libya, Asia, Europa).[1] The territory also had part of theMediterranean Sea named after it called theLibyan Sea orMare Libycum which was the part of theMediterranean south ofCrete, betweenCyrene andAlexandria.
Greek andRoman geographers placed the dividing line between Libya and Asia at the Nile because the entire region south of the Mediterranean and west of the Nile was homogeneous linguistically, and the Berber language was used all across North Africa as far as the Atlantic coast[2] as well as racially by theLibyan people (Berbers)[3][4][5][6] The area was divided duringRoman times into four main regions:Mauretania,Numidia,Africa Preconsularis andLibya which retained the original name. In contrast, the areas ofSub-Saharan Africa were known asAethiopia. Much later was the name Africa extended to the whole continent instead of just theRoman Province of Africa.
InGreek mythology,Athena was believed to have been of Libyan origins and was therefore nicknamedAthene Tritogeneia ("born of Trito"),[7] from her birth inLake Tritonis in North Africa (modern-day Algeria and Tunisia)[8][a][b][9] where she is considered native to the land.[10] In this version of the story she is the daughter ofPoseidon and Tritonis a Libyan lake nymph.[c][d] In another version of the story in the same source, they say that she was daughter of Poseidon and Lake Tritonis, and that, being for some reason angry at her father, she gave herself toZeus, who made her his own daughter, on the other hand some say that she sprang from the forehead of her fatherZeus in the same location in North Africa.[11] According toHerodotus, it is the Libyans who taught Greeks how to ride four-horse chariots[e],[12] this is further shown whenMastanbal the prince of Numidia who is well versed in Greek literature.[13] A sportsman in his youth, the prince took part in chariot races and thePanathenaic Games which only populations whom the greeks considered equal to them culturally and religiously were allowed to participate.Mastanbal was a sportsman who was passionate about horseback riding. He owned a stud farm of purebred horses. Around 168 BC or 164 BC, he won a gold medal for his people in Numidia at theAthens Hippodrome at the Panathenaic Games in the prestigioushorse-drawn chariot racing event.[14]
InPseudo-Apollodorus, the Greeks proceeded to write of Hyperborea as a place that existed in ancient Libya somewhere within or between theAtlas ranges of North Africa[f][g] as that was the well-known dwelling place ofAtlas as he was enduring punishment by Zeus, he was visited byHerakles as well asPerseus in North Africa[g]. This coincides exactly with North Africans being well known for their worship of their sun god 'Tafukt' or commonly identified by the Greeks asApollo[h] they were believed to inhabit a sunny, temperate, and divinely-blessed land. The oldest myths portray them as the favorites ofApollo, and some ancient Greek writers regarded them as the mythical founders of Apollo's shrines atDelos andDelphi.[15]Masinissa received a golden crown from the inhabitants ofDelos as he had offered them several shiploads of grain to the temple of Apollo in Delos the famous birthplace of the sun god and his twin sister Artemis.[i][16]
Berbers are native to North Africa and have established their culture for thousands of years alongside theEgyptians. Egypt today contains theSiwa Oasis, which borders Libya at theWestern Desert. TheSiwi language, one of theBerber languages, is still spoken in the area by around 21,000 people. Their ancient Egyptian neighbors referred to the various Libyan tribes as the Temehu, Tehenu, Rebu andMeshwesh.
Homer names Libya, in theOdyssey (IX.95; XXIII.311). Homer used the name in a geographic sense, while he called its inhabitants "Lotus-eaters". After Homer,Aeschylus,Pindar, and other ancient Greek writers used the name.Herodotus (1.46) used ΛιβύηLibúē to indicate the African continent; theLíbues proper were the light-skinned North Africans, while those south of Egypt (andElephantine on the Nile) were known to him as "Aethiopians";[19] this was also the understanding of later Greek geographers such asDiodorus Siculus,Strabo...etc, amongst other writers.
In theHellenistic period, the nativeBerbers were known collectively asLibyans to the Greco-Roman world,[20] a Greek term for the inhabitants of the Maghreb, they identified theMassylii, theMasaessyli, theGaetuli, the Phareusiens and theMauri.
Libyans were known far and wide as glorious warriors with extraordinary physical strength; they were efficient in battle and effective when combined with an army. They were either employed as mercenaries or were made part of an army as was the case withNumidian cavalry. Polybius first mentions Numidian cavalry as part of the Carthaginian army during theFirst Punic War.[21] In the ranks of bothRoman Empire andAncient Carthage, they completely overturned the tide of battle inCannae for Hannibal andBattle of Zama forScipio Africanus.Virgil speaks of the Libyans in this way: "The surrounding lands areLibyan, a race unbeatable in war."[22]
After the Egyptians, the Greeks, Romans, and Byzantines mentioned various other tribes in Libya. Later tribal names differ from the Egyptian ones, but probably, some tribes were named in the Egyptian sources, as well as the later ones. Scholars believe the Meshwesh are the people called theMazyes by Hektaios andMaxyes by Herodotus, while it was called"Mazaces" and "Mazax" in Latin sources. All those names are similar to the name used by the Berbers for themselves, such asImazighen.[23]
Late-period sources give more detailed descriptions of Libya and its inhabitants. The ancient historian Herodotus describes Libya and the Libyans in his fourth book,The Libyan Book. Writers such asPliny the Elder,Diodorus Siculus, andProcopius also contributed to what is now primary source material on ancient Libya and the Libyans.
The name is based on the ethnonymLibu (Ancient Greek:ΛίβυεςLíbyes,Latin:Libyes). The nameLibya (in use since 1934 for themodern country formerly known asTripolitania and Barca) was the Latin designation for the region of the Maghreb, from theAncient Greek (Attic Greek:ΛιβύηLibúē,Doric Greek:ΛιβύᾱLibúā). InClassical Greece, the term had a broader meaning, encompassing the continent that later (second century BC) became known asAfrica, which, in antiquity, was assumed to constitute one third of the world's land mass, Europe and Asia combined making up the other two thirds.
TheLibu are attested since theLate Bronze Age as inhabiting the region (EgyptianR'bw,Punic:𐤋𐤁𐤉lby). The oldest known documented references to theLibu date toRamesses II and his successorMerneptah,pharaohs of theNineteenth Dynasty of Egypt, during the 13th century BC.LBW appears as an ethnic name on theMerneptah Stele to designate Libyans.[24]
Menelaus had travelled there on hisway home from Troy; it was a land of wonderful richness, where the lambs have horns as soon as they are born, where ewes lamb three times a year and no shepherd ever goes short of milk, meat or cheese.
When theAncient Greeks actually settled in Libya, the old name taken from the Egyptians was applied by the Greeks ofCyrenaica, who may have coexisted with the Libu.[25] Later, the name appeared in theHebrew language, written in theBible asLehabim andLubim, indicating the ethnic population and the geographic territory as well. In the neo-Punic inscriptions, it was written asLby for the masculine noun, andLbt for the feminine noun ofLibyan.[citation needed]
Latin absorbed the name from Greek and the Punic languages. TheRomans would have known them before their colonization of North Africa because of the Libyan role in thePunic Wars against the Romans. The Romans used the nameLíbues, but only when referring to Barca and theLibyan Desert of Egypt. The other Libyan territories were called "Africa", which were Roman provinces.
Classical Arabic literature called LibyaLubya,indicating a speculative territory west of Egypt.[clarification needed]Modern Arabic usesLibya. The Lwatae, the tribe ofIbn Battuta,[26] as theArabs called it, was a Berber tribe that mainly was situated in Cyrenaica. This tribe may have ranged from theAtlantic Ocean to modernLibya, however, and was referred to by Corippius asLaguatan; he linked them with theMaures.Ibn Khaldun'sMuqaddimah states Luwa was an ancestor of this tribe. He writes that the Berbers add an "a" and "t" to the name for the plural forms. Subsequently, it became rendered asLwat.
Conversely, the Arabs adopted the name as a singular form, adding an "h" for theplural form in Arabic. Ibn Khaldun disagrees withIbn Hazam, who claimed, mostly on the basis of Berber sources, that the Lwatah, in addition to the Sadrata and the Mzata, were from theQibts (Egyptians). According to Ibn Khaldun, this claim is incorrect because Ibn Hazam had not read the books of the Berber scholars.[27]
Oric Bates, a historian, considers that the nameLibu orLBW would be derived from the nameLuwatah[28] whilst the name Luwatah is a derivation of the name Libu.[clarification needed] Furthermore, Bates considered all the Libyan tribes to be a single civilization around 3000 BC[29] united under centralLibu andMeshwesh control.[30][31]
The ancientLibu andMeshwesh plundered west intoZawyet Umm El Rakham, which allowed them trade withMycenaeans,Cyprus,Levant and theAegean people. TheMycenaean Greek in specific seemed to have clashed with theLibyans. Although the libyan tribes had drove them off[32][33][34]
Compared with thehistory of Egypt, historians know little about the history of Libya, as there are few surviving written records. Information on ancient Libya comes fromarchaeological evidence and historic sources written by Egyptian scribes, as well as the ancient Greeks, Romans, andByzantines, and later from Arabs of Medieval times.
Since the Neolithic, the climate of North Africa has become drier over time. A reminder of thedesertification of the area is provided by megalithic remains, which occur in great variety of form and in vast numbers in presently arid and uninhabitable wastelands:[citation needed] dolmens and circles akin toStonehenge, cairns, underground cells excavated in rock, barrows topped with huge slabs, and step-pyramid-like mounds.[citation needed] Most remarkable are thetrilithons, some still standing, some fallen, which occur isolated or in rows, and consist of two squared uprights standing on a common pedestal that supports a huge transverse beam.[citation needed] In the Terrgurt valley, Cowper says: "There had been originally no less than eighteen or twenty megalithic trilithons, in a line, each with its massive altar placed before it".[35][citation needed]
In ancient times, thePhoenicians/Carthaginians, theSaiteEgyptians, the PersianAchaemenid Empire (seeLibya (satrapy)), theMacedonian Empire ofAlexander the Great and hisPtolemaic successors from Egypt ruled variously parts of Libya. With theRoman conquest, the entire region of present-day Libya became part of theRoman Empire. Following the fall of the Empire,Vandals, and local representatives of theByzantine Empire also ruled all or parts of Libya. The territory of modern Libya had separate histories until Roman times, asTripoli andCyrenaica.
Cyrenaica, by contrast, was Greek before it was Roman. It was also known asPentapolis, the "five cities" beingCyrene (near the village of Shahat) with its port ofApollonia (Marsa Susa),Arsinoe (Tocra),Berenice (Benghazi) andBarca (Merj). From the oldest and most famous of theGreek colonies, the fertile coastal plain took the name of Cyrenaica.
These five cities were also known as theWestern Pentapolis; not to be confused with thePentapolis of the Roman era on the current west Italian coast.
The exact boundaries of the whole of ancient Libya are unknown, but it likely constituted the western regions ofAncient Egypt in 3100 BC, and was known as "Tjehenu" to the Egyptians.[36]
 | This sectiondoes notcite anysources. Please helpimprove this section byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged andremoved. Find sources: "Ancient Libya" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(January 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Ibn Khaldun, who dedicated the main part of his bookKitab el'ibar, which is known as "The history of the Berbers", did not use the namesLibya andLibyans, but instead used Arabic names:The OldMaghreb, (El-Maghrib el-Qadim), and theBerbers (El-Barbar or El-Barabera(h)).
There were many tribes in ancient Libya, including the now extinctPsylli, with theLibu being the most prominent. The ancient Libyans were mainly pastoral nomads, living off their goats, sheep and other livestock. For subsistence, milk, meat, hides and wool were gathered from their livestock for food, pitching tents and as clothing.
.jpg)
Ancient Egyptian sources describe Libyan men with long hair, braided and bearded, neatly parted from different sides and decorated with feathers attached to leather bands around the crown of the head while wearing thin robes of antelopehide, dyed and printed, crossing the shoulder and coming down until mid calf length to make a robe. Older men kept long braided beards, while women wore the same robes as men, plaited, decorated hair and both sexes wore heavy jewelry. Depictions of Libyans in Egyptian reliefs show prominent and numerous tattoos, very similar to traditional Berber tattoos still seen today. Their weapons included bows and arrows, hatchets, spears and daggers.[37]
The Libyan script that was used in Libya was mostly afuneraryscript.[38] It is difficult to understand, and there are a number of variations.[39]
Ibn Khaldun divided the Berbers into theBatr and theBaranis.[40][clarification needed]
Herodotus divided them intoEastern Libyans andWestern Libyans. Eastern Libyans werenomadic shepherds east ofLake Tritonis. Western Libyans were sedentary farmers who lived west of Lake Tritonis.[41] a catastrophic change reduced the vast body of fresh water to a seasonal lake or marsh.[42]
Ibn Khaldun and Herodotus distinguish the Libyans on the basis of their lifestyles rather than ethnic background, those practicing agriculture, and the others nomadic pastoralism. Modern historians tend to follow Herodotus's classical distinctions. Examples include Oric Bates in his bookThe Eastern Libyans. Some other historians have used the modern name of theBerbers in their works, such as the French historianGabriel Camps.[43]
The Libyan tribes mentioned in these sources were: "Adyrmachidae", "Atarantians" "Giligamae", "Asbystae", "Marmaridae", "Auschisae", "Nasamones", "Macae", "Lotus-eaters (or Lotophagi)", "Garamantes", "Gaetulians", "Mauri", and "Luwatae", as well as many others.[43][37]
For the ancient Greeks, almost everything south of the Mediterranean Sea and west of the Nile was referred to as 'Libya'. This was also the name given by the ancient Greeks to the Berber people who occupied most of that land. The ancient Greeks believed their world was divided into three greater 'regions', Europa, Asia and Libya, all centred around the Aegean Sea. They also believed that the dividing line between Libya and Asia was the Nile River, placing half of Egypt in Asia and the other half in Libya. For many centuries, even into the late medieval period, cartographers followed the Greek example, placing the Nile as the dividing line between the landmasses.
Now as you sail into the strait at the Pillars, Libya lies on your right hand as far as the stream of the Nile, and on your left hand across the strait lies Europe as far as the Tanaïs. And both Europe and Libya end at Asia.
The whole globe is divided into three parts, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Our description commences where the sun sets and at the Straits of Gades, where the Atlantic ocean, bursting in, is poured forth into the inland seas. As it makes its entrance from that side, Africa is on the right hand and Europe on the left; Asia lies between them; the boundaries being the rivers Tanais and Nile.
If then our judgment of this be right, the Ionians are in error concerning Egypt; but if their opinion be right, then it is plain that they and the rest of the Greeks cannot reckon truly, when they divide the whole earth into three parts, Europe, Asia, and Libya; they must add to these yet a fourth part, the Delta of Egypt, if it belong neither to Asia nor to Libya; for by their showing the Nile is not the river that separates Asia and Libya; the Nile divides at the extreme angle of this Delta, so that this land must be between Asia and Libya.
They celebrate a yearly festival of Athena, where their maidens are separated into two bands and fight each other with stones and sticks, thus (they say) honoring in the way of their ancestors that native goddess whom we call Athena","As for Athena, they say that she was daughter of Poseidon and the Tritonian lake!
when, by the skills of Hephaestus with the bronze-forged hatchet, Athena leapt from the top of her father's head and cried aloud with a mighty shout.
