Ba'ttus Ii. or Ba'ttus the Happy
3. BATTUS II., surnamed "the Happy," principally from his victory over Apries (
Βάττος ὁ Εὐδαίμων), was the son of
No. 2, and the third king of the dynasty; for the opinion of those who consider that Herodotus has omitted two kings between Arcesilaus I. and the present Battus, is founded on an erroneous punctuation of 4.159, and is otherwise encumbered with considerable chronological difficulties. (Thrige, §§ 29, 42, 43; comp.
Plut. Cor. 11.)
In this reign, Cyrene received a great accession of strength by the influx of a large number of colonists from various parts of Greece, principally perhaps from Peloponnesus and from Crete and the other islands, whom the state invited over under the promise of a new division of lands (probably to enable herself to make head against the neighbouring Libyans), and who were further urged to the migration by the Delphic oracle. (
Hdt. 4.159, comp. 100.161.)
This influx apparently giving rise to farther encroachments on the Libyan tribes, the latter, under Adicran, their king, surrendered themselves to Apries, king of Egypt, and claimed his protection.
A battle ensued in the region of Irasa, B. C. 570, in which the Egyptians were defeated,--this being the first time, according to Herodotus (
4.159), that they had ever come into hostile collision with Greeks. (Comp.
Hdt. 2.161;
Diod. 1.68.)
This battle seems to have finished the war with Egypt; for we read in Herodotus (
2.181), that Amasis formed a marriage with Ladice, a Cyrenaean woman, daughter perhaps of Battus II. (Wesseling,
ad Herod. l.c.), and, in other ways as well, cultivated friendly relations with the Cyrenaeans.
By the same victory too the sovereignty of Cyrene over the Libyans was confirmed. (Comp.
Hdt. 4.160, where their
revolt from Arcesilaus II. is spoken of.)
It was in this reign also, according to a probable conjecture of Thrige's (§ 30), that Cyrene began to occupy the neighbouring region with her colonies, which seem to have been numerous. (
Pind. P. 4.20,
34,
5.20.)
The period of the death of Battus II. it is impossible to settle with exactness. We know only that his reign lasted beyond the year 570 B. C.; and it is pure conjecture which would assign the end of it, with Thrige, to 560, or, with Bouhier and Larcher, to 554. (Thrige, § 29; Larcher,
ad Herod. 4.163.)
