Arcesilaus III of Cyrene

Arcesilaus III. (Greek Ἀρκεσίλαος ) was about 535/30-520/15 BC, succeeding his father Battus III. King of Cyrene.

Arcesilaus was not willing to recognize the under his father made ​​by Demonax limitation of the royal power. After a failed coup attempt by 530 he went to Samos, where he enlisted with the tyrant Polycrates under country promises an army. With its help, he wanted to break the power of the large landowners in Cyrene and carry out a redistribution of the land.

The forcible return to the throne in the style of the establishment of tyranny succeeded his opponents fled mostly to bark. 525 the Persian King Cambyses sent Arcesilaus II tribute, who won Egypt for the Achaemenid Empire.

When staying at Cyrene became dangerous for him, he fled to bark, the stronghold of the oligarchs, to his father, the king Alazeir. Both were assassinated by Cyrenian opposition. With the help of the Persian satraps Aryandes his mother Pheretime then took cruel revenge on the Barkäern.

Swell

• Herodotus, Histories, 4, 162-165, 167, 200