In 631 B.c some 200 Greeks of the ancients island of Thera the modern Santorini, founded the city of Cyrene in Eastern Libya but before it gained the title of Athens of Africa, the city had to suffer long forty years under the rule of the first founder Battus and other hundred and fifty years of his dynasty rule ….the Battiad dynasty ruled Cyrenaica for about two centuries before was created the famous Cyrene constitution based on the Athenian democracy…but the Cyrenaican democracy was interrupted by another ruling Dynasty ,the one of Alexander the Great ,the Ptolemais of Egypt who ruled the eastern part of Libya for another 250 years till 74 B.c when the Romans took over!
The first Roman emperor was Augustus! Who ruled the Roman Empire including the modern Libya for 41 years from 27BC till 14 AD where the western Libyan cities were flourished thanks to the maritime trade, but one of these cities, Leptis Magna gave birth to another dictator and another dynasty the septimius dynasty.
Septimius Severus the Libyan birth emperor who ruled for 18 years from 193AD till 211 AD was a real dictator, where normally the main temple at the Roman Forums was dedicated to JUPITER, JUNE AND MINERVA the triad cult of the Roman empire, but Severus at his native city Leptis Magna built new Forum with GENS SEPTIMIA Temple…..a Temple that was dedicated to him and his wife, the Syrian Julia Dumna! Considering himself as the maximum religious divinity and giving his dynasty the green light to rule till 235 A.D!
Although the Arabs have never given any importance to Libya which was for them just a Transit land between the Maghreb and the Orient where the capitals of the ruling dynasties were located, but these dynasties like the Omayyad of Damascus and then the Abbasids of Baghdad, ruled the Libya for about five centuries!
In the medieval period the modern Libya was fallen victim to other dictatorships, the Normans of Sicily, the Fatimid of Cairo ,the Hafsids of Tunisia, the Spanish and Knights of Malta
In 1555the Ottomans and their the Sultans of Constantinople created their local dynasties like the Karamanly family who became the land lords of Libya by imposing the taxes on the inhabitants and the sea lords through the piracy from 1711 till 1835.
The Modern era was not more brilliant than the past in terms of democracy for the Libyan land, in 1911 nevertheless the Italian campaign to occupy Libya was to bring the civilization to the fourth shore of Rome but both Rome and its fourth shore suffered Mussolini`s dictatorship!
After the end of the Second World War, Libya got its independence in 1951, but another dictator was established the king Idriss sanussi where his 18 years of rule were in the name of Allah!
In 1969 Allah was old fashion for the Libya`s last dictator Muammar Gheddafi where his 42 years of rule ,the same years of the first Libyan dictator Battus of Cyrene re were in the name of the sovereign Libyan People of Libya!
the article was inspired by my last visit of Leptism Magna with the spanish journalists of TVE TV and ELMONDO newspaper Last April!
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