Taucheira, Tukrah or El Agouriya , is a town on the coast of the Marj District in the Cyrenaica

Cyrenaica

Cyrenaica is the eastern coastal region of Libya.Also known as Pentapolis in antiquity, it was part of the Creta et Cyrenaica province during the Roman period, later divided in Libia Pentapolis and Libia Sicca...

 region of northeastern Libya

Libya

Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....

, founded by Cyrene

Cyrene, Libya

Cyrene was an ancient Greek colony and then a Roman city in present-day Shahhat, Libya, the oldest and most important of the five Greek cities in the region. It gave eastern Libya the classical name Cyrenaica that it has retained to modern times.Cyrene lies in a lush valley in the Jebel Akhdar...

. It lay 200 stadia west of Ptolemais

Ptolemais (Cyrenaica)

Ptolemais or Ptolemaida was one of the ancient capitals of Cyrenaica. It was probably named after Ptolemy III Euergetes. Its Latin name in Roman times was Tolmeta, from which the modern Libyan town of Tolmeitha derives its name.The town was most probably founded in 7th or 6th century BC by...

. Today it is a coastal town 25 kilometres (15.5 mi) west of Marj.

History

Founded by the Greeks and considered by some to be part of the Pentapolis of Cyrenaica, at a later period it became a Roman

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

 colony (Tab. Peut.), and was fortified by Justinian I

Justinian I

Justinian I ; , ; 483– 13 or 14 November 565), commonly known as Justinian the Great, was Byzantine Emperor from 527 to 565. During his reign, Justinian sought to revive the Empire's greatness and reconquer the lost western half of the classical Roman Empire.One of the most important figures of...

. (Procop. de Aed. vi. 3.) Taucheira was particularly noted for the worship of Cybele

Cybele

Cybele , was a Phrygian form of the Earth Mother or Great Mother. As with Greek Gaia , her Minoan equivalent Rhea and some aspects of Demeter, Cybele embodies the fertile Earth...

, in honour of whom an annual festival was celebrated. (Synes. Ep. 3.)

Name

Taucheira, Teucheira, Tauchira or Teuchira (Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

: , ,). Under the Ptolemies it obtained the name of Arsinoe (Arsinoë) (Greek: ), after Arsinoe II of Egypt

Arsinoe II of Egypt

For other uses see, ArsinoeArsinoë II was a Ptolemaic Greek Princess of Ancient Egypt and through marriage was of Queen Thrace, Asia Minor and Macedonia as wife of King Lysimachus and later co-ruler of Egypt with her brother-husband Ptolemy II Philadelphus For other uses see, ArsinoeArsinoë II...

, named by her brother and husband, Ptolemy Philadelphus. Later it became known as Tocra or Tukrah or Tokara, and then Al Quriyah or El Agouriya in Arabic

Arabic language

Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...

.

It is the same town erroneously written by Diodorus (xviii. 20). It is still called Tochira.

Agouriya is the name given to the city by the deposed dictator Muammar Gaddafi, in reference to the Agouri tribe. The town's largest tribe is the Barghathi tribe, who claim the town their own. There are tribal rivalries with the Abdali tribe. Both the Barghathi and Abdali tribes belong to the larger "umbrella" Agouri tribe. The renaming of the town by Gaddafi was to play on the rivalry between the two tribes. After the 17 Feb revolution, inhabitants of the town went back to the old name, Tokara.

Agriculture

On a relatively small scale, residents of the town grow watermelon, cantaloupe, grapes, almonds, and tomatoes; but it's most famous for its figs.

External links

• Livius.org: Taucheira (Arsinoe)