ABSTRACT
The history of the Eastern Libyans hardly deserves to be dignified by that name, since practically only records of their conflicts with more civilized peoples, made by hostile annalists, survive. Yet in order to understand the life and character of the ancient Berbers, and because of their contact with the important peoples of the Mediterranean, these records are worthy of more study than they have yet received. The history of the Eastern Libyans divides itself into two periods, both because of the two main channels through which our knowledge flows, and because of the different character of their history in earlier and in later times. The first of these periods may be termed the Egyptian period, the second the Graeco-Roman. The first is the epoch extending from the earliest historic times down through the period of the great invasions of Egypt, a period at the close of which the Libyans are dimly discerned in a state of flux, aggressive and unsettled. Our knowledge of this portion of their history is derived almost wholly from Egyptian sources. The second epoch is one of ethnic quiescence, relieved only by the unsuccessful revolts made against foreign dominion in Africa,—an epoch in which the descendants of the invaders are seen as an aggregation of factious and disunited tribes, at various points dispossessed of their territories, and remaining in a state of barbarism—almost of savagery—beyond which the other Mediterranean peoples had advanced. The sources for this period are almost all Greek and Roman. In time, Period I. may be taken as extending from proto-dynastic times to about 1000 B.C., while Period II. may be extended from about 1000 B.C. to the Arab conquest in the seventh century A.D. The date 1000 B.C. is, of course, arbitrary, and must be recognized as such throughout this chapter.
