Euesperides was founded in the Archaic period (before 570 BC) and abandoned around the mid third century BC, when the population relocated to the new foundation of Berenice, 3 km to the west, under the center and harbor area of modern Benghazi.
Identified in 1948, the site was partly excavated by the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, in the 1950s, by Barri Jones in 1968-9, and by John Lloyd in the 1990s.
Euesperides first appears in the historical sources as the furthest point reached by the Persian expedition into Cyrenaica in 515 BC. In 462 BC it received a fresh group of settlers from Greece drafted by Arkesilaos IV of Cyrene, who seems to have been preparing Euesperides as a place of refuge from hostile factions in Cyrene.
Euesperides was the first port that ships coasting along the southern shore of the Mediterranean would encounter after the dangerous crossing of the Syrtic Gulf, halfway between Punic Tripolitania and Ptolemaic Egypt.
Following this Euesperides seems to have come under Cyrene's control and silver coinage was minted at Cyrene in the name of Euesperides in the middle years of the fifth century BC. The city was abandoned around the middle of the third century BC.
Ancient city of Benghazi
