 Defining domestic space at Euesperides, Cyrenaica: Archaic structures on the Sidi Abeid David Gill and Patricia Flecks INTRODUCTION TO EUESPERIDES Euesperides was a Greek settlement located on a lagoon near the modern city of Benghazi in Cyrenaica (FIG. .). The first historical mention of the city was in  BC, during the revolt of Barca, when the Persian army is said by Herodotos (iv ) to have reached as far as Euesperides. In the fifth century, there seems to have been an influx of new colonists from across the Greek world, during the reign of Arkesilas IV in  BC. A further expansion of the city took place in  BC when the Messenians from Naupaktos were resettled, in part because of the Euesperitan plea for more settlers following attacks from the local Nasamones. The city almost certainly underwent further change in  BC when the city of Messene was rebuilt by Epaminondas and some of the Messenians returned to the Peloponnese (Vickers et al. , ). Euesperides had links with Syracuse during the fourth century (Fraser ; ). During the third century the site of Euesperides was abandoned, and the city refounded as Berenike at the mouth of the lagoon (Lloyd ; ). Although literary sources do not help with the abandonment, T. V. Buttrey’s study of coins from Euesperides has suggested that it took place in the s (Buttrey , ; see also Bond and Swales ; Buttrey , ). Fig. .. Aerial view of Euesperides, with the modern Sidi Abeid cemetery at the bottom of the picture and Benghazi in the distance (© Ashmolean Museum, Oxford).