Cirene, la Skyrotà e la prima apoikia

Skyrota was the most important and famous street of ancient Cyrene. Pindar traces its origins to the city’s oikistes, Battos, who had it built for the processions of Apollo. Hellenistic scholia, possibly Alexandrine, offer additional information about the Skyrota, but the archaeological evidence remains controversial. The paper discusses the question in the context of a short history of studies, comparing the different hypotheses put forward by scholars so far and reflecting on the implications of each hypothesis for the origins of the apoikia.