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Battus II of Cyrene, sometimes called Eudaimon (the Blessed) or the Latin equivalent Felix, (Greek: Βάττος ὁ Εὐδαίμων; flourished ca. 583 to 560 BC) was the third Greek king of Cyrenaica and Cyrene. and a member of the Battiad dynasty.

Probably a head of Apries

Ancestry

Battus II was the son of the second Cyrenaean king Arcesilaus I and an unknown mother. His paternal grandfather was Battus I, founder of the Greek colony in Africa. Battus II’s sister was the princess Critola and was the maternal aunt to Arcesilaus II. She was also mother to Polyarchus and the future Cyrenaean Queen Eryxo. Eryxo would later marry Battus II's son, Arcesilaus II.
Oracle

An oracle delivered at Delphi encouraged people from various parts from Greece, particularly those in the Peloponnese, Crete and the other islands to settle in Cyrene. Battus also invited Greeks to move to Libya.

The oracle declared that people who would never settle in delightful Libya, would one day regret it. The oracle declared caused a great rush among Greeks to join Cyrene.
Battle of the Well of Thaetis

Adicran dispatched an embassy to the Egyptian Pharaoh Apries. Apries collected his strong force and sent them to Cyrene to declare war on the Greeks. Around 570 BC the Egyptians, Battus and the Cyrenaeans marched to the Well of Thestis in Irasa to engage in war. The Cyrenaeans won against the Egyptian army. Very few Egyptians survived and returned home. Herodotus states that the Egyptians had no warfare experience against the Greeks and they didn’t take this battle seriously. Herodotus also states that this was the first battle that Greeks and Egyptians ever fought against each other.

The victory at The Well of Thestis confirmed the sovereignty of Cyrene and the establishment of Cyrenaica and her new founding cities. Battus also made an alliance with the new Egyptian Pharaoh Amasis II.

Death

Plutarch considers Battus as a worthy and honourable man. Battus died in 560 BC and was buried near his father and paternal grandfather. Battus’ wife is unknown and was succeeded by his son Arcesilaus I.

Battus II was followed by

Herodotus, Histories, Book 4:

But in the reign of the third king, Battus, surnamed the Happy, the advice of the Pythoness brought Greeks from every quarter into Libya, to join the settlement. The Cyrenaeans had offered to all comers a share in their lands; and the oracle had spoken as follows:—

He that is backward to share in the pleasant Libyan acres,
Sooner or later, I warn him, will feel regret at his folly.

Thus a great multitude were collected together to Cyrene, and the Libyans of the neighbourhood found themselves stripped of large portions of their lands. So they, and their king Adicran, being robbed and insulted by the Cyrenaeans, sent messengers to Egypt, and put themselves under the rule of Apries, the Egyptian monarch; who, upon this, levied a vast army of Egyptians, and sent them against Cyrene. The inhabitants of that place left their walls and marched out in force to the district of Irasa, where, near the spring called Theste, they engaged the Egyptian host, and defeated it. The Egyptians, who had never before made trial of the prowess of the Greeks, and so thought but meanly of them, were routed with such slaughter that but a very few of them ever got back home. For this reason, the subjects of Apries, who laid the blame of the defeat on him, revolted from his authority.

See also

List of Kings of Cyrene

Sources

Herodotus, The Histories, Book 4.
Morkot, R., The Penguin Historical Atlas of Ancient Greece, Penguin Books, The Bath Press - Avon, Great Britain, 1996.
Burn, A R. The Penguin History Greece, Penguin Books, Clay Ltd, St Ives P/C, England, 1990.
Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology: Abaeus-Dysponteus, edited by Sir William Smith
Cyrenaica in Livius.org
Cyrene at A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, by William Smith (1873)
Plutarch's Virtues of Women

Battus II of Cyrene