In 96 BC Rome peacefully obtained Cyrenaica (left as inheritance by the king Ptolemy Apion) with the so-called sovereign Pentapolis, formed by the cities of Cyrene (near the modern village of Shahat), its port of Apollonia, Arsinoe (Tocra), Berenice (near modern Benghazi) and Barce (Marj), that will be transformed into a Roman province a couple of decades later in 74 BC.