Postage stamps and postal history of Cyrenaica entire eastern section of the country. An Italian post office was opened in Benghazi in 1901 and the stamps of Italy were overprinted for use in the post office. The Ottoman Empire ceded Cyrenaica to Italy in 1912. From 1923 to 1934 stamps were issued for Cyrenaica, which were used concurrently with those of Italian Libya. The first stamps of Cyrenaica were Italian stamps overprinted CIRENAICA issued on 24 October 1923 at the same time as those for Tripolitania. Semi-postal stamps inscribed "Cirenaica" were issued in 1926, and regular commemorative and definitive stamp issues continued until 1934 when Tripolitania, Cyrenaica
Greeks in Syria Assyrians made up the majority. In the South, Samaritans, Nabateans and Greco-Romans made up the majority near the end of the 2nd century. Throughout the Middle Ages, Byzantine Greeks self-identified as Romaioi or Romioi (Greek: Ῥωμαῖοι, Ρωμιοί, meaning "Romans") and Graikoi (Γραικοῖ, meaning "Greeks"). Linguistically, they spoke Byzantine or Medieval Greek, known as "Romaic" which is situated between the Hellenistic (Koine), and modern phases of the language. Byzantines, perceived themselves as the descendants of classical Greece, the political heirs of imperial Rome, and followers of the Apostles. Thus, their sense of "Romanity" was different from that of their contemporaries in