Milesians had established Naukratis, a Greek settlement in the Nile River delta, on the Canopic (western) branch of the river, in the seventh century BCE, but Greeks from other cities have also settled here.

An emporion (“trading station”) with exclusive trading rights in Egypt, Naukratis is the center of cultural relations between Greece and Egypt in the pre-Hellenistic period.

Friendly relations have existed for some time between the Greeks of Cyrene the local peoples , and there is more intermarriage with non-Greek women than is usual in Greek colonies.

Greek-Libyan relations break down Around 570 BCE after a further influx of Greek colonists who are attracted by Cyrene's increasing prosperity; the new constitution granted under Battus III fails to allay dissension among the rival domestic factions.

Cyrene in 570 also repulses an invasion by the Egyptians.

Pharaoh Amasis II, the former Egyptian general who had seized the throne during a revolt against Apries, had turned to diplomacy, securing an alliance with Cyrene by marrying a woman of that country and seeking alliances in Greece.

Herodotus tells of his friendship with Polycrates, tyrant of Samos, and mentions his donation toward rebuilding the temple at Delphi.

Nonetheless, to regulate Greek influence in Egypt, he confines merchants to the city of Naukratis, southwest of his own capital.