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Rh acme Cyrene is said to have had over 100,000 inhabitants. It was noted among the ancients for its intellectual life. Its medical school was famous, and it numbered among its celebrities Callimachus the poet, Carneades, the founder of the New Academy at Athens, Aristippus, a pupil of Socrates and the founder of the so-called (q.v.), Eratosthenes the polyhistor, and Synesius, one of the most elegant of the ancient Christian writers.

The first account of the site in modern times seems to be that of M. le Maire, who was French consul at Tripoli from 1703 to 1708, and twice visited Cyrene. Paul Lucas was there in 1710, and again in 1723, and Dr Thomas Shaw in 1738; an Italian, Dr A. Cervelli, who was there in 1812, furnished some information to the Société de Géographie of Paris; and P. Della Cella published an account of his visit, made in 1817. In 1821–1822 important explorations were made by Lieutenant F. W. Beechey, R.N.; and he was almost immediately followed by a French artist, M. J. R. Pacho, whose pencil preserved a number of interesting monuments that have since disappeared. L. Delaporte, French consul at Tangier, and Vattier de Bourville come next in order of time. H. Barth, the famous African traveller, published an account of his investigations in his Wanderungen durch die Küstenländer des Mittelmeers, 1849, and James Hamilton, who was there in 1851, described the place in his Wanderings in N. Africa. In 1861 excavations were made on behalf of the British Museum by Lieuts. R. Murdoch Smith, R.E., and E. A. Porcher, R.N., the results of which are detailed in their valuable Discoveries in Cyrene (London, 1864). Since that date, owing to the increase of Senussi influence, and the consequent fears of the Ottoman authorities, the site has been very seldom visited. The Italians, M. Camperio and G. Haimann, leading commercial missions, were there in the eighties, and Mr H. W. Blundell succeeded with a special firman and a strong escort in reaching the place in 1895, but had trouble with the local Senussi Arabs. The prohibition of travel became thereafter more stringent, and it has only been overcome by a party from Mr A. V. Armour’s yacht “Utowana,” which marched up from Marsa Susa in April 1904, and stayed one night. They found some fifty families of Cretan refugees established at Ain Shahat and a mudir with a small guard on the spot: but no inhabited houses, except the Senussi convent and the mudiria. Cretans and Arabs live in the ancient rock-tombs. An Italian senator, Chev. G. de Martino, with two Italian residents at Derna, passed through the place in 1907, and found it in Bedouin hands.

The site lies on the crest of the highland of Jebel Akhdar (about 1800 ft.) and 10 m. from the sea. The ground slopes very gradually south, and being entirely denuded of trees, makes good corn land. The northward slope falls more steeply in a succession of shelves, covered here and there with forest. Ravines surround the site on three sides, and there are at least four springs in its area, of which one, having great volume, has been at all times the attraction and focus of the place. This is the so-called “Fount of Apollo,” which issues from a tunnel artificially enlarged, and once faced with a portico. The acropolis was immediately above this on the W., and the main entrance of the city, through which came the sacred processions, passed it. The remains of Cyrene itself are enclosed by a wall having a circuit of about 4 m., of which little remains but the foundations and fragments of two towers; but tombs and isolated structures extend far outside this area. The local Arabs say it takes them six camel-hours to go from one end to the other of the ruins, which they call generally “Grenna” (i.e. Kyrenna). Within the city itself not very much is now to be seen. Below the Apollo fountain on the N. lie a great theatre and the substructures of the main temple of Apollo, both included now in the Senussi convent garden. Above the fountain and by the main road is a smaller theatre. On the E., upon the crown of the plateau, are the sites on which Smith and Porcher placed temples of Bacchus, Venus and Augustus, but they are marked only by rubbish heaps. Remains of a large Byzantine church and a much ruined stadium lie to S.E. On the S. are immense covered tanks of Roman date, with remains of the aqueducts which supplied them. On the W. a fine fragment of a tower, the fortifications of the acropolis, and a pedestal sculptured on four sides in good 3rd century style, are the only things worth seeing. The Cretan occupation is fast obliterating other traces. The great spectacle, however, which distinguishes the site of Cyrene, is provided by its cemeteries, which for extent, variety and preservation are unparalleled in the classic lands. There is one along each of the approaches to the main gates, but the largest and most splendid lies by the Apollonian road which winds by easy curves up the northern buttresses of the plateau. Here the sepulchres rise in tiers one above the other along fully a mile of the way. The most important have pillared façades, Doric, Ionic, and even a hybrid mixture of both orders. Within, they open out either into large halls, leading one out of another with graves in recesses and pits in the floor; or into rock corridors lined with loculi, disposed one above another like pigeon holes. Most of the wall paintings, seen by Beechey and Pacho, have perished or become black with the smoke of troglodytes’ fires; but one tomb below the road at about the middle of the cemetery still retains its decoration comparatively fresh, and seems to be that specially described by Smith and Porcher. The scenes are agonistic, i.e. represent funeral games, in which both white and black persons take part, the latter doubtless Libyan perioeci: but all wear Greek garments. Several tombs are inscribed and on some external paintings are still faintly visible. The commonest type of grave is a simple pit covered by a gabled lid. These occur by hundreds. But not all the sepulchres are rock-cut: altar tombs and other forms of heroa are found built upon plinths of rock. All visible tombs have long ago been violated, but it is probable that there are others still virgin under the talus of the hill side. To discover these and determine the topography of the city, excavation is urgently needed.

Many historical and artistic questions concerning Cyrene remain unsettled, but since the discoveries made in Laconia in 1908, the much disputed “Cyrenaic ware” has been ascribed to Sparta. A good deal of Cyrenaic sculpture, all of comparatively late date, was sent to the British Museum by Smith and Porcher. Nothing has yet been found on the site belonging to the great age of the city’s independence, the fine vases sent to the British Museum in 1864, by Mr G. Dennis, having been discovered not there, but near Berenice (Bengazi). The latter site, with Ptolemais and Apollonia, has supplied most of the antiquities found latterly in Cyrenaica.

See authorities for, and F. Studniczka, Kyrene, eine alt-griechische Göttin (1890).

CYRIL (c. 315–386), bishop of Jerusalem, where he was probably born, was ordained a presbyter in 345, and had the instruction of the catechumens entrusted to him. In 350 he was elevated to the see of Jerusalem, and became deeply involved in the dogmatic controversies of his time. His metropolitan, Acacius of Caesarea, inclined to Arianism, while Cyril strongly espoused the Nicene creed and was, in consequence, deposed for a time. On the death of the emperor Constantine he was restored; but on the accession of Valens, an Arian emperor, he had once more to resign his post till the accession of Theodosius permitted him to return finally in peace in 379. He attended the second oecumenical council held at Constantinople in 381, where he was received with grateful acclamations for his sufferings in defence of orthodoxy. Cyril was even more conspicuous as a pastor than as a controversialist, and this is seen in his one important work—his twenty-three addresses to catechumens delivered in 348. The first eighteen of these were meant for candidates for baptism; they deal with general topics like repentance and faith, and then expound in detail the baptismal creed of the Jerusalem church. The remaining five addresses were spoken to them newly-baptized in Easter week and explain the mysteries and ritual of baptism, confirmation and the Eucharist. These lectures are said to be “the first example of a popular compend of religion,” and are particularly interesting for the insight which they give us both into the creed-forms of the early church and the various ceremonies of initiation constituting baptism in the 4th century. The evidence which Cyril supplies as to the