CYRENE sī re’ nĕ (Κυρήνη, G3255). Chief city of the ancient district of North Africa, called Cyrenaica or Pentapolis.

Located seventeen m. from the sea on a plateau, the city was settled by Gr. colonists under Battus in the 7th cent. The city derived its importance from trade with the natives of the interior, and agriculture. The land was very fertile particularly in the production of silphium, a spice which the ancients prized. The five cities of the Pentapolis enjoyed great prosperity until competition from the Ptolemaic cities, internal disruptions and careless use of the soil caused them to decline. From a city of 100,000 in its greatest era, Cyrene was reduced to a vast ruin by the 5th cent. a.d.

The city was ruled by the Battiadae until the establishment of a democracy in the 4th cent. b.c. It surrendered to Alexander the Great in 331 and was soon incorporated into the Ptolemaic empire. During late Hel. and Rom. times a large portion of the populace were Gr.-speaking Jews who encouraged other Jews to settle there. The city was bequeathed to the Romans in 96 b.c. and joined to Crete as a senatorial province in 27 b.c. A major revolt of the Jews of the city broke out in a.d. 115-116. Pagan monuments were destroyed and over 200,000 (?) inhabitants were killed according to Cassius Dio (68.32). Hadrian rebuilt much of the city, but its harbor Apollonia replaced it in importance.

The city was excavated by the Americans in 1910-1911 and by Italians just before World War II. The finds have included an archaic temple of Apollo, rebuilt several times, the tomb of Battus in the center of the agora, a Rom. theater, numerous temples and shrines and a large Rom. bath. Exceptional examples of archaic sculpture and important inscrs. have also come to light.

A number of Cyrenians figured in events of the NT. Simon, who carried the cross of Christ (Matt 27:32; Mark 15:21), and Lucius, a prophet and teacher of the primitive church at Antioch (Acts 13:1), were Jews of Cyrene. Stephen witnessed at a synagogue of foreign freedmen which included in its membership men of Cyrene, Alexandria, Cilicia and Asia. They instigated the people against Stephen who was brought before the Sanhedrin, convicted of blasphemy and then stoned. Converted Cyrenians, who were scattered because of the persecution that started with Stephen, preached to Gentiles at Antioch (Acts 11:20).

Cyrene was an important intellectual and medical center in antiquity. Among its famous citizens were the poet Callimachus, Carneades, the founder of the New Academy at Athens, and Erotasthenes, the historian. The name Cyrenaics was applied to an important school of Gr. philosophy because Cyrene was the birthplace of its founder, Aristippus. One of the earliest Socratic schools, they emphasized one aspect of Socrates’ teachings. Happiness, later interpreted as pleasure, was the highest good.

Bibliography U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Kyrene (1928); A. H. M. Jones, The Cities of the Eastern Roman Provinces, ch. 12 (1937); P. Romanelli, La Cirenaica romana (1943); A. Rowe, A History of Ancient Cyrenaica (1948).