CYRENE (KupOn ; Ghrenna, in modern Arabic), a city in Libya, founded about the year B.C. 632, by a colony of Greeks from Thera (San torini), a small island in the Agean Sea (Thirwall's History of Greece, vol. ii. ch. 12). Its name is generally supposed to be derived from a foun tain (but according to Justin, Hist. xiii., a moun tain), called Kup-4, Cyre, near its site. It was built on a table-land, 'Soo feet above the level of the sea, in a region of extraordinary fertility and beauty. It was the capital of a district, called from it Cyrenaica (Barca), which extended from the Gulf of Platen (Bomba) to the Great Syrtis (Gulf of Sidra). With its port A pollonia (Musa Soosa), about ten miles distant, and the cities Barca, Teuchira, and Hesperis, which at a later period were named Ptolemais, Arsinoe, and Bere nice (Strabo, xvii. vol. iii. p. 496, ed. Tauchn.), it formed the Cyrenaic Pentapolis. For above 'So years the form of government was monarchical ; it then became republican ; and at last, the country became tributary to Egypt, under Ptolemy Soter.
It was bequeathed to the Romans by Apion, the natural son of Ptolemy Physcon, about 97 B.C. (Tacitus, Annul. xiv. 18; Cicero, De leg; Agrar. ii. 19), and was then formed into a province with Crete (Strabo, xvii. 3). Strabo (quoted by Jose phus, xiv. 7) says, that in Cyrene there were four classes of persons, namely, citizens, husband men, foreigners, and Jews, and that the latter en joyed their own customs and laws. At the com mencement of the Christian era, the Jews of Cyrene were so numerous in Jerusalem that they had a synagogue of their own (Acts ii. to; vi. 9). Some of the first Christian teachers were natives of Cyrene (Acts xi. 20 ; xiii. I). Simon, who was compelled to assist in bearing the cross of the Saviour, was a Cyrenian (Matt. xxvii. 32 ; Mark xv. 21 ; Luke xxiii. 26).
The ruins of Cyrene and the surrounding coun try have been diligently explored within the last few years ; in 1817 by Dr. Della Cella, in 1821-22 by Capt. Beechey, and in 1826 by M. Pacho, a French traveller.—J. E. R.