Athens, Aristippus, a pupil of Socrates and the founder of the so-called Cyrenaic school, Eratosthenes the polyhistor, and Synesius, one of the most elegant of the ancient Christian
writers.The ruins of the town cover a great extent of ground, but have been sadly defaced by the various races which have overrun the country. Gyrene and the district to the east, the north, and the west, is called Shahat by the Arabs; while the ancient designation, under the modified form of Ghreunah, is applied to the district to the south. The first account of the site in modern times seems to be that of M. Lemaire, who was French consul at Tripoli in the time of Louis XIV. Paul Lucas visited the spot in 1710, and again in 1723, and Dr Thomas Shaw in 1738 ; an Italian, Dr Cavelli, who was there in 1812, furnished some information to the Societo de Geographic de Paris ; and Delia Cella published an account of his visit in his Travels, translated into English in 1822. In 1821-2 important explorations were made by Lieutenant Beechey, R.N. ; and he was almost immediately followed by a French artist, M. Pacho, whose pencil preserved a number of interesting monuments that have since disappeared. M. Delaporte, French consul at Tangier, and Vattier de Bourville come next in order of time. Earth, the famous African traveller, published an account of his investigations in his Wander- ungen durch die Kiistenlander des Mittelmeers, 1849. In 1861 excavations were made on the site of the city by Captain Murdoch Smith, 11. E., and Commander Porcher, H.N., the results of which are detailed in their valuable Discoveries in Gyrene, London, 1864. The principal buildings of which the plan can be more or less clearly distinguished are three theatres, a small Doric temple of Bacchus, a temple of Apollo (Beechey s temple of Diana), two temples hypothetically assigned to the worship of Venus, and a large many-chambered structure, supposed to be the palace of the Roman governor. All are composed of a friable yellow sandstone, containing a great number of shells. The temples are remarkable for the eastern position of the main entrance. Of the ancient sculpture of the city several fine specimens were exhumed and conveyed in safety to the British Museum a statue of Bacchus, a colossal statue of Apollo playing on the Lyre, a bust of Cnceus Cornelius Lentulus Marcellinus, the first Roman propraetor of Cyrene, a fine portrait-head in bronze, <tc. Far more imposing than the remains of its buildings are the long lines of tombs which occupy the scarped fronts of all the hill sides, and stretch out along the various roads leading from the city. These consist of two kinds the excavated and the constructed, the former being the best preserved, and, it would seem, the most spacious and elaborate. Many of the finer examples have large temple-like entrances with Doric columns cut out of the rock, and bear traces of internal decoration of- the most costly and brilliant kind. On the walls of one which still preserved its colours at the time of its discovery in 1861 was depicted a procession of thirty-six individuals in various costumes, as well as hunting scenes and games. A favourite sepulchral ornament appears to have been a large scallop- shell sculptured in marble and placed above the sarco phagus recess. The city was furnished with water by means of a perennial fountain now known to scholars as the fountain of Apollo, and to the Arabs as Ain Shahat, remarkabb for the artificial tunnel through which it passes. In 1864 Mr George Dennis, vice-consul at Benghazi, pro ceeded to examine the tombs of the Cyrenaica, and obtained a fine series of painted Greek vases of the red-figure and polychrome styles, which are now in the British Museum. An account of his excavations will be found in the Transactions of the Royal Soc. of Literature, 2d ser. ix. p. 135.
CYRIL [Cyrillus], saint and bishop of Jerusalem. He was born probably at Jerusalem about 315, and died about 386. He was ordained a presbyter in 345, and had tho instruction of the catechumens confided 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 Ctesarea, inclined to Arianism, while Cyril strongly espoused the Nicene creed. The result was the temporary deposition of Cyril. On the death of the emperor Constantino, however, he was restored ; but again, 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 has left 0112 important work his 23 Catecheses (Karr^o-ei?) or lectures mainly addressed to those who were preparing for baptism; the last 5, under the name of the Mystagogic Catacheses, were addressed to newly baptized persons. These lectures are said to be " the first example of a popular compend of religion," and are parti cularly 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. Other tracts and homilies have been ascribed to Cyril of Jerusalem, but they are of doubtful genuineness. The Catecheses of Cyril have been translated in the Oxford Library of the Fathers, vol ii.
CYRIL, of Alexandria (376–444), is a more distinguished father of the church than his namesake of Jerusalem. He was born in 376, and died in 444. Becoming patriarch of Alexandria about 412, he soon made himself known by the violence of his zeal against Jews, pagans, and heretics or supposed heretics alike. He had hardly entered upon his office when he closed all the churches of the Novatians and seized their ecclesiastical effects. He assailed the Jewish synagogues with an armed force, drove the Jews in thousands from the city, and exposed their houses and property to pillage. The prefect of Egypt, Orestes, who endeavoured to withstand his furious zeal, was in turn denounced himself, and had difficulty in maintaining his ground against the fury of the Christian multitude. It was during one of the violent commotions kindled by the strifes of these parties in Alexandria that the illustrious Hypatia, famed for her beauty and her eloquent advocacy of the Neo-Platonic philosophy in opposition to Christianity, was murdered. Her murder has been attributed to the direct instigation of the patriarch himself ; but this charge is held unsupported by others, although there can be no doubt that " the perpetrators were officers of his church," and undoubtedly drew encouragement from his own violent proceedings. Hypatia was a friend of Orestes, and the hostility betwixt the prefect and the patriarch overflowed towards her, and undoubtedly led to her destruction.
who might be considered enemies of the church. He inherited from Theophilus, his uncle and predecessor in the see of Alexandria, a strong aversion to John Chrysostom, the noble bishop of Constantinople, and even after his death opposed for a time all attempts to remove the unjust sentence of condemnation which had been passed upon him. Afterwards he so far yielded to remonstrances, and allowed the name of Chrysostom to appear in the list of distinguished martyrs and bishops mentioned in the prayers of his church. These names were inserted in what were called " diptychs " (Si-rrrvxa ve/cpwv), or two-leaved tablets preserved in the churches a usage which the Greek Church has preserved to this day. Nesrorius, a succesor of Chrysostom in the see
of Constantinople, received a still larger share of Cyril s
