CYPRIANS CYRIL. 



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they form, render them the fit abode of wild beasts 

 and reptiles, and almost inaccessible to man. They 

 cover tracts hundreds of miles in extent, and are 

 visited only by the traveller and the woodcutter. 



CYPRIANS ; a term used for courtesans, like that 

 of Corinthians, because Venus, the Cyprian goddess, 

 was particularly worshipped in the island of Cyprus. 



CYPRIAN, ST., born A. D. 200, at Carthage, 

 was descended from a respectable family, and was a 

 teacher of rhetoric there. In 246, he was converted 

 to Christianity, distributed his property among the 

 poor, and lived in the greatest abstinence. The 

 church, in Carthage, soon chose him presbyter, and, 

 in 248, he was made bishop. He was the light of the 

 clergy, and the comfort of the people. During the 

 persecution under the emperor Decius, he fled, but 

 constantly exhorted his church to continue firm in the 

 Christian faith. In 251, he summoned a council, at 

 Carthage, to decide concerning those who had aban- 

 doned their faith during the persecution, but desired 

 to be readmitted through penance. When the per- 

 secution of the Christians was renewed, A. D. 257, 

 he was banished to Curubis, twelve leagues from 

 Carthage. Sept. 14, 258, he was beheaded, at Car- 

 thage, oecause, in opposition to the orders of the 

 government, he had preached the gospel in his gar- 

 dens, near Carthage. Lactantius calls him one of 

 the first eloquent Christian authors. His style, how- 

 ever, retained something of the hardness of his 

 teacher Tertullian. We have from him an expla- 

 nation of the Lord's prayer, and eighty-one letters, 

 affording valuable illustrations of the ecclesiastical 

 history of his time. Baluze published his works com- 

 plete (Paris, 1726, fol.). 



CYPRIS (Cypria) a surname of Venus, from the 

 island of Cyprus, where was her first temple. 



CYPRUS ; an island in the Mediterranean, be- 

 tween Asia Minor and Syria, famous in antiquity for 

 its uncommon fertility and its mild climate. It con- 

 tains 7264 square miles, and 120,000 inhabitants, of 

 whom 40,000 are Greeks. Cyprus is the native place 

 of the cauliflower. Wine, oil, honey, wool, &c., are 

 still, as formerly, the principal productions. The 

 country is distinguished by remarkable places and 

 mountains ; as Paphos, Amathusia, Salamis, and 

 Olympus, once adorned with a rich temple of Venus. 

 Venus was particularly venerated here, because, ac- 

 cording to tradition, the delightful shores of Cyprus 

 received her when she emerged from the foam of the 

 sea. The oldest history of this island is lost in the 

 darkness of antiquity. When Amasis brought.it under 

 the Egyptian yoke, 550 B. C., Ionian and Phoenician 

 colonists had formed several small states in the island. 

 It remained an Egyptian province till 58 B. C., 

 when it was conquered by the Romans. After the 

 division of the Roman territories, Cyprus continued 

 subject to the Eastern empire, and was ruled by its 

 own governors of royal blood, of whom Comnenusl. 

 made himself independent, and his family sat upon 

 the throne till 1191, when Richard of England re- 

 warded the. family of Lusignan with the sceptre. 

 After the extinction of the legitimate male line of 

 Lusignan, James, an illegitimate descendant, came to 

 the government. His wife was a Venetian (Catharine 

 Cornaro, q. v.), and, as she had no children at his 

 death, the Venetians took advantage of this circum- 

 stance to make themselves masters of the island 

 (1473). They enjoyed the undisturbed possession of 

 it till 1571, when Amurath III., notwithstanding the 

 bravest resistance on the part of Marco Antonio Bra- 

 gadino, who defended Famagusta eleven months, 

 conquered Cyprus, and joined it to the empire of 

 Turkey. Nicosia, the chief city, is the seat of the 

 Turkish governor, a Greek archbishop, and an Ar- 

 menian bishop. The wines of Cyprus are red when 



they first come from the press ; but after five or six 

 years, they grow pale. Only the Muscatel wine is 

 white at first; and even this, as it grows older, be- 

 comes redder, till, after a few years, it attains the 

 thickness of simp. It is very sweet. The wines of 

 Cyprus are not equally agreeable at all seasons of the 

 year ; they are best in spring and summer. Exces- 

 sive cold injures them, and destroys their flavour and 

 colour. They are put up at first in leather bags 

 covered with pitch, whence they acquire a strong 

 pitchy flavour, which is several years in escaping. 

 They are brought to the continent in casks, but can- 

 not be kept unless drawn off after some time into 

 bottles. The best is distinguished by the name of 

 Commandery. See Venus. 



CYR, ST ; a French village in the department of 

 the Seine-and-Oise, one league west of Versailles 

 (population, 1000), famous for the seminary which 

 Louis XIV. founded here, at the persuasion of ma- 

 dame Maintenon, in 1686. Here 250 noble ladies 

 were educated, free of expense, until their twentieth 

 year. Forty females of the order of St Augustine 

 instructed the scholars. Madame Maintenon gave 

 all her attention to this establishment. She is buried 

 at St Cyr. During the Revolution, this institution 

 was overturned, and a military preparatory school 

 was founded by Napoleon, which survived his fall, 

 and educates 300 pupils. Napoleon established la 

 maison imperiale d'Ecouen, an institution similar to 

 the one at St Cyr., and placed madame Campan at 

 the head of it. 



CYRENAICA (originally a Phoenician colony), 

 once a powerful Greek state in the north of Africa, 

 west of Egypt, comprising five cities (Pentapolis), 

 among which was Cyrene, a Spartan colony, is at 

 present a vast, but unexplored field of antiquities. 

 The ancient site of Cyrene is now caHed Grenne or 

 Cayron, in the country of Barca, in the dominion of 

 Tripoli. Till the fifth century, Cyrenaica was the 

 seat of the Gnostics, (q. v.) The antiquities there 

 are described by the physician P. Delia Cella, in his 

 work f'iaggio da Tripoli di Barbarie alle Frontieri 

 Occidentali delV Egitto, Jatto nel 1817 (Genoa, 1819, 

 8vo). J. R. Pacho, who has travelled over Africa 

 since 1819, made many observations, likewise, in 

 Cyrenaica, for which he received the geographical 

 prize of 3000 francs, on his return to Paris, in 1826. 

 (Voyage de M. Pacho dans la Cyrenatque.) Of the 

 famous inscription found among the ruins of Cyrene, 

 and brought to Malta, some account has been given 

 by Gesenius (Halle, 1825, 4to), and Ham icker, pro- 

 fessor at Leyden (Leyden, 1825, 4to). At present, 

 the country is called, by the Arabians, Djebel Akhdar, 

 or Green Highland. Surrounded by sterile and dry 

 countries, Cyrenaica itself is very fertile and well 

 watered. Its hills are covered with wood, and ex- 

 hibit many melancholy traces of former cultivation. 

 In ancient times, the inhabitants suffered much from 

 the attacks of the people of the interior and the Car- 

 thaginians. The ruins of Cyrene have given rise 

 among the present inhabitants, to a belief in a petri- 

 fied city. There are at present about 40,000 people 

 in Djebel Akhdar. 



CYRENAICS ; a philosophical sect, whose founder 

 was A ristippus, born in Cyrene, a pupil of Socrates. 

 (See Aristippus.) The most distinguished of his 

 followers were Hegesias, Anniceris, Theodore the 

 Atheist, who, for his denial of the existence of virtue 

 and the Deity, was banished from Athens. 



CYRENE, See Cyrenaica. 



CYRIL. Ecclesiastical history mentions three 

 saints of this name. 



1. Cyril of Jerusalem, born there about the year 

 315, was ordained presbyter in 345, and, after the 

 death of St Maximus, in 350, became patriarch of 

 2o 



