C Y R 
iire and ph'ilofophy are Angularly blended. He wrote, 
in tire fame ftyle, a Comic Hiftory of the States and Em¬ 
pires of the Sun. He alfo publifhed Letters, Dif- 
courfes, and a Fragment of Phyfics. His pieces abound 
in points and equivoques; according to the manner of 
the age. 
CYRBA'SIA, f. Properly the tiara or cap worn by 
the Perfian monarch?. Hippocrates ufes this word in 
his Treatife of the Difeafes of Women, for a covering 
which he directs for the breads. 
CYRENA'ICA, an ancient kingdom of Africa, corre’ 
fponding to the prefent kingdom and defert of Barca 
and Tripoli. It was originally inhabited by barbarous 
nations, hnd gangs of robbers. Afterwards fonte colo¬ 
nies from Greece fettled here, and Cyrenaica became fo 
powerful, that it waged war with Egypt and Carthage, 
often with fuccefs. In the time of Darius Hyftafpes, 
Arcefilaus, the reigning prince in Cyrenaica^ was driven 
from the throne : on which his mother, Pheretima, ap¬ 
plied for afliftance to the king of Cyprus. Her foil af¬ 
terwards returning to Barca, the chief city of. Cyrene, 
was there affaflinated, together with his father-in-law. 
Pheretima, finding herfelf difappointed by the king of 
Cyprus, applied to Darius Hyftafpes, and, by the aflift¬ 
ance of the Perfians, reduced Barca. Here the behaved 
with the utmoft cruelty, caufing all thofe who had 
been concerned in her fon’s death to be impaled, and the 
breads of their wives to be cut ofF, and aflixed near them. 
She is faid to have been devoured by worms, which was 
efteemed a divine judgment for her exceflive cruelty. 
The prifoners, in the mean time,Hwere font to Darius, 
who fettled them in a diftriCt of BaCtria, from them 
called Barca. Cyrenaica feems to have remained free 
till the time of Alexander the Great, who conquered it 
with Egypt. Soon after his death the inhabitants reco¬ 
vered their liberty ; but were, in a ftiort time, reduced 
by Ptolemy, king of Egypt. Under thefe kings it re¬ 
mained, till Ptolemy Phyfoon made it over to his foil 
Apian, who, in the 658th year of Rome, left it by will 
to the Romans. The fenate permitted all the cities to 
be governed by their own laws, and this immediately 
filled the country with tyrants, thofe who were moft po¬ 
tent in every city and diftriCt endeavouring to afl’ume the 
fovereignty of the whole. Thus the kingdom was 
thrown into great confufion ; but Lucullus, in fome 
meafure, reftored the public tranquillity on his coming 
thither during the firft Mithridatic war. It was found 
impoflible, however, totally to fupprefs thefe dif- 
turbances, till the country was reduced to the form of a 
Roman province, which happened about twenty years 
after the death of Apian, and foventy-fix before Chrift. 
Upon a revolt, the city of Cyrene was ruined by the Ro¬ 
mans, but they afterwards rebuilt it. In procefs of time 
it fell to the Arabs, and then to the Turks, who are 
the prefent mailers of it. 
CYRENA'ICS, f. a fe6t of ancient philofophers, fo 
called from their founder Ariftippus of Cyrene, a dif- 
ciple of Socrates. The great principle of their doc¬ 
trine was, that the fupreme good of man in this life is 
jileafure ; whereby they not only meant a privation of 
pain, and a tranquillity of mind, but an aflemblage of 
all mental and fenfual pleafures, particularly the laft. 
Cicero makes frequent mention of Ariftippus’s fchool, 
and fpeaks of it as yielding debauchees. Three difoiples 
of Ariftippus, after his death,- divided the fedt into 
three branches, under which divifton it languilhed and 
funk : the firft called the Hegcfiac fchool ; the focond, 
the Annicerian ; and the third, the Tkeodoran; from the 
names of their authors. 
CYRE'NE, the capital of Cyrenaica, and one of the 
cities called Pcntapolis, diftant from Apollonia, its fea- 
port, ten miles, fituated on a plain, of the form of a 
table, according to Strabo : a colony of the Thereans. 
Though they were defeendants of the Lacedaemonians, 
yet they differed from them imtheir turn of mind, ap- 
C Y R 547 
plying themfclves to philofophy; and hence arofe the 
Cyrenaic left, at the head of which was Ariftippus, 
who placed all happinefs in pleafure. The Cyreneans 
were a people much given to aurigation, or the ufe of 
the chariot, from their excellent breed of horfes. Pin¬ 
dar. Strabo. 
CYRE'NE, in fabulous hiftory, the daughter of the 
river Peneus, of whom Apollo became enamoured. He 
carried her to that part of Africa called Cyrenaica, 
where flie brought forth Ariftaeus. jfuJUn. 
CY'RIL, bifhop of Jerufalem, in the fourth century, 
who is alfo honoured with the title of faint, w'as ordained 
prelbyter by Maximus bifhop of Jerufalem, a ftrenuous 
defender of the orthodox doftrine againft the Arians, 
and under him exercifed the office of catechift in that 
church, with great diligence and reputation. It was 
moft probably upon the death of Maximus that he was 
eledted his fuccefior, chiefly through the influence of 
Acacius bifhop of Casfarea ; on which account he was 
at firft fufpedted of an attachment to the femi-arian opi¬ 
nions. He feems, however, foon to have regained his 
credit with them, by the zeal with which he efpoufod 
the Athanalian caufe, in confequence of difputes which 
took place between him and Acacius, relating to the 
prerogatives of their refpedtive fees. But whatever were 
the merits of the queftions between them, Acacius con¬ 
trived to lay fuch a reprefontation of the conduct of 
Cyril before a convention of the Paleftine biftiops, as de¬ 
termined them to depofe him from his dignity, in the 
year 357. Againft their judgment, Cyril appealed to 
that of a more numerous council; but was in the mean 
time obliged to retire to Tarfus, where he met with a 
friendly reception from Sylvanus, the bifhop of that city, 
and was permitted by him to exercife the clerical func¬ 
tions in his diocefe. He was afterwards prefent at a 
fynod held at Melitina, and at the council of Seleucia in 
359, in w hich he had a feat, and was acknowledged to 
be a lawful bifhop. But at a council held at Conftanti- 
nople, in the following year, Acacius fucceeded in pro¬ 
curing his depofition for the focond time. On the accef- 
fton of the emperor J ulian, he was recalled, together with 
other exiled biftiops, and reinftated in his fee, in which 
he continued unmolefted until the reign of the emperor 
Valens. During the reign of that emperor he was a third 
time depofed from his bifhopric, and driven into banifh- 
ment; but reftored upon the acceflion of Theodolius, if 
not before, under the edibt which Valens publifhed not 
long before his death, for the recal of the exiled catholic 
biftiops. The latter part of his life appears to have 
been fpent in peace and tranquillity. He died in the 
year 3S6. There is much obfeurity in the ecclefiaftical 
records, whence the foregoing particulars relative to 
Cyril are extracted. He is celebrated for his learning, 
eloquence, and piety ; but above all, for his zeal in 
maintaining the orthodox doctrines againft the arian and 
femi-arian parties. His writings were numerous ; but 
there are none of them remaining except twenty-three 
catechetical lectures, the productions of his early years, 
and written in a plain and familiar ftyle ; and a (ingle let¬ 
ter to the emperor Conftantius. This letter contains a 
marvellous narration of the appearance of a luminous 
crofs in the heavens over the holy fopulchre, on one of 
the feftival days of Pentecoft ; which we are more wil¬ 
ling to refolve into a credulous mifoonception of fome 
natural phenomenon, than a pious impolition for the 
purpofe of gaining credit to the catholic Caufe. The 
belt edition of Cyril’s works was publifhed at Paris, by 
father Touttee, a beneditiine monk, in Greek and Latin, 
folio, 1720. 
CY'RIL, bifhop of Alexandria in the fifth century, 
who is alfo denominated faint, was the nephew of Theo- 
philus, bifhop of that city, whom he fucceedcd in his 
dignity in the year 412. For a long time before that pe¬ 
riod the biftiops of Alexandria had. acquired very grea,t 
authority and power in the city, and had been accuftomed 
tee 
