Cyrené

Cyrené, the capital of Cyrenaica (q.v.), founded in 631 B.C., by a colony of Spartans under Battus, whose dynasty ruled for nearly two centuries, and was replaced by a republic, which was far from prosperous, until the Roman rule at length gave it rest from party conflicts. During its prosperity Cyrene carried on a great commerce with Greece and Egypt, and to a less extent with Carthage. Its extensive ruins still attest its former magnificence. It is repeatedly mentioned in the New Testament. Here were born the philosophers Aristippus (q.v., founder of the Cyrenaic School), Anniceris, and Carneades, the poet Callimachus, the astronomer Eratosthenes, and the Christian rhetorician and bishop, Synesius.