CIRELLA. - It corresponds to C. Vecchia, of which ruins remain on the Tyrrhenian coast, a little south of the mouth of the Lao. It was a city of Brutium, on the extreme north-western border of Calabria with Lucaia. The Tabula pentingeriana mentions it as 8,000 paces from Lavinium, and Barrio places it 7,000 from the Lao. It was destroyed by Hannibal during the Second Punic War and rebuilt by the Romans. In the Middle Ages it gave way to the present-day C.
A legend attributes the establishment of its bishopric to St Peter. But St Gregory the Great writes nothing on this subject, although he mentions almost all the dioceses of Brutium. Only in 649 does a Romanus Cerillitanus episcopus subscribe to the Lateran Synod of Pope St Martin I. This is followed by a period of absolute silence. It is therefore more than probable that C., like Turio, Tempsa, and other ancient cities of the Calabrian coast, was destroyed by some raid in the second half of the 7th century.