CIRENE. - The ancient and most important city of Cirenaica, from which the region took its name, situated on the edge of the plateau 622 m. above the sea and 16 km. from the coast.
Different legends concerning the origin of C., reported by Herodotus (IV, 164), agree in attributing its foundation to a Dorian colony of Terei between 650 and 640. From the third century B.C. it remained, save for brief interruptions, under the rule of the Ptolemies, until the Roman period. From the time of Tolomeo I Sotere, numerous Jews settled there (Fl. Giuseppe, Antiq. Ind., XIV, 7, 2; XVI, 6, 15; Bell. Ind., II, 14, 6; I Mach. 15, 23).
The historian Giasone (II Mach. 2, 23), and later Simone (Mt. 27, 32; Mc. 15, 21), compelled to carry the cross of Jesus, were from C. At the first Christian Pentecost, Jews from Cirenaica were present at Peter’s address (Act. 2, 10); they possessed their own synagogue in Jerusalem, whose members took part in the condemnation and martyrdom of St. Stefano (Act. 6, 9). Some converted Hellenistic Jews, “Cypriots and Cyreneans,” who had escaped the persecution that broke out after the death of St. Stefano, evangelized Greek pagans in Antioch (Act. 11, 20), among whose community Lucio il Cireneo was a distinguished member. Later C. also had its martyrs; Sinesio (v.) it was invaded by the barbarian Maceti and Ausuriani, until in 642 it fell under Arab rule.