Page "Cyrene, Libya" Paragraph 6

Cyrene's chief local export through much of its early history was the medicinal herb silphium, used to induce an abortion ( referred in the medical community to as an abortifacient ); the herb was pictured on most Cyrenian coins.

Silphium was in such demand that it was harvested to extinction ; this, in conjunction with commercial competition from Carthage and Alexandria, resulted in a reduction in the city's trade.

Cyrene, with its port of Apollonia ( Marsa Susa ), remained an important urban center until the earthquake of 262, which damaged the Sanctuary of Demeter and Persephon and destroyed the Library of Celsus.

After the disaster, the emperor Claudius Gothicus restored Cyrene, naming it Claudiopolis, but the restorations were poor and precarious.

Natural catastrophes and a profound economic decline dictated its death, and in 365 another particularly devastating earthquake destroyed its already meager hopes of recovery.

Ammianus Marcellinus described it in the 4th century as a deserted city, and Synesius, a native of Cyrene, described it in the following century as a vast ruin at the mercy of the nomads.

Ultimately, the city fell under Arab conquest in 643, by which time little was left of the opulent Roman cities of Northern Africa ; the ruins of Cyrene are located near the modern village of Shahhat.