CYRENE. There is some mention in the Books of the Old Testament, of another Province called Cyrene, different from that in Africk. Tiglathpilesèr transplanted the Inhabitants 2 Kings xvi. 9. Amos i. 5. Amos ix. 7. Vulg.of Damascus to Cyrene, as the Prophet Amos had foretold about five and twenty years before. Transferetur populus Syriæ Cyrenem. Not certainly into the Country of Cyrene near Egypt, where Tiglath-pilesèr was possessed of nothing, but to Iberia or Albania, where the River Kir or Cyrus runs, which discharges itself into the Caspian Sea. Josephus Antiq. l. ix. c. 12. says, they were transported into upper Media, which falls in with our opinion: For antiently Media was very large.
Amos says, that the Aramæans were originally of Kir. Numquid non ascendere feci Syros (Heb. Aram) de Cyrene? The Prophet intended probably to comprehend under the word Cyr or Kir, the People beyond the Euphrates, and those of Mesopotamia, from whence the Aramæans in reality came, who were descended from Aram the Son of Shem. We have no certain knowledge of their coming in particular out of this Country, where the River Cyrus flows.