CYRENAICS, a sect of ancient philosophers, so called from their founder Aristippus of Cyrene, a disciple of Socrates.
The great principle of their doctrine was, that the supreme good of man in this life is pleasure; by which they not only meant privation of pain, and tranquillity of mind, but an assemblage of all mental and sensual pleasures, particularly the latter.
Cicero makes frequent mention of Aristippus' school, and speaks of it as producing debauchees. Three disciples of Aristippus, after his death, divided the sect into three branches, under which division it languished and sunk; the first called the Hegesiac school, the second the Annicerian, and the third the Theodoran, from the names of their authors.