voluminously and well on
scientific subjects and secured an extensive medical practice. On the
French occupation of Naples and the proclamation of the Parthenopean
republic (1799), Cirillo, after at first refusing to take part in the
new government, consented to be chosen a representative of the people
and became a member of the legislative commission, of which he was
eventually elected president. On the abandonment of the republic by the
French (June 1799), Cardinal Ruffo and the army of King Ferdinand IV.
returned to Naples, and the Republicans withdrew, ill-armed and
inadequately provisioned, to the forts. After a short siege they
surrendered on honourable terms, life and liberty being guaranteed them
by the signatures of Ruffo, of Foote, and of Micheroux. But the arrival
of Nelson changed the complexion of affairs, and he refused to ratify
the capitulation. Secure under the British flag, Ferdinand and his wife,
Caroline of Austria, showed themselves eager for revenge, and Cirillo
was involved with the other republicans in the vengeance of the royal
family. He asked Lady Hamilton (wife of the British minister to Naples)
to intercede on his behalf, but Nelson wrote in reference to the
petition: "Domenico Cirillo, who had been the king's physician, might
have been saved, but that he chose to play the fool and lie, denying
that he had ever made any speeches against the government, and saying
that he only took care of the poor in the hospitals" (_Nelson and the
Neapolitan Jacobins_, Navy Records Society, 1903). He was condemned and
hanged on the 29th of October 1799. Cirillo, whose favourite study was
botany, and who was recognized as an entomologist by Linnaeus, left many
books, in Latin and Italian, all of them treating of medical and
scientific subjects, and all of little value now. Exception must,
however, be made in favour of the _Virtu morali dell' Asino_, a pleasant
philosophical pamphlet remarkable for its double charm of sense and
style. He introduced many medical innovations into Naples, particularly
inoculation for smallpox.

See C. Giglioli, _Naples in 1799_ (London, 1903); L. Conforti, _Napoli
nel 1799_ (Naples, 1889); C. Tivaroni, _L' Italia durante il dominio
francese_, vol. ii. pp. 179-204. Also under NAPLES; NELSON and
FERDINAND IV. OF NAPLES.

CIRQUE (Lat. _circus_, ring), a French word used in physical geography
to denote a semicircular crater-like amphitheatre at the head of a
valley,