The harsh local terrain made agriculture difficult, but like other towns along the coast, it thrived on the production of royal purple (or Tyrian dye).

Aperlae, which is written in the text of Claudius Ptolemy Aperrae, and in Pliny Apyrae, is proved to be a genuine name by an inscription found by Cockerell, at the head of Hassar bay, with the ethnic name Ἀπερλειτων on it.

[1] With the start of the Muslim conquests, security of the coast failed and Aperlae was abandoned due to the threat of pirate raids and Arab corsairs.

Though with the evidence of some late repairs on a church suggest that there was possibly a small settlement of squatters or stragglers after it was left, Aperlae was never rebuilt and resettled.

No longer a residential bishopric, Aperlae is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see,[3] as the diocese was nominally restored in 1933, the curiate Italian name version being Aperle.