Transcript History of Cyprus Lecture 5

COLLEGE - LIMASSOL
Business Administration
History of Cyprus
Lecture 5
Topics
 Roman Era (58 B.C.-Mid-4th centurY A.D)
 The Byzantine Era
 First Byzantine period (4th -7th century A.D.)
 The period of Arab raids (7th-10th century A.D.)
 Main Byzantine Period (10th-12th century A.D.)
Roman Era
 After the conquest of Greece, the Romans turned
their attention to Egypt and Cyprus.
 They often interfered in the domestic affairs of
both.
 The reasons of conquering Cyprus were political,
military and economical.
 The Romans needed Ptolemy’s treasures due to the
economic crisis of the Roman state.
Roman Era
 In the case of Cyprus a truly unimportant excuse
was provided by Puplius Claudius the Beautiful, a
political friend of Julius Caesar.
Roman Era
 He was captured by pirates who asked for 50
talants in order to release him.
 The king of Cyprus Ptolemy Auletes, refused to
lend Claudius the money when requested by him
to do so.
Roman Era
 After his eventual liberation, Claudius became the
Tribune of Rome and managed to extract a vote
from the Senate, declaring Cyprus a Roman
district.
 Enforcement of the decision was entrusted to
Marcus Porcius Cato, who captured the island
without meeting any serious resistance in 58 B.C.
Ptolemies’ wealth goes to Rome
 Cato confiscated the entire property of Ptolemy,
who had in the meantime committed suicide.
 It brought a total of seven thousand talants, and
this sum went into the state coffers of Rome.
 Cato also took to Rome with him a large number of
slaves, as well as a statue of Zeno of Kition .
The first governors
 As a province, Cyprus was joined to Cilicia which
was captured by Rome in 103 B.C., and the island
was administered by local governors appointed by
the proconsuls.
 The first such governors were only interested in
making more money.
The first governors
 There is a reference to Salamis, was granted a loan
with an interest of 48 percent, instead of the legal
12 percent and it became necessary for Cicero, who
was appointed proconsul in 51 B.C., to intervene
and stave off a calamity facing the senators who
had signed for the loan.
 Cicero was the first such proconsul to show a
protective interest for the Cypriots.
A mid-first century AD bust of Cicero in the Capitoline Museums,
Rome
Octavian Augustus and the rise of Paphos
 When Octavian Augustus became emperor of
Rome, Cyprus was subdivided into four districtsSalamis, Paphos, Amathus and Lapithos.
 This division remained in force into the times of
Byzantium.
 Under Augustus, Paphos gained much
prominence, fame, as well as wealth.
Octavian Augustus and the rise of Paphos
 When the city was destroyed by earthquake in17 or
15 B.C., Augustus showed a great interest in it and
even provided monetary aid for the citizens and
gave the city the name of ‘‘Sevasti’’.
Octavian Augustus 1st century
The Jewish rebellion
 The Jewish rebellion in 116 A.D. took place when
Trajan was emperor of Rome.
 There was a great number of Jews on the island,
and the Roman entrusted them with the operation
of the mines.
The Jewish rebellion
 It is recorded that in 12 B.C. Augustus, had granted
King Herod the privilege of exporting half the
production from Soloi mines for a price of 300
talants.
 The Jewish revolution was directed by Artemion
and it is said that some 240 thousand Jews and
Cypriots died in it.
Marble bust of Trajan
Attack by the Goths
 The raids by Goths against Roman provinces,
including Cyprus, around 269 A.D., must be
considered of special significance.
 It is on record that the Goths in Cyprus fell
victims to various diseases, and they were forced
to abandon the island before causing any serious
damage.
The Kalokairos revolution
 When Constantine the Great remained the sole
Emperor of Byzantium, after his great victory over
Licinius, the second Emperor, and Masxentius
outside Rome, he sent Kalokairos to Cyprus as
Governor.
 He helped the island overcome the privations and
misery caused by earthquakes and long droughts.
The Kalokairos revolution
 There is also a legend that he imported to Cyprus
large numbers of cats of a special breed to combat
the vipers which had greatly multiplied because of
the long droughts.
 It is said that Cavo Gata, the cape of cats, got it’s
name from that time, because the cats were
released on that cape.
The Kalokairos revolution
 He is also credited with the construction of the
Monastery of Saint Nicholas of the Cats on the said
cape.
 Kalokairos, however, wanted to take Cyprus out
of the Roman Empire for his own interests, and this
forced Constantine to send his nephew Dalmatius,
who suppressed the revolution in 333 A.D.
Constantine the Great
Bronze statue of Constantine I inYork, England, near the spot
where he was proclaimed Augustus in 306
The great drought and Saint
Helen
 A very long drought preceded earthquakes and
some historians say it lasted for 17, and others 36
years.
 Legend connects the end of the drought with the
arrival on the island of Saint Helene in 327 A.D., on
her return from the Holy Land, where she had
discovered the Holy Cross.
The great drought and Saint
Helen
 Saint Helena showed a great interest and
compassion in the island and in her desire to help
the people, she built the Monastery of Stavrovouni
to which she donated a piece of the Holy Cross.
 According to the legend and because of this act,
the heavens did open up with torrential rains.
Saint Helen
Koinon Kyprion
 The ‘‘Koinon Kyprion’’ (Confederacy of Cyprus)
represented all Cypriots, as a political and religious
entity which, since the reign of Emperor Claudius
in 44 A.D., was given the right to mint its own
coins in copper with the inscription ‘‘Koinon
Kyprion’’.
 A large number of such coins are still in existence.
Coin with the inscription
‘‘Koinon Kyprion’’
The Byzantine Period
 Cyprus remained as part of the Roman Empire
until 395 A.D., when Theodosius the Great died
and the Roman empire was divided into a Western
state with Roman as it’s capital, and an Eastern
state with Byzantium as its capital.
The Byzantine Period
 Honorius, son of Theodosius was the emperor in
Rome, and Arcadius became the Emperor of
Byzantium.
 Cyprus came under the Eastern Byzantine state
and this helped in preserving it’s Hellenic
character.
This also gave rise to the Byzantine period of
Cypriot history.
Justinian’s interest
 After the Kalokairos revolt, Cyprus lived in peace
for two centuries.
 Once again it prospered thanks to the personal
interest of the Byzantine emperors.
 It is on record that Justinian the Great built the
‘‘poor-house of Agios Konon’’ and also repaired the
aqueduct which carried water from Kythrea to
Salamis, or Constantia.
Justinian’s interest
 The same emperor also introduced silk worm
cultivation to the island, and thus made
production of silk one of the island’s most
flourishing industries.
 The very same interest continued by Emperor
Heraklios.
Emperor Justinian
Abu Bekr a possible raid
 During this period Cyprus was truly ravaged and
destroyed by Saracens.
 The people had to abandoned the island and were
seeking for shelter elsewhere.
 The first raid is mentioned in 632 A.D., when Abu
Bekr, the father in law of Prophet Mohammed
plundered the island in a raid of piracy.
The Muawiyah raid
 Muawiyah, the Emir of Syria, raided the island
with a fleet of 700 ships.
 With this powerful armada he captured Cyprus
ransacking it of all treasure, and put the
inhabitants to the sword.
The Muawiyah raid

Six years later, in 653 A.D. he once again raided
the island which, he captured and destroyed.
 On leaving the island he left an army of 12
thousand men behind.
Raids by Walid and by Harun al
Rashid
 Saracen raids against the island were repeated in
744 A.D. under Walid the 2nd , and again in 806
A.D. under Caliph Harun al Rashid.
 After ransacking the island they burnt all the
churches.
 He also took with him sixteen thousand prisoners
whom he sold as slaves in Syria.
An end to the raids
 From 960 A.D. Emperor Romanos the Second put
into effect the so-called extermination.
 He was assisted by General Nikiforos Fokas.
 Nikiforos Fokas focused his attention on the Arabs
in Asia Minor.
An end to the raids
 He fought them, even after he became Emperor of
Byzantium in 963 A.D., and their defeat and the
cleansing of Asia Minor was completed by 965 A.D.
 Then he landed in Cyprus, liberating the island
from Saracen influence once and for all.
An end to the raids
 This put an end to the island’s lengthy tragedy
under the Saracens, the decimation of its
population and to the destruction of grand
monuments .
Nikiforos Fokas
Cyprus as a subject of the
Byzantine Empire
 Emperor Basil the First of Macedon, 867-886
A.D., implemented administrative changes.
 He proclaimed Cyprus a subject of the empire and
appointed General Alexios as governor of the
island.
 He did administer the island in a just and fatherly
manner for seven years, and his policy was pursued
by his successors who took a special care of
Cyprus.
Cyprus as a subject of the Byzantine
Empire
 Nearly an entire century passed without any new
mention of Saracen raids of any large scale.
 This was a sufficiently long interval to permit the
recuperation of Cyprus from past scars.
Emperor Basil the First of
Macedon
References
Cleanthis, P. Georgiades, History of Cyprus, 2nd
Edition 1993.