A Brief History of Cyprus and its people

The first records of human presence in Cyprus seem to be those of a group who were 'tourists' rather than perma¬nent residents. Tools and butchered animal bones found in a cave on the south coast are dated at about 8500 BC; the bones are thought to be the remains of pygmy hippopota¬mus killed and barbecued on the beach by a group of sea¬farers, who landed briefly on the island.

The earliest traces of per¬manent settlers are sturdy stone beehive house dwellings at the northern tip of the Karpas peninsula and the inland site of Khirokitia in thesouth, which date back at least to 7000 BC.

Hunters and farmers lived in sizeable communities of up to 2,000. They preferred to use vessels ground from stone rather than moulded in clay.

Cyprus people and car hire at Larnaca Airport

By 3500 BC, copper was being mined in the Troodos foothills. Cyprus began to prosper as a trading centre, with goods coming in from Asia, Egypt, Crete, the Pelo¬ponnese and the Aegean is¬lands in exchange for Cypriot pottery, copperware and a much appreciated crop of opium. Many of the old relics and monuments in Cyprus can still be seen today, and the best way to see them is to hire a car from Larnaca Airport.

The monuments are a constant reminder of the island´s turbulent past.To please the varied clientele, Cypriot potters mixed Aegean and Oriental motifs flowers, lions and sphinxes. The island's cross¬roads destiny was already emerging.
After 1600 BC, large num¬bers of fortresses were built around the island, which sug¬gests a period of conflict. Cop per was sent to mighty Egypt as protection money and, in exchange, the Pharoah called the king of Cyprus 'brother'. Upheaval in the Pelopon¬nese caused variously by natural calamities and inva¬sions from the north drove Mycenaean Greeks east across the Mediterranean.

Some, said Homer, went to fight the Trojan Wars. A few settled in Cyprus. From 1200 BC, they established city kingdoms at Enkomi, replaced later by Salamis (near modern Fama-gusta), Kition (now Larnaca), Kourion and Paphos in the south, Soloi and Lapithos in the north. The island acquired the predominantly Greek iden¬tity it was never to relinquish. The Greeks brought new skills in architecture, pottery, fine ivory carving and the copper and iron industries. Temples were erected near smelting workshops, presided over by Aphrodite, goddess of fertility, and Hephaestos, the divine blacksmith.

Cyprus and its past

In the 9th century, Kition, left in ruins by an earthquake, was resettled by Phoenicians from Tyre in Syria. Dedicated to Astarte, Oriental counterpart to Aphrodite, their temple was similar in design to Solomon's Phoenician built temple in Jerusalem. The dynamic coex¬istence of Greek and Oriental communities on Cyprus was reflected by the tombs at Salamis. After being buried like the Greek heroes of the Trojan Wars, with chariot and sacrificial horses and cattle, the dead were festooned with opulent Oriental treasure.

Just as it was to become in modern times a pawn in the conflicts between Greece and Turkey, so Cyprus was caught up in the ancient power struggles of Persia and Greece. The Persian Empire spread across the eastern Mediterra¬nean in the 6th century, annex¬ing Cyprus along with other Greek islands. In 499, Cyprus joined the Ionian Greek revolt but was crushed the following year by the Persian army after heroic resistance, notably dur¬ing the prolonged siege of Paphos.

The Persians supported Phoenician expansion into the valuable inland copper belt. King Evagoras of Salamis countered by consolidating Greek power across the island with backing from the Atheni¬ans. Artistic styles reflected the king's Hellenistic preferences: decorative Attic pottery, Classical sculpture in native Cypriot bronze, terracotta, limestone and as well as marble imported by Athenian émigrés in Salamis.

Persian motifs showed up in the fine¬ly crafted jewellery, and the architecture of massive fortifi¬cations for these troubled times was also clearly Persian. From Alexander to the Caesars and Cyprus car hireIn 333 BC, Alexander the Great ended Persian supremacy in the eastern Mediterranean and placed Cyprus under Macedonian rule, introducing Macedonian coinage and Greek weights and measures. His generals used the island as a battleground for the suc¬cession, destroying Kition, Lapithos, Marion and Kyrenia in the process.

By 299 BC, Ptolemy I emerged the victor and the city kingdoms disap¬peared as Cyprus became part of the Hellenistic state of Egypt. Cyprus car hire is inexpensive and visitors can enjoy the ruins and relics of the island in style and comfort when they hire a car from Larnaca Airport.

The Ptolemies ruled for 250 years until the Romans, on a pretext that the island was harbouring pirates threat¬ening their interests, annexed it to their province of Cilicia (southern coast of modern Turkey). While in Egypt in 48 BC, Julius Caesar made a present of the island to Cleopatra, last illustrious member of the Ptolemy dynasty.

After her suicide, Augustus took it back for the Roman Empire. He let his vassal, King Herod of Judaea, farm out the Cypriot copper concession to Jewish entrepreneurs and this led to the only disruption in 300 years of Pax Romana. In AD 116, Jewish revolts spread from Egypt and Libya to Cyprus. No Roman troops were kept in what had become a tranquil backwater and the Jews went on a murderous rampage until an army arrived under Libyan general Lucius Quietus and exterminated the whole community.

The Byzantine Era Despite the apostle Paul's mission to Cyprus in AD 45, Paphos led the resolutely Hellenistic islanders in the cults of Aphrodite and, with the growth of highly prized vineyards, the wille god Dionysos. Only in the 4th century, as Christianity took a hold on the Roman leadership, did churches and monasteries begin to spring up across Cyprus. In 330, the year that Constantinople became the imperial capital, the Christian Empress Helena is said to have visited the island and founded the great Stavrovouni monas¬tery with a piece of the True Cross as its most cherished relic.

Also around this time, the church won more friends when a special breed of cats reared at St Nicholas monas¬tery on the Akrotiri peninsula rid the island of a plague of snakes.

Paphos Earthquakes Cyprus

Earthquakes levelled Paphos in 332 and Salamis 10 years later. The latter was rebuilt and made the capital under the new name of Constantia. Priests wielded consider¬able power over everyday life, defending peasants against grasping tax collectors, but also demanding unquestioning allegiance. In a prolonged power struggle with the Patriarch of Antioch (Syria), in 488 the Archbishop of Cyprus gained undisputed control over the island's spiri¬tual affairs. He won Emperor Zeno over to his cause by presenting him with the origi¬nal manuscript of Matthew's gospel discovered in the tomb of Barnabas, founder of the Church of Cyprus. The arch¬bishop was henceforth autho¬rized to carry a sceptre rather than pastoral staff and sign his name in imperial purple ink.