ROMAN PERIOD

ROMAN PERIOD (58 B.C.-A.D. 395) History of Cyprus

Pretexts for aggression are frequently frivolous, and contrive to obscure real causes. In this case the build up of the Roman Empire, and her rather uncharacteristic acquisition of sea power for use in the Carthaginian Wars, had led to recognition of the strategic importance of Cyprus a role which the island has never been able to relinquish. The situation is best described by Strabo : Now the Cypriots were first ruled in their several cities by kings, but since the Ptolemaic kings became lords over Egypt, Cyprus too passed to them, the Romans also contributing often their help. But when the last Ptolemy who reigned, a brother of the father of Cleopatra, the queen of our time, seemed both unsatisfactory and unthankful to his benefactors, he was deposed therefore, and the Romans occupied the island, and it became a separate imperial province. The king's ruin was chiefly due to Publius Claudius Pulcher. He fell into the hands of pirates, the Cilicians being then very active, and requiring a ransom he applied to the king, begging him to send and ransom him. He sent a very small sum [believed to have been two talents, about £500] so that the very pirates were ashamed to take it. They sent it back and released Publius without a ransom. When he was safe he bore in mind against both their favours, and becoming tribune grew so powerful that Marcus Cato (grandson of Cato the Censor) was sent to take Cyprus from its ruler. Ptolemy indeed succeeded in killing himself, but Cato swooped down and seized Cyprus, and disposed of the royal property and carried off the money to the common treasury of the Romans. From that date the island became an imperial province, as it is today. For a short interval Antony gave it to Cleopatra and her sister Arsinoe, but when he fell all his arrangements fell with him. Ptolemy was in fact offered the high priesthood of Paphos, but preferred death. The royal treasure of Salamis, which amounted to something like £1,700,000, was taken to Rome by Cato in person, where it arrived at an opportune moment for the replenishment of the imperial coffers. Cato desired to retain only the statue of Zeno the Philosopher (p. 215) and refused all other reward. He remained in the island two years, during which time Cyprus was reorganized as a part of the province of Cilicia. In 52 B.C. the orator Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.) was appointed governor of Cilicia, and when he discovered that Cyprus was being administered harshly and crippled by taxation he made liberal fiscal reforms. During the reign of Augustus, in 27 B.C., Cyprus was separated from Cilicia and became an imperial province under a military governor. The country was adjudged so peaceful as to require no garrison. A list of the Roman proconsuls, who ruled from Paphos, has been compiled by Dr Hogarth in an appendix to his Devia Cypria. The imperial finances were reorganized under Augustus Caesar, and for the first time money was forthcoming for large scale public works in the provinces. Cyprus benefited in the form of harbour works, roads, bridges and aqueducts. The island grew prosperous by exporting wine, oil, corn and metals. In A.D. 45 one Sergius Paulus was proconsul of Cyprus and resident at Paphos. The two missionaries, Paul and Barnabas, appeared before him and pitted the strength of their faith and logic against the sorceries of a magician of the name of Elymas, leading to the distinguished proconsul's conversion, and to the firm establishment of Christian belief in the island of Cyprus. The return of St Barnabas to his native Cyprus in company with his cousin Mark is recounted not in the Acts of the Apostles but in an apocryphal book known as the Acts of Barnabas. This tells how the missionaries landed in the north of the island, but did not enter the city of Lapithos because a festival of idols was taking place there. They travelled through the Troodos Mountains, where they ordained Heracleidus as Bishop of Cyprus. But at Old Paphos, Curium, Amathus and Kitium they were shocked to witness heathen practices, and took ship to Salamis. Here Barnabas was martyred by the Jews. His remains were hidden in a cave, to be dramatically and opportunely rediscovered in A.D. 477. The Jews in Palestine had never taken kindly to Roman rule, nor could they because they were subjected consistently to religious persecution. This pressure had in the past encouraged them to settle in Cyprus, and in A.D. 67, after an unsuccessful revolt which ended three years later with the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple, there occurred an enormous influx of refugees to Cyprus, Cyrene and Egypt. From these countries of asylum they continued armed insurrection against the Romans, which was at all times harshly suppressed. In the case of Salamis alone, the city was partly destroyed, and 250,000 Cypriots are reported to have been killed. In A.D. 117 it was decreed that all Jews should be expelled from the island, and this policy was enforced so strictly that even if a Jew were shipwrecked on the coasts of Cyprus he was immediately slaughtered. The removal of the Jews from Cyprus was the beginning not only of the uninterrupted spread of Christianity in the island but also of a period of great prosperity so much so that the inhabitants earned a reputation for luxury, immorality and sloth. By the third century A.D., however, the Roman Empire had become weakened by plague, war and famine in the provinces, and revenues were depleted and the taxpayers exhausted. In A.D. 327, during the reign of Constantine, his mother the Empress Helena landed in Cyprus on her return voyage from Jerusalem, bringing with her portions of the True Cross, and the Cross of the Penitent Thief. This was a year of great distress and hardship, due to the famine which had followed a period of extreme drought. Not only did the Empress Helena found the Monastery of Stavrovouni as a shrine for the holy relics but she also took steps to alleviate the distress of the people by negotiating exemption from taxation on their behalf. Churches and schools were founded, and the fortunes of the island began to recover. Constantine, who ruled A.D. 324-37, had embraced Christianity, and looked to it to become the power which would hold the Empire together. But the Church was divided, and he therefore convened the Council of Nicosia (A.D. 325) in Asia Minor. The result was the formulation of the Nicosian Creed, which stabilized Christian beliefs. However, the Christian Church of Cyprus, though having no doctrinal differences, claimed independence. In the following decade Cyprus was ravaged by earthquakes, Salamis being the worst affected of its cities. In 334 and 345 it was almost wholly destroyed, and partially submerged by the encroaching sea. In 350 the city was rebuilt in a contracted form, renamed Constantia in honour of Constantine II and established as the metropolitan city of the island. But in spite of the ideals of unity held by Constantine the Great, the Roman Empire was finally divided into two parts in A.D. 364, and Cyprus was in due course assigned to the Eastern Byzantine Empire, which had Constantinople as its capital.

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