536 



CYPRUS. 



Cyprus, themselves unworthy. A short time after this, Evago- 

 ■* ras was driven from the throne by his nephew Prota- 

 goras ; and under him and his son Nicocreon II. fa- 

 mous for his cruelty, the Cyprians enjoyed indepen- 

 dence, till Artaxerxes Mnemon again subjected them 

 to the Persian yoke. Niocles, who succeeded Nico- 

 creon, was expelled from his country by one Abdymon, 

 a stranger, who had been kindly received and enter- 

 tained by the monarch whose throne he usurped. The 

 son of Niocles, Evagoras II. endowed with every qua- 

 lity of body or of mind that could form him for sove- 

 reignty, rose up to avenge the wrongs of his father, 

 and to vindicate to himself the crown of his ancestors. 

 But whilst he was preparing for the attempt, one of 

 the principal citizens struck the blow, and seized the 

 sceptre of Abdymon, whom he had murdered. But 

 the son of Niocles, returning from exile, roused the 

 Cyprians, who flocked to his standard ; delivered his 

 countrymen from the usurper, under whose cruelty 

 they groaned, and expelled the Persians who endea- 

 voured to support him. Flushed with his success, he 

 attempted to reduce the whole island under his subjec- 

 tion, and almost accomplished his ambitious design. 

 But the Amathusians, Solians, and Citians, who only 

 braved his arms, implored the assistance of the Per- 

 sians; and the Persians, remembering former injuries, 

 promised their aid, made peace with the Greeks, and 

 collected their powers to expel him from his country. 

 Evagoras saw the storm that his ambition had raised, 

 and prepared to arrest it in its course. The Athenians, 

 whom, after their defeat at jEgospotamos, he had pro- 

 tected, the Egyptians, Lybians, Arabians, Tyrians, all 

 who were at war with Persia, he invited to his assist- 

 ance ; and when the fleet of the enemy threatened his 

 shores, and poured upon the island 300,000 men, with 

 Tiribazus at their head, to sweep the interior country, 

 he dared to meet the overwhelming torrent, and entire- 

 ly dissipated its enormous force. But when he attack- 

 ed them by sea, he lost the battle, but not his fame. 

 After performing prodigies of valour, he found himself 

 not only blocked up and besieged in Salamis, but obli- 

 ged to yield up, at the command of Persia, the con- 

 quests which he had made, though he bravely preser- 

 ved the independence of his paternal dominions. Be- 

 ing soon after murdered by Thrasidaeus, one of his 

 eunuchs, his son Niocles II. who succeeded, perform- 

 ed nothing to arrest our attention : but his friendship 

 for Isocrates, who lived during his reign, and experi- 

 enced his bounty, will preserve his name from oblivion. 

 At his death, his son Evagoras III. ascended the 

 throne, but the government was soon wrested from 

 him by his uncle Protagoras, who seized the sceptre, 

 and joining the Egyptians and Phoenicians, attempted 

 to throw off the Persian yoke. In consequence of this, 

 Ochus espoused the cause of the exiled monarch, join- 

 ed his Persians with Phocion, who commanded the 

 Greek mercenaries, made a descent upon the island, 

 and besieged Salamis. But the kings of Cyprus, nine 

 in number at that time, united under Protagoras to 

 vindicate their freedom ; and the king of Persia, meet- 

 ing with greater resistance than he expected, and bent 

 upon the reduction of Egypt, granted their demands, 

 and left Protagm-as in possession of the throne. From 

 this period, the kings of Cyprus seem to have slum- 

 bered in indolence, under the shade of Persia, till 

 Alexander reduced the island to subjection. At his 

 death, it composed part of the kingdom of Antigonus ; 

 but wlulst that prince was engaged in war with Cas- 



sander, Ptolemy, the son of Lag-vis, made a descent 

 upon the island, and forced its kings to yield to his 

 power. At this time, Niocles, who had the chief pow- 

 er amongst those who retained some shadow of royalty 

 in the island, entered into an agreement to assist Anti- 

 gonus to recover it, but being discovered, he slew him- 

 self to avoid thepunishment which Ptolemy had prepared 

 for him ; and his wife, Axiothea, after slaying all her 

 daughters, imitated the example of her husband, lest 

 she should fall into the hands of the enemy, and thus 

 extinguished the royal race of Teucer. To wrest the 

 island from Ptolemy, Demetrius, the son of Antigonus, 

 at the command of his father, collected an army in Ci- 

 licia, landed upon the shores of Cyprus, stormed some 

 of the inferior cities, advanced to form the siege of 

 Salamis ; dissipated, in a fierce battle, the forces of 

 Menelaus, the brother of Ptolemy, who endeavoured 

 to stop his progress ; pursued the vanquished to the 

 gates of Salamis, and invested the city. But hearing 

 that Ptolemy, to support his brother, sailed from Egypt 

 with 140 ships of Avar, 200 transports, and ten thou- 

 sand soldiers, he took the command of his fleet, con- 

 sisting of 108 ships ; gave battle to the enemy, who 

 had reached the coast ; and after a dreadful engage- 

 ment, which was long doubtful, he gained a complete 

 victory. Upon this, the whole island submitted to the 

 conqueror, and his father, Antigonus, assumed the title 

 of king. At his death, the title and authority descend- 

 ed to Demetrius ; but at the end of eleven years, whilst 

 he was engaged in a war with the Athenians and Lace- 

 demonians, Ptolemy landed upon the island, and took 

 possession of the capital, before Demetrius could be in- 

 formed of his design. After it had remained for some 

 time subject to the kings of Egypt, it seems to have 

 been wrested from them by Syria; but if this was 

 really the case, the Egyptians soon recovered it, and 

 kept the possession till the death of Ptolemy Lathurus. 

 At his death, his two sons divided his dominions, and 

 the kingdom of Cyprus fell to Ptolemy. This prince, 

 refusing to advance money to purchase the liberty of 

 Clodius, a Roman nobleman who had been taken by 

 pirates, became the object of his hatred and revenge. 

 After having acquired his liberty, Clodius was elected 

 tribune of the people ; and, prompted by resentment, 

 he procured a decree, which the senate did not oppose, 

 that Ptolemy, by his vices, was unworthy of his throne, 

 and that the kingdom of Cyprus belonged to the Ro- 

 mans. The pretence under which the Romans veil- 

 ed their injustice, was, that Alexander, late King of 

 Egypt, had, at his death, bequeathed his dominions, 

 including Cyprus, to the Romans. This donation, 

 though mentioned at the time, had passed unnoticed on 

 account of its injustice, but was now revived to grati- 

 fy the vengeance of an individual, and the rapacity of 

 the republic. Cato was commissioned to execute this 

 disgraceful decree ; and it deserves to be mentioned, 

 that this person, who has been extolled as the most 

 virtuous of the Romans, performed, without remorse, 

 the iniquitous part which was assigned to him ; took 

 possession of the island without resistance ; and after 

 driving a king, who had been called the friend and 

 ally of the Roman people, to lay violent hands upon 

 himself, seized upon his treasures, amounting to 7000 

 talents, or about £ 1,356/250 sterling, and conveyed 

 them to Rome. Thus, then, in the year 58 B. C. the 

 sovereignty of Cyprus was for ever extinguished, and the 

 island became a part of the Roman empire. The his- 

 tory of Cyprus, since that period, is naturally involv- 

 6 



Cyprus. 



