Ancient History of Cyprus

The recorded history of Cyprus extends to the 7th century BC. The local town of Kition, now Larnaka, recorded part of the ancient history of Cyprus on a stele that commemorated an Assyrian victory there in 709 BCE. Assyrian domination of Cyprus was short-lived, however, and its city-kingdoms soon gained independence once more. Following a brief period of Egyptian domination in the sixth century BCE, Cyprus fell under Persian rule. The Persians did not interfere in the internal affairs of Cyprus, leaving the city-kingdoms to continue striking their own coins and waging war amongst one another, until the late-fourth century BCE saw the overthrow of the Persian Empire by Alexander the Great.

Alexander's conquests only served to accelerate an already clear drift towards Hellenisation in Cyprus. His premature death in 323 BCE led to a period of turmoil as Ptolemy I Soter and Demetrius I of Macedon fought together for supremacy in that region, but by 294 BCE, the Ptolemaic kingdom had regained control and Cyprus remained under Ptolemaic rule until 58 BCE, when it became a Roman province. During this period, Phoenician and native Cypriot traits disappeared, together with the old Cypriot syllabic script, and Cyprus became thoroughly Hellenised. Cyprus figures prominently in the early history of Christianity, being the first province of Rome to be ruled by a Christian governor, in the first century, and providing a backdrop for stories in the New Testament.