Cy'prus. An island of Asia, in the Mediterranean. It is about 140 miles long and
50 miles wide at the widest part. Its two chief cities were Salamis, at the
east end of the island, and Paphos, at the west end.
"Cyprus occupies a distinguished place in both sacred and profane
history. It, early, belonged to the Phoenicians of the neighboring coast; was,
afterwards, colonized by Greeks, passed successively under the power of the
Pharaohs, Persians, Ptolemies and Romans, excepting a short period of independence
in the fourth century B.C. It was one of the chief seats of the worship of
Venus, hence, called Cypria. Recently, the discoveries in Cyprus by Cesnola
have excited new interest." -- Appleton's American Encyclopedia.
It was the native place of Barnabas, Act_4:36,
and was visited by Paul. Act_13:4-13; Act_15:39; Act_21:3.
See also Act_27:4.
Source:
Smith’s Bible Dictionary
Cyprus
sī´prus (Κύπρος,
Kúpros):
1. Name
An island situated near the Northeast corner of the Levant, in an angle
formed by the coasts of Cilicia and Syria. In the Old Testament it is called Kittim,
after the name of its Phoenician capital Kition. The identification is
expressly made by Josephus (Ant., I, vi, 1) and by the Cyprian bishop
Epiphanius (Haer., xxx.25). In the tablets from Tell el-Amarna it is
referred to as Alashia (E. Meyer, Gesch. des Alterthums, 12, section
499), in Egyptian records as Asi, while in the Assyrian cuneiform inscriptions
it is named Yavnan.
2. Geography
The island is the largest in the Mediterranean with the exception of
Sardinia and Sicily, its area being about 3,584 square miles. It lies in 34
degrees 30´-35 degrees 41´ North latitude and 32 degrees 15´-34 degrees 36´
East longitude, only 46 miles distant from the nearest point of the Cilician
coast and 60 miles from the Syrian. Thus from the northern shore of the island
the mainland of Asia Minor is clearly visible and Mt. Lebanon can be seen from
Eastern Cyprus. This close proximity to the Cilician and Syrian coasts, as well
as its position on the route between Asia Minor and Egypt, proved of great
importance for the history and civilization of the island. Its greatest length,
including the Northeast promontory, is about 140 miles, its greatest breadth 60
miles. The Southwest portion of Cyprus is formed by a mountain complex,
culminating in the peaks of Troödos (6,406 ft.), Mádhari (5,305 ft.), Papoútsa
(5,124 ft.) and Máchaira (4,674 ft.). To the Northeast of this lies the great
plain of the Mesoréa, nearly 60 miles in length and 10 to 20 in breadth, in
which lies the modern capital Nicosia (Lefkosia). It is watered chiefly by the
Pediaeus (modern Pediás), and is bounded on the North by a mountain
range, which is continued to the East-Northeast in the long, narrow promontory
of the Karpass, terminating in Cape Andrea, the ancient Dinaretum. Its highest
peaks are Buffavénto (3,135 ft.) and Hagios Elías (3,106 ft.). The shore-plain
to the North of these hills is narrow, but remarkably fertile.
3. Products
Cyprus is richly endowed by nature. Its fruits and flowers were famous
in antiquity. Strabo, writing under Augustus, speaks of it as producing wine
and oil in abundance and corn sufficient for the needs of its inhabitants (XIV,
684). The elder Pliny refers to Cyprian salt, alum, gypsum, mica, unguents,
laudanum, storax, resin and precious stones, including agate, jasper, amethyst,
lapis lazuli and several species of rock-crystal. His list includes the diamond
(xxxvii.58) and the emerald (xxxvii.6, 66), but there is reason to believe that
under these names a variety of rock-crystal and the beryl are intended. The
chief source of the island's wealth, however, lay in its mines and forests.
Silver is mentioned by Strabo (loc. cit.) among its products; copper, which was
called by the Greeks after the name of the island, was extensively mined there
from the earliest period down to the Middle Ages; iron too was found in
considerable quantities from the 9th century until Roman times. Scarcely less
important were the forests, which at an early date are said to have covered
almost the whole island. The cypress seems to have been the principal tree, but
Pliny tells of a giant cedar, 130 Roman feet in height, felled in Cyprus
(xvi.203), and the island supplied timber for shipbuilding to many successive
powers.
4. Early History
The original inhabitants of Cyprus appear to have been a race akin to
the peoples of Asia Minor. Its vast resources in copper and timber gained for
it a considerable importance and wide commercial relations at a very remote
period. Its wealth attracted the attention of Babylonia and Egypt, and there is
reason to believe that it was conquered by Sargon I, king of Accad, and about a
millennium later by Thothmes III, of the 18th Egyptian Dynasty (1501-1447 bc).
But the influences which molded its civilization came from other quarters also.
Excavation has shown that in Cyprus were several seats of the Minoan culture,
and there can be little doubt that it was deeply influenced by Crete. The
Minoan writing may well be the source of the curious Cyprian syllabic script,
which continued in use for the representation of the Greek language down to the
4th century bc (A. J. Evans, Scripta Minoa, I). But the Minoan origin of
the Cyprian syllabary is still doubtful, for it may have been derived from the
Hittite hieroglyphs. Phoenician influences too were at work, and the Phoenician
settlements - Citium, Amathus, Paphos and others - go back to a very early
date. The break-up of the Minoan civilization was followed by a “Dark Age,” but
later the island received a number of Greek settlers from Arcadia and other
Hellenic states, as we judge not only from Greek tradition but from the
evidence of the Cyprian dialect, which is closely akin to the Arcadian. In 709
bc Sargon II of Assyria made himself master of Cyprus, and tribute was paid by
its seven princes to him and to his grandson, Esarhaddon (681-667 bc). The
overthrow of the Assyrian Empire probably brought with it the independence of
Cyprus, but it was conquered afresh by Aahmes (Amasis) of Egypt (Herod. ii.
182) who retained it till his death in 526 bc; but in the following year the defeat
of his son and successor Psamtek III (Psammenitus) by Cambyses brought the
island under Persian dominion (Herod. iii.19, 91).
5. Cyprus and the Greeks
In 501 the Greek inhabitants led by Onesilus, brother of the reigning
prince of Salamis, rose in revolt against the Persians, but were decisively
beaten (Herodotus v.104ff), and in 480 we find 150 Cyprian ships in the navy
with which Xerxes attacked Greece (Herod. vii.90). The attempts of Pausanias
and of Cimon to win Cyprus for the Hellenic cause met with but poor success,
and the withdrawal of the Athenian forces from the Levant after their great
naval victory off Salamis in 449 was followed by a strong anti-Hellenic
movement throughout the island led by Abdemon, prince of Citium. In 411
Euagoras ascended the throne of Salamis and set to work to assert Hellenic
influence and to champion Hellenic civilization. He joined with Pharnabazus the
Persian satrap and Conon the Athenian to overthrow the naval power of Sparta at
the battle of Cnidus in 394, and in 387 revolted from the Persians. He was
followed by his son Nicocles, to whom Isocrates addressed the famous panegyric
of Euagoras and who formed the subject of an enThusiastic eulogy by the same
writer. Cyprus seems later to have fallen once again under Persian rule, but
after the battle of Issus (333 bc) it voluntarily gave in its submission to
Alexander the Great and rendered him valuable aid at the siege of Tyre. On his
death (323) it fell to the share of Ptolemy of Egypt. It was, however, seized
by Demetrius Poliorcetes, who defeated Ptolemy in a hotly contested battle off
Salamis in 306. But eleven years later it came into the hands of the Ptolemies
and remained a province of Egypt or a separate but dependent kingdom until the
intervention of Rome (compare 2 Macc 10:13). We hear of a body of Cyprians,
under the command of a certain Crates, serving among the troops of Antiochus
Epiphanes of Syria and forming part of the garrison of Jerusalem about 172 bc
(2 Macc 4:29). This interpretation of the passage seems preferable to that
according to which Crates had been governor of Cyprus under the Ptolemies
before entering the service of Antiochus.
6. Cyprus and Rome
In 58 bc the Romans resolved to incorporate Cyprus in their empire and
Marcus Porcius Cato was entrusted with the task of its annexation. The reigning
prince, a brother of Ptolemy Auletes of Egypt, received the offer of an
honorable retirement as high priest of Aphrodite at Paphos, but he preferred to
end his life by poison, and treasures amounting to some 7,000 talents passed
into Roman hands, together with the island, which was attached to the province
of Cilicia. In the partition of the Roman empire between Senate and Emperor,
Cyprus was at first (27-22 bc) an imperial province (Dio Cassius liii.12),
administered by a legatus Augusti pro praetore or by the imperial legate
of Cilicia. In 22 bc, however, it was handed over to the Senate together with
southern Gaul in exchange for Dalmatia (Dio Cassius liii. 12; liv.4) and was
subsequently governed by ex-praetors bearing the honorary title of proconsul
and residing at Paphos. The names of about a score of these governors are known
to us from ancient authors, inscriptions and coins and will be found in D. G.
Hogarth, Devia Cypria, App. Among them is Sergius Paulus, who was
proconsul at the time of Paul's visit to Paphos in 46 or 47 ad, and we may
notice that the title applied to him by the writer of the Acts (Act_13:7) is strictly accurate.
7. Cyprus and the Jews
The proximity of Cyprus to the Syrian coast rendered it easy of access
from Palestine, and Jews had probably begun to settle there even before the
time of Alexander the Great. Certainly the number of Jewish residents under the
Ptolemies was considerable (1 Macc 15:23; 2 Macc 12:2) and it must have been
increased later when the copper mines of the island were farmed to Herod the
Great (Josephus, Ant, XVI, iv, 5; XIX, xxvi, 28; compare Corpus
Inscriptionum Graecarum, 2628). We shall not be surprised, therefore, to
find that at Salamis there was more than one synagogue at the time of Paul's
visit (Act_13:5). In 116 ad the Jews of
Cyprus rose in revolt and massacred no fewer than 240,000 Gentiles. Hadrian crushed
the rising with great severity and drove all the Jews from the island.
Henceforth no Jew might set foot upon it, even under stress of shipwreck, on
pain of death (Dio Cassius lxviii.32).
8. The Church in Cyprus
In the life of the early church Cyprus played an important part. Among
the Christians who fled from Judea in consequence of the persecution which
followed Stephen's death were some who “travelled as far as Phoenicia, and
Cyprus” (Act_11:19) preaching to the
Jews only. Certain natives of Cyprus and Cyrene took a further momentous step
in preaching at Antioch to the Greeks also (Act_11:20).
Even before this time Joseph Barnabas, a Levite born in Cyprus (Act_4:36), was prominent in the early Christian
community at Jerns, and it was in his native island that he and Paul,
accompanied by Barnabas nephew, John Mark, began their first missionary journey
(Act_13:4). After landing at Salamis
they passed “through the whole island” to Paphos (Act_13:6),
probably visiting the Jewish synagogues in its cities. The Peutinger Table
tells us of two roads from Salamis to Paphos in Roman times, one of which ran
inland by way of TremiThus, Tamassus and Soil, a journey of about 4 days, while
the other and easier route, occupying some 3 days, ran along the south coast by
way of Citium, AmaThus and Curium. Whether the “early disciple,” Mnason of
Cyprus, was one of the converts made at this time or had previously embraced
Christianity we cannot determine (Act_21:16).
Barnabas and Mark revisited Cyprus later (Act_15:39),
but Paul did not again land on the island, though he sighted it when, on his
last journey to jerus, he sailed south of it on his way from Patara in Lycia to
Tyre (Act_21:3), and again when on his
journey to Rome he sailed “under the lee of Cyprus,” that is, along its
northern coast, on the way from Sidon to Myra in Lycia (Act_27:4). In 401 ad the Council of Cyprus was
convened, chiefly in consequence of the efforts of Theophilus of Alexandria,
the inveterate opponent of Origenism, and took measures to check the reading of
Origen's works. The island, which was divided into 13 bishoprics, was declared
autonomous in the 5th century, after the alleged discovery of Matthew's Gospel
in the tomb of Barnabas at Salamis. The bishop of Salamis was made metropolitan
by the emperor Zeno with the title “archbishop of all Cyprus,” and his
successor, who now occupies the see of Nicosia, still enjoys the privilege of
signing his name in red ink and is primate over the three other bishops of the
island, those of Paphos, Kition and Kyrenia, all of whom are of metropolitan
rank.
9. Later History
Cyprus remained in the possession of the Roman and then of the Byzantine
emperors, though twice overrun and temporarily occupied by the Saracens, until
1184, when its ruler, Isaac Comnenus, broke away from Constantinople and
declared himself an independent emperor. From him it was wrested in 1191 by the
Crusaders under Richard I of England, who bestowed it on Guy de Lusignan, the
titular king of Jerusalem, and his descendants. In 1489 it was ceded to the
Venetians by Catherine Cornaro, widow of James II, the last of the Lusignan
kings, and remained in their hands until it was captured by the Ottoman Turks
under Sultan Selim II, who invaded and subjugated the island in 1570 and laid
siege to Famagusta, which, after a heroic defense, capitulated on August 1, 1571.
Since that time Cyprus has formed part of the Turkish empire, in spite of
serious revolts in 1764 and 1823; since 1878, however, it has been occupied and
administered by the British government, subject to an annual payment to the
Sublime Porte of £92,800 and a large quantity of salt. The High Commissioner,
who resides at Nicosia, is assisted by a Legislative Council of 18 members. The
estimated population in 1907 was 249,250, of whom rather more than a fifth were
Moslems and the remainder chiefly members of the Greek Orthodox church.
Literature
An exhaustive bibliography will be found in C. D. Cobham, An Attempt
at a Bibliography of Cyprus, Nicosia, 4th edition, 1900. The following
works may be specially mentioned: E. Oberhummer, Aus Cypern, Berlin, 1890-92;
Studien zur alten Geographic yon Kypros, Munich 1891; A. Sakellarios, Τὰ
Κυπριακά, Athens,
1890-91. References in ancient sources are collected in J. Meursius, Cyprus,
Amsterdam, 1675, and W. Engel, Kypros, Berlin, 1841. For Cyprian
archaeology see P. Gardner, New Chapters in Greek History, chapter vi,
London, 1892; J. L. Myres and M. Ohnefalsch Richter, Catalogue of the Cyprus
Museum, Oxford, 1899; M. O. Richter, Kypros, die Bibel und Homer,
Berlin, 1893; D.G. Hogarth, Devia Cypria, London, 1889; and J. L. Myres'
article on “Cypriote Archaeology” in Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th
edition, VII, 697ff. For excavations, Journal of Hellenic Studies, IX,
XI, XII, XVII, and Excavations in Cyprus, London (British Museum), 1900;
for art, G. Perrot and C. Chipiez, Art in Phoenicia and Cyprus, English
translation, London, 1885; for coins, B. V. Head, Historia Numorum,
Oxford, 1911; for inscriptions, Sammlung der griech. Dialekt-Inschriften,
I, Göttingen, 1883; for the Cyprian church, J. Hackett, History of the Orthodox
Church of Cyprus, London, 1901; for authorities on medieval and modern
history, CL. D. Cobham, Encyclopedia Britannica (11th edition), 11th
edition, VII, 701.
Source:
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Cyprus
One of the largest islands of the Mediterranean - about 148 miles long
and 40 broad. It is distant about 60 miles from the Syrian coast. It was the
“Chittim” of the Old Testament (Num_24:24).
The Greek colonists gave it the name of Kypros, from the cyprus - i.e.,
the henna (see CAMPHIRE) - which grew on this island. It was originally
inhabited by Phoenicians. In 477 B.C. it fell under the dominion of the Greeks;
and became a Roman province 58 B.C.. In ancient times it was a centre of great
commercial activity. Corn and wine and oil were produced here in the greatest
perfection. It was rich also in timber and in mineral wealth.
It is first mentioned in the New Testament (Act_4:36)
as the native place of Barnabas. It was the scene of Paul's first missionary
labours (Act_13:4-13), when he and
Barnabas and John Mark were sent forth by the church of Antioch. It was
afterwards visited by Barnabas and Mark alone (Act_15:39).
Mnason, an “old disciple,” probaly one of the converts of the day of Pentecost
belonging to this island, is mentioned (Act_21:16).
It is also mentioned in connection with the voyages of Paul (Act_21:3; Act_27:4).
After being under the Turks for three hundred years, it was given up to the
British Government in 1878.
Source:
Easton’s Bible Dictionary