Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/784

Rh 748 C YPEUS which was in ancient times one of the productions for which the island was noted, is still made in large quantities, and there are extensive salt works in the neighbourhood of Larnaca and Limasol. Vegetable Products. Cyprus was noted among the ancients for its fertility and beauty; and under the Venetian rule it carried on an extensive trade in its various natural productions ; but this has greatly declined in modern times. Besides corn, however, the island exports considerable quantities of wine, oil, madder, the fruit of the carob tree, silk, and wool. Tobacco and cotton are also grown in small quantities, and their cultivation might doubtless be largely increased. The small plains at the foot of the range of Mount Olympus, between the underfalls of the mountains and the sea, as well as the narrow strip of level land along the north coast, though limited in extent, are districts of great fertility ; the latter especially is described by Colonel Leake as one of the most beautiful and best cultivated districts in Turkey. The great central plain, on the contrary, is in many parts marshy and unhealthy ; and indeed the whole interior of the island suffers much from unhealthiness, and is subject to fevers of a peculiarly dangerous description. Harbours. One of the greatest disadvantages of Cyprus is the want of ports, there not being a good natural harbour in the whole island. Larnaca and Limasol, which are the chief places of trade at the present day, have nothing but mere roadsteads ; and Salamis, which was the chief port of the island in antiquity, as well as Famagosta, which held that position under the Venetians, were only artificial har bours upon an open sandy coast. Tzerinia, on the north coast, which serves as the place of direct communication with the mainland of Asia Minor, has a very small and bad port, which, bad as it is, is the only one on this side of the island. Toivns. The only towns in Cyprus worthy of notice are the following. 1. Lefkosia, or, as it is more commonly called, Nicosia, has since the time of the Lusignan kings been the capital of the island. 2. Famagosta, on the east coast, near the ruins of Salamis, also first rose to importance under the Lusignan dynasty, by whom it was fortified, and continued under the Venetians to be the chief port, as well as the strongest fortress in the island. It became celebrated by its heroic defence against the Turks in 1571. It still retains its external walls, but is a very poor and decayed place, with only a few hundred inhabi tants. 3. Laruaca, on the south-east coast, on the sita of the ancient Citium, is now the chief place of trade, and the most rising and flourishing town in the island. It con tains from 5000 to 6000 inhabitants, and consists of two portions the old town, a short distance inland, and the Marina, immediately facing the sea, where the foreign con suls reside, and foreign steamers touch, which gives a degree of life and activity to the place unknown to the rest of Cyprus. Recent excavations have discovered here many interesting remains of the ancient city of Citium. 4. Limasol, on the south coast, some miles west of the site of Amathus, is still a place of considerable trade, though partially eclipsed by the rising prosperity of Larnaca. It is the principal place of export of the wines of Cyprus, which enjoy a high reputation throughout the Levant. 5. Baffo, or Papho, on the site of the ancient Paphos, called for distinction s sake New Paphos, at tho south-west angle of the island, has a small but insecure port, and is a very small place, though still the seat of a Greek bishop. 6. Tzerini or Tzerinia (the ancient Kerynea) has been already mentioned. It retains its old Venetian fortifications, and has therefore still the air of a town, but is a very inconsider able place. The population of the island, which is said to have amounted under the Venetians to not less than 1,000,000 (probably, however, a great exaggeration), is now estimated at about 135,000 souls, of whom about two-thirds are Greeks, the rest principally Turks. History. The early history of Cyprus is very obscure and imperfectly known. It is certain, indeed, that it was colonized at a very early period by the neighbouring Phoenicians, who introduced the worship of the goddess Ashtaroth (called by the Greeks Astarte, and identified by them with their own Aphrodite), for which the island always continued to be celebrated in ancient times. But nothing is historically known of the period or extent of these Phoenician settlements. Equally uncertain is the history of the Greek colonies in the island, which are found in historical times existing side by side with the Phoenicians. Their foundation was ascribed by popular legend and tradition to the heroic ages Salamis, for instance, being supposed to have been founded by Teucer, the brother of Ajax but there can be little doubt that they were in reality posterior to the Phoenicians. Of the relations between the two we know little, except from conjecture or inference ; but it seems probable that the Greeks gradually established a political supremacy-, while the Phoenicians continued to form an important element in the population, and exercised an influence over the manners and customs, arts and religious rites of the inhabitants in general, wholly different from anything found in Crete, Rhodes, or the other islands of the ^Egean. The first positive fact in the history of Cyprus is its conquest by the Egyptian king Amasis in the 6th century B.C. (Herodot., ii. 182). It did not, however, long continue subject to the Egyptian monarchy, having revolted on occasion of the invasion of Egypt by Cambyses (525 B.C.), when it declared in favour of the Persians, and became thenceforth a tributary province of the Persian empire. On occasion of the Ionian revolt in 500 B.C. the Cyprians, were persuaded to take part in the insurrection, but after a year s interval were again reduced to subjection, and contributed a contingent of not less than 150 ships to the Persian fleet under Xerxes (Herod., vii. 90) a striking proof of the power and prosperity they at this time possessed. During the subsequent wars between the Greeks and Persians Cyprus was frequently the scene of hostilities; and after the peace of Antalcidas (387 B.C.), Evagoras, king of Salamis, succeeded in extending 1m authority over the greater part of the island, as well as in rendering himself independent of the Persian monarch. This state of things, however, did not last long ; and after the death of Nicocles, the son and successor of Evagoras, the island again became tributary to the Persian empire. But after the battle of Issus, when Alexander advanced into Phoenicia, all the cities of Cyprus declared in his favour, and sent their fleets to assist him in the siege of Tyre. During this period, though the island was subject, with brief intervals, to Persia, the several cities enjoyed the privi lege of local self-government. Their institutions, however, presented one marked difference from those of other Greek cities, that they were always governed by kings, of whom there were not less than nine in the island. The cities which were the seats of these petty monarchies were : 1. Salamis, on the east coast, the most important of the Grtek colonies, which often held a kind of supremacy over the whole island ; 2. Citium, on the same site as the modern Larnaca, originally a Phrenician settlement, and which always retained a predominant Phoenician character, and became only partially Hellenized ; 3. Amathus, on the south coast, near Limasol, also a Phoenician colony ; 4. Curium, some miles further west, at a spot now called Episkopi ; 5. Paphos, at the south-west angle of the