Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 2.djvu/124

 iO2 HISTORY OF ART IN PHOENICIA AND ITS DEPENDENCIES. possessor of one of the oldest shrines of the Oriental Aphrodite, a town lying but a few hours distance from that Kition which was the cradle and centre of the Phoenician influence, was thoroughly Greek both in race and language. From this we may guess how slight the Phoenician element really was, even at the time when Cyprus was most completely dependent on the military power of Persia." 1 The conquest of Asia and destruction of the Persian Empire by Alexander would seem at first sight to have broken the bonds which attached Cyprus to the eastern world, but there is evidence that they were soon re-united. The possession of Cyprus was disputed for a time between Antigonus and Demetrius on the one hand, and Ptolemy Soter on the other. From the year 295 onward, it remained with Egypt in spite of certain attempts on the part of the Seleucidse to regain it for Syria. To make sure of their conquest the Ptolemies gave it a new form of government. They suppressed the ancient local powers and confided Cyprus to a kind of viceroy who is called, in the inscriptions, General, Admiral, and High-Priest. He had a considerable force of soldiers at his disposal. As the Egyptian monarchy decayed Cyprus became more than once a kind of separate kingdom and an appanage of some junior member of the Ptolemaic house. She was in that position when, in the fifty-ninth year before Christ, she was brought within the Roman power by Clodius, the famous tribune and enemy of Cicero. Cato was sent to take possession without either soldiers or ships of war, so little were the Cypriots thought capable of resistance to a more energetic race. Cato realized nearly seven thousand talents, or about sixteen hundred thousand pounds sterling, by the sale of treasure belonging to the last of the Cypriot kings ; this he despatched to Rome, united for a moment to Egypt through Antony's passion for Cleopatra. Cyprus was included by Augustus in the provinces he left to the government of the Senate ; by that body its administration was confided to a pro-consul. All antiquity is unanimous as to the soft, effeminate and dissolute mode of life of the Cypriots. 2 To this the copious fertility of the 1 HEUZEV, Catalogue, p. 123. The plaque from Dali is now in the De Luynes Collection in the French National Library. '' ATHEN^EUS gives us some strange details as to the refinements of luxury and sensuality practised in the courts of the petty princes of Cyprus; he borrows them