Cyprus
under Roman Empire
The Imperium
Romannum differed fundamentally from Alexanders [the Great]
empire in its social system, in its government, and as a
geopolitical structure. The main territory and the centre of the
power now lay in the west, while the control over part of the
Near East (which Seleucid empire had already been unable to
hold) was lost forever. Iran, Mesopotamia, and Arabia stayed
outside the Roman Empire; from the first century onwards, they
provided the setting for the Arsacid Parthian Empire, the new
great power in in the East and Romes chief opponent, whose
political successors were to include the Sassanids and, in the
course of time, Islam. The "eastern question",
seemingly resolved through Hellenism, once more came to the
fore.
With the new
border between East and West running along the edge of the
Syrian desert and through the mountains of Armenia, Cyprus again
changed its historic position. During the Hellenistic period,
After Alexander had abolished the threshold between Europe and
Asia, it was a secondary border zone between Egypt and Seleucid
Syria. Now it was placed closer to the centre, amidst the
political calm of Pax Romana.
Terracotta Oil Lamp Cyprus Early 2nd Century AD Shows
the head of a male deity within central discus bounded by
acanthus wreath raised loop handle Excellent detail Length 11cm
However, almost
twenty years of turmoil under the declining republic had to pass
before Cyprus could enjoy the quiet and uneventful existence of
a minor Roman province. Rome had annexed the island in 58 B.C.
under a double pretext. The disputed will of the last legitimate
Ptolemaic ruler had promised Egypt -and thereby Cyprus- to Rome;
at the same time, Cyprus, as a base of piracy in the eastern
Mediterranean, was to lose its autonomy altogether. But the real
reasons behind this scheme were political and economic. After
the annexation of Syria, Cyprus as the only independent
Hellenistic monarchy, represented the last stage in the
encirclement of Egypt; its wealth and its natural resources
further made it almost irresistibly attractive to a government
and an aristocracy permanently in financial straits. Another
important point had to be considered; by `entrusting' M. Porcius
Cato with the official takeover of the island, Clodius Pulcher,
one of Caesars chief followers, had succeeded in removing from
Rome a difficult contender at a critical time.
The fate of the
island, for the time being incorporated in the province of
Cilicia, illustrated the part played by straightforward greed
and financial speculation in the Roman takeover. Like other
provincial territories in the late republic, Cyprus provided
many an opportunity to make or at least recover fortunes.
Ptolemaios, whom Cato offered the position of High Priest of
Aphrodite in place of his former throne, had committed suicide
by poison, and Cato administered the former royal fortune, which
had yielded a revenue of 7,000 talents per year, with the utmost
integrity. Cicero, who was governor of Cyprus 51-50 B.C., though
ostensibly correct, proved himself in the end unable to resist
some unsavoury financial machinations. Otherwise, the island was
ruthlessly exploited by officials and businessmen for the next
ten years. The terms of a `loan' given to the city of Salamis by
a consortium headed by M. Brutus were highly revealing; the
interest fixed at 48%, was collected by Roman cavalry.
During the
Roman civil war, Cyprus resumed a brief romantic role under the
Egyptian crown, when it was returned to Cleopatra, first by
Caesar (47 B.C.) after the end of the Alexandrine war, and again
by Marcus Antonius (36 B.C.). Octavians victory at Actium (31
B.C.) finally brought the island under Roman rule, under which
it was to remain for nearly three centuries.
In the Roman
inland lake, which the Mediterranean had become, Cyprus had
little strategic significance. In 22 B.C. after the general
consolidation in the east, Cyprus exchanged its status from an
[imperial]- i.e. under the direct administration of Augustus (Octavian)
and under military occupation- to a [senatorial] province.
Separated from Cilicia in 27 B.C., Cyprus was ruled by a
pro-consul as civil governor. Its capital was still Paphos,
-Augusta Claudia Flavia Paphos-, which had steadily grown in
importance since the Ptolemies as a political and religious
centre and, as a result of the silting-up of the harbour of
Salamis, one of the major ports. Paphos, Amathus, Salamis, and
Lapethos each formed and administrative region. With municipal
autonomy, elected officials and a considerable degree of
independence in religious and cultural matters, the island
enjoyed greater freedom than under Egyptian rule. The -Koinon-
of the different cities, which was still chiefly an institution
for the advance of the cult of the Emperor and for the
organization of games, like the Roman senate, had the right to
issue bronze coinage.
To Cyprus, the
centuries of the Pax Romana formed an uneventful, though
contended period. a population unused to political independence
or democratic institutions did not find Roman rule oppressive.
The political peace of the island suffered a single interruption
through the great Jewish rising of A.D. 115-6 which affected
Cyprus as it did Cyrenaica and Egypt; the excesses of the rebels
-vastly exaggerated contemporary figures speak of 240,000 dead
on Cyprus alone- were followed by terrible counter measures
under Trajans general Lusius Quietus and by the expulsion of the
Jews from the island.
In other
spheres, after a brief depression in the first century B.C.
Hellenism continued to flower under a competent and liberal
Roman administration. The early years of the Roman empire
brought outstanding prosperity to Cyprus; the luxury of its
cities, as well as the reputation for immorality and indolence
-[infamem nimic calore Cypron]- inevitably bring to mind the
years of Lusignan rule, except that, in contrast to the Middle
Ages, it was thriving in the centre of a peaceful political
system and enjoying all the advantages of a great
self-sufficient economic region with a unified legal and
financial system. The old-established trade of India and
Southern Arabia with Italy and the west, in which Cyprus had
long established a secure place, intensified; the island itself
was opened up by a system of Roman roads and the ports were
further developed. Its diverse produce -timber, wine, oil,
grain, copper, and silver- found a ready market throughout the
imperium; it was a Cypriot boast of this period, that it was
possible to build and equip a ship entirely with local
materials.
All the
important centers were transformed by the town-planners, even
more than in Hellenistic times. Great -Fora-, colonnaded
squares, temples, theatres, thermae, and aquaducts were built,
above all in Paphos and Salamis;
Soli acquired its first theatre and a public library, Curium
extended the sanctuary of Apollo Hylates. In Cyprus, as
elsewhere, every aspect of day-to-day existence as well as the
cultural and intellectual life was deeply influenced by the
Mediterranean, Hellenistic-inspired, civilisation of Imperium
Romanum. The process of the assimilation and Romanization /Hellenization
of the people of the island, begun in the fourth century B.C.,
was completed, although as in other eastern provinces, the
oriental tradition lay below the Hellenistic veneer. Thus the
cult of Aphrodite, whose origins in the rites of the eastern
goddess of fertility had never been forgotten, continued; her
temple in old Paphos has remained one of the most famous shrines
of the Mediterranean until the present day. Roman coins
displaying the temple temple with the conical stone (which takes
place of the cult image or fertility symbol) carried the fame of
the goddess throughout the whole empire; emperors like Titus and
Septimius Severius brought offerings to her. A road flanked by
small chapels led from New Paphos to a much frequented
pilgrimage centre; `Men and women from many cities annually
march in procession to Paphos along this road'.
Yet, in the
course of time, the cult of Aphrodite gave way to Christianity,
leading eventually to the replacement of the goddess by the
Panagia. Its geographic position, as well as its strong Jewish
population -composed to some extent of refugees from various
persecutions- helped to make Cyprus one of the earliest
missionary realms. Although St Paul and St Barnabas (Joseph, the
Levite, from Salamis)
met with little success amongst the Jews of Cyprus during their
mission of the year A.D. 45, St Paul was able to convert the
Roman Pro Consul Sergius in Paphos; the island thus became the
first territory to be ruled by a Christian, even though only for
a short span. On a second missionary journey the hostility of
the Synagogues proved Barnabas undoing and he suffered martyrdom
in his native city. The rise of the Cypriot church between these
events and the reign of Constantine the Great is shrouded in
legend; its first genuinely historic representatives -St
Hilarion, St Epiphanios of Salamis, and St Spyridon of Tremithus-
are contemporary with the Council of Nicaea (325). At least
three bishoprics, Paphos, Salamis, and Tremithus, were
established at that time. The expansion of Christianity
therefore cannot have been altogether negligible, although the
temples of Paphos and Soli, amongst others, were still in use in
the fourth century A.D. While we know practically nothing of the
relationship with pagan cults and their centres on the island,
it is clear that the synthesis of old and new cultures- by no
means confined to Cyprus even then- had already begun, as the
church of Panagia Aphroditissa, which was built slightly later
at Paphos, proves. The most remarkable evidence of the meeting
of old and new faith is the early fifth century A.D. mosaic
inscription at Curium, where Christ is described in archaistic
couplets as the protector of the city in place of Phoebus
Apollo.
The turmoils of
the third century, the military anarchy of the soldier emperors
and the wars on the northern and eastern frontiers of the empire
obviously barely touched the island except, briefly, in A.D.
269, when a Gothic fleet reached Cyprus in the course of its
Mediterranean travels in search of pillage, having previously
attacked Crete and Rhodes. The economic depression, similarly,
is less marked than in the west of the empire, although the
trade with the east suffered noticeably under the pressure of
the new Persian dynasty of the Sassanids, who had come to power
in A.D. 224. Only the struggles within the Empire under
Diocletian and Constantine (A.D. 284-337) ended the peaceful
isolation of Cyprus. Once more, the island was cast into the
stream of events and its destiny took a new turn.
References
-
Maier, F.G.
(1968), "Cyprus: From Earliest Time to the Present
Day", Elek Books Ltd., London.
