GIOVANNI MARITI. Travels in the Island of Cyprus
Translated from the Italian by Claude Delaval Cobham, C.M.G.,
Cambridge:
at the University Press, 1909
Chapter I.
A general view of the Island and Kingdom of Cyprus
Cyprus, an island in the Mediterranean Sea, and dependency
of Turkey in Asia, lies in long. 52' 45' and lat. 35'' 30',
between the coast of Syria and that of Cilicia now called
Caramania. It has had various names. Pliny, v. 31, calls
it Acamantis, Cerastis, Aspelia, Amathusia, Macaria, Cryptos
and Colinia. In other historians it bears the names of
Chetinia, Aerosa, Paphos, Salamina; and in the poets Cythera,
from the goddess Venus who, they say playfully, was there
nursed and brought up, and to whom were erected there
several temples, of which the most conspicuous were in the
cities of Paphos, Cythera and Amathus. Cyprus once comprised
nine kingdoms «quondam novem regnorum sedem»
says Pliny, afterwards the Kings of Egypt reigned there, and
then the Romans. From the Empire of the West it passed to
that of the Greek Emperors of Constantinople, from whom it
was wrested by the Arabs in the days of Heraclius. The
Emperors soon recovered their sovereignty, but Isaac, a prince
of the family of the Comneni, who ruled the island with the
title of Duke, usurped the supreme power, and through the
weakness of the Empire remained in absolute and peaceful
possession, until in 1191 Richard I, King of England, took
his throne and his life, and sold the kingdom to the Knights
Templars. These, owing to their harsh behaviour towards the
natives who followed the Greek rite, saw that they could not long hold it in peace, and were obliged to restore it to Richard,
who made over his rights to Guy Lusignan. Carlotta, the last
scion of that family, was expelled in 1460 by her natural
brother Jacques. She married Louis of Savoy, through whom
those Dukes take the title of Kings of Cyprus. Jacques died,
and his widow Carlotta Cornaro being childless gave the
kingdom to the Venetians in 1489. They could not hold it
against the Turks, who took it from them in 1570, and still
hold it undisturbed. Ferdinand de' Medici, Grand Duke of
Tuscany, attempted the conquest of the island, and might
have succeeded, say the historians, had he been better served by the commander of his forces.
This most beautiful island has a circuit (including its bays)
of 600 miles. It is 200 miles long, and 65 broad and is
crossed and divided by a range of mountains running from
east to west: the highest of these are Olympus, S. Croce and
Buffavento.
The greatest of her plains is that of Mesaria, of 78 miles in
length, and 30 in breadth.
Her streams and torrents which flow even in winter are but
few, so subject is the island to drought. It is said that in the
days of Constantine the Great no rain was seen for full thirty
years, and the land lost many of its inhabitants.
In ancient times there were many cities, but now the
names only of a few remain attached to their old sites; of
the rest the very locality is forgotten. The notable towns
which still exist are Nicosia and Famagusta, which rank as
walled
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