BYZANTINE PERIOD AD 330– ca. 700
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BYZANTINE |
AD 330-ca. 700 |
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Constantine's decision to allow Christians to worship freely throughout the empire was welcomed by the Christian community on Cyprus. The relocation of the imperial capital to Constantinople also meant that the island's administrators were now mostly Greek-speakers who were more sympathetic than their Latin-speaking predecessors to the Greek-speaking locals. Imperial oversight of local administrators increased so that officials could no longer enrich themselves at the people's expense Little is recorded of the island's history during the ensuing fifth and sixth centuries AD . In this period the Cypriot church successfully asserted its independence from the Patriarch of Antioch, and the Emperor Zeno ( AD 474-491) granted to the Archbishop of Cyprus the privilege of carrying a scepter in place of a pastoral staff and the prerogative of signing his name in purple ink. The earthquakes that devastated Antioch during reign of Justinian ( AD 527-565) seem not to have affected the island. Cyprus was also spared the destruction suffered by the Syrian mainland caused by Byzantium's wars with Sassanian Persia. Cyprus was one of the first places where the new Byzantine silk industry was introduced. Cypriot silks became famous and their export enriched the island. This wealth was reflected in Cypriot religious architecture and art. The first domed churches, such as St. Barnabas near Salamis and St. Lazarus at Larnaca , were built. Churches were paved with floor mosaics and their walls decorated with wall mosaics, which often included glass and gilt tesserae. Early seventh century AD gold and silver church furnishings and imperial tableware unearthed at Lapithos (modern Lambousa ) demonstrate the high quality of craftsmanship in Byzantine Cyprus. The rise of Islam in AD 623 transformed the world of late antiquity. By 642 the Muslims controlled all of Palestine, Syria and Egypt. They prepared a war fleet in the ports of Syria and Egypt, and in 649 the governor of Syria, Muawiya, obtained permission from the Caliph Othman for an expedition against Cyprus. The governor of Constantia ( Salamis ) resisted so the Muslims sacked the city and massacred the inhabitants. From there the invaders went on to pillage the rest of the island. Muawiya demanded annual tribute and a pledge that the island would not be used as a base for Byzantine counterattacks. In 653 Muawiya claimed that the agreement had been broken and again invaded. This time when he withdrew he left behind a garrison of 12,000 which remained until 688 when the Emperor Justinian II and the Caliph Abd al-Malik agreed to declare Cyprus a demilitarized frontier between Byzantium and Islam. |
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