A Study Of The Cypriot War(392-380B.C.)

The island of Cyprus,located in the eastern Mediterranean,began to form a separate and competing kingdom of cities in the late Bronze Age.Cyprus is a gateway to the eastern Mediterranean Sea and has been a land of war since ancient times.From the 8th century BC,Cyprus was successively subject to the Assyrian,Egyptian,Persian,at the same time,the island maintained its original political system and had a great deal of autonomy.These empires used this division to implement the policy of divide and rule,both to safeguard the interests of the empire and to respect the development of the island itself.The Cypriot war refers to the island-wide expansion war of Evagoras I,king of the kingdom of salamis on the island in 392 BC.The Persian empire intervened in 390 BC and evolved into the war between Persia and Cyprus.The war lasted for about 13 years until the end of 380 BC.Salamis in Cyprus was an important kingdom on the island,and Evagoras I was the heyday of Salamis.In the early period of his reign,Evagoras I made great efforts to develop the kingdom’s economy and military,and maintained good relations with Athens,Persia and other states.The increasing powerful Salamis also amplified Evagoras’s political ambitions.At this time,the western of the Persian empire was in a state of war,so that it had no time to attend to Cyprus,which provided the opportunity for the expansion of Evagoras I.The expansion of evagoras I on the island in 392 BC was the beginning of the Cypriot war and a concrete manifestation of the rivalry between the island’s city-kingdoms.The expansion violated the ruling policy of Persia and damaged the interests of the latter,which would inevitably be suppressed,thus turning the Cypriot war into an international war.During the Cypriot war,Egypt maintained its independence,Sparta’s covetous for the Ionian region,Athens and other states’ aid to Evagoras I made this war not only a confrontation between Salamis and the Persian empire,but also a competition of interests among the powers in the eastern Mediterranean.From 390 BC to 386 BC,although Persia sent troops to Cyprus,it did not start a war in Cyprus because of its busy expedition to Egypt and the military action against Sparta in Asia minor.During this period,Evagoras I continued to expand,capturing the entire island of Cyprus and taking control of some important strongholds of Phoenician and Cilicia.After repelled the Persian attack,Egypt formed an anti-Persian alliance with Evagoras I and obtained the secret support of the governor of Caria and the Arab king.In the face of such a grim situation,Persia made peace with Sparta to stabilize Asia Minor and to concentrate on recovering the southwestern coastal areas of the empire and Cyprus.After two years of preparation,the Persian army set out for Cilicia and Cyprus in 384 BC.The decentralization of the Persian navy and land force led to some early victories for Evagoras I,but eventually to its total annihilation.The Persian empire had a huge advantage in the first negotiations,but the framed and discord of the Persian generals led to another crisis of the empire’s rule over the western coast.After the second negotiation,the defeated Evagoras I paid allegiance to Persian empire again without any punishment,and Persian relations whit Evagoras I and Cyprus were restored to the pre-war state.This 13-year war was based on the expansion of the personal ambitions of Evagoras I and the rebellion against Persia.The expansion of Evagoras I not only provoked armed resistance from other city-kingdoms on the island but also violated the policies of the Persian empire.Many states were involved in the war,which had widespread effects in the eastern Mediterranean.His political ambition was an internal agent of expansion.Soon afterward,the turmoil in Asia minor,Egypt’s independent and the Great Satraps’ Revolt were both related to this war.If the wars in the western region of Persia are combined before and after this war,it can be seen that the Cypriot war was only a part of the turmoil in the eastern Mediterranean region,and these wars are also the prelude to the imminent collapse of the Persian Empire.In addition,the Cypriot war promoted the spread of Greek culture in Cyprus and increased the cultural identity of the people.After the war,the idea that the city-kingdoms of the island maintained the independence of their own kingdoms and then supported the policy of divide and rule of the Persian empire gradually weakened,and the resistance against Persia gradually became the consensus of the people of the island,so as to promote the unification of Cyprus from the division.