Part 203

"The Greek name of the island was derived from the abundance in which it produced the beautiful plant ('Copher') which furnishes the 'al-henna,' coveted throughout the East for the yellow dye which it communicates to the nails. It was rich in mines of copper, which has obtained for it the name by which it is known in the modern languages of the West."

_J. Kenrick, Phœnicia, chapter 4._

CYPRUS: Early History.

"The first authentic record with regard to Cyprus is an inscription on an Egyptian tombstone of the 17th century B. C., from which it appears that the island was conquered by Thothmes III. of Egypt, in whose reign the exodus of the Children of Israel is supposed to have taken place. This was no doubt anterior to the establishment of any Greek colonies, and probably, also, before the Phœnicians had settled in the island. … As appears from various inscriptions and other records, Cyprus became subject successively to Egypt, as just mentioned, to Assyria, to Egypt again in 568 B. C., when it was conquered by Amasis, and in 525 B. C. to Persia. Meanwhile the power of the Greeks had been increasing. … The civilization of the West was about to assert itself at Marathon and Salamis; and Cyprus, being midway between East and West, could not fail to be involved in the coming conflict. On the occasion of the Ionic revolt [see PERSIA: B. C. 521-493] the Greek element in Cyprus showed its strength: and in 502 B. C. the whole island, with the single exception of the Phœnician town of Amathus, took part with the Ionians in renouncing the authority of the Persian king." But in the war which followed, the Persians, aided by the Phœnicians of the mainland, reconquered Cyprus, and the Cyprian Greeks were long disheartened. They recovered their courage, however, about 410 B. C. when Evagoras, a Greek of the royal house of Teucer, made himself master of Salamis, and finally established a general sovereignty over the island—even extending his power to the mainland and subjugating Tyre. "The reign of Evagoras is perhaps the most brilliant period in the history of Cyprus. Before his death, which took place in 374 B. C., he had raised the island from the position of a mere dependency of one or other of the great Eastern monarchies, had gained for it a place among the lending states of Greece, and had solved the question as to which division of the ancient world the Cyprian people should be assigned. Consequently when, some forty years later, the power of Persia was shattered by Alexander the Great at the battle of Issus, the kings of the island hastened to offer him their submission as the leader of the Greek race, and sent 120 ships to assist him in the siege of Tyre." After Alexander's death, Cyprus was disputed between Antigonus and Ptolemy.

See MACEDONIA: B. C. 310-301.

The king of Egypt secured the prize, and the island remained under the Greek-Egyptian crown, until it passed, with the rest of the heritage of the Ptolemys to the Romans. "When the [Roman] empire was divided, on the death of Constantine the Great, Cyprus, like Malta, passed into the hands of the Byzantine Emperors. Like Malta, also, it was exposed to frequent attacks from the Arabs; but, although they several times occupied the island and once held it for no less than 160 years, they were always expelled again by the Byzantine Emperors, and never established themselves there as firmly as they did in Malta. The crusades first brought Cyprus into contact with the western nations of modern Europe."

_C. P. Lucas, Historical Geography of British Colonies, section 1, chapter 2._

ALSO IN: _R. H. Lang, CYPRUS, chapters 1-8._

_F. Von Loher, CYPRUS, chapters 12 and 30._

_L. P. Di Cesnola, Cyprus; its ancient cities, &c._

CYPRUS: B. C. 58. Annexed to the Roman Dominions.

"The annexation of Cyprus was decreed in 696 [B. C. 58] by the people [of Rome], that is, by the leaders of the democracy, the support given to piracy by the Cypriots being alleged as the official reason why that course should now be adopted. Marcus Cato, intrusted by his opponents with the execution of this measure, came to the island without an army; but he had no need of one. The king [a brother of the king of Egypt] took poison; the inhabitants submitted without offering resistance to their inevitable fate, and were placed under the governor of Cilicia."

_T. Mommsen, History of Rome, book 5, chapter 4._

CYPRUS: A. D. 117. Jewish insurrection.

"This rich and pleasant territory [the island of Cyprus] had afforded a refuge to the Jews of the continent through three generations of disturbance and alarm, and the Hebrew race was now [A. D. 117] probably not inferior there in number to the native Syrians or Greeks. On the first outburst of a Jewish revolt [against the Roman domination, in the last year of the reign of Trajan] the whole island fell into the hands of the insurgents, and became an arsenal and rallying point for the insurrection, which soon spread over Egypt, Cyrene and Mesopotamia. The leader of the revolt in Cyprus bore the name of Artemion, but we know no particulars of the war in this quarter, except that 240,000 of the native population is said to have fallen victims to the exterminating fury of the insurgents. When the rebellion was at last extinguished in blood, the Jews were forbidden thenceforth to set foot on the island; and even if driven thither by stress of weather, the penalty of death was mercilessly enforced. … The Jewish population of Cyrenaica outnumbered the natives. … The hostility of the Jews in these parts was less directed against the central government and the Roman residents than the native race. … Of these 220,000 are said to have perished."

_C. Merivale, History of the Romans, chapter 65._

{645}

CYPRUS: A. D. 1191. Conquest by Richard Cœur de Lion. Founding of the Latin Kingdom.

During the civil strife and confusion of the last years of the Comnenian dynasty of emperors at Constantinople, one of the members of the family, Isaac Comnenos, secured the sovereignty of Cyprus and assumed the title of emperor. With the alliance of the king of Sicily, he defeated the Byzantine forces sent against him, and was planted securely, to all appearance, on his newly built throne at the time of the Third Crusade. Circumstances at that time (A. D. 1191) gave him a fatal opportunity to provoke the English crusaders. First, he seized the property and imprisoned the crews of three English ships that were wrecked on the Cyprian coast. Not satisfied with that violence, he refused shelter from the storm to a vessel which bore Berengaria of Navarre, the intended wife of King Richard. "The king of England immediately sailed to Cyprus; and when Isaac refused to deliver up the ship-wrecked crusaders, and to restore their property, Richard landed his army and commenced a series of operations, which ended in his conquering the whole island, in which he abolished the administrative institutions of the Eastern Empire, enslaving the Greek race, introducing the feudal system, by which he riveted the chains of a foreign domination, and then gave it as a present to Guy of Lusignan, the titular king of Jerusalem, who became the founder of a dynasty of Frank kings in Cyprus."

_G. Finlay, History of the Byzantine and Greek Empires, from 716 to 1453, book 3, chapter 3, section 1._

Before giving Cyprus to Guy of Lusignan, Richard had sold the island to the Templars, and Guy had to pay the knights heavily for the extinguishment of their rights. Richard, therefore, was rather a negotiator than a giver in the transaction.

_William Stubbs, Seventeen Lectures on the Study of Mediæval and Modern History, lecture 8._

CYPRUS: A. D. 1192-1489. The kingdom under the house of Lusignan.

"The house of Lusignan maintained itself in Cyprus for nearly three centuries, during which, although fallen somewhat from the blessedness which had been broken up by Isaac Comnenus, the island seems to have retained so much fertility and prosperity as to make its later history very dark by contrast. … Guy, we are told, received Cyprus for life only, and did homage for the island to Richard. As he already bore the title of king, the question whether he should hold Cyprus as a kingdom does not seem to have arisen. … On his death, in April, 1194, Richard putting in no claim for the reversion, his brother, Amalric of Lusignan, constable of Palestine, entered on the possession as his heir. … Amalric succeeded to the crown of Jerusalem; the crown of Jerusalem, which, after the year 1269, became permanently united with that of Cyprus, was an independent crown, and the king of Jerusalem an anointed king: the union of the crowns therefore seems to have precluded any question as to the tenure by which the kingdom of Cyprus should be held. … The homage then due to Richard, or to the crown of England, ceased at the death of Guy."

_William Stubbs, Seventeen Lectures on the Study of Mediæval and Modern History, lecture 8._

See, also, JERUSALEM: A. D. 1291.

CYPRUS: A. D. 1291-1310. The Knights Hospitallers of St. John.

See HOSPITALLERS OF ST. JOHN: A. D. 1118-1310.

CYPRUS: A. D. 1489-1570. A Venetian dependency.

The last reigning king of Cyprus was James II., a bastard brother of Queen Charlotte, whom he drove from the Cypriot throne in 1464. This king married a Venetian lady, Caterina Cornaro, in 1471 and was declared to be "the son-in·law of the Republic." The unscrupulous republic is said to have poisoned its son·in-law in order to secure the succession. He died in 1473, and a son, born after his death, lived but two years. Cyprus was then ruled by the Venetians for fifteen years in the name of Caterina, who finally renounced her rights wholly in favor of the republic. After 1489, until its conquest by the Turks, Cyprus was a Venetian dependency, in form as well as in fact, but tributary to the Sultan of Egypt.

_William Stubbs, Seventeen Lectures on the Study of Mediæval and Modern History, lecture 8._

CYPRUS: A. D. 1570-1571. Conquest by the Turks.

See TURKS: A. D. 1566-1571.

CYPRUS: A. D. 1821. Turkish massacre of Christians.

See GREECE: A. D. 1821-1829.

CYPRUS: A. D. 1878. Control surrendered by Turkey to England.

See TURKS: A. D. 1878, THE TREATIES OF SAN STEFANO AND BERLIN.

CYPRUS: End----------

CYREANS, The.

See PERSIA: B. C. 401-400.

CYRENAICA. CYRENE. KYRENE.

A city, growing into a kingdom, which was founded at an early day by the Greeks, on that projecting part of the coast of Libya, or northern Africa, which lies opposite to Greece. The first settlers were said to have been from the little island of Thera, whose people were bold and enterprising. The site they chose "was of an unusual nature, especially for islanders, and lay several miles away from the sea, the shores of which were devoid of natural bays for anchorage. But, with this exception, every advantage was at hand: instead of the narrow stony soil of their native land, they found the most fertile corn-fields, a broad table-land with a healthy atmosphere and watered by fresh springs; a well-wooded coast-land, unusually well adapted for all the natural products which the Hellenes deemed essential; while in the background spread mysteriously the desert, a world passing the comprehension of the Hellenes, out of which the Libyan tribes came to the shore with horses and camels, with black slaves, with apes, parrots and other wonderful animals, with dates and rare fruits. … An abundant spring of water above the shore was the natural point at which the brown men of the deserts and the mariners assembled. Here regular meetings became customary. The bazaar became a permanent market, and the market a city which arose on a grand scale, broad and lofty, on two rocky heights, which jut out towards the sea from the plateau of the desert. This city was called Cyrene. … Large numbers of population immigrated from Crete, the islands and Peloponnesus. A large amount of new land was parcelled out, the Libyans were driven back, the landing-place became the port of Apollonia, and the territory occupied by the city itself was largely extended. Cyrene became, like Massalia, the starting point of a group of settlements, the centre of a small Greece: Barca and Hesperides [afterwards called Berenice] were her daughters. Gradually a nation grew up, which extended itself and its agriculture, and contrived to cover a large division of African land with Hellenic culture. This was the new era which commenced for Cyrene with the reign of the third king, the Battus who, on account of the marvellously rapid rise of his kingdom, was celebrated as 'the fortunate' in all Hellas. The Battiadæ [the family or dynasty of Battus] were soon regarded as a great power."

_E. Curtius, History of Greece, book 2, chapter 3._

{646}

Cyrenaica became subject to Egypt under the Ptolemys, and was then usually called Pentapolis, from the five cities of Cyrene, Apollonia, Arsinoë (formerly Teuchira), Berenice (formerly Hesperis, or Hesperides) and Ptolemais (the port of Barca). Later it became a province of the Roman Empire, and finally, passing under Mahometan rule, sank to its present state, as a district, called Barca, of the kingdom of Tripoli.—Cyrene was especially famous for the production of a plant called silphium—supposed to be assafœtida—on which the ancients seem to have set an extraordinary value. This was one of the principal sources of the wealth of Cyrene.

_E. H. Bunbury, History of Ancient Geography, chapter 8, section 1, and chapter 12, section 2._

CYRENAICA: B. C. 525. Tributary to Persia.

See EGYPT: B. C. 525-332.

CYRENAICA: B. C. 322. Absorbed in the Kingdom of Egypt by Ptolemy Lagus.

See EGYPT: B. C. 323-30.

CYRENAICA: B. C. 97. Transferred to the Romans by will.

"In the middle of this reign [of Ptolemy, called Lathyrus, king of Egypt] died Ptolemy Apion, king of Cyrene. He was the half-brother of Lathyrus and Alexander, and having been made king of Cyrene by his father Euergetes II., he had there reigned quietly for twenty years. Being between Egypt and Carthage, then called the Roman province of Africa, and having no army which he could lead against the Roman legions, he had placed himself under the guardianship of Rome; he had bought a truce during his lifetime, by making the Roman people his heirs in his will, so that on his death they were to have his kingdom. Cyrene had been part of Egypt for above two hundred years, and was usually governed by a younger son or brother of the king. But on the death of Ptolemy Apion, the Roman senate, who had latterly been grasping at everything within their reach, claimed his kingdom as their inheritance, and in the flattering language of their decree by which the country was enslaved, they declared Cyrene free."

_S. Sharpe, History of Egypt, chapter 11._

CYRENAICA: A. D. 117. Jewish insurrection.

See CYPRUS: A. D. 117.

CYRENAICA: A. D. 616. Destroyed by Chosroes.

See EGYPT: A. D. 616-628.

CYRENAICA: 7th Century. Mahometan conquest.

See MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 647-709.

CYRENAICA: End----------

CYRUS, The empire of.

See PERSIA: B. C. 549-521.

CYRUS THE YOUNGER, The expedition of.

See PERSIA: B. C. 401-400.

CYZICUS: B. C. 411-410, Battles at.

See GREECE: B. C. 411-407.

CYZICUS: B. C. 74. Siege by Mithridates.

Cyzicus, which had then become one of the largest and wealthiest cities of Asia Minor, was besieged for an entire year (B. C. 74-73) by Mithridates in the Third Mithridatic war. The Roman Consul Lucullus came to the relief of the city and succeeded in gaining a position which blockaded the besiegers and cut off their supplies. In the end, Mithridates retreated with a small remnant only, of his great armament, and never recovered from the disaster.

_G. Long, Decline of the Roman Republic, volume 3, chapter 1._

CYZICUS: A. D. 267. Capture by the Goths.

See GOTHS: A. D. 258-267.

CYZICUS: End----------

CZAR, OR TZAR.

See RUSSIA: A. D. 1547.

CZARTORISKYS, The, and the fall of Poland.

See POLAND: A. D. 1763-1773.

CZASLAU, OR CHOTUSITZ, Battle of (A. D. 1742).

See AUSTRIA: A. D. 1742 (JANUARY-MAY).

CZEKHS, The.

See BOHEMIA: ITS PEOPLE.

CZEKHS, End----------

D.

DACHTELFIELD, The.

See SAXONS: A. D. 772-804.

DACIA, The Dacians.

Ancient Dacia embraced the district north of the Danube between the Theiss and the Dneister. "The Dacians [at the time of Augustus, in the last half century B. C.] occupied the whole of what now forms the southern part of Hungary, the Banat and Transylvania. … The more prominent part which they henceforth assumed in Roman history was probably owing principally to the immediate proximity in which they now found themselves to the Roman frontier. The question of the relation in which the Dacians stood to the Getæ, whom we find in possession of these same countries at an earlier period, was one on which there existed considerable difference of opinion among ancient writers: but the prevailing conclusion was that they were only different names applied to the same people. Even Strabo, who describes them as distinct, though cognate tribes, states that they spoke the same language. According to his distinction the Getæ occupied the more easterly regions, adjoining the Euxine, and the Dacians the western, bordering on the Germans."

_E. H. Bunbury, History of Ancient Geography, chapter 20, section 1._

DACIA: A. D. 102-106. Trajan's conquest.

At the beginning of the second century, when Trajan conquered the Dacians and added their country to the Roman Empire, "they may be considered as occupying the broad block of land bounded by the Theiss, the Carpathians, the lower Danube or Ister, and the Pruth." In his first campaign, A. D. 102, Trajan penetrated the country to the heart of modern Transylvania, and forced the Dacians to give him battle at a place called Tapæ, the site of which is not known. He routed them with much slaughter, as they had been routed at the same place, Tapæ, sixteen years before, in one of the ineffectual campaigns directed by Domitian. They submitted, and Trajan established strong Roman posts in the country; but he had scarcely reached Rome and celebrated his triumph there, before the Dacians were again in arms. In the spring of the year 104, Trajan repaired to the lower Danube in person, once more, and entered the Dacian country with an overwhelming force. This time the subjugation was complete, and the Romans established their occupation of the country by the founding of colonies and the building of roads. {647} Dacia was now made a Roman province, and "the language of the Empire became, and to this day substantially remains, the national tongue of the inhabitants. … Of the Dacian province, the last acquired and the first to be surrendered of the Roman possessions, if we except some transient occupations, soon to be commemorated, in the East, not many traces now exist; but even these may suffice to mark the moulding power of Roman civilization. … The accents of the Roman tongue still echo in the valleys of Hungary and Wallachia; the descendants of the Dacians at the present day repudiate the appellation of Wallachs, or strangers, and still claim the name of Romúni."

_C. Merivale, History of the Romans, chapter 63._

DACIA: A. D. 270. Given up to the Goths.

See GOTHS: A. D. 268-270.

DACIA: 4th Century. Conquest by the Huns.

See GOTHS (VISIGOTHS): A. D. 376, and HUNS: A. D. 433-453.

DACIA: 6th Century. Occupied by the Avars.

See AVARS.

DACIA: Modern history.

See BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES.

DACIA: End----------

DACOITS.

See DAKOITS.

DACOTAS.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: SIOUAN FAMILY, and PAWNEE (CADDOAN) FAMILY.

DÆGSASTAN, Battle of.

Fought, A. D. 603, between the Northumbrians and the Scots of Dalriada, the army of the latter being almost wholly destroyed.

DAGOBERT I., King of the Franks (Neustria), A. D. 628-638; (Austrasia), 622-633: (Burgundy), 628-638.

Dagobert II., King of the Franks (Austrasia), A. D. 673-678.

Dagobert III., King of the Franks (Neustria and Burgundy), A. D. 711-715.

DAHIS, The.

See BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES, 14TH-19TH CENTURIES (SERVIA).

DAHLGREN, Admiral John A. Siege of Charleston.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (JULY, and AUGUST-DECEMBER: S. CAROLINA).

DAHLGREN, Ulric. Raid to Richmond.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (FEBRUARY-MARCH: VIRGINIA).

DAKOITS. DAKOITEE.

The Dakoits of India, who were suppressed soon after the Thugs, were "robbers by profession, and even by birth." Dakoitee "was established upon a broad basis of hereditary caste, and was for the most part an organic state of society. 'I have always followed the trade of my ancestors, Dakoitee.' said Lukha, a noted Dakoit, who subsequently became approver. 'My ancestors held this profession before me,' said another, 'and we train boys in the same manner. In my caste if there were any honest persons, i. e., not robbers, they would be turned out.'" The hunting down of the Dakoits was begun in 1838, under the direction of Colonel Sleeman, who had already hunted down the Thugs.

_J. W. Kaye, The Administration of the East India Co., part 3, chapter 3._

DAKOTA, North and South: A. D. 1803.- Embraced in the Louisiana Purchase.

See LOUISIANA: A. D. 1798-1803.

DAKOTA: A. D. 1834-1838. Partly joined, in succession, to Michigan, Wisconsin, and Iowa Territories.

See WISCONSIN: A. D. 1805-1848.

DAKOTA: A. D. 1889. Admission to the Union.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1889-1890.

DAKOTAS.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: SIOUAN FAMILY and PAWNEE (CADDOAN) FAMILY.

DALAI LAMA.

See LAMAS.

DALCASSIANS.

The people of North Munster figure prominently under that name in early Irish history.

_T. Moore, History of Ireland, volume 2._

DALHOUSIE, Lord, The India administration of.

See INDIA: A. D. 1845-1849; 1848-1856; and 1852.

DALMATIA.

"The narrow strip of land on the eastern side of the Hadriatic on which the name of Dalmatia has settled down has a history which is strikingly analogous to its scenery. … As the cultivation and civilization of the land lies in patches, as harbours and cities alternate with barren hills, so Dalmatia has played a part in history only by fits and starts. This fitful kind of history goes on from the days of Greek colonies and Illyrian piracy to the last war between Italy and Austria. But of continuous history, steadily influencing the course of the world's progress, Dalmatia has none to show."

_E. A. Freeman, Subject and Neighbour Lands of Venice, pages 85-87._

ALSO IN: _T. G. Jackson, Dalmatia, the Quarnero and Istria, chapters 1-2._

See, also, ILLYRICUM OF THE ROMANS; SALONA; and BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES.