Cyprus: History

Because of its position in the eastern Mediterranean, closer to the Middle East than to greece, Cyprus has changed hands many times. In antiquity, domination by various foreign powers alternated with brief periods of independence, and in 58 bc Cyprus became part of the Roman province of Cilicia in Asia Minor. Strabo (Geography, 7 bc) and pliny mention the wine of Cyprus approvingly but it was not particularly famous. In ad 668 Cyprus was occupied by Arabs; when they were finally expelled in 965 Cyprus became an advance base of the Greek navy. In 1191, in the course of the Third crusade, Richard I, king of England, conquered Cyprus and sold it to the Templars, who soon gave it back to him, whereupon he presented it to the rejected king of Jerusalem, Guy de Lusignan. Guy de Lusignan imposed a feudal system on Cyprus and governed the island as a separate kingdom, which it remained until it became a colony of the then powerful venice in 1489.