DK Travel : Cyprus : Top 10 Historical Figures

Cyprus : Top 10 Historical Figures

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1. Evagoras of Salamis

Evagoras (410–374 BC), king of the city-state of Salamis, conquered much of Cyprus, but was defeated when rival city Amathous allied itself with the Persian Empire.
2. Alexander the Great

Cyprus welcomed Alexander as a liberator from Persian dominance in 325 BC.
3. St Barnabas

St Barnabas, with the Apostle Paul, brought Christianity to Cyprus in 45 AD.
4. Nicephoros Phocas

The Byzantine emperor (963–9) drove the Saracen corsairs from Cyprus.
5. Richard the Lionheart

When the ship carrying Richard’s fiancée was driven by storms to Limassol, the English king (1157–99) seized Cyprus (see Historic Limassol).
6. Guy de Lusignan

Driven from the throne of Jerusalem, Guy (d.1194) bought rulership of Cyprus.
7. Peter I

The Lusignan ruler (1358– 69) harried the eastern Mediterranean until assassinated by a cabal of his own nobles.
8. Selim the Sot

The Muslim sultan drove the Venetians from Cyprus after a 10-month siege.
9. Hadjigeorgiakis Kornesios

This intercessor between the feuding Greeks and the Turks became the richest man in Cyprus, until he was beheaded in 1809.
10. Archbishop Makarios

Makarios (1913–77) led the independence campaign and was Cyprus’s first president.