Page:History of Greece Vol IV.djvu/311

RECONQUEST OF CYPRUS. ^3 which procured for them a brilliant victory ; the Samians being especially distinguished. 1 But the combat on land, carried on at tie same time, took a different turn. Onesilus and the Salamin- iaiis brought into the field, after the fashion of Orientals rather than of Greeks, a number of scythed chariots, destined to break the enemy's ranks ; while on the other hand the Persian general Artybius was mounted on a horse, trained to rise on his hind legs and strike out with his fore legs against an opponent on foot. In (he thick of the fight, Onesilus and his Karian shield- bearer came into personal conflict with this general and his horse ; and by previous concert, when the horse so reared as to get his fore legs over the shield of Onesilus, the Karian with a scythe severed the legs from his body, while Onesilus with his own hand slew Artybiu-s. But the personal bravery of the Cypriots was rendered useless by treachery in their own ranks. Stesenor, despot of Kuriuin, deserted in the midst of the battle, and even the scythed chariots of Salamis followed his example. The brave Onesilus, thus weakened, perished in the total rout of his army, along with Aristokyprus despot of Soli, on the north coast of the island : this latter being son of that Philokyprus who had been immortalized more than sixty years before, in the poems of Solon. No farther hopes now remained for the revolters, and the victorious Ionian fleet returned home. Salamis relapsed under the sway of its former despot Gorgus, while the remaining cities in Cyprus were successively besieged and taken : not with- out a resolute defence, however, since Soli alone held out five months. 2 Herodot. v 112. 2 Herodot. v, 112-3 15. It is not uninteresting to compare, with this re- conquest of Cyprus by the Persians, the conquest of the same island by the Turks in 1570, when they expelled from it the Venetians. Seethe narrative of that conquest (effected in the reign of Selim the Second by the Seraskier Mnbtapha-Pasha), in Von Hammer, Geschichte des Osmannischen Reichs, book xxxvi, vol. iii, pp. 578-589. Of the two principal towns, Nikosia in the centre of the island, and Famagusta on the northeastern coast, the first, after a long siege, was taken by storm, and the inhabitants of every sex and age either put to death or earned into slavery ; while the second, after a most gallant defence, was allowed to capitulate. But the terms of the capitulation were violated in the most flagitious manner by the Seraskier, Rrho treated the brave Venetian governor, Bragadino, with frightful cruelty