Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/620

616 CYPRUS be praised," was his only reply. "When led to execution, he laid aside his upper garments, bestowed 50 pieces of gold upon the headsman, and calmly surrendered himself to the death stroke. The weeping crowd who witnessed his beheading steeped kerchiefs and napkins in his blood. His body was interred on the Map- palian way, where a church long marked the spot. When the Saracens invaded northern. Africa, his remains were carefully guarded, and brought over to France in the reign of Charlemagne. The works of Cyprian have passed through many editions since the inven- tion of printing. Fell's Oxford edition ap- peared in 1682; another in Holland in 1700, with the notes of Pearson and Dodwell. The standard edition is that of Paris (fol., 1726), with the notes of Baluze, and a life by the Benedictine Dom Maran. The best lives of Cyprian are those of Gervaise (4to, 1717), Eettberg (8vo, Gottingen, 1831), Poole (8vo, London, 1840), Collombet (Paris, 1843), and Bohringer (8vo, Zurich, 1842). CYPRUS (Gr. Kfapoc ; Turk. Kylris), a Turk- ish island, the most eastern of the Mediter- ranean, lying between lat. 34 29' 18" and 35 41' 42" N., and Ion. 32 17' and 34 35' 30" E. From Cape St. Andrea, its extreme eastern point, to the nearest point of the coast of Syria, is about 65 m., and to Latakia about 68 m. ; on the north it approaches within about 44 m. of the coast of Asia Minor. Length about 140 m. ; breadth for nearly 100 m. W. to E. about 40 m., thence to the N. E. extremity about 15 m. ; area, 3,678 sq. m. ; pop. (which under the Venetians amounted to 1,000,000) estimated at about 200,000, of whom two thirds are Greeks, and the rest Moslems, Maronites, Armenians, Eoman Catholics, and Jews. It is intersected from E. to W. by a range of mountains, called Olympus by the ancients, whose principal peak, Oros Stavros, is 6,595 ft. in height. It often suffers from drought, its largest stream, the Pedia (the Pediseus of the ancients), being sometimes entirely dry. The inhabitants must then de- pend mostly upon cisterns, as the wells are nearly all brackish. Aromatic herbs of all kinds grow spontaneously. Cotton, wine, to- bacco, silk, and fruits, all of fine quality, are produced. Several dyewoods and drugs also grow on the island. The minerals are numer- ous, including the precious metals and copper, and many precious stones, but the mines are neglected. The wines of Cyprus, especially those from the vineyard called the Comman- deria, from having belonged to the knights of Malta, enjoyed great celebrity in former times, and the production exceeded 2,000,000 gallons, but has now dwindled down to less than 200,- 000. Two common qualities of Cyprus wines, black and red, with a strong taste of tar from being kept in tarred casks, are exported to Egypt) but never to Europe. Larnaka, where the European consuls and the principal foreign merchants reside, and Limasol (anc. Amathus) are the chief commercial emporiums of the isl- and. Famagusta (on the site of ancient Arsi- noe), so famous under the Venetians, possesses an excellent spacious port, sheltered from all winds, which could easily be deepened to ac- commodate hundreds of large ships ; but at present it is so choked up with filth that it can only hold about a dozen small craft. Locusts commit great ravages in the island, but in spite of this evil, and of the abuses in assessing and collecting the taxes, the prosperity of Cyprus is on the whole increasing. Many of the op- pressions have been removed ; the peasants are freely permitted to sell their produce, and agricultural employment is abundant. The wheat and oats are inferior, and the annual grain crop is small. Colocynth is extensively cultivated. The cotton crop in 1857 amounted to about 2,700 bales. During the American civil war it reached over 8,000 bales, but has since fallen off. Madder root forms a principal production, the greater part being exported to France, and the rest retained for home con- sumption. The abolition in 1835 of the mo- nopoly on carob beans (ceratonia siliqua) rap- idly increased their production. In 1852 the exports of carobs amounted to 1,350 tons, and in 1857 cargoes were for the first time export- ed to England. In 1864 the exports of them amounted to 7,087 tons, valued at about $175,- 000, and they have since increased. British and American manufactures are imported from Syria, Smyrna, and Constantinople ; hides, cof- fee, sugar, cloth, fowling pieces, fine powder, small shot, salt fish, and Swedish iron, from France ; glass, steel, German iron, nails, paper, &c., from Trieste and other Austrian ports. The island forms a part of the vilayet of the islands of the Mediterranean (Jezairi Bahri Sefid). Capital, Nicosia (Turk. Lefkosha). The archbishop of Cyprus resides at Nicosia, but his title is metropolitan of Constantia (Famagusta). By the council of Ephesus, in 431, his independence of any patriarch was declared, and he still retains it. Thus the church of Cyprus, which has, besides the met- ropolitan, five suffragan bishoprics, is consid- ered one of the independent groups into which the Greek church is divided. For the Cath- olics of the Latin communion, who do not ex- ceed 1,000, there is a bishop at Famagusta ; and there is also a Maronite bishopric of Cy- prus. The island of Cyprus occupies a distin- guished place both in sacred and profane his- tory. It early belonged to the Phoenicians of the neighboring coast. It was afterward col- onized by Greeks, who founded there several independent kingdoms, and passed successively under the power of the Pharaohs, Persians, Ptolemies, and Romans, excepting a short pe- riod of independence under Evagoras, in the 4th century B. C. It was one of the chief seats of the worship of Venus, hence called Cypria. Salamis, Citium (whence the Biblical name of the island, Kittim), Amathus, Paphos, Soli, &c., were the most remarkable ancient