Nicosia

“ Since 1878 the berat has not been given, and the bishops are less influential. The suppressed sees have never been restored, but the four which survive (now known as Nicosia, Paphos, Kition and Kyrenia) are of metropolitan rank, so that the archbishop, whose headquarters, first at Salamis, then at Famagusta, are now at Nicosia, is a primate amongst metropolitans. There are several monasteries dating from the 11th century and onwards; also an archiepiscopal school at Nicosia, founded in 1812 and raised to the status of a “gymnasion” in 1893; and a high school for girls. ”

“ The chief towns are Nicosia (pop. 14,752) , the capital, in the north central part of the island, Limasol (8298) and Larnaca (7964) on the south-eastern coast. The other capitals of districts are Famagusta on the east coast, Kyrenia on the north, and Ktima, capital of Papho, on the south-west. Kyrenia, a small port, has a castle built about the beginning of the 13th century, and notable, through the troubled history of the island, as never having been captured. ”

“ The other Cypriot prisoners were confined in divers places.
While the king of Cyprus thus remained prisoner to the sultan of Babylon in Cairo, the archbishop of Nicosia, brother to the king, sent for sir Peter [Pg 194] de Lusignan, constable of Jerusalem, and resigned to him the government of the island of Cyprus. He was no sooner in the possession thereof than he executed rigorous justice by punishing all who in these times of tribulation had attempted to revolt. Shortly after, the archbishop returned to Nicosia, which by degrees was repeopled. ”

“ The persecuting spirit grew, for about 1350 the Council of Nicosia, although it allowed the four Greek bishops of Cyprus to remain, still ordered all to be denounced as heretics who did not hold Rome to be the head of all churches and the pope to be the earthly vicar of Christ, and in 1351 a proclamation was issued ordering all Greeks to confess once a year to a Latin priest and to take the sacrament according to the Latin rite. ”

“ On the last of August, 1570, the combined fleet effected its junction with the Venetians at Candia, and a plan of operations was immediately arranged. It was not long before the startling intelligence arrived that Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus, had been taken and sacked by the Turks, with all the circumstances of cruelty which distinguish wars in which the feeling of national hostility is embittered by religious hatred. The plan was now to be changed. A dispute arose among the commanders as to the course to be pursued. No one had authority enough to enforce compliance with his own opinion. ”

“ 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 internally as to make its later history very dark by contrast. The flight of the Greek population, which had begun under Isaac and been completed after the massacre of Nicosia, left the island open to colonists from the West. ”

“ About this time the island of Cyprus had fallen in part under Turkish domination. The Turks had
Cicogna, Iscr. Ven. iii. 134. made a piratical descent upon Nicosia, and had carried off all the women who were still young enough for the Eastern market. But one of these, a heroine whose name is lost, fired the ship’s powder-magazine and saved herself and her companions from outrage by causing the instant death of every soul on board. This was in the latter half of the sixteenth century. ”

“ The which Iland in time past had diuers names: called once Acamantis, as Sabellicus witnesseth. Philonides maketh mention, that it was called sometime Cerasis. Xenogoras writeth, that it was named Aspelia, Amathusa, and Macaria. There were in times past fifteene cities or famous townes in it, but now very few, amongst the which Famagusta is the chiefest and strongest, situated by the sea side. There is also Nicosia, which was woont, by the traffike of marchants, to be very wealthy: besides the city of Baffo, Arnica, Saline, Limisso, Melipotamo, and Episcopia. ”

“ An institution worthy of special notice is the home and farm for lepers near Nicosia, accommodating over a hundred inmates.
History and Archaeology down to the Roman Occupation
The Stone Age has left but few traces in Cyprus; no sites have been found and even single implements are very rare. The “megalithic” monuments of Agia Phaneromeni [1] and Halá Sultán Teké near Larnaca may perhaps be early, like the Palestinian cromlechs; but the vaulted chamber of Agia Katrína near Enkomi seems to be Mycenaean or later ”

“ Greek Cypriots control the only internationally recognized government; on 15 November 1983 Turkish Cypriot "President" Rauf DENKTASH declared independence and the formation of a "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus" (TRNC) , recognized only by Turkey; both sides publicly support a settlement based on a bizonal, bicommunal federation. Capital: Nicosia Administrative divisions: 6 districts; Famagusta, Kyrenia, Larnaca, Limassol, Nicosia, Paphos ”

“ On sailing into Prevesa the day before, we had passed over the very waters once enlivened by that combat, and over which Antony, forgetting for once to be a soldier, followed the wanton queen in flight and left the world to Augustus.
The ruins of Nikopolis, spread out over several square miles, look imposing in the distance; but, like most Roman ruins near at hand, vulgar in comparison with Greek. The theatre is massive, and the aqueduct inspires respect for the practical sense of the conquerors of the world. ”

“ I shall look upon the Ionian Sea, not merely from a train or a steamboat as before, but at long leisure: I shall see the shores where once were Tarentum and Sybaris, Croton and Locri. Every man has his intellectual desire; mine is to escape life as I know it and dream myself into that old world which was the imaginative delight of my boyhood. The names of Greece and Italy draw me as no others; they make me young again, and restore the keen impressions of that time when every new page of Greek or Latin was a new perception of things beautiful. ”

“ In later times,2862 the Macedonians and Romans harassed this and other cities by continual wars, caused by the refractory disposition of the inhabitants, so that Augustus, at length perceiving that these cities were entirely deserted, collected their remaining inhabitants into one city, which he called Nicopolis, situated upon the gulf. He called it after the victory which he obtained in front of [Pg 499] the gulf, over Antony, and Cleopatra, the queen of Egypt, who was present in the engagement.
Nicopolis is well peopled, and is improving every day. ”

“ He possessed the people with great hopes, and he himself entertained yet greater; and the conquest of Sicily, which was the utmost bound of their ambition, was but the mere outset of his expectation. Nicias endeavored to divert the people from the expedition, by representing to them that the taking of Syracuse would be a work of great difficulty; but Alcibiades dreamed of nothing less than the conquest of Carthage and Libya, and by the accession of these conceiving himself at once made master of Italy and of Peloponnesus, seemed to look upon Sicily as little more than a magazine for the war. ”

“ In former times Nikosia was some miles in circumference and was three times as large as it is now. Ruins of churches and cloisters are to be seen in all directions outside the present town. Of late years the Greek and Turkish inhabitants25 associate much more freely than formerly. Turkish servants are often met with in Greek houses, and intermarriages are by no means uncommon. The dress of the peasantry is almost Turkish, and pillau, essentially a Turkish dish, is commonly seen on every table in the island. ”

“ Till at last Nicias falling down to Gylippus, "Let pity, O Gylippus," said he, "move you in your victory; not for me, who was destined, it seems, to bring the glory I once had to this end, but for the other Athenians; as you well know that the chances of war are common to all, and the Athenians used them moderately and mildly towards you in their prosperity." ”

“ Soon Nicomedia, the ancient capital of Diocletian, surrendered to the Turks. In a battle at Maldepe the Greek Emperor Andronicus III suffered a defeat that led to the loss of all the Asiatic possessions of the Greeks. Nicæa, the second city of the empire, was obliged to yield to the conqueror, who gave the inhabitants the same terms as those accorded to the people of Broussa. The moral effect of this blow was immense, because Nicæa had been the starting point for the revival of Greek civilization and political rule after the taking of Constantinople by the Latins. ”

“ Nikias was completely in the right. The expedition to Sicily was impolitic and foolish. In the Ægæan Sea lay the empire of Athens, and there only it could lie, within reach, close at hand. Every acquisition westward of the Peloponnesos was a source of weakness. Syracuse, even if conquered, would not long remain subject. Whatever might be the result of the expedition, it was sure to be disastrous in the end. ... An event which took place shortly before the departure of the fleet (8-9 June) threw terror into the city: one morning the hermai throughout the city were seen to have been mutilated. ”

“ The colonizing movement which has left traces of Minoan culture in Anatolia, in Palestine, in Sicily, and even in Spain, began, no doubt, at an earlier period, when the Empire of the Sea-Kings was in its full strength; Page 185 but it probably received a considerable impulse at this time of forced emigration. The sudden introduction of the same culture into Cyprus at some period after 1400 B.C. has been referred to conquest by men of the Ægean race, who may very well have been the men of Knossos driven forth by the pressure of altered conditions to find a new home for themselves. ”

“ During the first two centuries after the founding of Naxos, in Sicily, Grecian settlements were extended over the eastern, southern, and western sides of the island, while Him'era was the only Grecian town on the northern coast. These two hundred years were a period of prosperity among the Sicilian Greeks, who dwelt chiefly in fortified towns, and exercised authority over the surrounding native population, which gradually became assimilated in manners, language, and religion to the higher civilization of the Greeks. ”

“ The present capital is Nikosia, the residence of the late Turkish governor. It lies near the centre of the island, close to the site of the ancient Letra, or Leucotra, on a plain287 surrounded with mountains. The streets are narrow and dirty, and many of the grand old mansions falling into decay. It is a truly Oriental city, and is very prettily situated; the air is balmy, dry, and redolent of the odour of laurel and myrtle. Every court-yard has its apple and pear-tree, and in between these masses of rosemary, peeping from beneath the flourishing fig. Its population does not exceed 16,000. ”

“ This was the ablest thing Nicias did in the whole of his conduct of the expedition. For having drawn out all the strength of the enemy, and made the city destitute of men, he set out from Catana, entered the harbor, and chose a fit place for his camp, where the enemy could least incommode him with the means in which they were superior to him, while with the means in which he was superior to them, he might expect to carry on the war without impediment. ”

“ It is thought by many that the summer is hotter in Nikosia than it is in Cairo, notwithstanding that the sea and the snow-clad hills of Asia Minor are at so short a distance. I can only account for this circumstance by the fact that in the valley of the Nile, when the water of the river is rising, there is always a gentle breeze perceptible, and moreover, from the broad expanse of water which covers the country, much more moisture is given off than in the drier atmosphere of Cyprus. ”

“ Cicero, at one time studying Greek oratory in Rhodes, at another speaking Greek as the language best adapted to a Sicilian audience, suggests with sufficient definiteness the eastern and western boundaries of ancient Hellas. Leaving out of consideration more remote colonies, we may content ourselves with including in the Greater Greece of antiquity all the Mediterranean lands and waters from Sicily and Lower Italy, in the west, to Cyprus and the coast of Asia Minor, in the east. ”

“ From Carthage nothing was obtained; why, we do not know; for we shall find the Carthaginians, six years hence, invading Sicily with prodigious forces; and if they entertained any such intentions, it would seem that the presence of Nikias in Sicily must have presented the most convenient moment for executing them. To the Sikels, Egestæans, and all the other allies of Athens, Nikias sent orders for bricks, iron bars, clamps, and everything suitable for the wall of circumvallation, which was to be commenced with the first burst of spring. ”

“ In passing through the streets of the town, I observed through the gates of the high-walled gardens many varieties of fruit trees, apple, pear, and figs; orange, lemon, mulberry, and pomegranate trees also lent their blossoms to give the finishing touches to the scene. The garden walls are high, but not so lofty as to exclude from view the slender white minarets, dark cypresses, and waving palms that they enclose. Half Nikosia is made up of these lovely gardens. Everywhere water-pipes are gently pouring forth their offerings to the thirsty ground, and the whole town is redolent of perfume. ”