Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-tj2md Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T04:11:33.123Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Cypriot Kings: Despots or Democrats or...? Remarks on Cypriot Kingship Especially in the Time of Persian Suzerainty

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 December 2017

Andreas Mehl
Affiliation:
Halle/Berlin
Edward Dąbrowa
Affiliation:
Jagiellonian University in Kraków
Get access

Summary

Abstract: In the first part of the contribution current interpretations of Cypriot kingship are critically discussed. In the second part, as far as epigraphical and literary evidence allows, some features of Cypriot royal rule, especially those regarding the kings’ power, are expounded with more or less certainty, and without trying to give a complete picture of Cypriot kingship.

Key words: Cyprus, Cypriot kingship.

This article and that of Christian Körner in the same volume of Electrum go back to papers delivered at the conference “Kleinkönige und starke Verwalter: Macht und Bedeutung lokaler und regionaler Herrschaft im östlichen Mittelmeer und dem Vorderen Orient von der assyrischen bis sasanidischen Zeit,” which was organised by Stefan Hauser and Henning Börm and held in Konstanz on 30 September and 1 October, 2013. Both articles refer to each other. Christian Körner has written a book dealing exhaustively with the Cypriot city kingdoms and Cypriot kingship which will appear in this year, while I have written several articles on Hellenistic Cyprus reverting more or less to the period of the city kings, and a few articles on the Cypriot city kingdoms and the transition from Cyprus of the city kingdoms to Ptolemaic Cyprus. For my present topic, I refer explicitly to my own publications and my articles in press.1 Since in Körner's future book both the historical Cypriot kingdoms and Cypriot city kingship form the central topic, I deliver – in close cooperation with Körner, whom I thank for much advice – only a sketch of what may have been Cypriot city kingship.

I must start by giving two hints important for understanding the topic of this paper: in the period of the ancient Cypriot city kingdoms, as far as we have written evidence at our disposal, the island was under foreign suzerainty, i.e. indirect rule, for a long time that of the Middle Eastern empires of the Assyrians and Persians respectively their kings, and for a short time that of Alexander the Great and some of his first successors.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Jagiellonian University Press
Print publication year: 2017

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×