Everything about Evagoras totally explained
Evagoras (in Greek: Ευαγόρας) was the king of
Salamis (
410 -
374 BC) in
Cyprus. The son of Nicocles, a previous king of Salamis, he claimed descent from
Teucer, the son of
Telamon and half-brother of
Ajax, and his family had long been rulers of Salamis, although during his childhood Salamis came under
Phoenician control, which resulted in his exile.
While in
Cilicia, Evagoras gathered the support of 50 followers and returned secretly in
410, to gain possession of the throne. Expecting an eventual
Persian response to recapture Cyprus, he cultivated the friendship of the
Athenians, and after
Conon's defeat at the
Battle of Aegospotami he provided him with a refuge. For a time he also maintained friendly relations with
Persia, and secured the aid of
Artaxerxes II for Athens against
Sparta. He took part in the
battle of Cnidus of
394 BC, in which the Spartan fleet was defeated, and for this service his statue was placed by the Athenians side by side with that of Conon in the
Ceramicus. But relations between Evagoras and the Persians became strained. From
391 they were virtually at war. Aided by the Athenians and the Egyptian king
Hakor (Achoris), Evagoras extended his rule over the greater part of Cyprus, crossed over to
Asia Minor, took several cities in Phoenicia, and persuaded the Cilicians to revolt.
One result of the
peace of Antalcidas (
387), to which Evagoras refused to agree, was that the Athenians withdrew their support, since by its terms they recognized the lordship of Persia over Cyprus. For the next ten years Evagoras carried on hostilities single-handed, except for occasional aid from
Egypt, which was likewise threatened by the Persians. The Persian generals
Tiribazus and
Orontes at last invaded Cyprus in
381 BC, with an army far larger than what Evagoras could command. However, Evagoras managed to cut off this force from being resupplied, and the starving troops rebelled. The war then turned in the Persian favor when Evagoras' fleet was destroyed at the
Battle of Citium, and he was compelled to flee to
Salamis. Here, although closely blockaded, Evagoras managed to hold his ground, and took advantage of a quarrel between the two Persian generals to conclude peace (
376). Evagoras was allowed to remain nominally king of Salamis, but in reality a vassal of Persia, to which he was to pay a yearly tribute. The chronology of the last part of his reign is uncertain. In 374 he was assassinated by a eunuch from motives of private revenge.
According to
Isocrates's panegyric, Evagoras was a model ruler, whose aim was to promote the welfare of his state and of his subjects by the cultivation of Greek refinement and civilization. Other contemporary sources --
Diodorus Siculus 14.115, 15.2-9;
Xenophon,
Hellenica 4.8 -- are not as unrestrainedly complimentary.
Although Cypriots were Greeks and their language a dialect of Greek, the
Arcadocypriot, they used to write in an older and more difficult system, called Cypriot syllabary. Evagoras has been called a pioneer of the adoption of the
Greek alphabet in Cyprus in place of the older
Cypriot syllabary.
An Evagoras' coin on a stamp of Republic of Cyprus
Further Information
Get more info on 'Evagoras'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://evagoras.totallyexplained.com">Evagoras Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
