Byzantine Recovery Under Nicephorus Phocas

From the late seventh century Cyprus had lived in an awkward middle position. Under the agreement of 688 between Emperor Justinian II and Caliph Abd al-Malik, the island paid taxes to both Constantinople and the Caliphate. In practice it was exposed to raids from both directions. Cypriots were deported to Asia Minor and Syria at different times, and in 911 an Arab fleet under Damian of Tarsus held the island for four months after Cypriots had helped a Byzantine expedition.

By the 960s the balance of power had shifted. Byzantium was on the offensive across the eastern Mediterranean under Nicephorus II Phocas, a successful general who became emperor in 963. His campaigns pushed the frontier back in Cilicia, the coast of southern Anatolia facing Cyprus, and made the island’s recovery possible.

The reconquest itself was led by the patrikios Niketas Chalkoutzes. Surviving sources say little about how it was carried out, and the date is usually placed in the second half of 965, though it may have been as early as mid 964. Chalkoutzes was probably the first Byzantine governor (strategos) of the restored province, which was organised as a military district, or theme.

The return of full Byzantine rule ended the shared arrangement with the Caliphate. Lefkousia, the city that became Nicosia (Lefkosia, Lefkoşa), grew into the island’s administrative centre. Security improved, and over the next two centuries Cyprus saw a wave of church and monastery building whose painted interiors still survive in many places.

Byzantine rule was not without strain. Governors were sometimes accused of heavy taxation, and revolts broke out in 1042 under Theophilos Erotikos and in 1091 under Rhapsomates, both quickly put down. In 1156 Raynald of Châtillon and the Armenian prince Thoros II plundered the island for three weeks. The Byzantine period finally came to an end in 1184 and 1185, when Isaac Komnenos seized Cyprus and ruled it as his own, cut off from Constantinople.