Maria Iacovou

Mapping the Ancient Kingdoms of Cyprus.

Cartography and Classical Scholarship
during the Enlightenment

Abstract
The kingdoms of Cyprus remain a hotly debated issue for the archaeologist
and the historian alike due to the fact that the literary sources present a
constantly fluctuating number. The political institution of the autonomous
city-kingdom was abolished by Ptolemy I Soter in the third century BC,
when the island was annexed by the Hellenistic kingdom of Ptolemaic
Egypt. Definitive answers to the question, "when were the Cypriote
kingdoms founded and what was the geographical extent of their
boundaries," are still unavailable. In view of the discrepancies between the
archaeological record and the ancient sources, the decision of at least one
European mapmaker, Pierre Moullart-Sanson, to deviate from the
Ptolemaic prototype of the four ancient districts of the island and to
publish (1718) a map with the ancient Cypriote kingdoms and their
boundaries, is astounding. This paper tries to define the specific ancient
source(s) upon which the scholar-cartographer may have relied, and the
extent to which classical scholarship in Europe, especially during the
Enlightenment, influenced the development of the cartography of Cyprus.

THE ENIGMA OF THE KINGDOMS

foremost r i d d l e that archaeology is expected to elucidate for

the

history

of

a n c i e n t Cyprus

d e v e l o p m e n t of city-kingdoms

concerns the emergence

and

d u r i n g t h e 1 s t m i l l e n n i u m BC.

C o n s i d e r i n g that literary sources play havoc w i t h t h e n u m b e r

and t h e n a m e s of these I r o n Age polities, it is n o t surprising that
archaeological data -fragmentary

and inadequate to this

day-

often add to t h e discrepancy. Consequently, n o h o n e s t scholar

can claim p r e c i s e k n o w l e d g e of t h e n u m b e r , let alone t h e n a m e s
a n d t h e b o u n d a r i e s , of t h e Cypriote k i n g d o m s at any o n e t i m e
d u r i n g t h e i r existence. 1 Definitive answers, to questions such as,
w h e n was a k i n g d o m founded, or w h a t was t h e geographical

Institute for Neohellenic Research N.H.R.F.

Tetradia Ergasias 25/26 (2004)

Eastern Mediterranean

Cartographies
p. 263-285

MARIA IACOVOU

fig. 1: P. Moullart-Sanson, "Cyprus Praestanti nulli cedens Insulae,"

Paris 1718. Courtesy of Mrs Sylvia Ioannou.

extend of its administrative district, are still unavailable.

In view of this, the unwarranted decision of a Parisian
mapmaker to issue in 1718 a map of the Cypriote kingdoms and
their boundaries is, to say the least, astounding. This paper attempts
to assess the scholarly research that must have been conducted in
the name of this unprecedented cartographic project, before the
Cypriote kingdoms' map reached the engraving stage. The inception
of archaeological research in Cyprus dates roughly from the
penultimate decade of the 19 th century. 2 Thus, in the early years of
the 18 th century no material evidence relevant to the kingdoms,
such as inscriptions and coinage, was forthcoming. In order to
propose a cartographic reconstruction of the ancient kingdoms'
geography, the mapmaker and his associates had to rely exclusively
on ancient sources. My intention, therefore, is to scan the literary
corpus of antiquity in search of those sources that must have served
towards the production of this exceptional map, whose theme
renders it unique in the history of the cartography of Cyprus.

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MAPPING THE ANCIENT KINGDOMS OF CYPRUS

fig. 2: Detail of cartouche.

PIERRE MOULLART-SANSON (d.

1730)

In the year 1703 Pierre Moullart, grandson of Nicolas Sanson

d'Abbeville, added the Sanson to his n a m e . Having sired n o
male heirs, the sons of Nicolas Sanson bequeathed to their
nephew, Pierre Moullart, the family's geographical stock and the
duty to preserve the n a m e of the 'father of French cartography'. 3
Neither Nicolas Sanson n o r his sons are credited w i t h the
production of a m a p of Cyprus. 4 Hence, the m a p of the island
that Pierre issued in 1718 did not belong to the inherited stock;
it was in all respects original. The m a p carries the names as well
as the boundaries (albeit conjectural) of n i n e k i n g d o m s (Fig. I ) . 5
A lengthy text confined w i t h i n the cartouche (Fig. 2) explains
in Latin that in antiquity the island had cities, w h i c h functioned
as the seats of n i n e kingdoms. 6
O n e can claim w i t h conviction that this was the first m a p of
Cyprus that Pierre had issued but not the last. In 1720, only t w o
years after the first, he published a second m a p of Cyprus, this
time w i t h legends in French instead of Latin (Fig. 3). 7 Curiously,
the two maps resuscitate an out-of-date outline of the island
ascribed to Paolo Forlani Veronese. Forlani was active in Venice
during the dramatic years of the 1560s that led to the Ottoman
invasion of Cyprus in 1570. 8 A Latin k i n g d o m from the 12 t h to

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MARIA IACOVOU

fig. 3: - Moullart-Sanson, "L'Isle (et autrefois Royaume) de Chypre," Paris

1720. Courtesy of the Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation.

the 1 5 t h century, t h e island was subsequently a d m i n i s t e r e d by

the Republic of Venice (1489-1570) and fell to the O t t o m a n s in
1571. As a result of the Turco-Venetian conflict, t h e t h i r d
quarter of the 16 t h century b e c a m e the 'golden age' of Cypriote
cartography. 9 Issued in 1570, Forlani's m a p illustrates t h e
island's eleven (administrative?) districts, and Moullart-Sanson's
second m a p of Cyprus follows its p r o t o t y p e in t e r m s of t h e
contents, as well as the s h a p e . 1 0
It is not surprising that Moullart-Sanson's Cyprus maps share
the same dimensions (345 490 m m ) . They are large but not
folding maps of the size one expects to find in atlases. They have,
for example, nearly the same dimensions as the 1573 Abraham
Ortelius' m a p of Cyprus (370 495mm) (Fig. 4 ) . 1 1 This should
explain w h y Andreas and J u d i t h Stylianou expected to find
Moullart-Sanson's Cyprus maps in atlases: "The two maps of
Moullart-Sanson appear to be rather rare and w e have not been
able to trace t h e m in any atlas." 1 2 It ought to be noted that a copy
of the kingdoms' map, which was auctioned in Germany in 1998,
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MAPPING THE ANCIENT KINGDOMS OF CYPRUS

fig. 4: Abraham Ortelius, "Cypri Insulae Nova Descript. 1573," Theatrum

Orbis Terrarum, Antwerp 1574. Courtesy of Mrs Sylvia Ioannou.
was described as "from a composite atlas with additional margins
added at sides and bottom." 1 3 I have received confirmation,
however, by no less an authority than Monique Pelletier, that
Moullart-Sanson never published an atlas. 14 For what purpose,
then, did he issue two large maps of Cyprus? Francis Herbert,
Curator of Maps at the Royal Geographical Society in London,
suggested that the two maps might have been destined to
compliment the publication of a new book. 1 5 For instance, the
pair could have been engraved as illustrations for a monograph
on the history of Cyprus since antiquity. This hypothesis becomes
more plausible if we recall that at least one such treatise, J o h a n n
Paul Reinhard's Vollstndige Geschichte des Kningreichs
Cypern
(Erlangen and Leipzig 1766, 1768), which was published in the
second half of the 18 t h century, contains a pair of folding maps
of the island: 'Cypri Facies Antiqua' (236 327 m m ) is dressed
with ancient contents and 'Cypri Facies Hodierna' (367 477
m m ) w i t h contemporary contents. 1 6

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MARIA IACOVOU

CARTOGRAPHY DURING THE CENTURY OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT17

A short note on the milieu of Moullart-Sanson's cartographic

career in Paris is essential in understanding the principles of his
w o r k . As a result of the foundation of the Royal Academy of
Sciences (in 1666) by Louis XIV, the Sun King, the 18 t h century
became a geographically fertile time in France. Cartography was
transformed into an intellectual pursuit and scholar-geographers
applied careful scrutiny to their sources. 1 8 The period of the
Enlightenment, however, can hardly claim any significant
improvements, as far as the m a p of Cyprus is concerned. Ever
since 1573, w h e n Giacomo Franco's cartographic masterpiece
was published by Abraham Ortelius, n o European cartographer
had tried to do better w i t h a Cyprus land-map than to copy this
late 16th-century prototype (Fig. 4 as above), w h i c h -besides
h a v i n g perfected t h e island's o u t l i n e - h a d u p d a t e d t h e
toponymie record of Cyprus. 1 9 The repetitive copying of
Ortelius' Cyprus m a p of 1573, w h i c h resulted as a rule in
inferior products, continued unabated for almost as long as the
island r e m a i n e d a neglected Ottoman province (1571-1879). The
next major development in the cartography of Cyprus took place
in 1851, w h e n the British Admiralty published the sea-chart that
was the result of Captain Thomas Graves' hydrographical survey
of 1849. 20
Engraved in Paris in the first quarter of the 18 t h century,
Moullart-Sanson's curious map of the Cypriote kingdoms had no
ambition towards innovative cartography: it was an historical
document. The peculiar political institution of the Iron Age
kingdoms of Cyprus was abolished between 310-294 BC by
Ptolemy I Soter, and the island was annexed to the newly founded
Hellenistic kingdom of Ptolemaic Egypt. 21 Almost three centuries
later -after the end of the Civil War in 30 BC- Augustus made
Cyprus part of the Roman Empire. As a senatorial province (since
22 BC), Cyprus was divided into four administrative districts:
Salaminia, Lapithia, Amathusia and Paphia. Every time European
cartographers had reason to illustrate the island's ancient
geography, their practice was standard: faithful to the description

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MAPPING THE ANCIENT KINGDOMS OF CYPRUS

of Claudius Ptolemy (5, 14.5), the unchallenged authority of

ancient geography and renaissance cartography, w h o lived in
Alexandria under the Empire {circa AD 90-168), they indicated
these four administrative districts. 22 They can be seen clearly on
a 16 th century small woodcut that accompanies the description of
Cyprus in a bilingual edition of Strabo's Geography, translated
into Latin by Gulielmus Xylandrus (Fig. 5). 2 3 Another, 17 t h century
example from Jodocus Hondius Atlas Minor, illustrates 'ancient'
Cyprus and below six Aegean islands in insets (Fig. 6). 2 4
Neither the p r i m a r y inspiration that led to the p r o d u c t i o n of
the k i n g d o m s ' map, n o r the specific information of the names
of the n i n e k i n g d o m s could have b e e n attained from Claudius
Ptolemy. In Ptolemy's Geography the w o r d basileio
(regnum)
25
does not even exist in relation to Cyprus. Strabo (.circa 63 BC
- AD 25), on the other hand, offers the following hint about the
ancient k i n g d o m s : 'The Cypriotes w e r e first ruled in their
several cities by kings, but since the Ptolemaic kings became
lords over Egypt, Cyprus too passed to t h e m ' (Strabo 14, 6). It
is ironic to t h i n k that this vague statement r e m a i n s the safest

fig. 5: 'Cyprus' in Henricus Petrus (publisher), Strabonis Rerum Geographicarum libri septemdecim, Basle 1571- Courtesy of the Bank of
Cyprus Cultural Foundation.

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MARIA IACOUVOU

fig. 6: 'Cyprus' in Jodocus Hondius Atlas Minor, Amsterdam l6l0 (Latin

edition). Courtesy of the Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation.

information a cautious scholar would use to this day but it

would have been of n o help to Moullart-Sanson. The political
geography of pre-Roman or pre-Ptolemaic Cyprus had never
been m a p p e d before. Moullart-Sanson was not indebted to any
of his European predecessors for the m a p of the Cypriote
kingdoms. Being a child of the Enlightenment's 'positive
geography', h e was led by the principle that "the physical w o r l d
could be m a p p e d by means of m e a s u r e m e n t and the rational
analysis of all sources, be they literary, mathematical, or
cartographic." 2 6 In fact, as w e will see below, his sources for the
map of the ancient Cypriote k i n g d o m s w e r e entirely literary.
THE WRITTEN SOURCES

The earliest available textual sources on the Iron Age k i n g d o m s

of Cyprus are not Greek. They are Assyrian royal inscriptions,
w h i c h claim that in 707 BC the kings of Cyprus, w h o may have
been as m a n y as seven, offered their submission to Sargon II. 2 7

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MAPPING THE ANCIENT KINGDOMS OF CYPRUS

Thirty-five years later, in 673/2 BC, w h e n Esarhaddon (682-668)

was o n the t h r o n e of the Assyrian empire, the n u m b e r of the
tribute-paying k i n g d o m s of the island had risen to ten. In this
instance, the royal p r i s m of Esarhaddon treats us to a complete
list of their names and the names of their kings. The ten
k i n g d o m s have been identified as Idalion, Chytroi, Salamis,
Paphos, Soloi, Kourion, Tamassos, Ledra, Kartihadasti ('the n e w
city', traditionally identified w i t h Kition), and Noure (possibly
Amathous). 2 8 Surprisingly, n o other source in antiquity ever
repeats this n u m b e r or offers an identical list of n a m e s for the
kingdoms. Regrettably, two most promising Greek treatises o n
the k i n g d o m s of Cyprus, namely Aristotle's On the
Constitution
of the Cypriotes and Theophrastus' On Cypriote Kingship, w e r e
as lost to Moullart-Sanson as they r e m a i n to us. 2 9 Aristotle,
besides being the earliest authority k n o w n to have devoted an
exclusive treatise on the subject of the Cypriote polities, was
furthermore active in the 4 t h century BC, w h e n k i n g d o m s still
existed in Cyprus.
In any case, Pierre Moullart-Sanson did not have access to
Esarhaddon's catalogue of ten. Rendered in Akkadian cuneiform,
the p r i s m inscription was first deciphered by George Smith and
was published in 1871. 3 0 I k n o w of only o n e scholar, w h o was
intrigued by Moullart-Sanson's m a p . I am referring to the late
epigraphist Olivier Masson and the article La gographie
des
royaumes chypriotes chez les modernes, w h i c h h e co-authored
w i t h Antoine Hermary. 3 1 Masson acknowledged the historical
value of the m a p but claimed that the French cartographer's
sources w e r e essentially Strabo and Pliny the Elder. Since w e
have already c o m m e n t e d on Strabo (above), w e can n o w look
into Naturalis Historiae. Pliny states that Cyprus was formerly
the seat of n i n e k i n g d o m s novem regnorum sedem: 5, 35.129).
Unfortunately, h e does not proceed to n a m e the n i n e kingdoms,
but writes, instead, that the island in his time (AD 1 st century)
had fifteen towns (oppida in ea XV: 5, 35.130), w h i c h h e
presents by name. 3 2
In short, Claudius Ptolemy discloses n o t h i n g about Cypriote
kingdoms; Strabo ignores the n u m b e r of the kingdoms; Pliny

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claims there w e r e n i n e but does not record their names. Equally

vague references, w h i c h repeat the n u m b e r nine, can b e found
in other authors w h o are Pliny's contemporaries but the names
of n i n e Cypriote k i n g d o m s are n o w h e r e to be found. 3 3 Although
no such source exists in the surviving literary record of
antiquity, this sad reality has b e e n handsomely concealed from
history textbooks. This, and the fact that it has not yet been
unanimously acknowledged that the n u m b e r of the k i n g d o m s
never increased beyond the ten listed by Esarhaddon early in
the 7 t h century BC (they dropped to n i n e and later still to
seven), 3 4 has led to a series of fictitious reconstructions of the
political status of the island in the Cypro-Archaic period. 3 5

DlODORUS

SlCULUS

If one goes through each and every one of the extant sources in
Greek and Latin that contain information as to kings or
kingdoms of ancient Cyprus, one will discover in one's
amazement that only a first-century BC literary source provides
the names of as many as seven out of the nine kingdoms: the
Bibliotheke
Historike
(hereafter the Library)
of Diodorus
Siculus. Curiously, Diodorus states, but only once w h e r e he
relates events of the year 351 BC, that there were nine important
cities in Cyprus and that each was governed by a king and all
kings were subject to the King of Persia (16, 41.4). Nevertheless,
he does not n a m e the nine city-kingdoms in this or in any other
passage. One needs to persevere through the extant books of the
Library in order to collect references to kings w h o ruled over
seven different Cypriote kingdoms. These are Kition, Marion,
Soloi, Salamis, Amathus, Paphos and Lapithos.
In describing the events of the year 315 BC that led to the
u l t i m a t e a b o l i t i o n of t h e k i n g d o m s , D i o d o r u s gives an
unexpected reference to a Lapithios and a Kerynitis basileus in
the same passage (19, 59.1). Nevertheless, w h e n in the year 313
BC Ptolemy I began eliminating the Cypriote kings, Diodorus
names only Praxippus as 'king of Lapithia and ruler of Kerynia'

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MAPPING THE ANCIENT KINGDOMS OF CYPRUS

(19, 79.4). Lapithos and Kerynia are two loci that lie next to
each other on the n o r t h coast. It is not possible to accept that
both of t h e m functioned as the capitals of two different political
units at the same time. Moreover, literary as well as numismatic
evidence claim that Lapithos, but not Kerynia, was a k i n g d o m
to the end of the 4 t h century BC. 36 If the Periplous of Skylax
could b e dated w i t h certainty to the 4 t h century BC, it would
provide the earliest w r i t t e n reference to a city (not a k i n g d o m )
n a m e d Kerynia. 3 7

SHORT OF TWO KINGDOMS

Returning n o w to the k i n g d o m s ' map, w e take note of the fact

that the names of n i n e k i n g d o m s have b e e n r e n d e r e d in Latin
in the genitive case: Salamini, Chytri, Lapathi, Solorum,
Paphi,
Curii, Amathi, Citii, and Mali Regnum. To dare contemplate
m a p p i n g the territorial extent of n i n e kingdoms, MoullartSanson had to establish first their names. The Library, besides
being the earliest extant Greek source that refers to n i n e
k i n g d o m s and names as m a n y as seven, had b e e n edited (twice)
and was available in a Latin translation by l604 3 8 - m o r e than a
century p r i o r to the map's production. Assuming that our
scholar-cartographer had scanned the Library, he begun by
accommodating on the m a p the same seven k i n g d o m s to w h i c h
Diodorus refers by n a m e (Kition, Marion, Soloi, Salamis,
Amathus, Paphos and Lapithos), but was wise enough not to
delineate a separate territory for a k i n g d o m of Kerynia (a locus
'Cerania' is found w i t h i n the territory of the k i n g d o m of
Lapithos).
Nevertheless, h e was still short of two k i n g d o m s . Neither a
k i n g d o m of Kourion nor o n e of Chytroi are k n o w n to Diodorus.
What other sources did Moullart-Sanson analyse in order to
r o u n d up the n u m b e r w i t h Kourion and Chytroi? Kourion was
easy. Herodotus' Histories contain the earliest Greek reference
to a k i n g d o m of Kourion. In describing the revolt of Onesilus
of Salamis and other Cypriote kings against Persian rule in

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499/8 BC, Herodotus (5, 113.1) refers to the king of Kourion

Stesenor w h o , in the midst of battle, betrayed the cause of the
revolt. During the Enlightenment, European scholarship was
thoroughly familiar w i t h the w o r k of Herodotus. As an example,
I m e n t i o n that in 1715, only three years before the publication
of the k i n g d o m s ' map, Samuel Luchtman had published in
Leiden a folio edition of the Histories Herodoti
Halicarnassei
Historiarum Libri IX) w i t h a Latin translation.

CHYTROI INSTEAD OF IDALION

W h e r e did Moullart-Sanson locate a source that claimed Chytroi

as the seat of a kingdom? No source, other than Esarhaddon's
royal p r i s m that lists Kitrusi among the ten kingdoms, refers to
a k i n g d o m of Chytroi. Neither archaeological excavations, n o r
epigraphical testimonies have established that Chytroi was a
city-kingdom. The remaining decisive factor is coinage. Already
before the e n d of the 6 t h century BC, one after the other the
Cypriote kings w e r e beginning to define and enhance their
royal prerogative by striking coins. No coinage has ever been
attributed to a k i n g d o m of Chytroi. Assuming that it had the
status of a k i n g d o m during the reign of Esarhaddon in the 7 t h
century, Chytroi must have been absorbed before the inception
of m o n e t a r y economy. 3 9 The fact is that Moullart-Sanson had n o
legitimate grounds for m a k i n g a k i n g d o m out of Chytroi but h e
had to have a n i n t h k i n g d o m .
This is then the m o m e n t to w o n d e r w h y the k i n g d o m of
Idalion is absent from the m a p of Moullart-Sanson. Idalion, just
like Kourion w e r e k i n g d o m s in the 7 t h century BC, as far as the
Assyrians w e r e concerned. Unlike Chytroi, Idalion and Kourion,
survived into the 5 t h century BC for their kings to issue
distinctive coinage w i t h syllabic Greek legends. 4 0 Nevertheless,
Kourion and Idalion are the two Cypriote k i n g d o m s missing
from Diodorus account. Literary sources are silent as to their
fate. We k n o w from inscriptions that the Phoenician kings of
Kition annexed the k i n g d o m of Idalion early in the 5 t h century

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MAPPING THE ANCIENT KINGDOMS OF CYPRUS

after the failed insurrection of the Cypriotes in 4 9 9 / 8 BC. We

do not k n o w w h e n , h o w or by w h o m was the k i n g d o m of
Kourion abolished, but it was certainly not by Ptolemy I.
Kourion had been absorbed before the end of the 4 t h century,
w h e n Ptolemy I eliminated the last of the kings and the
institution of the city-kingdoms. 4 1
Idalion, an inland k i n g d o m w i t h n o access to the sea, did not
m a k e it on the m a p of Moullart-Sanson, because neither
Herodotus n o r Diodorus, or any other surviving ancient source
for that matter, identify Idalion as the seat of a k i n g d o m . Thus,
Chytroi, an inland city, became the n i n t h k i n g d o m on the m a p .
Moullart-Sanson could have chosen it because of its pree m i n e n c e in the w r i t t e n sources: Chytroi is explicitly m e n t i o n e d
by Claudius Ptolemy as one of the three inland cities of
Cyprus. 4 2 As such, it is regularly featured on European maps
based on Ptolemy's Geography. Chytroi is also o n the list of
Pliny's fifteen towns of Cyprus. The decisive clue is given by the
cartographer himself: in the cartouche of his m a p , h e
acknowledges that he applied a version of the Roman roadsystem from Peutinger's tables. Chytroi are, indeed, quite clearly
m a r k e d as Citari on the
Peutingeriana.4^

MALI REGNUM: WHY

EAST F

We still have to explain the p r o v e n a n c e of the name, and the

location o n the map, of Mali Regnum.
Malos is not a
geographical locus of Cyprus; it belongs in Cilicia. The mystery
was solved by the erudite Masson. 44 In Book XII of the Library
Diodorus describes events of the year 454 BC and refers to t w o
of the city-kingdoms: o n e is Kition, the other is Marion, but in
this particular instance the Greek codex of the Library r e n d e r s
Marion as Malon (in the accusative), probably confusing the
n a m e w i t h that of the Cilician Malos. 45 This error, w h i c h was
recognized and corrected into Marion in editions of the Library
that postdate the production of Moullart-Sanson's map, proves
that the cartographer (and his associates) had consulted an early

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MARIA IACOVOU

edition of Diodorus' Library.

Moullart-Sanson had unwittingly copied an error but this was
hardly his m a i n p r o b l e m w i t h Marion. None of the ancient
sources would give h i m a clue as to w h e r e this k i n g d o m was
located. The Cypriote k i n g d o m s w e r e k n o w n by the n a m e of
their capital city. The geographical location of the other cities
was not in doubt because even after the abolition of kingship
Salamis, Kition, Kourion, Lapithos, Amathus, Soloi, Paphos and
Chytroi continued to function as urban centres during the
Hellenistic and Roman era. Thus, their co-ordinates w e r e
calculated by Claudius Ptolemy in his description of the island.
This, however, is not the case w i t h Marion. Our knowledge as
to w h e r e it stood r e m a i n s imperfect to this day. It was only in
the late 19 t h century that Marion was suspected of lying west
under the village of Polis in the bay of Chrysochou. Still, as
recently as 1997, the director of P r i n c e t o n University's
excavations in the area w r o t e that "the identification of this site
w i t h Marion is based on a m o d e r n consensus of scholarly
opinion, not on concrete fact." 46
Diodorus records that the kingdom of Marion was raised to the
ground by order of Ptolemy I Soter (circa 312 BC) and its
population transferred to Paphos (19, 79.4). One assumes that if
its population was transferred to Paphos, Marion could not have
been situated on the opposite end of the island, where MoullartSanson chose to locate it. Some other reasoning must have
compelled h i m to do so, and this was the association of Marion
with Arsinoe. Writing five hundred years after Diodorus,
Stephanus Byzantius (AD 5 t h century) had access to information,
which allowed h i m to disclose that Arsinoe was a Cypriote city
previously named Marion. 4 7 Apparently, Ptolemy II Philadelphos
(285-246 BC) founded a new city on the ruins of Marion, which
he named Arsinoe after his sister (and wife) Arsinoe II, w h o was
deified before her death in 270 BC. The name Arsinoe, however,
was given to an u n k n o w n number of places in Cyprus (no fewer
than three) 4 8 and the ancient geographers fail to identify one of
them with Marion. In his description of Cyprus, Ptolemy (5,
14.4) refers to one Arsinoe to the west, beyond Soloi. Pliny (5,

276

MAPPING THE ANCIENT KINGDOMS OF CYPRUS

35.130) enumerates an Arsinoe amongst the contemporary cities

of the island and refers separately to Marion as a city that had
existed in the past. He is unaware of its geographical location and
the connection between Marion and Arsinoe eludes him. Strabo,
however, mentions three Arsinoe: the first is a port city on the
east coast near Salamis; the second is on the south coast below
the sanctuary of Aphrodite at Palaepaphos; the third matches
Ptolemy's Arsinoe on the west coast. 49 Yet, he associates n o n e of
the three with an earlier city and kingdom named Marion.
The r e l a t i o n b e t w e e n the various Arsinoe of Cyprus
- c o m m e m o r a t e d on inscriptions or m e n t i o n e d by ancient
a u t h o r s - and the Arsinoe that occur on the p r e - m o d e r n maps of
Cyprus will not be resolved in this paper; it will require a longt e r m r e s e a r c h . Suffice it to say that Moullart-Sanson
accommodated on his kingdoms' map n o fewer than four loci by
the n a m e of Arsinoe - though n o place could have b o r n this
n a m e until well after the abolition of the kingdoms and the
inception of Ptolemaic rule. One is to the west w i t h i n the
borders of the Paphian k i n g d o m and is defined as plain Arsinoe
(in accord with Ptolemy and with Strabo's third Arsinoe). The
second, b e l o w Antiqua
Paphos
( b e t w e e n Zephyria
and
Hierocepsis) is Arsinoe Statio (in accord with Strabo's second
Arsinoe). The third, Marium postea Arsinoe, is a locus on the
south coast w i t h i n the limits of the k i n g d o m of Amathus. The
fourth is Arsinoe Urbs et Portus on the east coast between
Salamis and Leucolla (in accord with Strabo's first Arsinoe), o n
the site w h e r e Medieval Ammochostos was destined to grow,
and it is the only o n e designated w i t h i n the borders of Mali
Regnum.
The identification of Marion w i t h one of these Arsinoe must
have lingered inconclusively in the m i n d of Moullart-Sanson.
Eventually, he opted to associate the k i n g d o m of Marion w i t h
Arsinoe-Famagusta to the east. Having m a d e up his m i n d on
this, h e then had to furnish Mali Regnum w i t h a territory
w o r t h y of a k i n g d o m . To do so, h e run - i n the most
unconvincing m a n n e r - an awkward b o u n d a r y line from just to
the south of Salamis and all the way up to the n o r t h coast. The

277

MARIA IACOVOU

k i n g d o m of Marion was thus e n d o w e d w i t h access to the sea on

three fronts - o n the north, east and south coast- and w i t h most
of the fertile plain of Mesaoria. Salamini regnum was left w i t h
nothing but the peninsula of Carpasia.

CARTOGRAPHIC SCHOLARSHIP

Pierre Moullart-Sanson, gographe du roi, died childless in 1730,

a decade after h e had p r i n t e d his second Cyprus m a p . Wishing,
in his turn, to preserve the cartographic heritage of the Sanson
family, h e designated in his will three friends to succeed to the
Sanson stock: they w e r e a priest, a lawyer and a professor of
mathematics. 5 0 Of the three it was Gilles, the mathematician,
w h o was to carry on w i t h the m a p business and w h o , along w i t h
his son Didier, founded the most famous 18 t h century family of
French Mapmakers: the Robert de Vaugondy. Like the Sansons
before Pierre, the Vaugondy did not p r o d u c e a m a p of Cyprus,
though w e may assume that they inherited the copperplates of
the two Cyprus maps.
As far as French cartography is concerned, Pierre MoullartSanson is completely overshadowed by his grandfather and his
spiritual heirs, the Vaugondy. In the field of the cartography of
Cyprus, however, he had a well-concealed reason that led h i m to
produce an original cartographic illustration of the island's
political status in the Classical period. Having survived for the
better part of the 1 s t millennium BC, the system of the
autonomous city-kingdoms of Iron Age Cyprus was terminated by
Ptolemy I Soter shortly after the close of the 4 t h century (by 294
BC). Any map, which attempts to antedate by four to five hundred
years Strabo's and Ptolemy's geography of Roman Cyprus, is not a
mere faithful transfer onto the medium of the copper plate of an
existing model that anyone in the map trade could have copied.
The ancient kingdoms' map, which bears the signature of Pierre
Moulart-Sanson, is the end result of original scholarly research
amidst a collection of antique data and of scholastic scrutiny of
the information provided by often conflicting or diverging

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MAPPING THE ANCIENT KINGDOMS OF CYPRUS

literary sources. It is more than likely that in this endeavour

Moullart-Sanson was not by himself. Nevertheless, the project in
the name of which he issued the two Cyprus maps, remains a
mystery. Apparently, it was never realised, and the two maps went
unnoticed. I do not think they were ever officially traded, which
would explain why they are so rare.
Every o n e of the few k n o w n copies of the k i n g d o m s ' m a p is
missing two lines from the legend enclosed w i t h i n the
cartouche. 5 1 These two lines w e r e haphazardly eliminated from
the copper plate. Could w e h o p e to find a copy of the m a p that
had b e e n through Moullart-Sanson's p r i n t i n g press before h e
had reason to eliminate those two lines from the legend? And if
w e do, is it going to shed light on the unrealised but certainly
ambitious project in w h i c h this r e m a r k a b l e scholar-cartographer
was involved.

A DISTURBING REALISATION

On another level -irrespective of Moullart-Sanson's conjectural

Cyprus project- the exercise of having to search for the source
material of the k i n g d o m s ' m a p discloses some very disturbing
and well-concealed truths. The Cypriote kingdoms, and their
very antique and conservative institution, w e r e abolished by
Ptolemy I following his confrontation w i t h another of the
Successors, Antigonus and his son Demetrios Poliorcetes. By the
time w h e n the intelligentsia of the Hellenistic w o r l d became
interested in the newly acquired island colony of Ptolemaic
Egypt, reliable sources regarding the original, the Archaic
Cypriote k i n g d o m s ( 7 t h - 6 t h c e n t u r i e s BC), h a d b e c o m e
unavailable to the Greek authors of antiquity. In the 1 st century
BC, at about the time the island was to b e c o m e a province of
the Roman Empire, knowledge as to a period, w h e n Cyprus was
divided into ten k i n g d o m s was forever lost. Furthermore,
though the m e m o r y of an era, w h e n there w e r e n i n e k i n g d o m s
was vaguely retained, nobody seemed to have had a record of
all their n i n e names or those of the n i n e royal families.

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MARIA IACOVOU

Diodorus had limited and fragmentary knowledge even as to the

Cypriote kingdoms that existed during the conflict of the
Successors in the late 4 th century. It is shocking to contemplate
that no surviving Greek source can tell us explicitly how many
(their number) and which kingdoms (their names) were in
existence, when Alexander the Great sought the alliance of the
Cypriote kings during the siege of Tyre in 332 BC.
Zealous scholars during the Renaissance and subsequently
during the period of the Enlightenment -for example, Thomaso
Porcacchi in the late 16 th century and Johannes van Meurs in the
17 th century- 52 began to make their own assumptions as to
which Cypriote cities had once been seats of kingdoms. Before
Moullart-Sanson sat down to engrave the kingdoms' map in the
second decade of the 18 th century, he and his scholar associates
exercised considerable scrutiny over the sources in order to
select nine cities that had functioned as capitals of the Cypriote
kingdoms. In the end, they too, gave in to assumptions since no
extant source had preserved the nine names of the Cypriote
kingdoms. We will never know to what extent Aristotle's lost
treatise could have remedied such a vast historical gap.
Maria Iacovou
University of Cyprus

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MAPPING THE ANCIENT KINGDOMS OF CYPRUS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

CL. BAURAIN, "Un autre n o m pour Amathonte de Chypre," Bulletin de

Correspondence Hellnique 105 (1981): 361-72.
R. BORGER, Die Inschriften Asarhaddons, Knigs von Assyrien (Gratz:
Archiv fr Orientforschung, 1956).
WILLIAM CHILDS, "The Iron Age Kingdom of Marion," Bulletin of the
American Schools of Oriental Research 308 (1997): 37-48.
CLAUDE DELAVAL COBHAM. Excerpta

Cypria. Materials

for a History

of

Cyprus (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1908).

DIODORUS OF SICILY, Diodorus of Sicily in twelve volumes, translated by
C. H. Oldfather, The Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge: Harvard University
Press, I933-I967).
EINAR GJERSTAD, The Swedish Cyprus Expedition. Vol. IV, Part 2. The
Cypro-Geometric, Cypro-Archaic and Cypro-Classical Periods (Stockholm:
The Swedish Cyprus Expedition, 1948).
ELIZABETH GORING, A Mischievous Pastime. Digging in Cyprus in the
Nineteenth Century (Edinburgh: The National Museum of Scotland, 1988).
GEORGE HILL, Catalogue of the Greek Coins of Cyprus (London: The
British Museum, 1904).
GEORGE HILL, A History of Cyprus, vol. I (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1940).
MARIA IACOVOU, "The European Cartographers of Cyprus (l6th-19th
centuries)," in Byzantine Medieval Cyprus, ed. by D. Papanikola-Bakirtzis and
M. Iacovou (Nicosia: Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation, 1998), 289-323
MARIA IACOVOU, "European Cartographers as Classical Scholars," Cahier
du Centre d'tudes Chypriotes 30 (2000): 79-94.
MARIA IACOVOU, "From ten to naught. Formation, Consolidation and
Abolition of Cyprus' Iron Age Polities," Cahier du Centre
d'tudes
Chypriotes (Hommage Marguerite Yon. Actes du colloque international
'Le temps des royaumes de Chypre, XIII-IV s. av. J . - C ) 32 (2002): 73-87.
JONATHAN KAGAN, "The Archaic and Early Classical Coinage of Kourion,"
Cahier du Centre dtudcs Chypriotes 29 (1999): 33-43OLIVIER MASSON, "Encore les royaumes chypriotes de la liste
d'Esarhaddon," Cahier du Centre d'tudes Chypriotes 18 (1992): 27-9
OLIVIER MASSON et ANTOINE HERMARY,

"La Gographie

des

Royaumes

Chypriotes chez les Modernes," Cahier du Centre d'tudes Chypriotes 17

(1992): 23-8.
JOHANNES VAN MEURS, Creta, Cyprus, Rhodus (Amstelodami: apud A.
Wolfgangum, 1675).
MARY SPONBERG PEDLEY,

Bel et Utile.

The Work

of the Robert

de

Vaugondy Family of Mapmakers (Tring, Herts: Map Collector Publications,

1992).
PAULA PERLMAN, "City and Sanctuary in Ancient Greece. The Theorodokia
in the Ploponnse," Hypomnemata 121 (Gttingen, 2002).
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MARIA IACOVOU

PLINY THE ELDER, Natural History, 10 vols, translated by H. Rackham, The

Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1967).
THOMASO PORCACCHI, L' Isole Pi Famose del Mondo (In Venetia:
appresso gli heredi di Simon Galignani, 1590).
CLAUDIUS PTOLEMAEUS, Claudii Ptolemaei Alexandrini Geographiae Libri
Odo Graeco-Latini, ed. Petrus Montanus (Amstelodammi: sumpt. C. Nicolai
& J. Hondij, 1605).
A. T. REYES, Archaic Cyprus. A Study of the Textual and Archaeological
Evidence (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994).
D. W. RUPP, "Vive le Roi. The Emergence of the State in Iron Age
Cyprus," in Western Cyprus. Connections, An archaeological symposium
held at Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, March 21-22,
1986, ed. by David W. Rupp (Goteborg: P. Astrms Frlag, 1987), 147-61.
STRABO, The Geography of Strabo in eight volumes, translated by H.
Rackham, The Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge: Harvard University
Press, 1917-1932).
ANDREAS STYLIANOU and JUDITH STYLIANOU, The History

of the

Cartography

of Cyprus (Nicosia: Cyprus Research Center, 1980).

P. J. STYLIANOU, The Age of the Kingdoms. A Political History of Cyprus
in the Archaic and Classical periods (Nicosia: Archbishop Makarios III
Foundation, 1992).
K. HADJIIOANNOU,

[Ancient

Cyprus in Greek Sources] (Nicosia: Sacred Archibishopric of Cyprus, 1971).

M. YON et F. MALBRAN-LABAT, "La stle de Sargon Larnaca," in A. Caubet
(d.), Khorsabad, le palais de Sargon H, roi dAssyrie, Actes du colloque
organis au muse du Louvre 1994 (Paris: La Documentation franaise,
1995), 159-68.

282

MAPPING THE ANCIENT KINGDOMS OF CYPRUS

AGNOWLEDGEMENTS

An earlier version of this paper had already appeared in Cahier du Centre

d'tudes Chypriotes 30 (2000): 79-94, when the editors of the present
volume invited me to submit this piece of research on the political
geography of ancient Cyprus. It was after considerable hesitation that I
gave in to their kind, but firm, request. In retrospect, I wish to express my
sincere thanks to them for their patience and perseverance. They gave me
the chance to correct errors, to update the bibliography and to rework and
revise the entire paper.

NOTES

1. Recently discussed in IACOVOU 2002.

2. Consult GORING.
3. PEDLEY, 21.
4. STYLIANOU 1980,

98.

5. I take this opportunity to introduce a previously unrecorded copy of

the rare map of the Cypriote kingdoms. The map belonged to the late
Homer Habibis and is now in the collection of Mrs Sylvia Ioannou. For
permission to illustrate it in this article, I am indebted to Mrs Ioannou and
to her curator Artemis Skoutari.
6. STYLIANOU 1980, 99-100 [129].
7. Figures 3 and 5-6 were kindly provided by the curators of the Bank
of Cyprus Cultural Foundation map collection in Nicosia.
8. STYLIANOU 1980,
9. IACOVOU 1998,

34

[39]

290.

10. STYLIANOU 1980, 100 [130].

11. STYLIANOU 1980,
12. STYLIANOU 1980,

60

[66].

101.

13. Reiss and Sohn, Knigstein, Auktion 66/1 (29.10.1998), item 2771.
14. I wish to acknowledge that in my research on Pierre MoullartSanson and his Cyprus maps I sought the assistance of Mme Monique
Pelletier, Conservateur en chef, Dpartement des Cartes et Plans,
Bibliothque Nationale de France, w h o kindly responded to my inquiries
(date of correspondence 14.6.1999)
15. I am grateful to Mr. Francis Herbert for his most helpful suggestions
(date of correspondence 2.6.1999)
283

MARIA IACOVOU

16. STYLIANOU 1980,

17.

PEDLEY,

18.

PEDLEY, 11

19.

IACOVOU 1998,

20.

STYLIANOU 1980,

146

[193-194].

7.
&

14.
290

&

150

303[ 2 0 6 ] ; IACOVOU 1998,

289.

2 1 . STYLIANOU 1992, 4 9 0 ( a n e m i n e n t a n c i e n t h i s t o r i a n , P e t e r S t y l i a n o u
s h o u l d n o t b e c o n f u s e d w i t h t h e late A n d r e a s a n d J u d i t h Stylianou, a u t h o r s
of t h e s e m i n a l w o r k o n The History of the Cartography
of Cyprus. Nicosia
1980).
22. HADJIIOANNOU 1973, 325
23.

STYLIANOU 1980,

68

[74].

24.

STYLIANOU 1980,

86

[99]

[154].

25. I h a v e c o n s u l t e d t h e e d i t i o n of P e t r u s M o n t a n u s , Claudii
Ptolemaei
Alexandrini
Geographiae
Libri Octo Graeco-Latini,
Amsterdam l605 (in the
c o l l e c t i o n of t h e B a n k of C y p r u s Cultural F o u n d a t i o n , Nicosia).
26.

PEDLEY,

27.

GJERSTAD, 4 4 9 ;

9-

28.

BORGER, 60;

29.

HADJIIOANNOU 1975,

YON and

MALBRAN-LABAT.

BAURAIN; MASSON; REYES,

344

[90],

346

58.
[91].

30. C o n s u l t MASSON a n d HERMANY, 23 ( n o t e 3).

31.

MASSON a n d

HERMANY.

32. HADJIIOANNOU 1980a, 344 [292].

33 For e x a m p l e i n t h e Chorograffia

of P o m p o n i u s Mela (cf. COBHAM, 3)

34. IACOVOU 2 0 0 2 , 8 0 - 1 .

35. Such is t h e case of a m o d e r n m a p b e a r i n g t h e l e g e n d 'Map of C y p r u s

d e p i c t i n g t h e m a x i m u m p o s s i b l e k i n g d o m s i n t h e C y p r o - A r c h a i c II p e r i o d '
(RUPP, 168), w h i c h i n t r o d u c e s t h e t h e o r e t i c a l b o u n d a r i e s of 15 k i n g d o m s !
36. T h e r e f e r e n c e t o a Kerynitis
basileus i n D i o d o r u s is a u n i c u m (cf.
STYLIANOU 1992, 525) a n d w i l l r e m a i n u n r e s o l v e d as l o n g as w e p o s s e s s n o
o t h e r r e f e r e n c e t o a k i n g o r a k i n g d o m of K e r y n i a . T h e a s s o c i a t i o n of
K e r y n i a w i t h a k i n g n a m e d T h e m i s o n is a t o t a l l y unjustified a s s u m p t i o n of
Engel. As Hill h a s i n d i c a t e d , 'Engel (Kypros, I, p . 365) c o n j e c t u r e s t h a t t h e
k i n g a b o u t t h i s t i m e w a s T h e m i s o n , t h e C y p r i o t e k i n g t o w h o m Aristotle
d e d i c a t e d h i s " P r o t r e p t i c u s " ( S t o b a e u s , Flor. 9 5 . 2 1 ) . T h e c h i e f r e a s o n for
t h i s c o n j e c t u r e is t h a t w e k n o w t h e n a m e s of t h e k i n g s of all C y p r i o t e
states e x c e p t K e r y n i a a b o u t t h i s t i m e ' (HILL 1940, 158, n o t e 4 ) .
37. HADJIIOANNOU 1973, 326

[155.1].

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MAPPING THE ANCIENT KINGDOMS OF CYPRUS

38. T h e e d i t i o n of H. S t e p h a n u s w i t h a Latin t r a n s l a t i o n of B o o k s I-V,

XI-XX ( H a n a u l 6 0 4 ) ; c o n s u l t L. R h o d o m a n i n v o l . I, xxiii ( E d i t i o n s a n d
T r a n s l a t i o n s ) , Diodorus
of Sicily in twelve
volumes,
t r a n s l a t e d b y C.H.
O l d f a t h e r . T h e L o e b Classical L i b r a r y 1933-1967.
39- IACOVOU 2 0 0 2 , 8 1 .
4 0 . HILL 1904, x l v i i i , 2 4 - 8 ; KAGAN, 33-434 1 . PERLMAN,

272.

42. HADJIIOANNOU 1 9 7 3 , 324 [155].

4 3 . STYLIANOU 1980, 1[2], 100 [129].
44.

MASSON a n d

HERMANY,

24.

4 5 . HADJIIOANNOU 1 9 7 1 , 114 [613].

46.

CHILDS,

37.

47. HADJIIOANNOU 1 9 7 3 , 326 [155.2].

4 8 . HADJIIOANNOU 1 9 8 0 b , 122.
4 9 . HADJIIOANNOU 1 9 7 3 , 316 [153].
50.

PEDLEY, 2 1 .

5 1 . F o u r c o p i e s of t h e k i n g d o m s ' m a p a r e k n o w n t o m e : t h e first ( f r o m
a n u n d i s c l o s e d p r i v a t e c o l l e c t i o n ) is i l l u s t r a t e d i n STYLIANOU 1980, [129] fig.
1 3 1 ; t h e s e c o n d is w i t h t h e D e p a r t e m e n t d e s Cartes et P l a n s , B i b l i o t h q u e
N a t i o n a l e , P a r i s , a n d it w a s i l l u s t r a t e d - b y k i n d p e r m i s s i o n of M m e
M o n i q u e P e l l e t i e r - i n IACOVOU 2000, 92, fig. 1; a t h i r d c o p y w a s i l l u s t r a t e d
b y Reiss a n d S o h n , K n i g s t e i n , i n t h e catalogue for A u k t i o n 6 6 / 1
( 2 9 - 1 0 . 1 9 9 8 ) , a s i t e m 2 7 7 1 ; t h e f o r t h c o p y is i n t h e c o l l e c t i o n of Sylvia
I o a n n o u a n d is i l l u s t r a t e d i n t h i s a r t i c l e .
52. PoRCACCHi, 144; MEURS, 9 8 .

285