In 30 BC, after the death of
Cleopatra and
Marc Antony,
Cyprus fell under the direct control of
Octavian. But in 22 BC,
Augustus ceded the island to the Senate to be governed by proconsuls of praetorian status. They were generally unpromising senators who rarely reached higher status after their service in
Cyprus.
Cyprus became a modest province and was no more a place of great strategic importance in the
Roman empire. This modesty is reflected by its coinage struck with intermissions from
Augustus to
Caracalla. As no colony was founded on the island, the Cypriote coinage is a
provincial one and does not consist of different city coinages. Though relatively
scarce, it isnonetheless interesting as it takes different forms: it was issued either by the league of Cypriote cities, the
Koinon Kyprion, which of course was in charge of the imperial cult; or by the proconsuls, as a few issues make no reference to
Cyprus on their legends, but have local designs and circulated only in
Cyprus; or directly by the emperor or a member of
his entourage, as other issues make no reference to
Cyprus and have imperial designs, but are only found on the island
Augustan and Tiberian coins are in Latin, Claudian coins are bilingual, the subsequent coinage is in Greek: this development follows a general trend. Civic and
provincial coinages,at least in the eastern
part of the Empire, are the sign of the Hellenic cultural identity.Greek were no more their own masters, but they were proud to be Greek, and issuing coinage in Greek, with local
types, was a way to assert their identity, which remained
intact under the
Roman dominium. It must also be stressed that there were few
Roman citizens settled on the island
https://www.academia.edu/20171468/Cypriot_Coinage_under_Roman_Rule?email_work_card=title