

warring for the kingdom of Jerusalem. This Lusignan having received the island from the said English king, held it for some time for himself and his descendants.

After the division of the Roman Empire in 395 CE, Cyprus passed into the hands of the eastern emperors, to whom it continued to be subject, with brief intervals, for more than seven centuries. It was administered as a pro-consulship by an official appointed from Antioch, the capital being transferred from Paphos to Salamis (then known as Constantis). Until 632 the island was exceedingly prosperous, but in that year began the period of Arab invasions that continued intermittently for the next three centuries. In 647 the Arabs mastered the island and destroyed Salamis; but they were driven out by the emperor only two years later. In 802 it was again conquered by the Arabs, and it was not restored to the Byzantine empire until 963. Its princes became practically independent, and tyrannized the island until, in 1191, Isaac Commenus, who in 1184 had assumed the title of Despot of Cyprus, provoked the wrath of Richard I of England, by wantonly ill-treating the crusaders. Richard therefore wrested the island from Isaac, whom he took captive. He sold Cyprus to the Knights of the Templars, who resold it to Guy Lusignan, titular king of Jerusalem.

Guy ruled from 1192 until his death in 1194, his brother Amaury succeeding him as king. This dynasty ruled for 300 years. In 1372, after a quarrel between the Venetian and Genoese consuls, the Genoese took Famagusta, the chief commercial city in Cyprus, and held it until 1464. It was however, recovered by James II, and the whole island was reunited under his rule. His marriage with Caterina Cornaro, a Venetian lady of rank, was designed to secure the support of the powerful Republic of Venice; but after his own death and that of his son James II, the sovereignty of the island passed to his new allies. Caterina, unable to contend alone with the Turks, abdicated in favor of the Venetian republic, which took possession in 1489, just four years before the publication of the Chronicle.

After various changes the island came to two brothers. One of them, called Peter, with the assistance of the Catelanians and Gauls, made war upon the city of Alexandria in Egypt. He gained possession of the city and destroyed half of it; but the Egyptians in large numbers came to the assistance and rescue of the city, and he was obliged to flee. However, he took a rich and substantial booty with him. Not long thereafter he was killed by his brother; for one finds no pious company in sovereignty. And so his brother stained with blood was elected king; but remorse was not long postponed. After this the island of Cyprus suffered a great invasion and much strife; but now it is under Venetian rule.

Euboea (Euboya) is a renowned island that we now call Negroponte (Nigropont)[Euboea or Negroponte is the largest island in the Greek archipelago. The Greeks believed the island to have been torn from the mainland by an earthquake. It lies off the coasts of Attica, Boeotia, Locris, and southern Thessaly, from which countries it is separated by the Euboean Sea, called the Euripus in its narrowest part. In Homer the inhabitants are called Abantes. In the Middle Ages the island was called Egripo or Evripo, a corruption of ‘Euripus.’ The first bridge from the island to the mainland was built by the Boeotians when Euboea revolted from Athens in 411 BCE, making it "an island to all but themselves," and impeding shipments of gold and corn from Thrace, timber from Macedon, and horses from Thessaly. In the partition of the Eastern Empire among the Latins, the island was divided into three fiefs, but all soon became dependencies of Venice. When the Venetians took possession, observing the "black bridge," they called it Negroponte.]. In it lies the city of Chalcis that was built by Cecrops the Athenian[ Cecrops is the same who founded Athens and after whom the Acropolis was named. He had three daughters to whom Phrygia, a fourth, was added in Euboea.], or (as Cicero says) by Alabando. But Plato says that Amasis[Amasis was the king of Egypt 570-526 BCE. During his long and prosperous reign close intercourse existed between Egyptians and Greeks, and he sent gifts to several Greek cities.], the Egyptian king, constructed it. This city is the capital of the island, very celebrated, warlike and equipped for defense. Nevertheless it was taken from the Venetians by Mohammed Ottoman, the Turkish sultan. In this island Cecrops, the king, first recognized Apollo as a god, invented graven images, built temples, and made sacrifices. There also he added a fourth to his three daughters; and he called her Phrygia. She migrated to another country, lived there and named it Phrygia after herself. In the summer of the year 1471 CE, through the treachery of one Thomas, an evil-disposed Liburnian[Liburnia was a district of Illyricum, on the Adriatic.], Mohammed, the Turkish sultan, took Chalcis with great damage to the Christians, particularly the Venetians; and he commanded that all Italians who had become of age be impaled, and the Greeks sold at public auction.[Chalcis was captured by Mohammed II in 1470, and the whole island fell to the Turks. After the Greek War of Independence, the island was included, in 1830, in the new Greek state. ]

[The Latin edition follows with three more paragraphs, not translated here (except for the second paragraph); the first is on more islands (e.g., the Balearics); the second is a single linking sentence ("After the description of famous and other islands of the Mediterranean Sea, we should add a few things about the latitude of the Earth."), and the third, not surprisingly, is on latitude (and, to a lesser extend, longitude and climate). The final sentence of this third paragraph translates as follows: "Now we leave this investigation, following the history of the times."]