Island
Insula Cypros
Zypern
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Insula Cypros, simply 'the island of Cyprus', is labelled in red letters on the Tabula. Ancient writers were fascinated by its outline: the geographer Agathemerus likened it to an outstretched animal hide, and the Greek geographer Strabo gave its length as fourteen hundred stadia. The mountainous island was held sacred to Venus, whose most famous sanctuary stood at Paphos, and its copper mattered so much that the metal itself is named after Cyprus. Rome annexed the island in 58 BC. After an earthquake in 342, rebuilt Salamis, renamed Constantia, took over from Paphos as the seat of government.