Glossary Society, writing and trade
Tribute
Regular payments of goods, precious metal or services that a subject ruler owed to a more powerful king in return for keeping his throne.
Tribute defined Cyprus's relations with the great empires of the first millennium BCE. The Cypriot kings paid tribute to Assyria from the late eighth century, and Herodotus says that Amasis of Egypt made the island pay tribute in the sixth. Under Persia the kings owed tribute and ships, and Herodotus placed Cyprus in the Fifth Satrapy with Phoenicia and Syria-Palestine, assessed together at 350 talents a year.
In each case the kings kept their titles, cults and coinage. Tribute was the price of that autonomy, and how much any one kingdom actually paid is unknown. See Achaemenid Persia.
Full entry: Achaemenid Persia
Related terms
- City-kingdom
One of the small independent kingdoms, each ruled from a city, into which Iron Age Cyprus was divided until about 310 BCE.
- Esarhaddon's prism
An Assyrian clay prism inscription of 673/2 BCE naming ten kings of Cyprus: the only complete ancient list of the island's kingdoms.
- Basileus
The Greek word for 'king', used for the rulers of the Cypriot city-kingdoms; the plural is basileis.
Where it appears
- Egypt
- Hittite Empire and Cyprus
- Neo-Assyrian Empire and Cyprus
- Cypro-Classical Cyprus
- Furniture in Ancient Cyprus
- Population and Demography in Ancient Cyprus
- Copper Metallurgy in Ancient Cyprus
- Cypro-Archaic Cyprus
- Food Storage in Ancient Cyprus: Pits, Pithoi and Storerooms
- Neighboring Cultures
- The Phoenicians
- Village Life in Early Bronze Age Cyprus