Cyprus continued under the administration of Rome until A.D. 395, when the sons of Theodosius the Great, Honorius and Arcadius divided what was left of the tottering empire and settled down, the one among the saltmarshes of Ravenna and the other in Byzantium, to resist the attacks of their northern enemies, the Goths, Vandals, and Huns. Cyprus fell naturally to the share of Byzantium, and was at first governed by an official called Consularis, who was appointed from Antioch. The capital was transferred from Paphos to Salamis, then known as Constantia. For more than two centuries the island was safe from attack and enjoyed considerable prosperity.
At the beginning of the seventh century, however, a new danger appeared from the East, where the meteoric rise of the Mohammedan religion in less than hundred years spread fire and sword from Spain to the frontiers of India. The Eastern Empire was soon involved in a death-struggle. More, it seems, by luck than anything else it survived the first and most fiery onslaughts of fanaticism, after which Arab activity degenerated into an affair of persisten raiding. To such incursions Cyprus, as an outpost of empire, was of course peculiarly exposed; and according to the historian Stephen de Lusignan it suffered from no less than twenty-four Arab invasions.
The first of these took place in 632, when Abu Bekr, father-in-law and successor to Mohammed, obtained temporary possession of Citium (Larnaca); another, led by Mu'awiya, the first Ommayad Khalif, owes its interest to the fact that the wife of a companion of the Prophet, the Lady Umm Haram, took part in it, was killed at Larnaca by a fall from her mule, and was buried in the Tekke by the the Larnaca Salt Lake, now one of the most revered of Moslem Shrines. Among other distinguished Arab invaders was Harun-al-Rashid, the Abbasid Khalif of Baghdad, the Caliph of the Arabian Nights. Finally the emperor, Nikephoros Phocas (963-969), expelled the Arabs from Asia Minor, and even from part of Syria, and thus freed the island from these periodic catastrophes. The following two hendred years were a time of peace, only interrupted by insignificant risings of the part of two Byzantine governors.
The next rising, however, which took place towards the end of the Byzantine period, was of the greatest importance, being destined to tear Cyprus away for ever from that empire. It was led by a certain Isaac Comnenos, who was a cadet of the distinquished dynasty of that name then reigning in Byzantium. He held the position of Imperial Governor of Tarsus in Cilicia, and suddenly (1184) appeared in Cyprus with forged imperial letters purporting to appoint him governor of the island. He proceeded to establish himself with all the violence and brutality which seem to have characterized the less reputable members of his family, and having done so assumed the proud title of "Emperor". Cyprus was already groaning beneath his oppression when, in 1191, he had the misfortune to fall foul of Richard I of England, Coeur de Lion, who was on his way to Palestine on the Third Crusade.