Battle of Cyprus

The Battle of Cyprus was the final, decisive conflict of the Rhomanian Republic, in which the Imperial renegades won an overwhelming victory over the Republican army and navy. It was the last, and most serious, of a series of defeats suffered by the Rhomanian Republic in the early part of the 1680s, and marked the last time that the Republicans would be able to seriously attempt to resist the Imperial Restoration in the Roman Empire. In addition to this, Cyprus marked the last time the Roman Imperial Navy saw major action in the Mediterranean against a well armed and capable foe.

 BACKGROUND 

Following the defeat of the Imperial army at the Battle of Ankyra, the last remaining heir to the throne, the Emperor's daughter Eirene fled eastward, and settled with her distant relative, the Imperial princess Theopano. Together, the two exiles, and their allies, the Armeno-Roman Miroyanid family, took refuge with Khan Mohammed I of Persia in Isfahan. Mohammed, seeking an opportunity to destabilise the newly formed Rhomanian Republic, supported the exiles, and provided them with men and money to establish themselves at Calula on the Horn of Africa. By 1669, the exiled Imperialists and their Persian backers had conquered the entirety of Rhomania's overseas empire. However, attempts at overthrowing the Republic by the Imperial renegades in 1673 and their Russian relatives in 1678 were defeated by the capable general Michael Efthisiou.

Efthisiou's death in the spring of 1681 fatally unbalanced the Republic, and Constantinople quickly descended into anarchy as its two remaining leaders, David Marianas and Leo Trichomanis attempted to outdo the other. Its eastern territories came under sustained attack from Bahrain, and a second Russian attack that summer yielded a quick, and easy victory. Bulgaria, meanwhile, defected to the Imperial renegades, and expelled its pro-Republican leaders. For eighteen months, a state of confusion and muted civil war continued to exist, until the assasination of Leo Trichomanis by a team of overenthusiastic exorcists in the home of Nicephorus Zonaras, a friend of Marianas.

 PREPARATIONS 

Preparations for a second major assault upon the Republic had begun in the autumn of 1681, but the Imperialists abandoned plans for a winter invasion of Egypt following the death of the Empress Eirene, and the newfound unity of the Republic under the sole, relatively moderate, leadership of David Marianas. The cautious Imperialist supreme commander, Christopher Andreou, had been reluctant to risk a direct assault on the Republic after this apparent recovery of strength, but was ultimately bullied into attacking by the Imperial family, who argued that striking before the Republicans had time to recover was imperative. In early March, 1683, Imperial forces under the command of Andreou defeated the Republican fleet at the Battle of Klysmai, and routed the Egyptian army under the command of Manuel Proxenos at the Battle of the Delta. Alexandria and Cairo-Hunnopolis both fell within a few weeks, and the Imperial party entered Egypt in May. Proxenos quickly defected.

Realising that the majority of the Republican fleet was based around the Grand Duchy of Cyprus, Andreou resolved to capture the island, and thus more or less eliminate the last major fleet of the Republican navy. David Marianas, at the same time, chose Cyprus as a defensible stronghold from which to base his defence of Anatolia and Syria, and to launch counterattacks upon Imperialist Egypt from. Leaving Constantinople under the control of his young ally Basil Psaras, the Republican leader spent April and May assembling an army, before arriving on Cyprus on June 11th. The Republican supreme commander, Nicephorus Zonaras, chose to spread his small army relatively thinly, gambling that further reinforcements would arrive from Anatolia before the Imperialists could set off. However, much to his dismay, the Imperial fleet arrived just three days later.

 OPENING PHASES: SKIRMISH OFF THE CAPE OF CATS 

The Imperialist fleet initally concentrated their assault upon the so called "Cape of Cats", to the south of the island, beginning shortly after midday. The Republican commander in the area, Jacob Kyriakou, had the previous day ordered the installation of gun batteries onshore, but these defences were still totally unready for the assault that followed. Kyriakou's forces onshore were shelled by the Imperialist fleet, and the Xenonic Dromons launched by him proved rather ineffectual, sinking only a single Imperialist ship, the Khelandion Tixmion. The Republican forces began a disorganised retreat towards Kyriakou's command centre around a mile north of the coast, allowing the Imperialist fleet under the Emperor's father Theophilus to make an easy landing. With the succesful opening of a beachhead, the majority of the Imperialist fleet, anchored some thirty miles offshore, began to move in from the south. Meanwhile, Theophilus' men closed in on the chaotically retreating Republicans, and captured Kyriakou, who had attempted to rally his men, but to no avail. The remainder of his army had sought sanctuary in a monastery, but were detained there by the community, who had defected to the Imperialists. The Republican defeat was serious, as all hopes of destroying the Imperialists at sea had been overcome so easily.

FALL OF NEO KOURION

Attention now shifted to the small town of Neo Kourion. A beach town to the north west of the Cape of Cats, Neo Kourion was garrisoned by a small body of professional Republican troops under the command of Stephen Brankovic, a junior official in the entourage of David Marianas. Brankovic, though a reasonably experienced commander, had not expected the Imperialists to land so easily, and was therefore unable to defend the town's harbour from the main Imperialist fleet under Christopher Andreou. Though the defenders were able to mount a defence of the town for several hours, they were eventually outnumbered and overwhelmed by the Imperialists, with Brankovic himself killed in the fighting. Neo Kourion's church was opened for the first time in nearly a year, and Andreou and the Emperor accepted the greetings of the town's parish priest, David Mamoulian, who later rose to the position of Patriarch of Jerusalem.

 BATTLE OF THE VIADUCT 

By the time of the Imperialist entry into Nea Kourion, the battle was beginning to heat up more rapidly than its generals on either side had expected, and both sides were immediately forced to make a made dash to the island's capital at Nea Konstantia, using the rather antiquated Cypriot rail network. Both Marianas and Andreou were able to commandeer trains over the night of June 15th to hasten them to the capital, but it was unclear as to which side would arrive first.

In the event, despite minor delays, the Imperialists arrived first, and began to cross the long viaduct that snaked above the city's houses towards the main railway station. However, the much larger Republican force arrived very quickly afterwards, travelling on the parallel lower line. It is rumoured at this stage that Christopher Andreou suffered a nervous breakdown and surrendered control of the Imperial army to the young Emperor. The large size of the Republican army now proved to be its undoing, as the length of the train made it unable to slow down, and sent it skidding helplessly toward the Imperialists, who held the height advantage.

With the Republicans thus at their mercy, the Imperialists stopped their train, and bombed that of their opponents, first with liquid fire dropped from the train carriages, and then from a sustained bombardment by Xenonic Dromon. The Republican army, thanks to the command talents of Nikephoros Zonaras, was able to retreat without suffering especially heavy casualties, but morale was now shattered, and modern historians tend to recognise all effective Republican hopes of winning the battle as ending here. Nonetheless, they would fight on for a further three weeks.