Julius Caesar returned Cyprus to Cleopatra’s Ptolemaic Egypt in 47 BC. The island had been under Roman control since its annexation nearly a decade earlier.
Cyprus had traditionally been connected to the Ptolemaic kingdom. Rome annexed it in 58 BC under the law associated with the tribune Publius Clodius Pulcher, and the Roman administrator Cato the Younger oversaw the takeover. The annexation brought substantial wealth to Rome but removed an important possession from the Egyptian dynasty.
After Caesar defeated Ptolemy XIII and restored Cleopatra, he reversed that arrangement. Cyprus was returned to Ptolemaic rule and assigned jointly to Cleopatra’s younger siblings, Arsinoe IV and Ptolemy XIV. This was part of Caesar’s broader settlement of Egypt after the Alexandrian War, although Cleopatra remained the dominant ruler.
The restoration did not last permanently. After Cleopatra and Mark Antony were defeated at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, Cyprus returned to Roman control. The island later became a distinct Roman senatorial province, with Nea Paphos as its capital.