kingdom · Greece and the Aegean

Kingdom of Idalion

1000 BCE – 450 BCE (approx.) · capital Idalion

Inland Cypriot kingdom famous for the Idalion Tablet, a bronze contract recording how the city paid a doctor to treat the wounded during a siege.

Origins

Idalion grew on the hills of central Cyprus, near the copper-bearing foothills of Troodos, in the early Iron Age. By the 7th century BCE it was a city-kingdom listed among Cypriot states paying tribute to the Assyrian king Esarhaddon. Its acropolis held sanctuaries of the goddesses later called Athena and Aphrodite.

Rule and society

Idalion controlled copper production and fertile land. The Idalion Tablet, a bronze plaque of the early 5th century BCE written in the Cypriot syllabary, records that King Stasicypros and the city granted land to the physician Onasilos and his brothers for treating those wounded when 'the Medes and the Kitians' besieged the town.

Decline and legacy

Idalion was conquered by the Phoenician Kingdom of Kition c. 450 BCE and lost its independence, Kition then ruling it with Phoenician administration. The town continued under Ptolemaic and Roman rule but declined.

Connections (2)

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Cite this page
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Kingdom of Idalion. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/kingdom-of-idalion
MLA
“Kingdom of Idalion.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/kingdom-of-idalion. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Kingdom of Idalion.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/kingdom-of-idalion.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Kingdom of Idalion’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/kingdom-of-idalion (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻