in Cyprus retained its local influences, although some Greek pottery was imported. The most important obligation of the kings of Cyprus to the Shah of Persia was the payment of tribute and the supply of armies and ships for his foreign campaigns. Thus, when Xerxes in 480 BC invaded Greece, Cyprus contributed 150 ships to the Persian military expedition. Ionian revolt Except for the royal city of Amathus, the Kingdoms of Cyprus took part in the Ionian Revolt in 499 BC. The revolt on Cyprus was led by Onesilos of Salamis, brother of the King of Salamis, whom he dethroned for not wanting to fight for independence. The Persians crushed the Cypriot armies and laid siege to the fortified towns in 498 BCE. Soloi surrendered after a five-month siege. Around 450 BCE, Kition annexed Idalion with Persian help. The importance of Kition increased again when it acquired the Tamassos copper-mines. Evagoras I of Salamis Evagoras I of Salamis (435–374 BCE) dominated Cypriot politics for almost forty years until his death in 374 BCE. He had favoured Athens during the closing years of the Peloponnesian War, elicited Persian support for the Athenians against Sparta and urged Greeks from the Aegean to settle in Cyprus, assisting the Athenians in so many ways that they honoured him by erecting his statue in the Stoa (portico) Basileios in Athens. At the beginning of the 4th century BC, he took control of the whole island of Cyprus and within a few years was attempting to gain independence from Persia with Athenian help. Following resistance from the kings of Kition, Amathus and Soli, who fled to the great king of Persia in 390 BC to request support, Evagoras received less help from the Athenians than he had hoped for and in about 380 BCE, a Persian force besieged Salamis and Evagoras was forced to surrender. In the end, he remained king of Salamis until he was murdered in 374 BCE, but only by accepting his role as a vassal of Persia. Evagoras I of Salamis introduced the Greek alphabet to Cyprus. In other parts of the island, the Phoenician script (Kition) or the Cypriot syllabic alphabet were still used. Together with Egypt and Phoenicia, Cyprus rebelled against Persian rule again in 350 BCE, but the uprising was crushed by Artaxerxes III in 344 BCE. Hellenistic period Alexander the Great Long and sustained efforts to overthrow Persian