EVAGORAS, king of Salamis, is said to have been descended from a family who claimed Teucer, brother of Ajax, as their progenitor, and who for a long period had been rulers of Salamis until expelled by a Phoenician exile. Evagoras, notwithstanding the expulsion of his ancestors, seems to have been born at Salamis, and lived there till the throne was again usurped by a Cyprian noble,— when, either from a prudent resolve to avoid the possibility of danger, or on account of information which he received of the usurper’s designs against his life, he fled to Cilicia. Thence he returned secretly to Salamis in 410 B.c.; and, having with the aid of a small band of adherents overpowered the guards of the palace and put the tyrant to death, he mounted the throne. According to Isocrates, Evagoras was a just and wise ruler, whose aim was to promote alike the general wellbeing of his state and the welfare of his individual subjects, and this not merely by an increase of wealth and of the luxuries which it can provide, but by the cultivation of the Grecian arts of refinement and civilization, which had been almost obliterated in Salamis by a long period of barbarian rule. He endeavoured in every way to promote friendly relations with the Athenians, and after the defeat of the Athenian general Conon at Aegospotami, he gave him refuge and a cordial reception. He also endeavoured, at least for a time, to secure the friendship of Persia, and concluded a treaty with Artaxerxes II., whose aid he secured for the Athenians against Lacedaemon. Conjointly with the Persians and Athenians, he assisted in gaining the battle of Cnidus, 394 B.C., and for this service his statue was placed by the Athenians side by side with that of their general Conon in the Ceramicus. Not long after this his ...