Ioannes Cotovicus in 1599, a few years after Cyprus had passed to the Ottomans, described the Cypriots as having fallen to the ways of their conquerors and acquired their vices. He found them though gentler and more civilised than the rest of the Greeks under Ottoman yoke.
They are kind and courteous to strangers, quick –witted and deft of tongue and hand: strong and spirited and apt soldiers, but the extreme fertility of the soil inclines them to be self-indulgent and voluptuous. Their women are generally lascivious, true to the character of their ancestors. The ancients had reason for telling us that the island was dedicated to Venus, especially as it produces abundantly all that ministers to lust.
Cotovicus indirectly attributed the state of the population to their degenerate rulers.
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