Cyprus itself was first inhabited around 10,000BCE, on the southern coast. By the late Bronze Age, they had developed a form of writing called Cypro-Minoan, based off of the forms on Crete, and had developed trade as far as Egypt.
The first Greek-speakers arrived around 1200BCE, beginning a strong Attic influence in art, language, and culture.
Alexander the Great took control of Cyprus after the defeat of King Darius of the Persians, and then the island fell under the rule of the Egyptians, before being given over to the Roman Empire, with such notable proconsuls as Cicero.
With the split of the Roman Empire, Cyprus remained a part of the Byzantine Empire, although there was an interim where a number of Arab raids devastated Cyprus.
When one of its governors declared himself Emperor of Cyprus, the island fell into the hands of King Richard the Lionheart of England, who sold it to the Knights Templar, who in turn sold it to a king of Jerusalem, Guy de Lusignan, who established a dynasty, until King James II's wife Caterina became Queen, the last Lusignan royal, who ceded Cyprus to Venice.
The Venetians, who maintained a neglectful and often corrupt control of Cyprus from 1489 until 1571, when, despite attempts at fortifying major cities, the Ottoman Empire managed to wrest away control for the next 300 years.
In 1878 Britain and Turkey signed an agreement which left Cyprus under Britain's rule, but in Turkey's name. In 1914, Britain assumed sovereignty, and for awhile it was assumed that Cyprus would be united with Greece, a prospect which the Turkish Cypriots were not enthused about, as they hoped for a reconciliation with Turkey. Eventually an accord was reached, in which Cyprus was to enter into no union with either country, and both Turkish and Greek Cypriots would share power, which was the basis for the independent Republic of Cyprus in 1960. Violence broke out, and the Green Line dividing Lefkosia, which still exists, divided, quite literally, the Greeks from the Turks in 1974.