After the Persian defeat, the Greeks mounted various expeditions against Cyprus in order to liberate it from the Persian yoke, but all their efforts bore only temporary results.

Following these events, Persian rule became more oppressive and it favoured the Phoenician element at the expense of the Greek. A Phoenician 'usurper' ascended the throne of Salamis and it took several decades before Evagoras, a true scion of the Teucrid family, succeeded in seizing the throne in 411 BC.

Evagoras dominated Cypriot politics for almost forty years until he died in 374/3 BC. He favoured everything Greek and he urged Greeks from the Aegean to come and settle in Cyprus. He assisted the Athenians in many ways and they honoured him by erecting his statue in the Stoa (portico) Basileios in Athens.

His successors continued his struggle against the Persians but to no avail until Alexander the Great defeated the Persians at the battle of Issos near modern Alexandretta (Iskenderun) in 333 BC. From then on the Cypriot kings were only too happy to transfer their allegiance to him.

In the sphere of arts, we have a definite influence from Greece that was responsible for the production of some very important sculptures. The archaic Greek art with its attractive smile on the face of the statue is found on many Cypriot pieces dating between 525-475 BC, that is the closing stage of the Archaic period. According to Greek tradition men (Kouroi) are mostly presented naked, while women (Korai) are always presented dressed with rich foldings of their himations.

The Classical period coincides with the oppression of the Cypriot cities by the Persians because of the revolt they staged a little earlier in 499 BC. Because of this, few works of Greek workmanship have reached Cyprus but their influence was extensively felt.