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Cyprus became part of the Roman province of Cilicia in 58BC, and flourished. By 22BC Cyprus was made a full province with its on proconsul. The Romans initially has their seat of government based at Pafos, they built roads, aqueducts and ports all round the coast of Cyprus. One of the best preserved Roman cities is that of Salamis, which by about 390AD had become the island's capital. 

Christianity came to early Cyprus in 45AD, when the apostles St Paul and St Barnabas, a native of Salamis, landed at Paphos. St Paul converted the Roman governor Sergius Paulus to Christianity, making Cyprus the first Christian country. St Barnabas preached in his home town of Salamis, but was martyred by the Jews of Salamis in 75AD, his body being buried in an undisclosed location.

In AD 115 Jewish settlers on the island rebelled, and,  following serious bloodshed in which almost the entire gentile population of Salamis was slaughtered,  the Romans decided to expel all Jews from Cyprus in 113AD.

The Roman empire began to crumble, and in 284, eventually split into eastern Greek and western Latin empires with Cyprus coming under the rule of the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great who relocated the Roman imperial capital to Byzantium and renamed it Constantinople.