Arsinoe was an ancient city in northwestern Cyprus

Cyprus

Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...

, near the promontory of Akamas

Akamas

Akamas , is a promontory and cape at the northwest extremity of Cyprus with an area of 230 square kilometres. Ptolemy described it as a thickly wooded headland, divided into two by summits [a mountain range] rising towards the north...

 (Acamas) (Strabo

Strabo

Strabo, also written Strabon was a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher.-Life:Strabo was born to an affluent family from Amaseia in Pontus , a city which he said was situated the approximate equivalent of 75 km from the Black Sea...

 xiv. p. 682; Ptol.

Ptolemy

Claudius Ptolemy , was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the...

 v. 14. § 4), near the older city, Marion

Marion, Cyprus

thumb|right|250px|Map showing the ancient city Kingdoms of CyprusMarion was one of the Ten city-kingdoms of Cyprus. It was situated in the north-west of the island in the Akamas region, close to the present town of Polis. Both Strabo and Pliny the Elder mention the city in their writings.The city...

 (Greek: ); some ancient writers conflate the two cities (Steph. B.

Stephanus of Byzantium

Stephen of Byzantium, also known as Stephanus Byzantinus , was the author of an important geographical dictionary entitled Ethnica...

 s. v.; comp. Scylax, s. v. Cyprus). A city was extant on the site before the Ptolemies took control of the region. Ptolemy I Soter

Ptolemy I Soter

Ptolemy I Soter I , also known as Ptolemy Lagides, c. 367 BC – c. 283 BC, was a Macedonian general under Alexander the Great, who became ruler of Egypt and founder of both the Ptolemaic Kingdom and the Ptolemaic Dynasty...

 destroyed the town of Marion in 312BC, and removed the inhabitants to Paphos

Paphos

Paphos , sometimes referred to as Pafos, is a coastal city in the southwest of Cyprus and the capital of Paphos District. In antiquity, two locations were called Paphos: Old Paphos and New Paphos. The currently inhabited city is New Paphos. It lies on the Mediterranean coast, about west of the...

 (Diod.

Diodorus Siculus

Diodorus Siculus was a Greek historian who flourished between 60 and 30 BC. According to Diodorus' own work, he was born at Agyrium in Sicily . With one exception, antiquity affords no further information about Diodorus' life and doings beyond what is to be found in his own work, Bibliotheca...

 xix. 89). The city was refounded by Ptolemy Philadelphus and named after his sister/wife Arsinoe

Arsinoe II of Egypt

For other uses see, ArsinoeArsinoë II was a Ptolemaic Greek Princess of Ancient Egypt and through marriage was of Queen Thrace, Asia Minor and Macedonia as wife of King Lysimachus and later co-ruler of Egypt with her brother-husband Ptolemy II Philadelphus For other uses see, ArsinoeArsinoë II...

. Hierocles

Hierocles (author of Synecdemus)

Hierocles or Hierokles was a Byzantine geographer of the sixth century and the attributed author of the Synecdemus or Synekdemos, which contains a table of administrative divisions of the Byzantine Empire and lists of the cities of each...

 and Const. Porphyr. (Them. i. 15) place it between Paphos and Soloi. The modern name is Polikrusoko (Πολικρυσοκο) or Xrisopeou (Ξρισοπηου), from the gold mines in the neighborhood. According to Strabo (l. c.) there was a grove sacred to Zeus

Zeus

In the ancient Greek religion, Zeus was the "Father of Gods and men" who ruled the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father ruled the family. He was the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology. His Roman counterpart is Jupiter and his Etruscan counterpart is Tinia.Zeus was the child of Cronus...

. Cyprus, from its subjection to the kings of the Lagid family, had more than one city of this name, which was common to several princesses of that house; see Arsinoe

Arsinoe

Arsinoe , sometimes spelled Arsinoë, pronounced Arsinoi in modern Greek, may refer to:-Literature:* Arsinoe, a character in Le Misanthrope, a play by French playwright Molière...

for other cities so named.