ABSTRACT
The 1764 outbreak illustrates the maximization of the potential of violent opposition to authority that was attained in Cypriot traditional society whenever tax extortions beyond normally acceptable levels burdened both ethnic elements. Some of the details supplied by the document allow us to penetrate into the dynamics of social repression and protest, especially the methods of the containment and diffusion of protest as they operated in Cypriot society under the conditions of Ottoman imperial decay. The fear of popular resorts to violence in protest of excessive tax burdens was ever-present on the mind of the Orthodox hierarchy who occupied an intermediate position between the Christian subjects and the Ottoman power structure and often provided the first target to popular indignation. The revolt was effected through a typical outbreak of “traditional violence” when institutional forms of protest such as the bishops’ appeal to the Porte proved futile.
