When taken over by the Romans, Cyprus seems to have been associated with Cilicia, which had been a Roman Province since 103 b.c. The first Roman to govern Cilicia after 58 b.c. has not up till now been identified. Whoever he was, he was followed by P. Cornelius Lentulus Spinther (the consul of 57 b.c. and the man to whom Cicero owed his return from exile), who held the province from 56 to July 53 b.c. His successor Appius Claudius Pulcher, the consul of 54 b.c., took it over in July of the next year, and held it until 51 b.c. Cicero (much against his will) was named as his successor early in that year, and left Rome for the province in May. Arriving in August, he remained until 3 August of next year, having handed over the province to the quaestor C. Coelius on 30 July.

Cicero's predecessors had regarded their provincial governorships as opportunities for personal gain, and had clung to them as long as possible; Cicero had every intention to deal honestly by the provincials, but was determined not to remain for more than a year. To Cyprus he despatched, for a few days only, as prefect with power to administer justice, Q. Volusius, whom he held to be an honourable and trustworthy man, in order that the few Roman citizens who were on business in the island should not be able to say that they could not have justice done them; for it was not lawful to summon the Cypriotes themselves to a court outside Cyprus.