69 BC to AD 365
By the second century BC, the Hellenic world was in decline and Rome was steadily growing in power. It wasn’t long before very little of the Greek mainland remained unconquered, and Crete’s location close to North Africa, Europe and the near East meant that its strategic importance was becoming enormous. It was inevitable that the eyes of the new superpower would turn towards the island. As we have seen, the Romans had intervened several times to mediate in the recurring wars between the Cretan city states, but it was not until 74 BC that serious thought was given to invasion. The rebellion of Mithridates VI, the king of Pontus, gave the Romans exactly the excuse they needed for an attack.
At this time, pirates from Cilicia, on the south coast of Asia Minor, virtually controlled the Mediterranean. They had an efficient and sophisticated navy and were even attracting wealthy and high-born recruits in search of adventure:
So that now there embarked with these pirates, men of wealth and noble birth and superior abilities, as if it had been a natural occupation to gain distinction in. They had divers arsenals, or piratic harbours, as likewise watch-towers and beacons, all along the seacoast; and fleets were here received that were well manned with the finest mariners, and well served with the expertest pilots, and composed of swift-sailing and light-built vessels adapted for their special purpose.1
It is not certain that Cretans were directly involved in the piracy, but there was certainly an informal alliance with the Cilicians, and the pirate ships were offered safe haven in all the harbours of Crete. Thus, Mithridates was able to rely on the pirates using Crete as a base to disrupt Roman shipping and supply routes. When he also began to recruit experienced Cretan mercenaries into his army, the Romans felt they had justification for action. Of course, knowledge of the immense wealth accumulated by the pirates in the coastal cities might also have influenced their decision. Indeed, modern historians generally regard economic motives as the main force behind the invasion, especially in view of the desperate financial situation in Rome at the time. Even the second-century-BC Roman historian Florus commented, somewhat cynically: “The Cretan war, if the truth is to be told, was due solely to our desire to conquer and enslave that famous island.”2
In 74 BC, Marcus Antonius (father of the famous Mark Antony) was appointed commander of the Roman fleet, with the specific task of invading Crete. Marcus Antonius was from an eminent and well respected family, and set out with such confidence that, according to Florus, his ships carried more chains for the expected prisoners than weapons. In spite of his high hopes, the expedition was a disaster. He initially sent an ultimatum to the Cretan cities to annul their alliance with the pirates, but this was refused, and the Cretan assembly appointed two commanders, Panares of Kydonia and Lasthenes of Knossos, to lead a unified defence. On its way to attack the island, the Roman fleet was ambushed between Iraklion and the island of Dia, and was virtually annihilated. Many of the sailors were hung in the very chains they had brought with them, and Marcus Antonius was forced to sign a humiliating treaty with the Cretans. Because of the continuing war with Mithridates and the slave revolt under Spartacus, Rome was not in a position to retaliate for the defeat – yet. As for Marcus Antonius, in a parody of the Roman tradition of giving generals names based on their victories, people awarded him the sardonic title Creticus, which means in Latin both “conqueror of Crete” and “man of chalk”. He died in Crete a few years later.3
In spite of the treaty, the Cretans realised that Rome would be seeking revenge at some stage, and attempted to negotiate a more permanent peace. The Roman senate agreed to a new treaty, but the terms they set were so harsh that they obviously expected (or hoped) that they would be rejected, a tactic not unknown in more modern times. All prisoners of war were to be released; the whole Cretan fleet was to be placed under Roman control, even down to the smallest four-oared skiff; 300 hostages from the top Cretan families, including the military commanders, Panares and Lasthenes, were to be sent to Rome; and 4,000 silver talents were to be paid as reparations. The last was an enormous amount of money, equivalent to about half the annual tribute of all the eastern provinces combined, and gives some indication of the vast wealth the Romans were expecting to find in Crete. Although some moderates advised that the Cretan cities should comply with all the conditions, Panares and Lasthenes “stirred up the people and urged them to maintain those liberties that they had enjoyed ever since time immemorial”.4 The hawks succeeded in uniting the majority of the quarrelsome Cretan cities, except for Gortyn and Polyrrhenia, which remained loyal to Rome, or at least neutral. The treaty was rejected, and the Cretans prepared a combined army of between 24,000 and 26,000 soldiers to meet the expected invasion.
Quintus Caecilius Metellus was given command of three Roman legions – about 15,000 men – which landed in western Crete in 69 BC. The subjugation of Crete was by no means a short war but a long process of attrition, with the Cretan army putting up strong resistance at every stage. For three years, the Romans advanced city by city, harried by the experienced and fast-moving defenders, especially the famous archers. The city of Phalasarna, one of the main havens for pirates, was the first to be besieged, captured and totally destroyed, the inhabitants being dispersed inland to Polyrrhenia or along the coast. The invading army then moved on to Kydonia, where the Cretans were again defeated. Panares surrendered Kydonia to Metellus in exchange for his life, while Lasthenes fled to Knossos. A further siege at Eleutherna ended after Roman loyalists within the city poured gallons of vinegar on the mudbrick walls of a vital defensive tower, making them brittle and easy to burn. Knossos was next to be besieged. When the Romans were about to take the city, Lasthenes set fire to his own house and as many of his valuables as possible, fled and took refuge in Lyttos. He eventually surrendered to Metellus on the same terms as Panares. The last city, Hierapytna, fell in 67 BC after the destruction of most of its fleet in a storm, and all serious resistance was at an end, apart from mopping-up exercises. The historian Dio Cassius wrote: “In this way the Cretans, who had been free through all preceding ages and had never had a foreign master, became enslaved.”5 It is worth noting that, in spite of considerable damage to the resisting cities, there is no evidence of any large-scale massacres or enslavement of the populations, as there had often been in the conquest of mainland Greece. The reasons for this are not entirely clear, as the Romans were not noted for their mercy towards conquered peoples, but it could be that they were aware that the value of Crete as a future resource meant that the bitterness engendered by brutality could be counterproductive. Another possibility, for which there is some evidence from Roman historians, is that the war was in fact limited to battles with the Cretan army, and the majority of the population was more or less neutral, or even pro-Roman.
Meanwhile, Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (Pompey the Great), in overall command of the eastern campaigns, was busy clearing the seas of pirates, and meeting with considerable success. He had been given “absolute power and authority in all the seas within the Pillars of Hercules, and in the adjacent mainland for the space of 400 furlongs [about 80 km] from the sea”, which put him technically in charge of the whole of Crete, at least in his opinion.6 Thus, when the Cretans eventually sued for peace, they showed typical fiery independence by refusing to surrender to Metellus and agreeing to submit only to Pompey. Pompey considered the war virtually won, and commanded Metellus to withdraw from the island, pending his arrival to receive the Cretans’ surrender. Although Metellus refused to comply, and continued the war until the final defeat of the Cretans, Pompey, not for the first time, was quite happy to receive much of the credit for subduing Crete. Although the leaders, Panares and Lasthenes, had surrendered to Metellus, Pompey secretly sent them to Rome so that they could appear in his own triumphal ceremony, awarded for defeating the pirates. However, after the complete pacification of the island, it was Metellus who was awarded the title “Creticus” – this time not ironically. The implications of this victory were enormous:
The coming of Rome was the most significant turning point in the history of Crete since the destruction of the Minoan palaces. It not only meant the subjugation of Crete under foreign rule – for the first time since the coming of the Mycenaean Greeks; it not only meant the establishment of a political government. It also meant the extinction of a social and political order that had existed for almost a millennium ... Crete was now an island not on the periphery of the Aegean, a sea troubled by wars and raids, but an island in the middle of a pacified Eastern Mediterranean, entirely integrated into the Roman system of rule and the economic networks of the Roman Empire.7
After 63 BC, there was little further resistance, and Crete became de facto a Roman province. Gortyn, which had remained pro-Roman, was rewarded by being made capital of the province, and it remained the administrative and commercial centre of the island until the Arab invasion of AD 828.
Little is known of the early years of Roman rule, but it is revealing that the governor in 50 BC was an agricultural expert, implying that the Romans regarded this as the island’s primary value at that time. The skill of Cretan archers remained widely respected, and Julius Caesar is known to have recruited them for his campaign in Gaul. During the period of joint rule by Octavian and Mark Antony after Caesar’s assassination, Crete came under Antony’s jurisdiction, and he used it to build up his personal power base, possibly with his eye on eventual supremacy. To increase his popularity and influence, he granted tax concessions and Roman citizenship rights to cities like Knossos which were friendly towards him. After his marriage to Cleopatra, he actually appointed her ruler of eastern Crete and Cyprus as well as Egypt, an action which so enraged the Roman Senate that it helped to precipitate the civil war with Octavian. Antony was defeated at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, whereupon Octavian punished those cities that had supported Antony and rewarded Lappa and Kydonia, which had opposed him.
When he became the emperor Augustus, Octavian completed his revenge on Knossos by making it a full Roman colony in about 25 BC, renaming it Colonia Julia Nobilis Cnossus. Earlier, in his war against Antony, he had recruited soldiers from Sicily, rewarding the veterans with land in Capua. Now, as compensation, he awarded the displaced Capuans valuable land in Knossos.
At about the same time, Crete and Cyrenaica (modern eastern Libya) were combined into a single province, called (in Latin) Creta et Cyrenaica. This made both strategic and commercial sense. Cyrenaica was a small but fertile area, with a population speaking the same Dorian dialect as the Cretans. With harbours on both sides of the Libyan Sea, the new province would find it much easier to continue the fight against piracy in the south Mediterranean. Moreover, Cyrenaica was actually closer to Crete than it was to the two nearest cities in North Africa, Alexandria to the east and Leptis Magna to the west.8 This meant that trade could more easily flourish between the two halves of the province. The arrangement seems to have worked well, and the dual province remained until Diocletian’s reorganisation of the empire in AD 298 split Crete from Cyrenaica and joined it to the province of Asia.
The new province was declared a senatorial province, governed by a proconsul of high rank, with Gortyn remaining the capital. This now made even more sense: not only was Gortyn a wealthy city in a fertile area, but it had two harbours on the south coast, Lebena and Matala, ideally placed for trade with North Africa and government of the dual province. The decision to make Creta et Cyrenaica a senatorial province as opposed to an imperial one is interesting because it implied that the province was of secondary importance. The emperor generally retained control of the most important and strategic provinces, while senatorial provinces were those well away from sensitive outer frontiers, holding little threat of rebellion and needing very few legions to control. Apart from sporadic raids by Goths in AD 269, there was little military activity within Crete, although the governor of the joint province may well have had his hands full with a Jewish uprising in Cyrenaica in AD 115 to AD 117. Thus, politically and militarily, Crete had little further impact on the wider imperial history of Rome, and became a bit of a backwater – a remote outpost, useful as a place of exile for political and military figures fallen from grace. The historian Edward Gibbon makes a telling comment when he describes the punishment of a mutinous commander of the Praetorian Guard as being “gently degraded to the government of Crete”, which sounds a bit like a modern British civil servant being posted to the Falkland Islands.9
With the exception of the colony of Knossos, local administration was generally left to the Cretan koinon, a revival from Hellenistic times, based in Gortyn. The koinon was presided over by a high priest and was responsible for the day-to-day administration of the cities as well as the organisation of annual music festivals, and athletic games in Gortyn every five years. As the cult of divine emperors developed, the koinon was also responsible for implementing it in Crete. Most cities (not including Knossos) had the right to issue their own brass coinage, and the koinon had the right to appeal to the senate over unfair and arbitrary decisions by the Roman administration. In spite of this devolution, Rome kept the cities firmly in their place. In AD 62, for example, a Cretan governor was put on trial by the senate for refusing to offer the formal thanks of the province to a proconsul at the end of his term of office. He claimed that this was within his rights, but the prosecution clearly set out the limits of provincial rights:
And therefore, to meet the new insolence of provincials, let us adopt a measure worthy of Roman good faith and resolution, whereby our allies may lose nothing of our protection, while public opinion may cease to say of us, that the estimate of a man’s character is to be found anywhere rather than in the judgment of our citizens.10
Rome was equally intolerant of any renewal of friction between the cities, and a dispute between Kissamos and Polyrrhenia early in the second century was quickly sat upon by the imperial authorities.
The loss of all military and political power by the Cretan states was not matched by economic and cultural decline, and the following centuries saw many changes – some dramatic, others more subtle. With the ending of civil wars, and after centuries of instability, the Cretans seemed to welcome the Pax Romana and the peace and prosperity it brought. Instead of pirates and mercenaries, Crete now produced olive oil and wine for export to Rome, while importing fine marble and high-quality ceramics. The Romans abolished the communal meals in the Andreion, and land was no longer held in common by the warrior class. Thus, there was increasing private ownership of land and the beginnings of a market economy. Internally, there was considerable restoration and upgrading of the road network, begun by the emperor Claudius but continued by Nero and Trajan. For financial reasons, these developments were restricted to the areas controlled by a single town and were somewhat piecemeal. According to some inscriptions and literary evidence, however, the emperor Hadrian instructed the extremely wealthy sanctuary of Diktynna near Gortyn to pay for a major road that benefitted more than one city. It is likely that this practice became the norm.11 Hadrian seems to have taken a great interest in Crete, but it is not clear whether he actually visited the island. The evidence for a purported visit in AD 122 is inconclusive.
The growth in trade and the shift to a market economy brought on a minor but far-reaching agricultural revolution, with much more systematic exploitation of the land. Crete’s climate at the time was somewhat different from that of today and, for most of this period, it was characterised by wet summers and warm winters. This led to increased fertility and lengthened growing seasons, and meant that olives and vines could be grown at higher altitudes, thus expanding the cultivable area. Five product groups formed the basis for the increasingly prosperous Cretan economy: wine, olive oil, honey, medicinal and aromatic herbs and purple dye.
Wine was by far the most widely exported product, and during this period there was a gradual but steady transformation of Cretan wine production from small-scale vineyards to intensive commercial production, especially of staphidites, also known as passum, a sweet wine high in alcohol. This seems to have been particularly popular with the Roman army, and there is evidence of its use all around the Mediterranean and even as far afield as Wales and Switzerland. Other types of wine exported were an aromatic wine; a light white wine; wine flavoured with myrtle berries, pepper, saffron or honey; and, curiously, wine mixed with seawater. The wine from Kissamos was also reputed to have medicinal properties and was highly valued. Wine was usually shipped to Italy in grain ships from Alexandria, making Crete an important stopover and hub for the eastern Mediterranean trade routes.
Olive oil had been produced in Crete from the early Bronze Age but, as with wine, production increased substantially during the Roman period. It was of high quality and was used in cooking and religious rites, in perfumes and cosmetics and for lamps. Honey and beeswax production continued; thyme honey and pine honey were especially popular, and were exported throughout the empire, mainly for medicinal purposes. Medicinal and aromatic herbs were also exported in quantity, particularly dictamnus, alternatively known as dittany. This was used in the treatment of wounds, digestive problems and arthritis. It was also believed to have aphrodisiac properties. Other plants and herbs exported include oregano, thyme, Cretan birthwort, marshmallow, anise, yellow gentian and myrtle. The small island of Leuke (now called Koufonisi) off the south-east coast was a major centre for fishing for the murex sea snails from which the rare and expensive Tyrian or imperial purple dye was extracted. This became another important export, as cloth of this colour was highly valued in Rome.
The list of exports from Roman Crete is impressive. In addition to those already mentioned, the heavily forested island produced excellent timber, including oak especially suited to building warships, and cypress useful for building and decorative purposes. This timber was exported to all parts of the empire and, as a result, there was extensive deforestation.12 Cretan lamps were exported all over the Mediterranean, as were whetstones from the quarry at Olous.13 At the same time, although traditional sheep herding and production of milk and cheese continued, these products were less suitable for export, and this sector became marginalised, mainly serving the local population. For the first time, cattle were bred extensively on the Messara plain. It is worth noting here that a major source of revenue for Crete was tourism, especially to the mythical and religious sites.
The increasing emphasis on trade can be illustrated by the rise of the town of Kissamos, although a similar pattern could probably be seen in other parts of Crete. In the Hellenistic period, Kissamos, in northwestern Crete, was merely the smaller and less important of the two harbours serving the city of Polyrrhenia about 6.5 km away. The other harbour, Phalasarna, was a major pirate stronghold and was the first town to be captured by Metellus in 69 BC. It was razed to the ground, probably as a warning to the rest of Crete. After the war, the minor harbour at Kissamos was expanded, and a town was founded there in about 27 BC. With the new safety from piracy and increasing trade, the town grew rapidly, while Polyrrhenia declined in importance until it became little more than a suburb of Kissamos. By the fourth century AD, Kissamos was one of the four most important independent cities in Crete, along with Kydonia, Gortyn and Hierapytna.14
The shift of population from Polyrrhenia to Kissamos also illustrates another general trend, which had actually started in the Hellenistic period but sped up under the more peaceful conditions of Roman rule. In all parts of Crete, people were moving away from inland hillside sites to the coast, with results that can still be seen in the modern map of Crete. The town of Lato pros Kamara (modern Aghios Nikolaos) was founded by the inhabitants of the hill fortress Lato when defensive concerns became less paramount. The move from inland Vrocastro and Oleros to Istron and Hierapytna respectively are further examples. At the same time, the citizens of the new coastal towns often retained property in the hills to which they could escape the rush and dust of city life, especially in the hot summers – a practice that continues to this day.
By the second century AD, the 100 cities of Crete had decreased to about 20, although the area controlled by each had grown larger, often incorporating smaller towns. Of these, Gortyn and Hierapytna were by far the largest, with an estimated population of 22,500 each. The population of Kydonia was about half that, while Kissamos had by then nearly reached 9,000. Phaistos had a population of 7,500 and Knossos, having declined in both importance and population, had fallen to under 7,000. 15
Within the overarching rules of Roman government and total loyalty to the emperor, the empire tolerated a high degree of cultural diversity, and the lifestyle in Crete followed the pattern of most provinces in the Roman Empire. On the one hand, there was no deliberate attempt to “Romanise” the island and, for most ordinary Cretans, culture and language remained mainly Cretan Greek. Customs and traditions continued as they had done for centuries, including worship of the old Greek gods. On the other hand, the upper classes and, of course, the Roman colonists seem to have increasingly followed the typical Roman lifestyle, although there were variations between the cities. In the colony of Knossos, for example, people seem to have generally chosen to accept the economic benefits of Roman culture, while rejecting the use of Latin except for administrative purposes. In other cities, there was more willingness to adopt Roman culture, including the language and the imperial cult. Although there are few records showing the development of Roman Crete, recent research has indicated a general process of slow “self-Romanization”. Just as in other colonial situations – British India, for example – the social trappings of the conquerors became status symbols among the Cretan elite, and a degree of “keeping up with the Claudiuses” ensured the further spread of Roman culture. The elite was composed of landowners, often Roman citizens with a classical education, and usually holding political power in the community. Later, as trade expanded, wealthy merchants increasingly became members of the elite and, since there is little benefit in being an elite if nobody knows it, outward symbols of power and wealth spread through the island.
Excavations have shown an increasing trend towards large houses built around an open central courtyard (atrium) with a shallow pool (impluvium) in the middle. This was a typical Roman feature, which, by demonstrating that the owner had an adequate supply of water, was a status symbol in the hot, dry Cretan summer. The popularity of this type of building has other implications. During the Hellenistic period, Cretan social life was largely communal, with the men doing military training and eating together in the Andreion, only going home to sleep in their relatively small private houses. The Romans brought a shift away from this militaristic culture based on collective ownership of land and communal life, and moved Crete towards a more individualistic society based on trade and private ownership. This in turn resulted in a fashion for large houses, in which the master of the house could entertain and show off his possessions. In domestic life, a detailed study of the import of fine Roman ceramics to Crete indicates that Roman products were fashionable in many parts of Crete, perhaps suggesting that the Cretan elite “set the table like Romans, even if they did not speak Latin at the dinner table”.16 There is, as yet, no evidence of major artistic activity during the Roman period, although mosaic work of high quality has been found, and it is likely that skilled mosaic artists immigrated to Crete to fulfil the demand for this form of decoration. Examples of some magnificent mosaics can be seen in the museum at Kissamos.
Such evidence as we have to date, therefore, seems to point to deliberate attempts among the wealthier Cretan aristocracy and merchants to Romanise their lifestyles and their buildings, both public and private. By the second century AD, however, it seems that Roman fashions had become integrated into Cretan elite society, and the wealthy were less concerned with emulating the Romans than with emulating each other and showing a clear distinction between themselves and the lower classes. For example, the popularity of houses with atria continued in Crete well into the fourth century AD, long after they had fallen out of fashion in Italy, indicating that the style had become fully integrated into Cretan life.
Public architecture saw perhaps an even greater Roman influence. The Monty Python question “What have the Romans ever done for us?” is easily answered. Aqueducts were almost unknown during the Hellenistic period but, by the second century AD, every major city had at least one. Remains of aqueducts can still be seen at Lyttos and Chersonisos, while the latter has an impressive fountain dating from the second or third century AD. As in other parts of the empire, the building of new roads began across the island, while theatres, amphitheatres and temples to foreign gods proliferated. The largest theatre discovered to date was at Lyttos but, sadly, a reputedly well-preserved theatre in Kydonia was destroyed by the Venetians, who looted the site for stone to build a castle. Nearly every Roman site shows evidence of the use of high-quality decorative marble, which was almost certainly imported. Some of the marble columns in the Venetian Basilica of Saint Mark in Iraklion (now the Municipal Art Gallery) were almost certainly taken from a Roman site, and were probably imported from North Africa. It has been suggested that the very existence of quantities of such marble indicates a vast trade system importing luxuries from a huge distance and at great expense.
We have little record of literary activity in Roman Crete, but the island did produce one major poet: Mesomedes. A freedman of Emperor Hadrian, Mesomedes wrote a large number of poems and hymns in Greek, fifteen of which survive. Four of the hymns also include the original musical notation, enabling reconstruction of the music as it would have been performed. Although best known for his hymns to the sun, to Nemesis and to his Muse, it is Mesomedes’ smaller-scale poems that can still delight most, with their multiple meanings, mild eroticism and appreciation of the miraculous in everyday life. The writer Dianne Skafte notes that “While other poets were praising the glories of war and the feats of heroes, Mesomedes wrote little odes to a mosquito, a sundial and a sea sponge.”17 A sample from the poem about the sea sponge gives a flavour of his style:
This flower I bring to you in my hands
With many holes from the deep rocks of the sea,
The very image of a beehive, like honeycomb
On Hymettus from the crags of Attica,
Which gives Glaucus pleasure in his waters.18
Roman rule was tolerant of a wide range of religious beliefs and, as mentioned above, worship of the old Greek gods continued, as well as worship of their Roman equivalents, especially among poorer people. Indeed, there was an upsurge of interest in the Cretan sanctuaries of Zeus on Mount Ida and Mount Dikti, while there is evidence for a steady stream of pilgrims from Cyrenaica visiting the sanctuary of Asclepius at Lebena, famous throughout the Mediterranean. As in other parts of the empire, colonists and traders from Italy brought with them new religions and cults, such as mystery religions, cults of healing and worship of the emperor, but it is not known how far the popularity of these extended outside the aristocracy. At the same time, as trade with the eastern provinces expanded, Egyptian religions began to spread, while the large Jewish population in Crete may well have helped Christianity to gain a foothold.
The archaeological site at Gortyn contains a group of temples that almost represent a library of religions and cults. The Temple of Pythian Apollo represents continuity between the old Greek gods and the Roman pantheon. It is interesting that Apollo was one of the few Greek gods not renamed by the Romans. Nearby, the Temple of the Augustan Gods provides a place of worship for the imperial cult. By the time it was built, Julius Caesar, Augustus, his wife Livia and Claudius had been officially deified, although more were to be added later. Another temple is dedicated to the Egyptian gods, primarily Isis but also Serapis and Hermanubis, a composite of the Egyptian Anubis and the Greek Hermes. The cult of Isis was popular in many parts of the empire, appealing to all ages and social classes – but especially to women. Followers developed an almost personal relationship with the goddess, who offered healing for the sick and eventual resurrection for all. Perhaps the most intriguing place in the complex is the altar to The Most High God (Theos Hypsistos), an unnamed deity originating in Egypt and Palestine and popular throughout the Mediterranean. This was a monotheistic religion in which believers would gather around an outdoor altar to worship a god of light, represented by the flames of lamps.
One cultural event in Roman Crete was probably barely noticed at the time, but was to have far-reaching consequences for the future of the island: the arrival of Christianity. We know very little about how and when this occurred, and what we do know is often contradictory and vague, based mainly on a few lines in the Acts of the Apostles, together with local tradition. Nevertheless, it is certainly worth outlining the few details we do have.
The roots of the conversion of Crete may well lie in the sizeable Jewish community that existed on the island in the first century AD. Many Cretan Jews were present in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost (about AD 33) and were among those converted by Saint Peter’s address. It seems likely, therefore, that at least some of them returned to Crete and began to spread the new Christian message. Some years later (AD 60), Saint Paul is believed to have visited Crete on his way to imprisonment in Rome, but it is unclear from the Acts of the Apostles whether he actually landed.19 A storm forced the ship to shelter at Kaloi Limenes (meaning “Fair Havens”) near Lasea on the south coast. Paul recommended that the ship stay there for three weeks, but the captain decided to sail to a safer anchorage at Phoenix (Loutro). According to very ancient local lore, after they landed at Phoenix, Saint Paul spent the winter there and baptised the first Christian converts. The next event on record seems to have been a mission to Crete by Saint Paul in about AD 63 after his release from prison in Rome. According to his Epistle to Titus in the New Testament, he left Saint Titus in charge of organising the young Church. Certainly, Saint Titus is generally regarded as the first bishop of Crete and is revered as such in the Orthodox Church. His head is preserved as a relic in the Church of Aghios Titos in Iraklion. The remains of a basilica dedicated to Saint Titus are still at Gortyn, but this basilica was not built until the sixth or seventh century AD.
Although the early days of Christianity in Crete are shadowy, it seems likely that the growth of the Church was steady, with the bishops of Gortyn quickly establishing themselves as leaders. The historian Eusebius mentions a letter from Dionysios, bishop of Corinth, to Philip, bishop of Gortyn commending his fortitude and warning him against heresies prevalent at the time. Indeed, Philip had written a strong and detailed refutation of the heretic Marcion, which is sadly no longer existent. Eusebius also mentions Pinytos, bishop of Knossos, as one of the early fathers from whom “has come down to us in writing the [solid] and orthodox faith received from apostolic tradition”.20
The few other details of Christian activity in Roman Crete come from early mentions in liturgies and church dedications. These indicate that Crete had its fair share of Christian martyrs during the two-centuries-long period of persecutions by the Roman state and local authorities, and there is evidence of monastic life even before the legalisation of Christianity. By the end of the second century AD, Christianity had spread beyond the areas of Gortyn and Knossos to other towns in the west and centre of Crete, but there is no evidence of any general spread of Christianity in the east of the island by this time.21
While there is little doubt concerning the beginning of Roman Crete, the date of its ending is more problematic. The change from Roman Empire to Byzantine Empire was not a single event but a long process. Indeed, the very term “Byzantine” was not used until the fifteenth century AD, and the people of Byzantium still referred to themselves as the Roman Empire until the fall of Constantinople in AD 1453. Thus, any choice of date for the end of this chapter is arbitrary and subject to dispute. I have decided to follow a recent suggestion that the earthquake of AD 365 was the turning point, for reasons that will become apparent.22 At the very least, it makes a suitably dramatic ending to the chapter!
Crete, sitting on two active geological faults, is at the centre of an area of major seismic activity, and there were at least three serious earthquakes during the Roman period. The first, during the reign of Nero in about AD 66, was charmingly described by an eyewitness:
Here Apollonius was haranguing on one occasion about midday, and was addressing quite a number of people who were worshipping at the shrine [of Asclepius at Lebena near Gortyn], when an earthquake shook the whole of Crete at once, and a roar of thunder was heard to issue not from the clouds but from the earth, and the sea receded about seven stadia [1.3 km]. And most of them were afraid that the sea by receding in this way would drag the temple after it, so that they would be carried away. But Apollonius said: “Be of good courage, for the sea has given birth and brought forth land.”
And they thought that he was alluding to the harmony of the elements, and was urging that the sea would never wreak any violence upon the land; but after a few days some travellers arrived from Kydonia and announced that on the very day on which this portent occurred and just at the same hour of midday, an island rose out of the sea between Thera and Crete.23
There is also a reference by a historian in the fourth century AD to tombs at Knossos being damaged by this earthquake. Intriguingly, one of the tombs contained a piece of bark inscribed with an unknown alphabet and language. Scholars at the time could make little sense of it, but more recently it has been suggested that this was in fact an early discovery of a Linear B text.
There is little information about an earthquake in AD 262, but it is believed to have been the same as one that destroyed the Sanctuary of Demeter and Persephone in Cyrene at about the same time. Archaeological evidence from Ptolemais in Cyrenaica and Kissamos in Crete attest to its suddenness and severity, with crushed skeletons being found in excavated buildings in both locations.
In contrast, the earthquake of AD 365 was widely reported in contemporary histories, although there is some confusion in the various reports. There is evidence that it was the worst of a string of earthquakes during a period of heightened seismic activity lasting several years. Geological and archaeological evidence points to a megaquake of about 8.5 or more on the Richter scale, exceeding all modern earthquakes in the region. With its epicentre 40–70 km under the sea south-west of Crete, it caused extensive damage in central and southern Greece, northern Libya, Egypt, Cyprus and Sicily, and as far as Spain. The resulting tsunami continued the destruction, devastating the coasts of Libya, Egypt and the Levant. The effect on Alexandria was vividly and accurately described by a contemporary historian:
A little before sunrise there was a terrible earthquake, preceded by incessant and furious lightning. The sea was driven backwards, so as to recede from the land, and the very depths were uncovered, so that many marine animals were left sticking in the mud. And the depths of its valleys and the recesses of the hills, which from the very first origin of all things had been lying beneath the boundless waters, now beheld the beams of the sun.
Many ships were stranded on the dry shore, while people straggling about the shoal water picked up fishes and things of that kind in their hands. In another quarter the waves, as if raging against the violence with which they had been driven back, rose, and swelling over the boiling shallows, beat upon the islands and the extended coasts of the mainland, levelling cities and houses wherever they encountered them. All the elements were in furious discord, and the whole face of the world seemed turned upside down, revealing the most extraordinary sights.
For the vast waves subsided when it was least expected, and thus drowned many thousand men. Even ships were swallowed up in the furious currents of the returning tide, and were seen to sink when the fury of the sea was exhausted; and the bodies of those who perished by shipwreck floated about on their backs or faces.
Other vessels of great size were driven on shore by the violence of the wind, and cast upon the house-tops, as happened at Alexandria; and some were even driven two miles inland, of which we ourselves saw one in Laconia, near the town of Mothone, which was lying and rotting where it had been driven.24
In Crete itself, even the inland towns were extensively damaged, while most of the coastal towns were totally destroyed. Athanasius of Alexandria wrote that more than 100 cities in Crete were destroyed and, even if we assume that he was including small towns in his estimate, it seems likely that Crete suffered total devastation. The violence of the earthquake was such that on the west coast of the island the ground level actually lifted by about 6–9 m. At Phalasarna, a jetty containing the remains of marine creatures has been found 6.5 m above sea level, while the Roman harbour of Kissamos now lies several metres inland. Excavations of Roman houses have revealed some of the damage caused by the earthquake. At Eleutherna, six crushed skeletons were found, while a site at Aptera revealed fallen columns dating from the fourth century AD. The governor’s residence (praetorium) at Gortyn was completely destroyed, and Knossos suffered such damage that extensive rebuilding had to be undertaken. Part of the Roman town of Chersonisos was submerged by 1–2 m.
All in all, it is apparent that the destruction of harbours, the need for large-scale rebuilding and, in some cases, the movement of populations to new locations had a major impact on Cretan economic activity and social life, which signalled a clear break in continuity with the Roman period.