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The island of Crete was a cradle of early human advanced
civilization. Home to the Minoans, Crete reached its point of
greatest power around 1600 BC, but later Greek colonization
brought the island into the Hellenistic world. City states were
established and intense rivalries developed between cities such
as Knossos, Cydonia and Gortyna. Despite these rivalries and
intermittent wars, Crete was able to maintain itself as a virtually
independent state from that of mainland Greece. Close ties were
developed, simply due to cultural similarity, but Crete was never
a major player in mainland affairs in its post Minoan history.
Civil wars between the rival cities destabilized the island and
by the time Rome began to expand beyond Italy in the 3rd century
BC, other external forces were beginning to take an interest.
Ptolemaic Egypt attempted to invade Crete between 267 and 261
BC, but was not able to unify the warring states. Continued
civil instability led to the intervention of Philip V of Macedonia
in 220 BC. Allying with the city of Gortyna, Philip brought some
measure of peace but inevitable brought it into conflict with Rome.
In the Macedonian Wars of 214 - 196 between Philip and Rome, Crete
sided with Philip, though with little consequence. Eventual Roman
victory forced Macedonian withdrawal, but events in other parts of
the Mediterranean left Crete to its own rule. Roman influence was
soon to follow, however as they would be forced to fill the void left
after the stability of Philip.
The three powerful cities of Knossos, Cydonia and Gortyna again
returned to civil war as a method of exerting full authority. The
Romans intervened several times with ambassadors, in 184, 180
and 174 BC, but the island remained embroiled in war. The instability
created a perfect environment and haven for piracy and Rhodes
attempted to bring order to the situation. In 154 BC, they
invaded their island neighbor but were badly beaten. Only the
intervention of Rome prevented a disaster. As Rome increased
its influence over the Hellenistic world, forcing the decline
of regional authority such as Greece and Macedonia, piracy grew
to epidemic proportions.
Piracy reached its Mediterranean zenith between the 2nd and
1st centuries BC, and the primary sources were bases in Cilicia
and Crete. The Roman wars against Mithridates VI of Pontus had
close ties to piracy, as he needed them to disrupt Roman
shipping and supply. The pirates attacked throughout the
Mediterranean and virtually owned the sea. By 74 BC, the Senate
had had enough of piracy and along with the knowledge of Crete's
large wealth from pirate plunder, ordered the invasion of the
island. Marcus Antonius, father of the famous future triumvir,
was charged with the task but he was poorly prepared. The
invasion was unsuccessful and Antonius suffered a humiliating
defeat. Many Romans were captured, but the war with Mithridates
continued and the slave revolt of Spartacus delayed retaliation
for several years.
By 68 BC, the Senate ordered Crete to return its prisoners and
submit those who opposed Antonius to Roman punishment. Crete, obviously
refused, having demonstrated a long history of repelling invaders,
and the Senate commissioned a new command against the island.
Quintus Caecilius Metellus was authorized to undertake the
conquest of Crete. Having much success in taking individual city
states, Metellus' campaign was harsh. By the time, hope seemed
lost for resistance, Pompey the Great had been authorized with a
sweeping command against eastern piracy and made great strides.
The Cretans were finished but in a last show of resistance, they
refused to negotiate the final surrender to Metellus, offering
instead to only submit to Pompey. Accepting the offer Pompey
received much credit, and deservedly so on the mainland, but
it was Metellus who truly conquered Crete. Despite being dismissed
initially by Pompey, Metellus would eventually return and complete
the pacification by 63 BC. As a reward for his service, he was
offered the congnomen 'Creticus'.
Once pacified, the Cretans settled into Roman rule with little
resistance and the island became a mostly uneventful backwater
province. Initially it was organized as joint province with that
of Cyrenaica on the African coast, but geographic inconvenience
had Diocletion separate the two in 298 AD. Constantine later
reconnected it to Illyria, but it remained in little need of
forceful administration. Other than Gothic raids in 269 AD,
Crete remained a peaceful and prosperous province for the great
bulk of Roman rule. It remained a part of the Roman and Byzantine
empires through to the 13th century, with some interruption by
Arab conquest in the 9th century AD. Crete offered standard
imports from the region such as olive oil and wine which was
supplemented by grain. Crete at the time, however, was heavily
forested and provided excellent timber to builders throughout
the empire.
to the map of Crete
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