The Odeon in Gortyn, Rome's Provincial Capital for Crete and Cyrenaica in North Africa
A good 4 months to go before sailing this summer – time to finetune our itinerary. There is so much to see during our second week in Crete. We need to be a bit selective. The Minoan palaces and Venetian towns are a must. What about Roman and Dorian sites? Having read Homer describing Crete as an island with 100 cities, I thought the choice will be difficult. But where are they? Found only 27 major Roman towns.
Turns out that not only today’s publications talk rarely about the island's Roman period. Contemporary literature is almost as silent. Almost by chance, we read that Caesar hired Cretan archers for his campaign in Gaul, that Roman generals brought peace to the bickering Dorian cities, that Augustus bestowed the island as dowry to Cleopatra Selene, Cleopatra’s daughter and later Queen of Mauritania or that Roman mariners used its ports for shelter during storms and wintertime – as did Apostle Paul. What a contradiction to the island's prominent perception in the Empire though. Crete was known to everybody for its top-quality wines, its fine olive oil, the delicious honey and its top-notch bee wax. Crete also had a reputation for medical plants like the indigenous Origanum Dictamnus, which was prescribed for stomach aches and digestive problems.
Origanum Dictamnus grows wild in the Mountains of
Crete and is today a protected Spieces
Also, could not find any texts or books about major temples, places of healing, architectural wonders (syphons, aqueducts or light houses) or cultural centers like the library of Pergamon or Ephesus. Nor could I find any evidence of a Roman Emperor visiting the island – such events were always carefully recorded. Seems Crete was an imperial back water – pretty amazing given that it is the richest islands in the Mediterranean. It was well known for its exports – but not much else. Also, in Roman sources, there is absolutely no mentioning of the Minoan culture. It was completely forgotten – simply disappeared.
Thanks to its high Mountains, Crete has water all year despite its Proximity to Africa
Not being successful with my search, I took the above map of Roman towns and started to google them on Goggle Earth. Found all of them – albeit these sites are unimpressive. There is little left and they are small, without big public buildings, no theatres. Their decay is advanced. Gortyn, the former capital in the south, is best preserved but what a difference to towns like Knidos, Kaunas, Ephesus, Miletus or Lindos.
The Dorian Acropolis of Lindos on nearby Rhodes houses the impressive Temple of Athena
Also, unlike other Dorian cities like Corinth, towns in Crete did not establish colonies in the Mediterranean. I guess there was no population pressure thus no need to send the excess population away. Nor did the Persian Empire take any interest in Crete. Xerxes invaded Rhodes in 492 AD but made no effort for Crete. Was it too unimportant and poor to get his royal attention?
This makes me wonder whether Crete ever recovered from the demographic catastrophe from 1’200 to 800 BC, when the Bronze Age ended and Greece fell into the Dark Ages. We know that Crete’s exports collapsed and that its palaces were deserted. With no exports, Crete could not import the wheat needed to support its population. It would not surprise me if the population shrunk by more than 50% during these 400 difficult years. We know what happenes when plagues kill 1/3 of the people. Towns are deserted, survivors flee to the countryside, industrial production falls, GDP collapses, knowhow is lost, trade ceases, life becomes local. After a few decades, the emptiness attracts new settlers. Often from different cultures. When the Dorians arrived in Crete by 900 BC, they must have found an island that could hardly sustain itself and with no knowledge of its previous civilization.
Little is left of the important Port Town of Lissos which was destroyed by an Earthquake
Since the Dorians were mountain people from northern Greece, Albania & Macedonia, they were not naturally born traders. Some Dorians like the settlers in Rhodes, Knidos or Bodrum (Halicarnassus) picked-up commercial skills from the Phoenicians. Cretan Dorians though replicated their mainland lifestyle and built small, fortified villages and castles that were in constant conflict with each other. Also, the turmoil and violence of the Persian and Punic wars, followed by centuries of pirate raids, was not conducive for trading. Crete must have remained a time capsule from 800 to 200 BC, when Rome became influential. Some Cretan towns allied with Rome for self-protection. Rome intervened and subdued their opponents. By 69 BC, Crete was a Roman province. Albeit so sparsely populated that it was combined with Cyrenaica (today’s eastern Libya) to form a province – it was the only province in the Roman Empire separated by a big body of water.
The Roman Province of Crete and Cyrenaica around the time of Emperor Augustus
50 years fast forward, Emperor Augustus establishes his “Pax Romana”. The Mediterranean becomes the “Mare Nostrum” (Our Sea), a highway for trading which allows division of labor never seen before. The Romans – of course – smelled the business opportunity. Within a few decades, products from Crete conquered their natural position back. The island’s topography with good humidity, high rates of sunshine and fertile soil always produces top wine and olives – still does today.
Vineyards & Olive Treess dominate Crete today - must have looked the same in Roman Time
This time though, the economic expansion was managed by a property-owning class who lived in villas in the country side. Some of them were Dorians, some Romans. Cretan towns were nothing else than small market places. What mattered where the coastal harbors. A town culture like in other parts of the Empire did not develop. Crete was too close to already existing centers. Everything that was needed could be imported. With good winds it takes just two days to cross over from mainland Greece or Anatolia.
Remains of a Roman Villa in Makri Gialos - Hope to find better preserved villas on our trip
The good times lasted as long as the Roman Empire. After 600 years of Roman rule, the advancing Arabs turned the Med into a frontier region. Long-distance trading came to an abrupt halt. We know what happened to towns like Knidos or Kaunas. They had to be abandoned. The same happened to Crete – albeit on a much larger scale. Without buyers for its products, the island fell back into poverty. I fear that many people starved to death. For almost 1'500 years, Crete remained a Sleeping Beauty. Whilst Byzantium and Venice still bought some limited quantity of Cretan wine, this business ended when the Ottoman conquered the island in 1669.
Crete’s economic doldrum eventually ended when it was allowed to joined Greece in 1912 and with tourism in the mid 1970s – but this is a story for another blog. In summer 2025, we definitely won't visit any Roman or Dorian sites on Crete. We save this for the Dodecanese and the Peloponnese.
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