Cydonia, Crete
Kydonia ( or ), also known as Cydonia (, ''Kydōnía'') was an ancient city located at the site of present-day Chania near the west end of the island of Crete in Greece. The city is known from archaeological remains dating back to the Minoan era as well as literary and historical sources. History In the area of Kastelli Hill, which is the citadel of Chania's harbor, archaeological excavations have discovered ceramic sherds and finds that date from the Neolithic to Late Minoan IIIC. Early Bronze Scarce finds such as walls and ground floors confirm that the systematic habitation of the hill began during Early Minoan (EM) II period. Middle Bronze In the Middle Bronze Age, the material culture on Crete is known as Middle Minoan (MM). Late Pre-Palatial Period In the MM IA (c. 2050/2000-1925/1900 BC), the architecture was still pre-palatial. These levels were destroyed with the construction of the neopalatial town. Neo-Palatial Period In the Middle Minoan III (MM III; c. 1 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Minoan Ruins In Chania, Crete 001
The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age culture which was centered on the island of Crete. Known for its monumental architecture and Minoan art, energetic art, it is often regarded as the first civilization in Europe. The ruins of the Minoan palaces at Knossos and Phaistos are popular tourist attractions. The Minoan civilization developed from the local Neolithic Crete, Neolithic culture around 3100BC, with complex urban settlements beginning around 2000BC. After 1450BC, they came under the cultural and perhaps political domination of the mainland Mycenaean Greece, Mycenaean Greeks, forming a hybrid culture which lasted until around 1100BC. Minoan art included elaborately decorated Minoan pottery, pottery, Minoan seals, seals, figurines, and colorful frescoes. Typical subjects include nature and ritual. Minoan art is often described as having a fantastical or ecstatic quality, with figures rendered in a manner suggesting motion. Little is known about the structure of Minoan s ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Gortyna
Gortyna (; also known as Gortyn (Γορτύν)) was a town of ancient Crete which appears in the Homeric poems under the form of Γορτύν; but afterwards became usually Gortyna (Γόρτυνα). According to Stephanus of Byzantium it was originally called Larissa (Λάρισσα) and Cremnia or Kremnia (Κρήμνια). History This important city was next to Knossos in importance and splendour; in early times these two great towns had entered into a league which enabled them to reduce the whole of Crete under their power; in after-times when dissensions arose among them they were engaged in continual hostilities. It was originally of very considerable size, since Strabo reckons its circuit at 50 stadia (about , implying an area of about ); but when he wrote it was very much diminished. He adds that Ptolemy Philopator had begun to enclose it with fresh walls; but the work was not carried on for more than 8 stadia (about ). In the Peloponnesian War, Gortyna seems to have ha ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Lasthenes (general)
Lasthenes () was a strategos (general) of the ancient Cretan city of Kydonia when the Romans attacked the city in 69 BC. In this era Kydonia had protected pirates and incurred the anger of the Roman Senate. When the Romans defeated Kydonia, Lasthenes' fellow strategos Panares surrendered the city, whilst Lasthenes fled to Knossos.Hogan, 2008 There is another Lasthenes, who is philosopher and friend of Dio Chrysostomus. He was a citizen of Apameia Myrleia. (Lucius Flavius Philostratos, Vita Apollonius (Life of Apollonius of Tyana), V.38) See also *Knossos Line notes References * Appian of Alexandria and Horace White, ''The Roman History of Appian of Alexandria'', 1899, The MacMillan Company * C. Michael Hogan, ''Cydonia'', The Modern Antiquarian, January 23, 200* Theodor Mommsen Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen (; ; 30 November 1817 – 1 November 1903) was a German classical scholar, historian, jurist, journalist, politician and archaeologist. He is widely regarded as ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Marcus Antonius Creticus
Marcus Antonius Creticus ( 74 - 72 BC), was a Roman politician during the late Roman Republic. He is best known for his failed pirate-hunting career and for being the father of the general Mark Antony. Biography Early life Creticus was the son of the famed orator Marcus Antonius. He had a sister named Antonia and a younger brother named Gaius Antonius Hybrida. Career He was elected praetor in 74 BC and received an extraordinary commission, similar to that bestowed upon triumvir Pompey by the Gabinian law seven years later in 67 BC, and that conveyed on his father three decades before in 102 BC, to clear the Mediterranean Sea of the threat of piracy, and thereby assist the ongoing operations against King Mithridates VI of Pontus. Creticus not only failed in the task, but plundered the very provinces he was supposed to protect from robbery. He attacked the Cretans, who had made an alliance with the pirates, but was totally defeated, most of his ships being sunk. Diodorus Siculus ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Quintus Caecilius Metellus Creticus
Quintus Caecilius Metellus Creticus (c. 114 BC – late 50s BC) was a politically active member of the Roman upper class. He was praetor in 74 BC and pontifex from 73 BC until his death. He was consul in 69 BC along with Quintus Hortensius Hortalus. Family The Caecilii Metelli were very prominent and conservative members of the Roman nobility in the Republican period, though they were members of the plebeian gens Caecilia. Their greatest influence was from the second century BC onwards.Salazar, Christine F. Brill's New Pauly: Encyclopedia of the Ancient World Vol. 2. Boston: Brill Leiden. 2003. 874–879. The name Metellus possibly means 'mercenary'. A saying attributed to Naevius stated that "it is fated for the Metelli to become consuls at Rome," and it seems to be true: Creticus' brother, father, grandfather, three uncles, great grandfather, and great great grandfather were all consuls. Quintus Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus was Creticus' grandfather. He was praetor in 14 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Polybius
Polybius (; , ; ) was a Greek historian of the middle Hellenistic period. He is noted for his work , a universal history documenting the rise of Rome in the Mediterranean in the third and second centuries BC. It covered the period of 264–146 BC, recording in detail events in Italy, Iberia, Greece, Macedonia, Syria, Egypt and Africa, and documented the Punic Wars and Macedonian Wars among many others. Polybius' ''Histories'' is important not only for being the only Hellenistic historical work to survive in any substantial form, but also for its analysis of constitutional change and the mixed constitution. Polybius' discussion of the separation of powers in government, of checks and balances to limit power, and his introduction of "the people", all influenced Montesquieu's '' The Spirit of the Laws'', John Locke's '' Two Treatises of Government'', and the framers of the United States Constitution. The leading expert on Polybius for nearly a century was F. W. Walbank (1909 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Apollonia (north Coast Of Crete)
Apollonia () was an ancient city in northern Crete located near modern Gazi. Polybius reports an alleged incident in which the city was betrayed by Kydonia, a former ally. See also * List of ancient Greek cities This is an incomplete list of ancient Greek cities, including colonies outside Greece, and including settlements that were not sovereign '' poleis''. Many colonies outside Greece were soon assimilated to some other language but a city is included h ... References Cretan city-states Ancient Greek archaeological sites in Crete Populated places in ancient Crete Former populated places in Greece {{AncientCrete-geo-stub ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Phalasarna
Falasarna or Phalasarna () is a Greek harbour town at the west end of Crete that flourished during the Hellenistic period. The currently visible remains of the city include several imposing sandstone towers and bastions, with hundreds of meters of fortification walls protecting the town, and a closed harbor, meaning it is protected on all sides by city walls. The harbor is ringed by stone quays with mooring stones, and connected to the sea through two artificial channels. Notable finds in the harbor area include public roads, wells, warehouses, an altar, and baths. Most of these structures were revealed by excavations that began in 1986. The acropolis is built on a cape that rises 90 meters above the harbor and juts into the sea. The acropolis has many remains, including a temple dedicated to goddess Dictynna, fortification towers, cisterns, wells, and watchtowers that could have been used to guard sea routes. Today Falasarna is an agricultural area and tourist attraction. Th ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Polyrrhenia
Polyrrhenia or Polyrrenia (; modern ), Polyrrhen or Polyrren (Πολύρρην) or Polyren (Πολύρην), or Pollyrrhenia or Pollyrrenia (Πολλύρρηνα),'' Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax'', p. 18 or Polyrrenion (Πολυρρήνιον) or Polyrrhenium, was a town and '' polis'' (city-state) in the northwest of ancient Crete, whose territory occupied the whole western extremity of the island, extending from north to south. Ancient references Polyrrhenia was an important Archaic Period settlement co-temporaneous with Lato and Prinias. Strabo describes it as lying west of Cydonia, at the distance of 30 stadia from the sea, and 60 from Phalasarna, and as containing a temple of Dictynna. He adds that the Polyrrhenians formerly dwelt in villages, and that they were collected into one place by the Achaeans and Lacedaemonians, who built a strong city looking towards the south. History In the civil wars in Crete in the time of the Achaean League, 219 BCE, the Polyrrh ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Lyttian War
The Lyttian War was an internal conflict fought from around 220 BC to about 216 BC between two coalitions of Cretan city-states, led by Knossos and Polyrrhenia respectively. The events of the war are recorded by the historian Polybius. It is considered "the greatest war in Cretan history" during Antiquity. Prelude The prelude to the conflict in Crete was the commercial war between the cities of Rhodes and Byzantium about the toll introduced by the Byzantines for all ships passing through the Bosporus on their way to the Pontus Euxinus. Posing a huge threat to Hellenistic trade, the conflict was ended in 220 BC with a compromise. Outbreak Meanwhile in Crete the allied cities of Knossos and Gortys had gained control of the whole island, except for the Spartan colony of Lyttos which alone resisted. When the Rhodian navarch Polemocles returned from the war against Byzantium, the Knossians thought that he could be helpful to their efforts against Lyttos. So they asked the Rhodia ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Aptera, Greece
Aptera ( or ) or Apteron was an ancient city, now an archaeological site in Kalives in western Crete, a kilometre inland from the southern shore of Souda Bay, about 13 km east of the city of Chania in the municipality of Chania. History It is mentioned (A-pa-ta-wa) in Linear B tablets from the 14th-13th centuries Before Christ, BC. With its highly fortunate geographical situation, the city-state was powerful from Minoan civilization, Minoan through Hellenistic times, when it gradually declined. However, the Minoan settlement of the Bronze Age was located about 1.5 km away from Aptera, at the place of the modern Stylos settlement. In Greek mythology, Aptera was the site of the legendary contest between the Siren (mythology), Sirens and the Muses, when after the victory of the Muses, the Sirens lost the feathers of their wings from their shoulders, and having thus become white, cast themselves into the sea. The name of the city literally means "without wings", and the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Angelos Chaniotis
Angelos Chaniotis (; born November 8, 1959) is a Greek historian and Classics scholar, known for original and wide-ranging research in the cultural, religious, legal and economic history of the Hellenistic period and the Byzantine Empire. His research interests also include the history of Crete and Greek epigraphy. Chaniotis is a Professor in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He is a member of the German Archaeological Institute and was a member of the Editorial Board of the Classical Studies journal ''Mnemosyne''. Education and career Chaniotis got his B.A. at the University of Athens in 1982. He got his Ph.D. at Heidelberg University in 1984 and received habilitation at that same institution in 1992. He was a visiting professor at New York University in 1993–1998. He was a visiting professor at Oxford University from 2010 to 2013 and senior research fellow at All Souls College, Oxford, from 2006 to 2010. He taught at He ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |