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Gortyn Code Fragment
Gortyn, Gortys or Gortyna (, , or , ) is a municipality, and an archaeological site, on the Mediterranean island of Crete away from the island's capital, Heraklion. The seat of the municipality is the village Agioi Deka. Gortyn was the Roman capital of Creta et Cyrenaica. The area was first inhabited around 7000 BC. It is located in the valley of Messara in the south of the Psiloritis mountain, in the current position of the settlements of Metropolis and Agioi Deka, and near the Libyan Sea. Municipality The municipality Gortyna was formed as part of Greece's 2011 local government reform by merging the following four former municipalities, each of which became municipal units: *Agia Varvara *Gortyna *Kofinas *Rouvas The municipality has an area of , the municipal unit . Geography Climate History There is evidence of human occupation in Gortyn as far back as the Neolithic era (7000 BC). Many artifacts have been found from the Minoan period (2600–1100 BC) as well as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crete
Crete ( ; , Modern Greek, Modern: , Ancient Greek, Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the List of islands by area, 88th largest island in the world and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and Corsica. Crete is located about south of the Peloponnese, and about southwest of Anatolia. Crete has an area of and a coastline of 1,046 km (650 mi). It bounds the southern border of the Aegean Sea, with the Sea of Crete (or North Cretan Sea) to the north and the Libyan Sea (or South Cretan Sea) to the south. Crete covers 260 km from west to east but is narrow from north to south, spanning three longitudes but only half a latitude. Crete and a number of islands and islets that surround it constitute the Region of Crete (), which is the southernmost of the 13 Modern regions of Greece, top-level administrative units of Greece, and the fifth most popu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crete - Law Of Gortyn - Boustrophedon
Crete ( ; , Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and Corsica. Crete is located about south of the Peloponnese, and about southwest of Anatolia. Crete has an area of and a coastline of 1,046 km (650 mi). It bounds the southern border of the Aegean Sea, with the Sea of Crete (or North Cretan Sea) to the north and the Libyan Sea (or South Cretan Sea) to the south. Crete covers 260 km from west to east but is narrow from north to south, spanning three longitudes but only half a latitude. Crete and a number of islands and islets that surround it constitute the Region of Crete (), which is the southernmost of the 13 top-level administrative units of Greece, and the fifth most populous of Greece's regions. Its capital and largest city is Heraklion, on the north shore of the island. , the region had a p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Matala, Crete
Matala (Greek: Μάταλα) is a village located 75 km south-west of Heraklion, Crete, Greece. Matala is part of the community of Pitsidia within the municipal unit of Tympaki, Faistos municipality, Heraklion regional unit. History The artificial caves in the cliff of the Matala bay were created in the Neolithic Age. Matala was the port of Phaistos during the Minoan period. In the year 220 BC, Matala was occupied by the Gortynians, and during the Roman period, Matala became the port of Gortys 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 or .... It has been suggested that the caves were once used as tombs, but it is more likely that they were used as living spaces, given their volume (corpses do not need that much room to walk around). One of the caves is called "Brut ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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] |
Phaistos
Phaistos (, ; Ancient Greek: , , Linear B: ''Pa-i-to''; Linear A: ''Pa-i-to''), also Transliteration, transliterated as Phaestos, Festos and Latin Phaestus, is a Bronze Age archaeological site at modern Faistos, a municipality in south central Crete. It is notable for the remains of a Minoan palace and the surrounding town. Ancient Phaistos was located about east of the Mediterranean Sea and south of Heraklion. Phaistos was one of the largest cities of Minoan Crete. The name Phaistos survives from Ancient Greece, ancient Greek references to a city on Crete of that name at or near the current ruins. History Bronze Age Phaistos was first inhabited around 3600 BCE, slightly later than other early sites such as Knossos. During the Early Minoan period, the site's hills were Terrace (building), terraced and monumental buildings were constructed on them. Like other large Minoan cities, there was a palace that was built in an area that had been used earlier for communal feastin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aetolian League
The Aetolian (or Aitolian) League () was a confederation of tribal communities and cities in ancient Greece centered in Aetolia in Central Greece. It was probably established during the early Hellenistic era, in opposition to Macedon and the Achaean League. Two annual meetings were held at Thermon and Panaetolika. The league occupied Delphi from 290 BC and steadily gained territory until, by the end of the 3rd century BC, it controlled the whole of central Greece with the exception of Attica and Boeotia. At its peak, the league's territory included Locris, Malis, Dolopes, parts of Thessaly, Phocis, and Acarnania. In the latter part of its power, certain Greek city-states joined the Aetolian League such as the Arcadian cities of Mantineia, Tegea, Phigalia and Kydonia on Crete. During the classical period the Aetolians were not highly regarded by other Greeks, who considered them to be semi-barbaric and reckless. Their League had a complex political and administrative stru ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lyctus
Lyktos ( Greek: or ) was a city in ancient Crete. During the Classical and Roman periods, it was one of the major settlements on the island. Its ruins are located near the modern-day village of Lyttos in the municipality of Minoa Pediada, Heraklion Regional Unit. Lyktos in mythology Lyktos appears in the Homeric catalogue. According to Hesiod, ''Theogony''477-484, Rhea gave birth to Zeus in Lyktos and hid him in a cave of Mount Aegaeon. The inhabitants of this ancient Doric city called themselves colonists of Sparta, and the worship of Apollo appears to have prevailed there. History The name "Lyktos" seems to originate in the Bronze Age, appearing in Linear B texts as ''ru-ki-to'' and as ''rkt (ry-kꜣ-tı͗)'' in an Egyptian list of Aegean place names from the Mortuary Temple of Amenhotep III. In 344 BC, Phalaecus the Phocis assisted the Knossians against their neighbors the Lyktians, and took the city of Lyktos, from which he was driven out by Archidamus, kin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Knossos
Knossos (; , ; Linear B: ''Ko-no-so'') is a Bronze Age archaeological site in Crete. The site was a major centre of the Minoan civilization and is known for its association with the Greek myth of Theseus and the minotaur. It is located on the outskirts of Heraklion, and remains a popular tourist destination. Knossos is considered by many to be the oldest city in Europe. Knossos is dominated by the monumental Palace of Minos. Like other Minoan palaces, this complex of buildings served as a combination religious and administrative centre rather than a royal residence. The earliest parts of the palace were built around 1900 BC in an area that had been used for ritual feasting since the Neolithic. The palace was continually renovated and expanded over the next five centuries until its final destruction around 1350 BC. The site was first excavated by Minos Kalokairinos in 1877. In 1900, Arthur Evans, Sir Arthur Evans undertook more extensive excavations which unearthed most of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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] |
Hellenistic Era
In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in 31 BC and the Roman conquest of Ptolemaic Egypt the following year, which eliminated the last major Hellenistic kingdom. Its name stems from the Ancient Greek word ''Hellas'' (, ''Hellás''), which was gradually recognized as the name for Greece, from which the modern historiographical term ''Hellenistic'' was derived. The term "Hellenistic" is to be distinguished from "Hellenic" in that the latter refers to Greece itself, while the former encompasses all the ancient territories of the period that had come under significant Greek influence, particularly the Hellenized Middle East, after the conquests of Alexander the Great. After the Macedonian conquest of the Achaemenid Empire in 330 BC ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greek Dark Ages
The Greek Dark Ages ( 1180–800 BC) were earlier regarded as two continuous periods of Greek history: the Postpalatial Bronze Age (c. 1180–1050 BC) and the Prehistoric Iron Age or Early Iron Age (c. 1050–800 BC). The last included all the ceramic phases from the Protogeometric to the Middle Geometric and lasted until the beginning of the Historic Iron Age around 800 BC.: "The period from 1100 to 800 B.C. is known as the Dark Age of Greece. As described in the Ancient Greek Thesaursus: Throughout the area there are signs of a sharp cultural decline. Some sites, formerly inhabited, were now abandoned." Currently, the term Greek Dark Ages is being abandoned and neither period is considered "obscure". At the beginning of the Postpalatial Bronze Age, the so-called Late Bronze Age collapse of civilization in the Eastern Mediterranean world in c. 1200–1150 BC took place, as the great palaces and cities of the Mycenaeans were destroyed or abandoned. At around the same time, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Minoan Civilization
The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age culture which was centered on the island of Crete. Known for its monumental architecture and 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 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 Greeks, forming a hybrid culture which lasted until around 1100BC. Minoan art included elaborately decorated pottery, 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 society. Minoan art contains no unambiguous depiction of a monarch, and t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
