Lato pros Kamara or simply Kamara or Camara (

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

: ) was an ancient city of

Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, 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 ...

, situated to the east of

Olous Olous or Olus ( grc, Ὄλους, or ''Stadiasmus Maris Magni'' § 350.) was a city of ancient Crete; now sunken, it was situated at the present day town of Elounda, Crete, Greece. According to the ''Stadiasmus Maris Magni'', it had a harbour and w ...

( Ptol. iii. 17. § 5), at a distance of 15

stadia Stadia may refer to: * One of the plurals of stadium, along with "stadiums" * The plural of stadion, an ancient Greek unit of distance, which equals to 600 Greek feet (''podes''). * Stadia (Caria), a town of ancient Caria, now in Turkey * Stadi ...

according to the Maritime Itinerary, currently the site of

Agios Nikolaos, Crete Agios Nikolaos, Hagios Nikolaos or Aghios Nikolaos ( el, Άγιος Νικόλαος ) is a coastal town on the Greek island of Crete, lying east of the island's capital Heraklion, north of the town of Ierapetra and west of the town of Sitia. In t ...

. Lato pros Kamara was settled in the late

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

as the population of Dorian

Lato Lato ( grc, Λατώ, Latṓ) was an ancient city of Crete, the ruins of which are located approximately 3 km from the village of Kritsa. History The Dorian city-state was built in a defensible position overlooking Mirabello Bay betw ...

realised greater security and its expanding population settled the coastal area, which had been subject to greater likelihood of marine attack during the earlier

. (Hogan, 2008) Xenion, a Cretan historian quoted by

Stephanus of Byzantium Stephanus or Stephan of Byzantium ( la, Stephanus Byzantinus; grc-gre, Στέφανος Βυζάντιος, ''Stéphanos Byzántios''; centuryAD), was a Byzantine grammarian and the author of an important geographical dictionary entitled ''Ethni ...

(''s. v.'') says that it was once called "Lato" (Hoeck, ''Kreta'', vol. i. pp. 10, 394, 116); however, modern scholarship distinguish the two (see, e.g., ), placing Lato pros Kamara as the port of

. Lato pros Kamara outlasted Lato well into

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

times.

References

;Notes ;Sources *
C.Michael Hogan (2008) ''Lato'', The Modern Antiquarian
*Martha W. Baldwin Bowsky, ''Portrait of a Polis: Lato Pros Kamara (Crete) in the Late Second Century B. C.'', ''Hesperia'', Vol. 58, No. 3 (July - September 1989), pp. 331–47
Tourism website of the area
Ruins in Greece Port settlements in ancient Crete Former populated places in Greece Populated places in ancient Crete {{AncientCrete-geo-stub

See also

References