Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/722

 704 CBETA. new arts and knowledge to the island. No proof of A^yptian oolonlsation can be adduced ; and from the national character, it ia probable that settlers of pore AefrjptiaQ blood never crossed the A^ean. Traces of Phoenician settlements maj nndonbtedlj be pointed oat; and by what cannot be called mote than an inge- nions conjecture, the mythical genealogy of Minos has been oonstmed to denote a combination of the orgiastic worship of Zens indigenons among the Eteocretes, with the worship of the moon imported from Phoenicia, and ngnified by the names Europe, Pasiphaa, and Ariadne. There is an evident analogy between the religion of Crete and Phrygia; and the legendary Cnretes and Idaean Dactyls are connected, on the one hand with the orgiastic worship, and on the other with the arts of Plnygia. But no historical use can be made of these scanty and uncertain notices, or of the Minos of the poets and logogzaphers with his contrsdictory and romantic attributes. The Dorians first appear in Crete during the heroic period; the Homeric poems mention difierent lan- guages and difierent races of men — Eteocretes, Cy- donians, thrice divided Dorians, Achaeans, and Pelasgians, as all oo-ezistmg in the island, which they describe to be populous, and to contain ninety cities {Od. xiz. 174). These Dorian mountaineers converted into mariners — the Norman sea-kings of Greece — must therefore have come to Crete at a period, acoording to the received legendaiychronology, long biefors the return of the Heraclidae. In the same poems they appear as hardy and daring corsairs; and this characteristic gave rise to that naval supremacy which was assigned by Hero- dotus, Thucydides, and Aristotle, to the traditionaxy Minos and lus Cretan subjects. Theophrastoi (i>e VentiSf v. 13. p. 762, ed. Schneidevrin) stated that the deserted sites of Cretan villages, which acoording to the primitive Greek practice the mhahitante had oocupicxi in the central and mountain regions, were to be seen in his time. The social fitbric which the anciente found in Crete BO nearly resembled that of Sparta, that they were in doubt whether it should be considered as tiie ar- chetype or copy. (Atist PoL iL 7 ; Strab. p. 482.) But the analogy between the institutions of the Cretan communities and Sparta, is one rather of form than of s|^t. The most remarkable resemblance cooosisted in the custom of the public messes, ''Syssitia," while there is a marked di^rence in the want of that rigid private training and militaxy discipline which cha- racterized the Spartan government. The distinction between the oondition of the Dorian freeman and the serf comes out vividly in the drinking song of the Cretan Hybrias (Athen. xv. p. 695); but there was only one stage of inferiority, as the Cretan Perioecus had no Helote below him. Polybius (yi 45—48), who has expressed his surprise how the best-informed ancient autLors, Plato, Xoiophon, Ephorus, and Cal- listhenes, could compare the Cretan polity to the old Lacedaemonian, as the main features were so different, among other divergences especially dwelt upon the inequality of property in Crete, with that foncied equality which he believed was secured by the legis- lation of Lycnrgus. It is hazardous to determine the amount of credit to be given to the minute de- scriptions which the ancient authors have made, of the machinery by which the nicely balanced consti- tution of early Crete was regulated. Their stetemente as to the dvil virtues and the public education of the Cretans, can be nothing but the mere declamation of after ages, seeking to contrast in a rhetorical CBETA. manner the virtues of the good old times with modem decay and degradation. The generous friendship of tlie heroic ages which was singularly regulated by the law (Ephorus t^. Strab. p. 483), had degenerated into a firigfatfnl licence (Arist Pol ii. 10); and as early as about B. a 600, the Cretan stood self-«Qodeinned as an habitual liar, an evil beast, and an indolent gluttoo, if St Paul in his Epistle to Tltiis (i 12)alliidMto Epimenides. (Comp. Polyb. iv. 47, 53, vL 46.) The island, which collectively stood aloof both in the Persian and Pelopoonesian Wan, consisted of a number of independent towns, who omned thdr own money, had a senate and public assembly (Bockh, Inter. Gr. vol. iL 2554 — 2612), were at oaostnt feud with each other, but when assailed by fore^ enemies laid aside their private quarrels, in defience of their common country, to which they gave the afiectionato appellation of motiter-land (jafr^% word peculiar to the Cretans. (Plat Rep. ix. p. 575; Aelian, F. H. ziiL 38, N, A. rrii. 35, 40; Sjoes. Ep. zdv.). Hence the well-known Syncretism (Plot ds FraL Am, § 19, p. 490; Etym. Mag. «. r. (rvy- Kpi^iffojL). Afterwards centres of states were fanned by CNOflsus, GoBTTNA, and Ctooiha, and after the decay of the latter, Ltcttus. The first two had a ** hegemony," and were generally hostile to each other. These internal disorders had beocnne so violeDt that they were under the necessity of sununoning Philip IV. of Macedon as a mediator, whose com- mand was all-powerful (irpoffTch-95, Polyb. vil 12). It would seem, however, that the dSfecte of his inter- vention had ceased before the Roman war. (Niebohr, Led. onAnc. Hist, vol. iii. p. 366.) Finally, in a. g 67, Crete was taken by Q. Metellos Creticns, after more than one unsuccessful attempt by other com- manders during a lingering war, the history of whidii is fully given in Drumann ((re«cA»c&./2^ vdl.iL pp. 51, foil.). It was annexed to Cyrene, and became a Roman province (Veil. iL 34, 38; Justin, zxzix. 5: Flor. iii. 7 ; Eutrop. vL 1 1 ; Dion Cass. xxxvL 2). In the division of the provinces under Augustus, Creta- Cyrene, or Creta et Cyrene (Orelli, Inter, n. 3658), became a senatorial province (Dion Cass. HL 12), under the government of a propraetor (Strab. p. 840) with the titie of proconsul (Or^, Ui,% with a kgatos (Dion Cass. Ivii. 14) and a quaestor, or perhaps two as in Sicily (Suet Vetp. 2). Under Constantine, a division took place (Zosim. ii. 32); as Crete was placed under a " Consularis** (HierocL), and Cyrene, now Libya Superior, under a '* praeses." (Marqaardt, Htmdbvch der Bom AU, p. 222.) In a.d. 823, the Arabs wrested it from the Lower Empire (Scr^ past TheophrasL pp. 1 — 162; Cedren. Mist. Comp. p. 506). In A. D. 961, the island after a memorable si^ <^ ten months by Nicephorus Phocas, the great domestic or general of the East, once more submitted to the Greek rule (Zonar. iL p. 194). After the taking of Constantinople by the Franks, Baldwin L gave it to Boni&ce, Marquess of Montferrat, who sold it, in A.D. 1204, to the Venetians, and it became the first of t^e three subject kingdoms whose fiags wsved over tiie square of San Marca The Cretan soldiers had a high repuUtion as light troops and archers, and served as meroenaries both in Greek and Barbarian armies (Thnc. viL 57 ; Xeo* Anab. iii. 3. § 6; Polyb. iv. 8, v. 14; Justin, xzxr. 2). Fashions change but litUe in the East; Mr. Pashley (TVar. voL L p. 245) has detected in the games and dances of modem Crete, the tumbles