Crete (Hastings' Dictionary)

Crete, the modern Candia, is an island in the .Mediterranean, 60 miles to the S. of Greece. Its greatest length from K. to W. is loO miles, while it.s width varies from .30 to 7 miles. 'I'he orig. inhabitants were prob. a kindred race with those of Asia .Minor. C. plays a prominent part in the legendary, lus well as in tin; early historical period. Lying as a convenient stepping-stone between the continents of the Old World, the island was jirob- ably coloni.

sed by the Dcuians in the 3rd gi'iieration after their conquest of the Peloponnesus. Homer numbers them together with the Achieans and • Smith siiirt't'sts ttifit tile Mahilrniiiin miu' liave heon of horsc- nlin« fnrrii, ^4l ttml tlii^ Ik the Aaine kind of ninulel which 1b still ofti-n found on stable duors.' Pelasgians among the inhabitants. Some striking points of resemblance are noticed by Aristotle ( Politics, ii.

10) between the institutions of Sparta and those of C, prominent among them being the military training, and the system of common meals. The mythical king .Minos, round whom so many legends cluster, is alluded to as a 'historical person by Tliucyd. (i. 4. 8) and Aristotle, lie was the first to gain command of the sea ; he insured the payment of tribute by the suppression of piracy, and tiiially failed in an attempt to conquer .Sicily. C. was mountainous, fertile, and thii-kly populated.

Its cities were said to be 100 in number (Horn. //. ii. 049 ; V'irg. Aen. iii. 100), and elsewhere 90 (lloin. Od. xix. 174), the most iiniiortant beitig Gnossus, Gortyiia (1 Mac 15-^), Cydonia, and Lyctus. The warlike spirit of the inhabitants, due to their ])osition and training, was fostered by their internal disputes and their fondne.ss for service as mercen- aries. Tacitus (Hist. v.

2) says that the Jews were fugitives from C, and connects their name, ' lovSaToi, with the mountain in the island called Ida. 'Ibis probably arose frotn a confusion between the Jews and Philistines, the latter of whom are called Caphtorim, fiom ('aphtor (l)t 2-'', Am. 9'), the country from which they migrated to Pal., and may possibly be identified with the Cherethites mentioned! S30", Ezk 20"'.

InJer47* the passage ' the I'hilistines, the remnant of the isle of Caplitor,' has marginal alternative in RV 'of the sea-coast' for 'isle'; and in the LXX (Zeph 2'') wdpoiKOL KpiiTuii' is found and is tr. ' iiilial)itants of the .sea- coast, the nation of the Cherethites' (HV), and Kprirrt (Zeph 2<^)=^th(i sea-coast.' Caphtor may have been a part of Crete, possibly Cydonia on tlie N. coast, which contained a river, Jardanus (cf. Jordan), Horn. Od. iii. 202. In any case C. was prob.

a primitive .settlement of the Caphtorim, and the Cretan character resembles in some resi)ects what we know that of the Philistines to have been. The capture of Jerus. by Ptolemy Soter, and the forced emigration of the Jews, U.t'. 320, drove many dotibtless to C. as well as to Kgypt. C. is mentioned in 1 Mac 10". Demetrius Soter, an enemy of the Jews, had retired to a life of self-indulgence in Antioch, and was defeated and killed by the usurper Balas.

The latter was in turn attacked by Demetrius Nikator, the son of Soter, wlio invaded Cilicia from C, and, though joined by Apollonius, the Rom. governor of Cmle-Syria, was defeated by Jonathan Maccabaius near Azotus, li.c. 148- In H.C. 141 Simon Maccabaeus, on the recognition of his authority, renewed the old friendship with the Romans, and obtained from the consul Lucius the promise of iirotection for tlie Jews from the iidi.abitants of (Jin'tyna in C. (1 .Mac !.'>-■').

There is no doubt that, after this date, the luitnber of Jews in the island increased greatly. Internal quarrels among the Cretans led to the invitation to Philip IV. of M.acedon to act as mediator, but the effects of his intervention were not lasting. C. was t,aken by the Romans under Metellus, it.c. 07, and joined to Cyrene and made a Roman province. Under Atigustus, Crela-Cyrene became a senatorial province governed by a jiroprietiU' and a legatus.

Cretans are mentioned (Ac 2") among the strangers present at Jerus. at the Feast of I'entecost. St. Paul ttmched at C. in the course of his dis- astrous voyage to Rome. Starting from Myra in Lycia, in tlie charge of a centurion, on board a corn ship of Alexandria, since the winds prevented a straight course, he sailed uniler the lee of (,"., i.e. S. instead of N. of the island. Skirting the Jiro- inontcu'y of Salmonc (Ac 27'), on the K. side, and coa.sting along the S., the vessel re.

ai'hed an anchor- age called Fair Havens, a little to the E. of Cai)e Matala. Five miles to the K. some ruins have 520 CELB CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS been discovered wliich may be those of Lasea. This harbour was not considered safe for wintering in, though St. Paul recommended keeping to it. It was getting late in the year. The Fast, i.e.

the great Day of Atonement, on the 10th day of the 7th month Tisri, about the time of the autumnal equinox, had passed, and the ancients did not usually sail after the setting of the Pleiades, Oct. 20 (Hesiod, Works arid Days, 619) or the beginning of Nov. The centurion, however, preferred the advice of the master and the owner of the vessel, who wished to reach the shelter of Phcenix on the S.W. of the island.

This has usually been identified with Lutro, said to have been called by the ancients Plncnike, the only secure harbour on the S. coast which faced E. (RV). There is no harbour existing at that spot now, but one is marked in some Admiralty charts of the middle of the last cent., and called Lutro. In order to identify Phoenix (Ac 27"') with this roadstead, the forced interpretation of the words Kara Xi;3a icaJ kot4 xw/jor, 'down the S.W. wind and down the N.W. wind,' found in the RVm ia adopted.

It is better, however, to take the words as in AV in their usual sense, ' lying toward S.W. and N.W.,' esp. as there is a harbour opposite Lutro called PhineKa in that position. On a gentle S. wind springing up, the attempt was made to reach Phoenix, and the vessel coasted along the S. shore of C. There suddenly, however, blew down from the island ((tar' aur^t) a wind, Euraquilo E.N.E., in the teeth of which it was found inipos.

sible to sail, so the ship was allowed to ecud before the pale to the lee of Cauda (or Clauda, AV), 20 miles S. of Cape Matala, the southern- mo.st promontory of the island. Fourteen days later the vessel was wrecked on the coast of Melita. It is not knovm who planted Christianity in C. If St. Paul did so, it must have been before his first imprisonment, possibly in the course of a visit while he was staying at Corinth or Ephesus.

Perhaps the Church in the island had been founded by Christian converts. St. Paul seems to imply from his words to Titus (Tit 1°), ' For this cause left I thee in C.,' that he had been to the island. The fact that Titus was left to supply all omissions and appoint elders in every city, shows that the Church had been established long enough to admit the presence of irregularities, and had been im- perfectly organised.

The untrustworthy character of the Cretans (Kp^es, Ac 2" AV Cretes, Tit 1" AV Cretians) was proverbial. St. Paul quotes from one of their own poets, Epimenides (Tit 1'"), who lived about B.C. 600, and is called by Plato ' a divine man,' that ' they were always liars, evil beasts, idle gluttons.' Witness to their avarice is also borne by Livy (xliv. 45) and Plutarch .

iEmilius (§ 23), 'the Cretans are as eager for riches as bees for honey' ; to their ferocity and fraud by Polybius and Strabo ; and to their mendacity by Callimachus, Hymn in Jov. 8, who begins a line KpijTet del <j/eO<rrcu with the same words as Epimenides. LmtRATrRR. — Runbury, Hi'jrt. of Ancient Qeog. ; Weldon'e tr. of Aristotle 8 Potitu-s; Rawlinson, Uerodotwi; and the Comm. 00 Acts, esp. Page, Bla^s, and Kendall. C. H. Prichard.