CRETE. - Island in the Mediterranean south-east of Greece, also called Candia from the name of its principal city.
250 km long from east to west, on average 35 km wide, with an area of 8,500 sq km, it closes the Aegean Sea transversely to the south. It consists of chains of mountains bounding small plains, with the great massif of Ida at the center. It has no important rivers, but the numerous valleys turn into torrents during the rainy season. The fertility of the soil and the luxuriant vegetation, in the limited spaces, was well known to the ancients (Strabo, X, 4,4; Pliny, Nat. hist., XII, 11,45).
Little is known of the early history (early Minoan period, 3500-2100 B.C., middle until 1580, late until 1200 B.C.) of the island, where there was formed, from 1600 to about 1000, the Aegeo-Mycenaean civilization that so greatly influenced Greece. The prevailing opinion today is that Kefivo of the Egyptian documents and Caphtor of the Bible (Gen. 10, 14) (Kaftara in the cuneiform texts) is C., the country of origin of the Philistines (Jer. 47, 7; Am. 9, 7). Archaeological explorations attest to a great commercial activity with Egypt and with the other Mediterranean regions from the 3rd millennium to 1400 B.C. In Egypt, in fact, many objects of Cretan art have been found, and in the island many Egyptian imports. After the Dorian conquest (1200 B.C.) there was a great fragmentation of the island, with very numerous cities. Homer speaks of 90 cities (Odyssey, XIX, 174) and of 100 (Iliad, II, 649), naturally of very different extent and importance: but Knossos and Gortyna, where the great inscription of the ancient Cretan law, 6th-5th century B.C., has been found, took and kept the predominance. C. took no part in the war against the Persians nor in that of the Peloponnese. The various cities had lasting relations with the Ptolemies and with Cyrenaica. In 67 C. fell into the power of Rome, and Caecilius Metellus received the title of Creticus. In the organization of the Empire of the year 27 Augustus united C. with Cyrene into a single senatorial province. The governor, of praetorian rank, resided at Gortyna.
The Jews were numerous in the cities of the island, especially at Gortyna, as appears from the letter of the consul Lucius (I Mach. 15, 23; Fl. Josephus, Antiq. Ind., XVII, 121; Bell. Ind., II, 7, 1). Witnesses at Jerusalem of the Christian Pentecost carried the Christian message back to their homeland (Act. 2, 11). The ship that was carrying Paul on the voyage from Caesarea to Rome, having rounded Cape Salmone, advanced toward the southern coast to reach the bay of "Fair Havens" (οὐδὼν Αὐκέως, Vulg. Boniporus), near the city of Lasaia (Act. 27, 7-8). Against the advice of Paul (Act. 27, 10, 21-26), the centurion set out from there to reach Phoenix, a port more suitable for wintering, but by the contrary wind the ship was carried at the mercy of the waves (Act. 27, 16-21). After his release from the prison of Rome, Paul was in C. together with Titus and set out from it again, leaving Titus there to establish the "elders" or "overseers" of the churches and to safeguard the evangelical doctrine that judaizing chatterers were attempting to corrupt.
The Cretans already in antiquity did not enjoy a good reputation; Paul in the letter to Titus (1, 12) cites, approving it, from the oracles of Epimenides, the saying: "Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy bellies."
Bibliography3 works
Donato Baldi
In the 5th-8th centuries there were reckoned to be 8 dioceses in C., because 8 were the bishops who signed a letter addressed to the emperor Leo I at the Council of Chalcedon (451), and just as many were present at the II Council of Nicaea (787).
In C. a group of 10 martyrs was venerated (BHG, nos. 1196-97), called the "provincial martyrs" in the aforementioned letter of the Cretan bishops to Leo I. Their martyrdom was perhaps written at Gortyna in the 4th century and therefore known to the said bishops (P. Franchi de' Cavalieri, I dieci martiri di C., in Miscellanea G. Mercati, V [*Studi e Testi*, 125], Vatican City 1946, pp. 7-40).
Of St. Cyril, bishop and martyr of Gortyna, there is no authentic information. To Gortyna belong, from the Byzantine age, the church of St. Titus with a dome supported by four pillars and the one found in the locality of Vigles. Explorations have led to the discovery of a group of ancient Christian inscriptions, among which is notable the epitaph of a bishop by the name of Ecclesiodorus.
For the later period: v. CANDIA.