The volume is organised into fifteen chapters, among them a brief foreword by H. Sackett (Chapter 1) as well as an introductory (Chapter 2) and a concluding chapter (Chapter 15). In the introduction F. explains how the idea of a collected volume about Roman Crete was born in a panel at the Roman Archaeology Conference in Frankfurt in 2012. After reviewing the scholarly impact of I. Sanders's Roman Crete (1982) and recent fieldwork and publications about the island's Roman period, F. sets the goals of this volume: to produce a synthetic analysis and interpretation of recently published material culture from Crete, and to place the island in the broader context of Roman history and archaeology. Starting from the early years of Crete's Roman rule, the authors offer new perspectives on a variety of topics, from pottery and sculpture to architectural overviews of major Cretan cities, until the island's conquest by the Arabs in the ninth century a.d.
F. Chevrollier (Chapter 3) reviews literary sources, epigraphic testimonia and archaeological evidence that define relations between Crete and Cyrenaica before and after their administrative unification in the first century b.c. A careful reading of the archaeological evidence suggests that the two halves of the joint province, after a brief period of interactions which lasted until the end of the first century a.d., operated separately for most of the time of their unification.
M. Baldwin Bowsky (Chapter 4) mines rich information from a rather mundane body of epigraphic testimonia: the names of potters on Italian Sigillata stamps. With an increased number of published stamps in hand, Bowsky's study reaches important conclusions concerning issues of cultural identity and acculturation of the local elites after the Roman conquest: they opted for a controlled ‘self-Romanization’ without losing their Eastern orientation.
Inspired by the appearance of a double axe on the mosaic floor of a Roman house at Kissamos, K. (Chapter 5) explores the post-Minoan life of the symbol. By reviewing ancient sources and the symbol's meaning in the Greek and Roman periods, she reaches the conclusion that the double axe had lost its religious symbolic significance over the centuries and acquired an apotropaic meaning.
J. Moody (Chapter 6) sets out to write an environmental history of Roman Crete focusing on the climate. Her review of all available climate data for the southwest Aegean documents various climatic changes that occurred between the third century b.c. and the end of the Roman era. Moody's ultimate goal is to compare a reconstructed climate history with Crete's settlement history from the onset of the Roman period until its end. Of special interest is Moody's observation that an increased number of complex water catch-basins constructed between the second and sixth centuries a.d. likely reflects a period of aridity that began in the late second/early third century a.d. This is, however, one of the few cases where climate and archaeological data match so well; in most instances any correlation remains so elusive that Moody suggests that war and concomitant conquests by off-island powers might have exercised more influence on Crete's settlement history than climate change.
F.’s essay (Chapter 7) about apiculture in Roman Crete is the first thorough study of beekeeping and honey production on Crete that is based on archaeological evidence. The discovery of a significant number of ceramic beehives in the Sphakia survey has led F. to undertake a multifaceted project that has examined the shape, context, date and distribution patterns of all known examples from Crete. One of the conclusions of the Sphakia survey is that honey production was in the hands of single households. With beehives being notoriously difficult to date, and honey stored and transported in perishable materials, this essay lays foundations for future studies of the production of honey and its trade in antiquity.
By examining patterns of distribution, typology, gender and context, P. Karanastasi (Chapter 8) offers a comprehensive reappraisal of Roman imperial sculpture on Crete. Karanastasi reaches a number of compelling conclusions concerning the social, economic and cultural life of Crete's local aristocracy during Imperial times. This is an important synthetic work and the prelude to a larger treatise about the history of Roman sculpture on the island.
An impressive marble table support (τραπεζοφόρον) from Kissamos also attests to the wealth and fine taste of the town's aristocracy. Attributed to an Attic workshop of the second century a.d. by M. Milidakis and C. Papadaki (Chapter 9), the table support must once have been a furnishing in one of the opulent villas which have been excavated at Kissamos in recent years and have so enriched our knowledge of Roman Crete with their finds.
In Chapter 10, V. Niniou-Kindeli and N. Chatzidakis present the results of their excavation and study of the Hellenistic/Roman theatre at Aptera. Their assiduous attention to stratigraphy has revealed that the theatre was originally constructed in the early Hellenistic period and went out of use in the fourth century a.d. In the intervening centuries there were two major modifications: one, an enlargement in the second half of the first century a.d. that corresponded to a growth in the city's overall prosperity in early Imperial times, and another, a downsizing in the third century a.d. that may be associated with the construction of a second larger theatre for gladiatorial performances. Because of its Hellenistic construction date, the Aptera theatre bears no resemblance to other Roman theatres on Crete.
In a dense and richly informative essay E. Lippolis (Chapter 11) presents the history of Gortyn's urban development from the third century b.c. until Late Roman times. Most importantly, he shows that Greek cults, as well as institutional forms, such as the boule and the Cretan koinon, survived as late as the fourth century a.d. Since most publications about Gortyn are in Italian, Lippolis's will be welcomed by students.
The absence of Cretan amphoras from pottery assemblages of the fourth and fifth centuries a.d. in Italy has been interpreted as evidence for a declining export economy rather than a shift of focus in Crete's commercial interests. S. Gallimore (Chapter 12) argues not only that Crete did not limit its amphora production after the third century a.d., but also that it became part of the annona militaris, directing most of its wine production to the Black Sea, where a large part of the army of the eastern Roman Empire was stationed until the seventh century a.d.
G. Harrison (Chapter 13) agrees with others in this volume that Crete's economy was not deeply affected by the third-century crisis. Using the history of theatre construction in Roman Crete as a case study, Harrison argues that solid infrastructure built in earlier centuries allowed Crete to survive the crisis with low-cost maintenance.
A. Yangaki (Chapter 14) reviews the current state of research in pottery studies of the Late Roman and first Byzantine periods on Crete. Recent advances have reached new conclusions especially about the seventh century a.d. Scholars now see evidence in pottery for experimentation (painted and glazed pottery) and production of new forms, where previously they had little or no idea as to the character of ceramics of that date. The fact that the creation of new forms remains local could be interpreted as an indication of different cultural identities as well as a development of rural and self-sufficient communities.
The volume concludes with another contribution by K. (Chapter 15), one of the two editors, this time briefly summarising the main points of all the papers; she also makes suggestions for future research by targeting gaps in knowledge in the field, such as our limited understanding of the early years of Roman rule on Crete and the absence of de facto deposits associated with major earthquake destructions on the island.
Reviewing this volume has been a rewarding experience because nearly all the papers are treasure troves of synthetic analysis and interpretation. The editors have succeeded in creating a new (and much needed) point of departure not only for scholars working on Crete but also for others interested in the larger history of the Roman world. Crete is no longer on the fringes of Roman material culture studies.
