Cydonia in 218 B.C.

Cydonia — Spring 218 BC · The North-West Power Besieged.

Cydonia — the great city of north-west Crete, set on the Bay of Kydonia where the White Mountains come down to the sea. Ancient, populous and rich, its territory reaches across the far west of the island to the harbours of the Libyan-facing coast. The Cydonians are famed for the quince — the “Cydonian apple” that bears their name — and for the wild huntress-goddess Diktynna, whose sanctuary stands on the cape beyond the city. In the great Cretan war that now divides the island, Cydonia holds to Knossos and the Aetolian alliance; and in this very year, the cities of the Polyrrhenian bloc and their Macedonian and Achaean helpers have shut the Cydonians within their walls.

When the cities of Crete fell out over the fate of Lyttos, Cydonia stood with Knossos, as it had against the western highland cities for generations. But the war has turned against the Knossian side in the north-west. Polyrrhenia and Lappa, heading the bloc that broke from Knossos, appealed to Philip V and the Achaean League and were given Illyrian, Achaean and Phocian soldiers; with these they have in a brief space shut the Cydonians within their walls and forced Aptera to abandon the Knossian cause. The quince-rich country of the west, its harbours and its sanctuaries, lies under threat as the Cydonians hold the city itself and wait on the fortunes of their distant allies.