Polyrrhenia in 218 B.C.

Polyrrhenia — Spring 218 BC · Head of the Allied Bloc.

Polyrrhenia — “the city of many flocks” — the strong hill-city of the far north-western highlands of Crete, and the head of the bloc that has risen against Knossos. A populous synoecised town set high above the western coast, its name marks the pastoral wealth of the uplands and the hardy soldiers they breed. When the Cretan cities fell out over Lyttos, Polyrrhenia led the cities that broke from Knossos to make common cause with the Lyttians; and it was Polyrrhenia and Lappa, seeing Knossos cling to Aetolia, who sent to Philip V and the Achaean League for alliance and aid.

Nearly all Crete had been reduced by Knossos and Gortyn, who meant to destroy Lyttos as a terror to the rest. But the league split: Polyrrhenia, Lappa, the Oreioi and the Arcades broke away and made common cause with Lyttos. When Knossos fetched a thousand Aetolians and razed Lyttos while its army was abroad, the war hardened — and Polyrrhenia, seeing Knossos bound fast to Aetolia, led the appeal to Philip V and the Achaean League. The allies took them onto the roll and sent four hundred Illyrians, two hundred Achaeans and a hundred Phocians; with these the Polyrrhenian bloc shut the Eleuthernaeans and Cydonians within their walls and forced Aptera from the Knossian cause. Polyrrhenia is the hinge of the whole western war.