SYIA
or Syba (Souyia) Greece.
Small city on
the S coast of W Crete, in the Selino district between
Lisos and Poikilasion. Little is known of its history;
it was probably a member of the league of Oreioi in the
3d c. B.C. (see Lisos). Its surviving remains belong to
the Imperial and First Byzantine periods, and it was
probably destroyed in the Arab conquest. It had a good
harbor and served as the port of inland Elyros (
Stadiasmus 331; Steph. Byz. s.v.). It apparently did not strike its own coins.
The site lies at the mouth of the valley running down
from Elyros. There is no harbor now, but if relative sea
level was some 6.6 m higher in antiquity there would
have been one W of the river mouth and protected from
the S by a mole. Most of the ancient remains lie E of
the river: remains of houses, an aqueduct to the N, a
bath building to the S, and built and rock-cut tombs on
the slopes to the E. A large basilica of the 6th c. has
been excavated just W of the village, and two other
basilicas lie E of it.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
R. Pashley,
Travels in Crete II (1837;
repr. 1970) 98-102; T.A.B. Spratt,
Travels and Researches in Crete II (1865) 240-43
M; L. Thenon,
RA 14
(1866) 396-404; L. Savignoni,
MonAnt 11 (1901) 443-48
PI; G. De Sanctis, ibid. 510-13; Honigmann, “Syia,”
RE IV A1 (1931) 1024-25; J.D.S. Pendlebury,
Archaeology of Crete (1939) 365-71; M. Guarducci,
ICr II
(1939) 299-301; A. Orlandos,
KretChron 7 (1953) 337-59; S. G. Spanakis,
Kriti II (n.d.) 356-61.
D. J. BLACKMAN
