LYTTOS
(Xydas) Pedhiadha, Crete.
An important Classical and Roman city ca. 25 km SE of
Herakleion. Although said by Polybios to be the most
ancient (Dorian) town of Crete, the earliest material
from the site is of the archaic period. The city rose to
prominence in the 4th c. and was occupied by Knossos
in 343 B.C. When Lyttos resisted the Knossian conquest
of the rest of the island in 221-219 B.C. it was captured
and razed. Subsequently rebuilt, the city was again overwhelmed when it resisted the Roman occupation. The
city is situated on a hill with three small peaks, the
largest of which seems to have formed the acropolis. At
the foot of this acropolis hill the theater probably stood,
built into the slope of the hill. Fragmentary remains
of houses have been noted on the S slopes of the remaining two hills, and on the peak of the W hill are
traces of a substantial structure which might have been
a temple. Traces of the aqueduct which brought its water
supply from Kournia can still be found. The port for
Lyttos was Chersonisos. Two marble statues from the
site (of Marcus Aurelius and Trajan) are in the Herakleion museum.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Diod. Sic. 16.62; Polyb. 4.53-55; T. B.
Spratt,
Travels and Researches in Crete (1865) I 89-94;
A. Taramelli, “Richerche archeologiche cretesi,”
MonAnt
9 (1899) 387
M; M.S.F. Hood & J. Boardinan, “Archaeology in Greece, 1955,”
Archaeological Reports
(1956) 30.
K. BRANIGAN
