The last several decades have seen a dramatic increase in interest in the Roman period on the island of Crete. Ongoing and some long-standing excavations and investigations of Roman sites and buildings, intensive archaeological survey of Roman areas, and intensive research on artefacts, history, and inscriptions of the island now provide abundant data for assessing Crete alongside other Roman provinces. New research has also meant a re-evaluation of old data in light of new discoveries, and the history and archaeology of Crete is now being rewritten.
The breadth of topics addressed by the papers in this volume is an indication of Crete’s vast archaeological potential for contributing to current academic issues such as Romanisation/acculturation, climate and landscape studies, regional production and distribution, iconographic trends, domestic housing, economy and trade, and the transition to the late-Antique era. These papers confirm Crete’s place as a fully realised participant in the Roman world over the course of many centuries but also position it as a newly discovered source of academic inquiry.

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations
• Chapter 1: Foreword
• Chapter 2: Introduction
• Chapter 3: From Cyrene to Gortyn. Notes on the relationship between Crete and Cyrenaica under Roman domination (1st century BC–4th century AD)
• Chapter 4: A context for Knossos: Italian Sigillata stamps and cultural identity across Crete
• Chapter 5: The double-axe (λάβρυς) in Roman Crete and beyond: the iconography of a multi-faceted symbol
• Chapter 6: The Roman climate in the southwest Aegean: was it really different?
• Chapter 7: Apiculture in Roman Crete
• Chapter 8: Roman imperial sculpture from Crete: a re-appraisal
• Chapter 9: An Attic marble table support (τραπεζοφόρον) in relief from Roman Kissamos: preliminary remarks
• Chapter 10: The Roman theatre at Aptera: a preliminary report
• Chapter 11: Roman Gortyn: from Greek polis to provincial capital
• Chapter 12: Crete’s economic transformation in the late Roman Empire
• Chapter 13: Theatres, plays, and the ‘3rd century crisis’
• Chapter 14: Pottery of the 4th–early 9th centuries AD on Crete: the current state of research and new directions
• Chapter 15: Afterword: putting Crete on the Roman map
• Plates