The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1897-04-01
CRETE AND THE CRETANS.
The Cradle of Classic Civilization and
Its PeOple.

The Cradle of Classic Civilization and
Its People.
In a political view the addition of
Crete to the small kingdom of Greece
would not be very considerable, though
that island is three-fourths as large as
Connecticut and is capable of support
ing 100000 people, as it may once have
done. 1t now has perhaps 100000, or
about one-tenth of the present popula-
ton of King Georges domain-which,
by the late census, reached nearly 3,000,-
600 1t is a mountainous land, and its
highest peak, Ida, is nearly 7,700 feet
high-but 400 feet lower than Par
nassus.
In the later period of ancient Greece,
and when first controlled by the Ro-
mans, Crete was species of maritime
Switzerland, furnishing archers and
sailors and other mercenaries to the
powerful sovereigns around it. The
right of instruction was recognized
there by law, if the rulers were unjust
and usually they were. From mercenary
soldiery to piracy was but one step, and
the Cretans took it. They were the
worst pirates in Pompey's day with
whom the Romans had to deal. Even
earlier, in the time of Polybius, they
had a bad name, for lie says: Crete il
the only country in the world where
money-making, no matter how, passes
for honest and legitimate. If you lee~s
at the individual Cretans, few men are
more knavish. If you examine the gov
eminent, there is none which cherishes
more unjust designs" This is what
most nations have to hear about them
selves from their enemies; but there
is a singular agreement of opinion con-
corning the Cretans. To lie was to play
the Cretan."
And vet the cradle of classic civiliza-
ton was in that mountain land; and its
fertility has always been famous.
Aristotle said that no position lin the
narrow Mediterranean world) was ever
more favorable for the establishment
of great empire; and Plato drew from
Cretan sources his ideal laws, as Lycur-
gus was said to have done when he re-
formed Sparta. Minos, the mythical
lawgiver, and Daedalus, the mythical
artist, were both Cretans, and Zeus
himself is tabled to have been born upon
Mount Ida, named for the Phrygian
mountain that overlooks Troy. The
worship of several of the Grecian del
ties came from Crete-the Eleusinian
Ceres, for instance; Epimenides was
Cretan, and the Delphic Apollo got his
Pythian priests from the same holy isle.
St. Paul established a church in Crete,
and it was for centuries an orthodox
island. Venice did what she could to
make it Roman Catholic, and when the
Turks finally held it, but little over two
centuries ago, they did their best to
make it Mohammedan. The fierce
orthodoxy of the islanders resisted it;
and now but fifth part of the resi-
dents follow the crescent, and most of
those are of Greek descent-renegade
for the sake of gain and power.
For the interests of learning and
archaeological research, the control
of Crete by the Greek government
would be all-important. The Turks have
latterly allowed excavations there, and
many discoveries have been made; but
the difficulties of such work in Turk
ish dependency are always great,
Twelve years ago Halbherr and Fab
ricius discovered the antique laws xOf
Gortyna, carved in marble, and lying
in the bed of a mill stream; and for the
past four years Arthur Evans, the Eng
glish archaeo!ogist, has been finding
Wondrous Mycenean remains, which
add much to our theoretical knowledge
of that prehistoric period which Prof.
Manatt, of Brown, has described so
clearly in his new work. But all this
research would go forward faster if
Kavadias and Tsountas, and the other
learned Greeks who have done so much
on the mainland, would extend their
inquiries over Crete, and open its treas
ures to the American, the British, the
German, and the French schools, now
so busy digging in Greece.-Springfeld
(Mass.) Republican.