Crete and Cyrenaica

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Provincia Creta et Cyrenae
Ἐπαρχία Κρήτης καὶ Κυρήνης
Province of the Roman Empire
←
67 BC–c. 297 AD →
 
→
Location of Creta et Cyrenae
Roman province of Creta et Cyrenae highlighted.
Capital Gortyn
History
 •  Established 67 BC
 •  Disestablished c. 297 AD
Today part of Greece
Libya

Crete and Cyrenaica (Latin: Provincia Creta et Cyrenaica, Ancient Greek Ἐπαρχία Κρήτης καὶ Κυρήνης) was a senatorial province of the Roman Empire, established in 67 BC. It comprised the island of Crete and the region of Cyrenaica in present-day Libya.

Apion's will and Roman rule of Cyrenaica

Ptolemy Apion, the last king of the Hellenistic Kingdom of Cyrenaica left his kingdom to the Roman Republic when he died childless in 96 BC.[1] Rome readily accepted this inheritance from Ptolemy Apion but preferred to leave the administration to local rulers, rather than enforcing direct control. However, by the 70s BC, civil uprisings by Jewish settlers began to destabilise the province and the Senate was forced to take action. In 74 BC, they sent a low level official, the quaestor Cornelius Lentulus Marcellinus, to officially annex Cyrenaica as a Roman province and restore order. That the Senate sent such a low-ranking official indicates the political difficulty the Republic had in governing its growing empire, as well as indicting the ease with which Cyrenaica was willing to submit to Roman governance and the stability it brought.[2]

Roman conquest of Crete

Marcus Antonius Creticus attacked Crete in 71 BC and was repelled. Then in 69 BC, Rome commissioned Quintus Caecilius Metellus and, following a ferocious three-year campaign, Crete was conquered for Rome in 66 BC, Metellus earning the agnomen "Creticus" as an honour for his conquest and subjugation of Crete.[3]

Province

In 67 BC, Crete and Cyrenaica were combined into a single province[4] with its capital at Gortyn in Crete. Because this arrangement was geographically inconvenient Diocletian divided the province in 298 AD.[3][5]

List of Roman governors

Further reading

Jane Francis and Anna Kouremenos (eds.) 2016. Roman Crete: New Perspectives. Oxford: Oxbow

Anna Kouremenos 2018. "In the Heart of the Wine-Dark Sea: Cretan Insularity and Identity in the Roman Period". In A. Kouremenos (ed.) Insularity and Identity in the Roman Mediterranean. Oxford: Oxbow.

References

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  6. ↑ Unless otherwise stated, the names of the proconsular governors from 30 BC to AD 67 are taken from Werner Eck, "Über die prätorischen Prokonsulate in der Kaiserzeit. Eine quellenkritische Überlegung", Zephyr 23/24 (1972/73), pp. 246f
  7. ↑ Unless otherwise stated, the names of the proconsular governors from 71 to 135 are taken from Werner Eck, "Jahres- und Provinzialfasten der senatorischen Statthalter von 69/70 bis 138/139", Chiron, 12 (1982), pp. 281-362; 13 (1983), pp. 147-237
  8. ↑ Unless otherwise stated, the names of the proconsular governors from 140 to 165 are taken from Géza Alföldy, Konsulat und Senatorenstand unter der Antoninen (Bonn: Rudolf Habelt Verlag, 1977), pp. 263f
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