Editing Crete (section)

=== Archaic and Classical period ===

After the [[Bronze Age collapse]], Crete was settled by new waves of Greeks from the mainland. A number of city states developed in the [[Archaic Greece|Archaic period]]. There was limited contact with mainland Greece, and [[Greek historiography]] shows little interest in Crete, so there are few literary references about the island or its people.

During the 6th to 4th centuries BC, Crete was comparatively free from warfare. The [[Gortyn code]] (5th century BC) is evidence for how codified [[Civil law (legal system)|civil law]] established a balance between aristocratic power and civil rights.

In the late 4th century BC, the aristocratic order began to collapse due to endemic infighting among the elite, and Crete's economy was weakened by prolonged wars between city states. During the 3rd century BC, [[Gortyn]], Kydonia ([[Chania]]), [[Lyctus|Lyttos]] and [[Polyrrhenia]] challenged the primacy of ancient Knossos.

While the cities continued to prey upon one another, they invited into their feuds mainland powers like [[Macedon]] and its rivals [[Rhodes]] and [[Ptolemaic Egypt]]. In 220 BC the island was tormented by a [[Lyttian War|war between two opposing coalitions of cities]]. As a result, the Macedonian king [[Philip V of Macedon|Philip V]] gained [[hegemony]] over Crete which lasted to the end of the [[Cretan War (205–200 BC)]], when the [[Rhodes|Rhodians]] opposed the rise of Macedon and the [[Roman Republic|Romans]] started to interfere in Cretan affairs.

In the 2nd century BC Ierapytna ([[Ierapetra]]) gained supremacy on eastern Crete.