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Polyrrhen and Lappa Join the Alliance

But the peoples of Polyrrhen and Lappa and all their
Appeal to the Achaeans and Philip.
allies, seeing that the Cnossians clung to the alliance of the Aetolians, and that the Aetolians were at war with King Philip and the Achaeans, sent ambassadors to the two latter asking for their help and to be admitted to alliance with them. Both requests were granted: they were admitted into the roll of allies, and assistance was sent to them, consisting of four hundred Illyrians under Plator, two hundred Achaeans, and a hundred Phocians; whose arrival was of the utmost advantage to the interest of Polyrrhenia and her allies: for in a brief space of time they shut the Eleuthernaeans and Cydonians within their walls, and compelled the people of Aptera to forsake the alliance of the Cnossians and share their fortunes. When these results had been obtained, the Polyrrhenians and their allies joined in sending to the aid of Philip and the Achaeans five hundred Cretans, the Cnossians having sent a thousand to the Aetolians a short time before; both of which contingents took part in the existing war on their respective sides. Nay more, the exiled party of Gortyn seized the harbour of Phaestus,1 and also by a sudden and bold attack occupied the port of Gortyn itself; and from these two places as bases of operation they carried on the war with the party in the town. Such was the state of Crete.

1 Which had a harbour formed by a projecting headland called Lisses. Steph. Byz., who quotes Homer, Odyss. 3, 293: “ἔστι δέ τις Λίσσἡς αἰπεῖά τε εἰς ἅλα πέτρη.”

Histories. Polybius. Evelyn S. Shuckburgh. translator. London, New York. Macmillan. 1889. Reprint Bloomington 1962.

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Gortyn (Greece) (2)
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hide References (5 total)
  • Cross-references to this page (4):
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), ELEUTHERNA
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), PHAESTUS
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), POLYRRHE´NIA
    • Smith's Bio, Plator
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