A Trajanic Milestone and the Road Connections of Aptera, Crete
HESPERIA 75 (2006) ON THE ROAD AGAIN Pages 405-433 A Trajanic Milestone and the Road Connections of ?ptera, Crete ABSTRACT new an A Latin inscription found south of ?ptera documents Early Trajanic stage in the development of the Roman road network of western Crete. A con reconsideration of ?ptera and its hinterland provides the topographical text for this milestone, which apparently was found in situ. The text records direct imperial intervention and generosity. The mileage figure suggests the s location of ?ptera port, and supports the theory that Cretan milestones indicated the distance to turning points in the road. This road system linked western Crete with the capital at Gortyn, after passing through the territories of ?ptera, Lappa, and Eleutherna. INTRODUCTION now In 1985 Maria Andreadaki-Vlazaki, the director of the 25th Ephoreia a of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities in Chania, Crete, inspected stone on a column located farm between the villages of Stylos and Mahairoi, south of ?ptera (Figs. 1, 2:9).x She conducted this autopsy together with Konstantinos Gavrilakis, the archaeological guardian for Samonas in the community of Stylos.2 Andreadaki-Vlazaki recognized the importance of the inscribed column, which remained in this isolated location for the next as a 16 years, milestone of Roman date?only the third thus far discovered on the island of Crete. a In 2001 Gavrilakis submitted report to the ephoreia concerning this same now stone, relocated to the Community Center ofMahairoi. He sug one gested identifying the inscribed column with cited by Konstantinos 1.We would like to express our poulos of theWorkshop of Papyrology express our sincere thanks to the anon thanks to Maria at reviewers for their Andreadaki-Vlazaki, and Epigraphy the University of ymous Hesperia who comments.
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