Home › Eleutherna

Eleutherna

Eleftherna

Eleftherna, Eleutherna sometimes Eleutherna (in Greek : ) is an ancient city of Crete , in present Greece. It is situated in the current prefecture of Rethymnon , 25 km southeast of Rethymnon, about ten kilometers northeast of the monastery of Arkadi. The site occupies a ridge of Mount Psiloritis , about 380 meters.

The city was founded by the Dorians in the ninth century BC. BC at the crossroads between Kydonia , Knossos and the sanctuary of Mount Ida. Eleftherna fight alongside Philip V of Macedon against Rhodes and Knossos during the Cretan war in ^the third century.

During the conquest of the island by the Romans, the city is besieged and falls into the hands of Quintus Caecilius Metellus only after a betrayal. The city grows until the Roman period, during which amounted, baths, houses and other public buildings. The city flourished until the earthquake of 365. During the Byzantine period, the city is the seat of a bishopric and a basilica was erected there in the mid- ^seventh century. But the Arab raids of ^the eighth century and another earthquake in 796 caused the decline of the city.

The Lady of Auxerre is supposed to be from Eleftherna.