Page 292 - Four Thousand Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby

beds that night tired and excited, looking forward to the great
sacrifice on the morrow.
In the middle of the night they were awakened by shout­
ing in the streets, the clash of arms, and the roar of flames. As

men and women rushed out half dressed and only half awake
into the streets, they saw the great palace of Minos on the slope
above the town in flames. Around them flames were springing up

at half a dozen points within the town itself, and armed men,
in small groups with determined officers at their head, were mov­
ing purposefully through the streets, towards the houses of the
richest citizens, the barracks of the police troops, and the exits

from the city.
In that night of the long knives many of the citizens of Knos-
sos lost their lives, struck down in halfhearted resistance to the

occupation and looting of their homes, or trapped in the flames
that spread rapidly through the tight-packed houses. Many more
were rounded up as they fled through the streets, and herded
into isolated houses under guard. Those who could escaped into

the hills around the city. And a surprising number, particularly
among the merchants with interests in the northern trade, were
left undisturbed, except for a guard of the attackers set to save

their homes from the looters.
It was only with the coming of dawn next day that it became
clear what had happened. Only then could the survivors, pris­
oners or in hiding, see that the armed men in control of the streets

were Achaeans, and were able to recognize among them many
from the Greek colony in the harbor town. And among the offi­
cers could be seen many of the Achaean toreadors and others

from the retinues of the visiting Greek princes.
With the light the occupation of the town became more me­
thodical, and at noon the prisoners were herded out to the arena
where the bullfights had taken place the day before. There, with

armed guards patrolling the gangways and archers stationed on
the balconies, Achaean heralds proclaimed the incorporation of
Crete within the Achaean confederation. And to underline the

proclamation Prince Theseus himself carried out, there and then,
the sacrifice of the Bull of Minos to the god of the sea.
In the following days the occupation took on more and more