Page 293 - Four Thousand Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby

of a military and organized character. The city of Knossos, which
had never known a foreign foe and had not for three hundred
years experienced even domestic strife, suffered the same me­

thodical looting and enslavement as had so often been the lot
of the cities of the mainland. By oxcart and by pack ass the treas­
ures of half a millennium of trade went down the sea road to the
port. With them went the long trains of captives, white-faced and

silent, facing the life of slavery which was one of the accepted
risks of life elsewhere, but which no one who lived in Knossos
had ever thought to experience.

Not all the inhabitants were enslaved. Even among those
who had not fled there were many who came to an arrangement
with the occupiers, ransoming themselves and their families

with hidden wealth or by notes of hand for large sums invested
abroad. And there were butchers and bakers and wagoners and
gardeners who were needed to serve the occupying forces. And

many who were too old or infirm to be worth enslavement. Oth­
ers were favored for no obvious reason at all—except that it be­
came clear after a while that the sudden conquest had not been
entirely unexpected in certain quarters, that there had been a

fifth column even among the wealthy native Cretans which had
actively assisted Prince Theseus and his men. It was even said

that there had been traitors within the palace, too, and certainly,
when Theseus sailed for home a week or so later, with his cap­
tured fleet of heavy-laden ships, the state in which Princess
Ariadne, daughter of the fallen king, traveled suggested to many

that she was by no means an unwilling captive.
With the departure of Theseus something of the numbing
shock that the blow at Knossos had dealt to Crete began to pass

off, and feeling and the power of movement returned. A strong
Achaean garrison remained, under a Cretan-born Achaean of
princely blood, appointed by Theseus as confederate king, and to

him the other towns and villages of Crete made hasty protesta­
tions of submission—lest worse befall. The Achaean prince, de­
siring to have a city to rule, ignored those of the citizens of

Knossos who now began to creep down from the hills or to re­
turn from the nearer villages, and slowly to salvage and to re­

build.