GORTVNA (ropruva Alex., Vat. ;* in classical writers, r6pruv, F6prupa ; on a coin, li:6prvpa [Koprupitevp, a city of Crete, and next to Cnos I sus, the most important in the island for power and magnificence. At one time Gortyna and Cnossus in union held the whole of Crete in their power excepting Lyttus (Polyb. iv. 53, 54). In later times they were in a continual state of warfare (Strabo x., Didot ed., p. 410). Gortyna was founded by a colony from Gortys of Arcadia (Plato, Lege: iv., Didot. ed., p. 32o). It was of very con siderable size, its walls being fifty stadia in circuit, whilst those of its rivai, Cnossus, were not more than thirty (Strabo x., Didot. ed., PP. 409-411). Homer bestows upon it the epithet walled' fret Xt6eacra, IL ii. 646). It was situate on the south side of the island on the river Lethus (Iliessara), and at a distance of ninety stadia from the Libyan Sea (Strabo, c.) In the Peloponnesian war Gor tyna seems to have had some relations with Athens (Thuc. ii. 85). Its connection with Philopcemen in B.C. 201, is shewn by the Gortynians having in vited him to take the command of their army (Plut. Phi/op. 13). When the Achsean League was in alliance with the Romans, B.C. 197, against Philip V. of bilacedon, 500 Gortynians joined Quinctius Flamininus when on his march to Thes saly, previous to the battle of Cynoscephaloe (Liv. xxxiii. 3). It is only recently that a coin bearing the well-known types of the League has been found, struck at Gortyna. The late Col. Leake has shewn that the coin with the legend KOPTTNIfIN AXAMN, which had previously been assigned to Gortys in Arcadia by the late Mr. Burgon (Num. Chron., vol. xix. p. 235-36), certainly belongs to the Cretan Gortyna (Supp. Num. Hell. p. Ito), thus proving that cities beyond the continent were admitted into the League (R. S. Poole, Num. Chron., N. S., vol. i. p. 173). About the same period there are evidences of an alliance, political or commercial, between Athens and several of the Cretan towns. Some of the coins of six of these- Cnossus, Cydonia, Gortyna, Hierapytna, Polyr rhenium, and Priansus--are tetradrachms with exactly the types of those of Athens of the same age, but distinguished by having the distinctive badges of the Cretan towns. They were probably struck by the Cretan citics of the great alliance against Philip V. of Macedon about B.C. 'SS (Paus. i. 36, 5, 6 ; cf. Eckhel, Dad. Num. Vet., vol. p. 221 ; Leake, Num. Hell. Insular Greece, p. 19 ; R. S. Poole, WWII. Chron., N. S., /. c.) As Cnossus declined, Gortyna rose to eminence, and became the metropolis of Crete. A bOrlt A.D. 200 a brother of Septimius Severus held at Gor tyna the office of proconsul and qumstor of the united provinces of Crete and Cyrene (I3oeckh, No. 2591). In the arrangement of the provinces by Constantine, Gortyna was still the metropolis of Crete (therocl. Synced, p. 649 ; cf. Leake, Supp. Num. Hell., p. 157).
The remains of Gortyna near Aghius Dheka (the ten Saints), and the cavern in the mountain, have been described by Toumefort (Relation d'un Voyage du Levant) and Pococke (Description of the East), and the cavern, more recently, by Mr. Cockerel' (Walpole, p. 402). The modern Gortynians hold this cavern to be tbe Labyrinth, thus claim ing for themselves the honours of the myth of the Minotaur, but it does not appear from the Gor tynian coins, which date from the time of the Persian war to that of Hadrian (and there are none later), that their ancestors ever entertained such an idea (Leake, Num. Hell. Insular Greece.
p. 18). The famous Labyrinth is represented on the coins of Cnossus, and Col. Leake says that it is difficult to reconcile this fact with the existence of the Labyrinth near Gortyna, for that the excava tion near Aghius Dheka, at the foot of Mount Ida, is the renowned Cretan labyrinth, cannot be doubted after thc description of Tournefort, Po cocke, and Cockerell' (supp. Num. Hell., p. 156). This opinion is given notwithstanding the assertion of Pausanias Xagopeveos, i. 27, 9). One of the coins of Cnossus, bears, besides the Labyrinth on its reverse, the Minotaur on the obverse. It cannot be much later than the expedi tion of Xerxes, and thus affords evidence of the antiquity of the tradition of the Labyrinth, if not of its real existence ; whereas Hoeck (Kreta, vol. i., p. 56, seq.), relying on the silence of Hesiod and Herodotus, and the assumed silence of Homer— though the Iliad contains what looks very like an allusion to the Cretan wonder (It. xviii. 590, seq.) has supposed it to have been an invention of the later poets borrowed from Egypt (R. S. Poole, Num. Chran., N. S., vol. i. pp. 171-72). A full account of the remains of the old site and the modern place is given in the Museum of Classical Antiquities (vol. ii. pp. 277-286). Mr. Falkener hero., describes the cavern near Gortyna from Sieber, who spent three days in examining it, and says, that certainly it had been nothing more than a quarry, which probably supplied the stone for building the city (Reise 'tack der fusel Kreta, vol.
i. pp. 511-520). Hoeck seems to hold similar views (1Creta, vol. i. pp. 447-454) The only Biblical interest attached to Gortyna is that it is mentioned in the Apocry-pha in the list of cities to which the Romans sent letters on behalf of the Jews, when Simon the Maccabee renewed the treaty which his brothers Judas and Jonathan bad made with Rome (r Maccab. xv. 23 ; cf. Maccab. viii. 1, seq. ; xii. seq.) There is no doubt that the Jews were settled in great numbers in Crete ( Joseph. Antig.. xvii. 12. ; Bell. yud., ii. 7 ; Philo, Leg. ad Caiunt., sec. 36), and Gor tyna may have been their chief residence. Ptolemy Philometor, who treated the Jews kindly, and who had received a numerous body in Egypt when they were driven out of Judaea by the opposite party (Joseph. Antiq. xiii. 3 ; Bell. Yucl.
rebuilt part of Gortyna (Strabo x., Didot. ed., p. 4.11). When St Paul, as a prisoner, was on his voyage from Cmsarea to Rome, the ship, on ac count of a storm, was obliged to run under the lee of Crete, in the direction of Cape Salmone, and soon after came to a place called FAIR HAVENS, which was near a city called LASpEA (Acts xxvii. 8) [CRETE]. Lasma is probably the Lasia of the Peutingerian Tables, and is there stated to be six teen miles east of Gortyna. It is very uncertain how long the vessel was detained at Fair Havens, though much time had been spent' (Acts xxvii. 9), not since they had sailed from Cmsarea, but at the anchorage (Alford, in toc.) Doubtless, the sailors, soldiers, and prisoners, had frequent inter course with Lasma, and perhaps Gortyna. St. Paul may then have preached the Gospel at one or both of these places, but of this there is not the slightest proof (cf. Conybeare and Howson, Life of St. Paid, vol. 394-396).—F. W. M.