First Byzantine period Under
Roman rule, Crete was part of the joint
province as
Crete and Cyrenaica. Under
Diocletian (r. 284–305) it was formed as a separate province, while
Constantine the Great (r. 306–337) subordinated it to the
Diocese of Moesiae (and later the
Diocese of Macedonia) within the
praetorian prefecture of Illyricum, an arrangement that persisted until the end of
late antiquity. Some administrative institutions, like the venerable
Koinon of the island, persisted until the end of the fourth century, but as elsewhere in the empire these provincial civic institutions were abandoned in face of the increasing power of imperial officials. Few contemporary sources mention Crete during the period from the 4th century to the Muslim conquest in the 820s. During this time, the island was very much a quiet provincial backwater in the periphery of the Greco-Roman world. Its bishops are even absent from the
First Council of Nicaea in 325, in contrast to neighbouring islands like
Rhodes or
Kos. With the exception of an attack by the
Vandals in 457 and the great earthquakes of
9 July 365, 415, 448 and 531, which destroyed many towns, the island remained peaceful and prosperous, as testified by the numerous, large and well-built monuments from the period surviving on the island. In the 6th-century
Synecdemus, Crete is marked as being governed by a
consularis, with capital at
Gortyn, and as many as 22 cities. This peace was broken in the 7th century. Crete suffered a raid by the
Slavs in 623, followed by Arab raids in 654 and the 670s, during the first wave of the
early Muslim conquests, and again during the first decades of the 8th century, especially under Caliph
al-Walid I (r. 705–715). Thereafter the island remained relatively safe, under the rule of an
archon appointed by
Constantinople. In ca. 732, the emperor
Leo III the Isaurian transferred the island from the jurisdiction of the
Pope to that of the
Patriarchate of Constantinople. Most scholars however do not consider the evidence conclusive enough and think it unlikely that the island was a theme at the time. The fall of Crete to the Arabs posed a major headache for Byzantium, as it opened the coasts and islands of the
Aegean Sea to piracy. Further Byzantine attempts at reconquest in 911 and 949 failed disastrously, until in 960–961 the general
Nikephoros Phokas, at the head of a huge army, landed on the island and
stormed Chandax, restoring Crete to Byzantium.
Second Byzantine period After the reconquest, the island was organized as a regular theme, with a
strategos based at Chandax. Extensive efforts at conversion of the populace were undertaken, led by
John Xenos and
Nikon the Metanoeite. Boniface however, unable to extend his control to the island, sold his rights to the island to the
Republic of Venice. In the event, the island was seized by the Venetians' rivals, the
Republic of Genoa, and it took Venice until 1212 to secure her control over the island and establish it as a Venetian colony, the
Kingdom of Candia. ==Governors==