A Roman Aqueduct through the Cretan Highlands - securing the water supply for elevated Lyttos

In this paper I examine the difficulties encountered in securing the water supply for the Roman city of Lyttos in east central Crete. The city, set on an elevated spur in the western foothills of the Lasithi range, represents one of the relatively few examples of a flourishing upland Roman city on the island. Lyttos was both an inland centre and one of the most prosperous cities of Roman Crete. Its lofty position, simultaneously overshadowing the Pedhiadha plain and controlling the main pass into the Lasithi plateau, secured its control over a wide agricultural area. At this inland, and relatively inaccessible site, economics (as manifested in viticulture), as opposed to geographical accessibility per se, connected the city with the broader Roman world. Despite the relative inconvenience of the city's topography, the city remained on its perch in order to control the pass into the lucrative Lasithi plain. The city's strategic placement undoubtedly presented a challenge for its Roman planners, yet the city survived (and continued to flourish into the Byzantine period), by virtue of its hydraulic surveyors taking full advantage of the city's mountainous surrounds in designing its aqueduct.