Philip persuades the cities of Hierapytna and Olous and other cities in Eastern Crete to declare war against Rhodes.

…Hierapytna and their other Cretan allies.

Rhodes' search for allies in Crete bears fruit when the Cretan city of Knossos sees that the war is going in Rhodes' favor and decides to join Rhodes in an attempt to gain supremacy over the island.

Many other cities in central Crete subsequently join Rhodes and Knossos against Hierapytna and Olous.

Now under attack on two fronts, Hierapytna surrenders.

Under the treaty signed at the conclusion of the war, Hierapytna agrees to break off all relations and alliances with foreign powers and to place all its harbors and bases at Rhodes' disposal.

Olous, among the ruins of which the terms of the treaty have been found, has to accept Rhodian domination.

As a result, Rhodes is left with control of a significant part of eastern Crete after the war.

The conclusion of the war leaves the Rhodians free to help their allies in the Second Macedonian War.

The war has no particular short-term effect on the rest of Crete.

Pirates and mercenaries here continue in their old occupations after the war's end.

In the Battle of Cynoscephalae during the Second Macedonian War three years later, Cretan mercenary archers will fight for both the Romans and the Macedonians.

The war has been costly for Philip and the Macedonians, losing them a fleet that had taken three years to build as well as the triggering the defection of their Greek allies, the Achean League and the Aetolian League to the Romans.

Ierapytna (Ierapetra), a Dorian city in continual rivalry with Praisos, the last Minoan city in the island, had gained supremacy on eastern Crete in the Classical Age.

Hierapytna was later notorious in the third century BCE for its tendency to piracy and had taken part in the Cretan War along with other Cretan cities in the side of Philip V of Macedon against Knossos and Rhodes.

Crete according to Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus was aiding Mithridates VI, king of Pontus, by supplying him with mercenaries in the first century BCE.

Mithridates, intent on halting the advance of Roman hegemony in the Aegean, is at war with the Romans for the third time, and Rome is having a difficult time with him.

The Cretans also contribute to and are in alliance with the pirates of the Mediterranean, which represent a terrible problem at this time; they add the risk of kidnapping to sailing, they pilfer grain from shipments to Rome, and they attack ports.

Marcus Antonius, father of the famous Mark Antony, sends legates to Crete concerning their involvement with Mithridates and the pirates; the Cretans dismiss the matter, and a war begins.

Those cities of Crete yet unconquered by Metellus in 67 BCE appeal to Pompey, who has control over the Mediterranean to eliminate piracy under the proposal of Gabinius.

The Cretans offer to surrender to Pompey, perhaps believing he will be less harsh than Metellus.

Pompey ignores Metellus' command over the island and accepts the Cretans’ surrender.

Pompey orders Metellus to leave the island with his troops, but Metellus persists, defeating the island after a ferocious three-year campaign and making it a province of Rome.

The Roman conquest of Ierapetra occurs about the same time as that of Knossos, Cydonia and Lato.

Remains of the Roman harbor today can still be seen in the shallow bay.

At the archaeological sites, there seems to be little evidence of widespread damage associated with the transfer to Roman power: a single palatial house complex seems to have been razed.

Ierapetra’s importance as independent state ends in 67 BCE when this last free city in Crete is conquered by the Romans and is surpassed by …