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Lyttos was one of the most powerful poleis in central Crete during the third century, a persistent rival to Knossos in the chronic warfare that fractured the island's politics. That rivalry ended catastrophically: around 220 BC, while Lyttos's citizen army was away on campaign, Knossos razed the city entirely. Returning soldiers found nothing standing. Lyttos was eventually rebuilt with Spartan and Gortynian aid, but the interruption means coins attributable to the city cluster awkwardly around that destruction event, making precise dating within the century genuinely difficult.