At about the same time the Cnossians sent an embassy to the Rhodians and persuaded them to send the squadron under Polemocles to them with three undecked vessels in addition.
Upon this, when the fleet arrived in <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Crete&groupId=505&placeId=949">Crete</a>, the people of Eleuthernae, conceiving a suspicion that Polemocles to please the Cnossians had killed Timarchus one of their citizens, first of all proclaimed reprisals against the Rhodians and next made open war on them.
A little before this the people of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Lyttus&groupId=721&placeId=1323">Lyttus</a> had met with an irremediable disaster. The general condition of affairs in <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Crete&groupId=505&placeId=949">Crete</a> had been as follows.
The Cnossians in alliance with the Gortynians had subjected the whole of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Crete&groupId=505&placeId=949">Crete</a> with the exception of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Lyttus&groupId=721&placeId=1323">Lyttus</a>. This being the only city that refused obedience, they undertook a war against it with the object of its final extermination as an example and terror to the rest of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Crete&groupId=505&placeId=949">Crete</a>.
At first all the Cretans took part in the war against <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Lyttus&groupId=721&placeId=1323">Lyttus</a>, but jealousy having sprung up from some trifling cause, as is common with the Cretans, some separated from the rest,
the people of Polyrrhenia, Ceraeae, Lappa, Horium, and Arcadia unanimously abandoning the alliance with <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Cnossus&groupId=482&placeId=904">Cnossus</a> and deciding to take the part of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Lyttus&groupId=721&placeId=1323">Lyttus</a>, while Gortyna was in a state of civil war, the elder citizens taking the part of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Cnossus&groupId=482&placeId=904">Cnossus</a> and the younger that of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Lyttus&groupId=721&placeId=1323">Lyttus</a>. The Cnossians, whom these disturbances among their allies took by surprise, obtained the assistance of a thousand Aetolians in virtue of their alliance, and once these had arrived the elder Gortynians, seizing the citadel and introducing the Cnossians and Aetolians, exiled or put to death the younger men and delivered the city to the Cnossians.
Walbank Commentary