At about the same time the Lyttians having left with their whole force for an expedition into the enemy\'s country, the Cnossians getting word of it seized on <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Lyttus&groupId=721&placeId=1323">Lyttus</a> which was left without defenders,
and having sent off the women and children to <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Cnossus&groupId=482&placeId=904">Cnossus</a>, and burnt, demolished, and in every way they could wrecked the town, returned home.
When the Lyttians came back to their city from the expedition and saw what had happened, they were so much affected that none of them had the heart even to enter his native town, but one and all after marching round it and many times bewailing and lamenting the fate of their country and themselves, turned their backs on it and retired to Lappa.
The Lappaeans received them with the utmost kindness and cordiality; and thus having become in one day cityless aliens instead of citizens they went on fighting against <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Cnossus&groupId=482&placeId=904">Cnossus</a> with the other allies.
Thus was <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Lyttus&groupId=721&placeId=1323">Lyttus</a>, a colony of the Spartans and allied to them by blood, the most ancient city in <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Crete&groupId=505&placeId=949">Crete</a>, and ever, as all acknowledged, the breeding-place of her bravest men, utterly and unexpectedly made away with.
Walbank Commentary