Lato pros Kamara or simply Kamara or Camara (

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

: ) was an ancient city of

Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cypru ...

, situated to the east of Olous ( Ptol. iii. 17. § 5), at a distance of 15 stadia according to the

Maritime Itinerary The ''Stadiasmus Maris Magni'' ( grc, Σταδιασμός ήτοι περίπλους της μεγάλης θαλάσσης) is an ancient Roman periplus or guidebook detailing the ports sailors encounter on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. ...

, currently the site of

Agios Nikolaos, Crete Agios Nikolaos, Hagios Nikolaos or Aghios Nikolaos ( el, Άγιος Νικόλαος ) is a coastal town on the Greek island of Crete, lying east of the island's capital Heraklion, north of the town of Ierapetra and west of the town of Sitia. In t ...

. Lato pros Kamara was settled in the late

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

as the population of

Dorian Dorian may refer to: Ancient Greece * Dorians, one of the main ethnic divisions of ancient Greeks * Doric Greek, or Dorian, the dialect spoken by the Dorians Art and entertainment Films * ''Dorian'' (film), the Canadian title of the 2004 film ' ...

Lato Lato ( grc, Λατώ, Latṓ) was an ancient city of Crete, the ruins of which are located approximately 3 km from the village of Kritsa. History The Dorian city-state was built in a defensible position overlooking Mirabello Bay betw ...

realised greater security and its expanding population settled the coastal area, which had been subject to greater likelihood of marine attack during the earlier

. (Hogan, 2008) Xenion, a Cretan historian quoted by

Stephanus of Byzantium Stephanus or Stephan of Byzantium ( la, Stephanus Byzantinus; grc-gre, Στέφανος Βυζάντιος, ''Stéphanos Byzántios''; centuryAD), was a Byzantine grammarian and the author of an important geographical dictionary entitled ''Ethni ...

(''s. v.'') says that it was once called "Lato" (Hoeck, ''Kreta'', vol. i. pp. 10, 394, 116); however, modern scholarship distinguish the two (see, e.g., ), placing Lato pros Kamara as the port of

. Lato pros Kamara outlasted Lato well into Roman times.

References

;Notes ;Sources *
C.Michael Hogan (2008) ''Lato'', The Modern Antiquarian
*Martha W. Baldwin Bowsky, ''Portrait of a Polis: Lato Pros Kamara (Crete) in the Late Second Century B. C.'', ''Hesperia'', Vol. 58, No. 3 (July - September 1989), pp. 331–47
Tourism website of the area
Ruins in Greece Port settlements in ancient Crete Former populated places in Greece Populated places in ancient Crete {{AncientCrete-geo-stub

See also

References