CHAPTER VIII
THE DESTROYERS
The Empire of the Sea-Kings had not been immune from disaster and
defeat any more than any other great Empire of the ancient world.
The times of conquest and triumph, when Knossos exacted its human
tribute from the vanquished states, Megara or Athens, or from its
own far-spread dependencies, had occasionally been broken by periods
when victory left its banners, and when the indignities it had
inflicted on other states were retaliated on itself. Once at least
in the long history of the palace at Knossos, if not twice, there
had come a disastrous day when the Minoan fleet had either been
defeated or eluded, when some invading force had landed and swept
up the valley, had overcome what resistance could be made by the
guard of the unfortified palace, and had ebbed back again to its
ships, leaving death and fire-blackened walls behind it. The Second
Middle Minoan period closes with the evidence of such a general
catastrophe, in which the palace was sacked and fired, and there
are also traces which suggest that the end of the preceding period
was marked by a similar disaster.
But these catastrophes, whether the agents of them were mere sea-rovers,
making a daring raid upon the eyrie of the great sea-power, or
the warriors of rival mainland states, eager to avenge upon their
enemy what they themselves had suffered at her hands, or, as Dr.
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