churches of every one of the twenty or so πόλεις on the island.29 As Wieland notes, “Gortyn is traditionally held to be Crete’s first ecclesiastical centre, and it would not be surprising if a Christian mission located itself in such a leading town, nor that both recruits and opposition to the Christian movement should come from the Jewish community already established there.”30 Crete is 3,219 square miles (8,336 m2) in size, and because of the mountainous nature of the island, travel is not always