Was Crete a Roman Province during the Republic?

Summary Over recent decades, the debate about how the Romans perceived the imperium and their provinces has been revived thanks to a series of works that have questioned the perspective that historiography has traditionally held on this matter. Crete, subdued by Q. Caecilius Metellus (cos. 69) after several years of war, is analysed in this paper as an instance of the problems of interpretation that have been caused not only by the scarcity of sources on the Republican period, but also by certain common misconceptions about the provinces and the way in which the Romans administered their overseas domains. Scholars have usually assumed that Crete was converted into a Roman province and administered jointly with Cyrene once Metellus conquered the island, but some testimonies put this conclusion in doubt. Although the supposed provincialization of Crete has been discussed previously by other authors, it is convenient to revisit the question with a view to providing an answer that helps to better understand the nature of Roman rule on the island during the years of the Republic.