§4.54.1νέων, τὴν δὲ πόλιν ἐνεχείρισαν τοῖς Κνωσίοις.
of the younger men, and handed the city over to the Cnossians.
κατὰ δὲ τοὺς αὐτοὺς καιροὺς Λυττίων ἐξωδευκότων εἰς τὴν πολεμίαν πανδημεί, συννοήσαντες οἱ Κνώσιοι τὸ γεγονὸς καταλαμβάνονται τὴν Λύττον, ἔρημον οὖσαν τῶν βοηθησόντων· §4.54.2καὶ τὰ μὲν τέκνα καὶ τὰς γυναῖκας εἰς Κνωσὸν ἀπέπεμψαν, τὴν δὲ πόλιν ἐμπρήσαντες καὶ κατασκάψαντες καὶ λωβησάμενοι κατὰ πάντα τρόπον ἐπανῆλθον. §4.54.3οἱ δὲ Λύττιοι παραγενόμενοι πρὸς τὴν πόλιν ἀπὸ τῆς ἐξοδείας, καὶ συνθεασάμενοι τὸ συμβεβηκός, οὕτως περιπαθεῖς ἐγένοντο ταῖς ψυχαῖς ὥστε μηδʼ εἰσελθεῖν μηδένα τολμῆσαι τῶν παρόντων εἰς τὴν πατρίδα· §4.54.4πάντες δὲ περιπορευθέντες αὐτὴν κύκλῳ, καὶ πολλάκις ἀνοιμώξαντες καὶ κατολοφυράμενοι τήν τε τῆς πατρίδος καὶ τὴν αὑτῶν τύχην, αὖθις ἐξ ἀναστροφῆς ἐπανῆλθον εἰς τὴν τῶν Λαππαίων πόλιν. §4.54.5φιλανθρώπως δʼ αὐτοὺς καὶ μετὰ πάσης προθυμίας τῶν Λαππαίων ὑποδεξαμένων, οὗτοι μὲν ἀντὶ πολιτῶν ἀπόλιδες ἐν ἡμέρᾳ μιᾷ καὶ ξένοι γεγονότες ἐπολέμουν πρὸς τοὺς Κνωσίους ἅμα τοῖς συμμάχοις. §4.54.6Λύττος δʼ ἡ Λακεδαιμονίων μὲν ἄποικος οὖσα καὶ συγγενής, ἀρχαιοτάτη δὲ τῶν κατὰ Κρήτην πόλεων, ἄνδρας δʼ ὁμολογουμένως ἀρίστους ἀεὶ τρέφουσα Κρηταιέων, οὕτως ἄρδην καὶ παραλόγως ἀνηρπάσθη.
At the same time, when the Lyttians had marched out with their whole force into the enemy's territory, the Cnossians, getting wind of what had happened, occupied Lyttus, which was empty of defenders; and after sending the children and the women away to Cnossus, they set fire to the city, razed it to the ground, and after treating it with every kind of outrage, they returned. When the Lyttians returned from their expedition to the city and beheld what had happened, they were so deeply affected in their souls that not one of those present dared to enter his fatherland; but all of them, walking round it in a circle, and repeatedly crying out and bewailing both the fate of their fatherland and their own, turned back again and went to the city of the Lappaeans. Since the Lappaeans received them kindly and with all possible goodwill, these men, having become in a single day outcasts and strangers instead of citizens, continued to make war against the Cnossians along with their allies. Thus Lyttus, though a colony and kinsman of the Lacedaemonians, and the most ancient of the cities in Crete, and by common consent always rearing the bravest men of the Cretans, was utterly and unexpectedly destroyed.