History: According to archaeological findings, the island was inhabited for the first time in the years of the final Neolithic and the Early Bronze Age, that is, in the 4th and 3rd millennium BC. It is believed that the Minoans would have had the island under their control, since thanks to its location it served as a refuge and pirate base. The island was probably not inhabited after the Minoan years and until the 4th c. BC. Subsequently, from 300 BC Antikythera participates in the pirate activity of the Cretan cities, which claim it as an observation post and base against the ships that passed through the area. It is worth noting that the Rhodians campaigned against the Antikytherians, whom they call Aegilean robbers. According to the historian Plutarch, the island was "captured" by Cleomenes III of Sparta on his way to Egypt, after his defeat in Sellasia. From very early on it seems that the Falasarna of Crete had control over the island, which was destroyed in 69-67 BC, during the Roman campaign against piracy in the Mediterranean. The island was inhabited again towards the end of the imperial years, in the 4th-5th century. A.D. However, in the following centuries, Arab pirates occupied Crete and Kythera, affecting life on the island.   Surprisingly, the history of the island is obscure until the 4th Crusade, in 1204, when the island was granted to the Venetian Iakovos Viaros. Then, towards the end of the 13th century, a small Venetian military garrison settled in Antikythera that wanted to control the passage to and from the Aegean.