The central position of this study is that rural development in Crete under Roman rule (beginning 67 BC) was built upon traditional relationships of people to the land. It is argued that the productive forces behind agricultural subsistence may have altered little from Hellenistic times. The author supports this claim by examining a series of linked variables germane to a reconstruction of rural organization over the periods in question: settlement patterns, land tenure, land use, production activities, and spheres of economic interaction.