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Since the era of the Minoitans, the Cretans were renowned archers; a fact that did not change even after the Achaeans and the Dorians' arrival at Crete. Cleinias attributes the development of archery to the island's topography, refering to the bow as "ideal" for Crete's setting.

The first Cretan archer known to us is referenced to in Iliad and he is Meriones, Idomeneus' partner.

The Dorians who invaded the island quickly adopted the Cretans' archery-related habits and mixed them with their military training. The Cretans spent most of their time fighting amongst themselves, thus they do not seem to have played any major role in greek matters until the 5th century B.C. The first references to Cretans mercenaries come from that exact time, hile the first occasion of them coming into the spotlight was the expedition of the Ten Thousand.

The Cretans began to acquire a high reputation as mercenaries in this very period. Alexander, within the framework of the combined weapons precept he had developed, hired 500 Cretans archers under Eyrybwta as elite skirmissers for the army he would pass to Asia. Eyrybwtas was killed in the capture of Thebes, but his archers remained in the troop of Alexander and played a decisive role with their arrow fire

 during the Battle of Granicus,  their achievements  are also mentioned in the battles of Issoy and Gaugamela.

Since the campaign of Alexander   Cretans have gained even greater fame and in the following centuries became the most important and most  infamous mercenaries of Mediterranean.

The constant clashes between the Cretan cities intensified in the 3rd century,  the result was  that after the end of the Cretan wars where  thousands of well-trained and  battle hardened Cretans archers looking for work.

The Hellenistic kingdoms, especially the Seleucids and the Ptolemies, became their best employers, since they hired in mass prudential as "best Archers of the time". The Antiochos Alexander in his "Anabasis" had 2,500 krites archers with him.

The  Romans  had met them very early and were impressed by their abilities. Livy, in an abomination, makes a speech about the "storm of the Arrows" launched by the Cretans archers. Most of them were hired  as mercenaries in the  Carthaginian and Syracusan  armies   and of course as "auxiliary" (Auxilia) in the Romano army

 Armourement:

The Cretan bow, according to the testimonies of the ancient sources, was of the type of "composite bow", probably constructed with the use of horns and offal. The horns that seem to preferred were those of "will animals ". The Cretan bow appears to have evolved from Eastern standards that were introduced early on the island. During the 4th century BC was introduced in Crete the Scythian bow, which evolved from the local craftsmen and was widely used in the coming centuries.

The bow used by the Cretans in the Hellenistic period was a deadly weapon, with a drastic range close to 200 meters. Their ammo were arrows with heavy, triangular iron spikes, which had particularly good performance in the piercing of the thorax. The bow along with the arrows was transported in a quiver , which hunged on the back or the shoulder.

Shield: The shield of the Cretans was a light pelti small and round, probably constructed from braided wicker branches or wood perhaps later used a bronze coating, . It usually brought to the outside a  of one of the symbols that were popular in Crete, especially the labyrinth  , however it was peculiar, since beyond the rare (for pelti) , it had a porpaka to be fastened to the left arm and to allow the warrior to handle his bow. Besides, the Cretans held the bow with the left hand, the same one on which the shield was attached.

Armor: Initially the Cretans didn't wear armor. They were more of a burden than help in the conditions of the island, after all, their capital tactic was skirmissing