Listed 10 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "PATMOS Island DODEKANISSOS" .
Patmos (Patmos: Patmo), one of the Sporades Insulae, in the south-east of the Aegean, to the west of Lepsia and south of Samos, is said to have been 30 Roman miles in circumference. (Pliny, iv. 23; Strab. x. p. 488; Thucyd. iii. 23; Eustath. ad Dion. Per. 530.) On the north-eastern side of the island there was a town with a harbour of the same name as the island, and the southernmost point formed the promontory Amazonium (Stadiasm. Mar. Mag. p. 488, ed. Hoffmann). This little island is celebrated as the place to which St. John was banished towards the close of the reign of Domitian, and where he is said to have composed the Apocalypse (Revel. i. 9). A cave is still shown in Patmos where the apostle is believed to have received his revelations. (Comp. Iren. ii. 22; Euseb. Hist. Eccl. iii. 18; Dion Cass. lviii. 1.) The island contains several churches and convents, and a few remains of the ancient town and its castle. (Walpole, Turkey, tom. ii. p. 43; Ross, Reisen auf den Griech. Inseln, vol. ii. p. 123, foll.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
One of the islands called Sporades, in the Icarian Sea, celebrated as the place to which the Apostle John was banished, and in which he wrote the Apocalypse.
A small volcanic island in the Aegean
Sea, off the coast of Asia
Minor, to the south of Samos
and west of Miletus, in lat.
37° 20' N. and long. 26° 35' E. Its length is about ten miles, its breadth six
miles, and its coast line thirty seven miles. The highest point is Hagios Elias
(Mt. St. Elias) rising to over 1050 feet.
The island was formerly covered with luxuriant palm groves, which
won it the name of Palmosa; of these groves there remains but a clump in the valley
called “The Saint's Garden”. The ancient capital occupied the northern
(Ruvali) isthmus.
The modern town of Patmos
lies in the middle part of the island. Above it towers the battlements of St.
John's Monastery, founded in 1088 by St. Christobulus. The Island of Patmos is
famous in history as the place of St. John's exile; there according to general
belief the Beloved Disciple wrote the Apocalypse, the imagery of which was in
part inspired by the scenery of the island. The spot where St. John was favoured
with his revelations is pointed out as a cave on the slope of the hill, half way
between the shore and the modern town of Patmos.
Charles L. Souvay, ed.
Transcribed by: Mary Thomas
This extract is cited June 2003 from The Catholic Encyclopedia, New Advent online edition URL below.
An island located to the S of Samos. Very few ancient authors mention the island: Thucydides (3.33.3), Strabo (10.5. 13, C488), Eust. (Comm. ad. Dionys. Perieg. 530), an anonymous author (Stadiasmus Mans Magni, 283-GGM, I 498) and Pliny (HN 4.70). Patmos was poorly inhabited in antiquity. The early inhabitants were Dorians. Ionian settlers came later. Political exiles were deported there during the Roman period. On the coastal area, N of the isthmus Stavros, are the foundations of the supposed Temple of Aphrodite. Artemis was worshiped in the place where the Cloister of St. John now stands. The center of ancient Patmos is situated E of the modern harbor of Skala, occupying a narrow isthmus. The acropolis (Kastelli) preserves sections of a fortification wall and three towers, belonging probably to the 3d c. B.C. and built in isodomic style. An ancient necropolis has been located in the vicinity of Kastelli, around Nettia. Tombs have been also reported at Kambos in the N part of the island.
D. Schilardi, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains 1 image(s), bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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