Salamis

Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament

(Σαλαμίς)

Salamis, the most important city of ancient Cyprus, was the first place visited by St. Paul and. Barnabas in their first missionary journey ( Acts 13:5). Situated at the eastern extremity of the island, about equidistant from Cilicia in the north and Syria in the east, it was the emporium of the wide and fertile plain of Salaminia, which stretched inward between two mountain ranges as far as Nicosia, the present capital of Cyprus. Once a centre of Mycenaean civilization, and afterwards colonized by the Greeks, Salamis became the arena of a long conflict between an Eastern and a Western culture, Phcenicia and Hellas here contending with and profoundly influencing one another.

The city possessed a fine harbour, near which the Athenians defeated the Phcenicians, the allies of Persia, in 449 b.c. The same waters witnessed the greatest sea-fight of ancient times, in which Demetrius the son of Antigonus achieved in 306 b.c. a brilliant victory over Ptolemy Soter and thus wrested the island from him. But after a few years Cyprus was again in the possession of the Egyptian king, and it was probably during his reign that Jews began to settle in the island, to which a letter is said to have been sent by the Roman Senate on behalf of this people about 139 b.c. ( 1 Maccabees 15:23). Their numbers were doubtless greatly increased in the time of Herod the Great, when ‘Caesar made him a present of half the copper mines in Cyprus, and committed the care of the other half to him’ (Jos. Ant. XVI. iv. 5). Many Jews must have made their home in Salamis, where Barnabas (himself a Cypriote,  Acts 4:36) and St. Paul found synagogues, in which they ‘proclaimed the word of God’ ( Acts 13:5). The historian has recorded no incidents or results of this visit. After the ‘sharp contention’ of St. Paul and Barnabas at the beginning of the second missionary tour, the latter went back to labour in his native island, taking his cousin Mark with him ( Acts 15:39). During a widespread insurrection in the reign of Hadrian (a.d. 117), the Jews of Salamis, grown numerous and wealthy, rose and massacred their fellow-citizens, and the once populous city became almost a desert. ‘Hadrian, afterwards Emperor, landed on the island, and marched to the assistance of the few inhabitants who had been able to act on the defensive. He defeated the Jews, expelled them from the island, to whose beautiful coasts no Jew was ever after permitted to approach. If one were accidentally wrecked on the inhospitable shore, he was instantly put to death’ (H. H. Milman, Hist. of the Jews4, London, 1866, ii. 421). Devastated by earthquakes in the time of Constantius and Constantine, Salamis was restored by Constantius II and named Constantia. Epiphanius, the writer on the heretical sects, was its archbishop a.d. 367-402. The story that Barnabas suffered martyrdom there is a late legend. His relics, with a copy of the First Gospel, were ‘discovered’ in a.d. 477, and the Emperor Zeno consequently made the Cyprian Church independent of the patriarchate of Antioch. The site of the ancient city is now covered by sandhills, its place being taken by Famagusta, 2½ miles S., where there is a good natural harbour.

Literature.-Conybeare-Howson, The Life and Epistles of St. Paul, new ed., 1877, i. 169ff.; T. Lewin, The Life and Epistles of St. Paul3, 1875; J. A. R. Munro and H. A. Tubbs, in JHS[Note: HS Journal of Hellenic Studies.]xii. [1891] 59 ff., 298ff.

James Strahan.

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Sal'amis. (Suit). A city at the east end of the island of Cyprus, and the first place visited by Paul and Barnabas, on the first missionary journey, after leaving the mainland at Seleucia. Here alone, among all the Greek cities visited by St. Paul, we read expressly of "synagogues" in the plural,  Acts 13:5, hence, we conclude that there were many Jews in Cyprus. And this is in harmony with what we read elsewhere. Salamis was not far from the modern Famagousta , it was situated near a river called the Pediaeus, on low ground, which is in fact, a continuation of the plain running up into the interior toward the place where Nicosia , the present capital of Cyprus, stands.

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

SALAMIS , which must not be confused with the scene of the great battle between Xerxes and the Greeks in b.c. 480, was the first place visited by Paul and Barnabas on the first missionary journey (  Acts 13:5 ). It existed as early as the 6th cent. b.c. as an important Greek town on the E. coast of Cyprus. In Roman times it remained a flourishing commercial city, and the eastern half of the island was governed from there. There were very many Jews in Cyprus. Christianity was early preached there (  Acts 11:19-20 ), and among early converts were Mnason (  Acts 21:16 ) and Barnabas (  Acts 4:36 ).

A. Souter.

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

The chief city of the isle of Cyprus, visited by Paul and Barnabas, A. D. 48. This was the native isle of Barnabas, and many Jews resided there to whom the gospel had already been carried,  Acts 4:36;  11:19,20;  21:16 . Paul's visit was signalized by the miracle wrought on Elymas, and by the conversion of the governor, Sergius Paulus,  Acts 13:5-12 . Sakanus was a large city, situated on the east side of the island, and was afterwards called Constantia.

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

A city on a commodious harbour in the E. of Cyprus, the first place Paul and Barnabas visited after leaving the mainland at Seleucia, on their first missionary tour. The "synagogues" (Implying The Presence Of Many Jews) account for their going there first. Moreover Cyprus was Barnabas' birthplace ( Acts 13:4-5). Herod the Great farmed the Cyprian copper mines, this would bring many Jews there (Josephus, Ant. 14:4, section 5). Salamis was near the river Pediaeus, on low ground. Constantine or his successor rebuilt it, and named it Constantia.

People's Dictionary of the Bible

Salamis ( Sál'A-Mĭs ), Peaceful, or Beaten. A sea-port town with a good harbor, on the eastern coast of Cyprus. It was visited by Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey.  Acts 13:5. The city was once the capital of Cyprus, and stood on the north side of the river Pediæus. Its site is now traced by broken cisterns and columns and the foundations of ancient buildings. The ruins are known as Old Famagusta.

Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary

A city in the island of Cyprus. ( Acts 13:5) Here the apostle Paul in his travels preached the word of God, being sent forth with Barnabas by God the Holy Ghost for that purpose. We have a most interesting record concerning the apostles' success in this island, in being instrumental to the conversion of the deputy governor, and the opposition they met with from Elymas the sorcerer. I refer the reader to the relation as it is recorded in the above-mentioned chapter.

Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary

once a famous city in the isle of Cyprus, opposite to Seleucia, on the Syrian coast; and as it was the first place where the Gospel was preached, it was in the primitive times made the see of the primate of the whole island. It was destroyed by the Saracens, and from the ruins was built Famagusta, which was taken by the Turks in 1570. Here St. Paul preached, A.D. 44,  Acts 13:5 .

Morrish Bible Dictionary

City in the east of Cyprus, visited by Paul and Barnabas  Acts 13:5 . Its ruins are a little south of Hagios Sergis.

Holman Bible Dictionary

 Acts 13:5Cyprus

Easton's Bible Dictionary

 Acts 13:5

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

sal´a - mis ( Σαλαμίς , Salamı́s ):

1. Site:

A town on the east coast of Cyprus, situated some 3 miles to the North of the medieval and modern Famagusta . It lay near the river Pediaeus, at the eastern extremity of the great plain of the Mesorea, which runs far into the interior of the island toward Nicosia (Lefkosia), the present capital. It possessed a good harbor and was the most populous and flourishing town of Cyprus in the Hellenic and Roman periods, carrying on a vigorous trade with the ports of Cilicia and Syria. Its population was mixed, consisting of Greek and Phoenician elements. The former, however, gave its tone and color to the city, and the chief cult and temple were those of Salaminian Zeus.

2. Early History:

Tradition represented Salamis as rounded soon after the fall of Troy by Teucer, the prince of Greek archers according to the narrative of the Iliad , who named it after his home, the island of Salamis off the Attic coast. In the 6th century Bc it figures as an important Hellenic city, ruled by a line of kings reputed to be descended from Teucer and strengthened by an alliance with Cyrene ( Herodotus iv. 162). Gorgus, who was on the throne in 498 BC, refused to join the Ionic revolt against Persia, but the townsmen, led by his brother Onesilus, took up arms in the struggle for freedom. A crushing defeat, however, inflicted udder the walls of Salamis, restored the island to its Persian overlords, who reinstated Gorgus as a vassal prince ( Herodotus v. 103 ff). In 449 a Greek fleet under Athenian leadership defeated the Phoenician navy, which was in the service of Persia, off Salamis; but the Athenian withdrawal which followed the battle led to a decided anti-Hellenic reaction, until the able and vigorous rule of the Salaminian prince Euagoras, who was a warm friend of the Athenians (Isocrates, Euag.) and a successful champion of Hellenism. In 306 a second great naval battle was fought off Salamis, in which Demetrius Poliorcetes defeated the forces of Ptolemy I (Soter), king of Egypt. But 11 years later the town came into Ptolemy's hands and, with the rest of the island, remained an appanage of the Egyptian kingdom until the incorporation of Cyprus in the Roman Empire (58 BC).

3. Visit of the Apostles:

When Barnabas and Paul, accompanied by John Mark, set out on their 1st missionary journey, they sailed from Seleucia, the seaport of Antioch, and landed at Salamis, about 130 miles distant, as the harbor nearest to the Syrian coast. There they preached the gospel in the "synagogues of the Jews" ( Acts 13:5 ); the phrase is worth noting as pointing to the existence of several synagogues and thus of a large Jewish community in Salamis. Of work among the Gentiles we hear nothing, nor is any indication given either of the duration of the apostles' visit or of the success of their mission; but it would seem that after a short stay they proceeded "through the whole island" ( Acts 13:6 the Revised Version (British and American)) to Paphos. The words seem to imply that they visited all, or at least most, of the towns in which there were Jewish communities. Paul did not return to Salamis, but Barnabas doubtless went there on his 2nd missionary journey (  Acts 15:39 ), and tradition states that he was martyred there in Nero's reign, on the site marked by the monastery named after him.

4. Later History:

In 116 Ad the Jews in Cyprus rose in revolt and massacred 240,000 Greeks and Romans. The rising was crushed with the utmost severity by Hadrian. Salamis was almost depopulated, and its destruction was afterward consummated by earthquakes in 332,342 AD. It was rebuilt, though on a much smaller scale, by the emperor Constantius 2 (337-61 AD) under the name Constantia, and became the metropolitan see of the island. The most famous of its bishops was Epiphanius, the staunch opponent of heresy, who held the see from 367 to 403. In 647 the city was finally destroyed by the Saracens. Considerable remains of ancient buildings still remain on the site; an account of the excavations carried on there in 1890 by Messrs. J. A.R. Munro and H.A. Tubbs under the auspices of the Cyprus Exploration Fund will be found in the Journal of Hellenic Studies, Xii , 59-198.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

Bibliography Information McClintock, John. Strong, James. Entry for 'Salamis'. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tce/s/salamis.html. Harper & Brothers. New York. 1870.

The Nuttall Encyclopedia

A mountainous island of Greece, on the NW. coast of Attica, the strait between which and the mainland was the scene of a naval victory over the armament of Xerxes by the combined fleets of Athens, Sparta, and Corinth in 480 B.C.

Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature

Sal´amis, one of the chief cities of Cyprus, on the south-east coast of the island . It was afterwards called Constantia, and in still later times Famagusta [CYPRUS].