Page:Light and truth.djvu/123

Rh birth-place of many wise and learned men, as Alcæus, the poet, Sappho, the poetess, Theophanes, the historian, Pittacus, the philosopher, and Diophanes, the orator. On the same island were born, Theophrastus, the sage, and Potamon, the rhetorician. It is now called Castro, and sometimes Metilin. (Acts xx. 14.)

. (Rev. i. 9.) An island in the Ægean Sea, now called Patimo or Patmosa, situated near the promontory of Miletus, between Samos and Naxos, about twenty or twenty-five miles in circumference. It was used by the Romans as a place of exile for convicts, and is distinguished as the place to which John the Evangelist was banished by Domitian, A. D. 94. Its soil is very thin and sterile, lying on a rugged rock, probably of volcanic origin. About a mile back from the beach is a chapel, enclosing the cave which, it is said, John occupied when writing the book of Revelation during his banishment.

. (Acts xxi. 1.) An island of the Mediterranean Sea, north-east of Crete, off the south-west point of Asia Minor, and ranked for dignity and size next to Cyprus and Lesbos, containing a city of the same name. It is forty miles long, and fifteen broad, having a population of eighteen thousand, anciently celebrated for its schools, and for the flourishing state of the arts and sciences, as well as for a colossal statue one hundred and five feet in height, standing astride of the harbor's mouth, so that vessels could pass under it. It stood fifty-six years, and was then overthrown by an earthquake, and the brass of it loaded nine hundred camels, and weighed seven hundred and twenty thousand pounds. In the fifteenth century it was the residence of the knights of St. John of Jerusalem. At this island, Paul touched, on his way from Miletus to Jerusalem. It is supposed by some that the name Rhodes is derived from the multitude of roses produced on the island. The most ancient cities were Lindus, Camirus, and Jalysus. 9