To Malta, then, the apostle and his fellow- voyagers quite indisputably came. At night the watch were convinced that ‘land was getting near’ (προσάγειν ---προσαχεῖν is an attempt to replace a curious phrase by an explanatory one, Ac 2752). As the soundings confirmed this, they threw anchors out from the stern (to avoid the risk of ‘swinging’ on toa lee shore), and ‘ prayed for day.’ The dawn revealed a bay, with a shelving bit of beach. Upon this they decide to run the vessel. Simul- taneously they cut the cables, let the ‘rudders’ down (they had been braced up for safety), hoist the foresail, thus getting way on to enable them to steer, and head for the beach. What happened next is in dispute. The beach is not coextensive with the bay. There is a beach at the head of it, and tata at one or two other points at the foot of the clifts. But before they reach the beach they meet unexpectedly a τόπος διθάλασσος, and the ship grounds in water too deep for wading. Accordingly swimmers were bidden to save them- selves, the rest make use of boards, spars, ete., and all are saved. The natives* receive the party kindly, and light a fire. As St. Paul warms him- self, a snake, roused by the heat, darts at him from a faggot he has piled on the fire, and hangs by its teeth on to his hand. The apostle shakes off the animal into the fire, and, to the amazement of the natives, suffers no injury. Escorted to the Louse of Publius (which Bs hos πρῶτος + or Prin- ceps of the island, St. Paul heals his father of dysentery. This miracle is followed by others. The party are honourably treated, and after three months proceed to Italy by a ship which has wintered at the island.
* BepBapu. The language was probab! Punic and Gr, inse. CIG 5753), The modern Arabic with words from Italian, etc.
+ The title is confirmed by Boeckh, CI@ 5754, Λούκιος Κλαυδίου υἷες... φπρούδηνς ἱπαὼς ᾿Ῥωμαΐων πρῶτος Μιλεταίων mai πατρῶν, and by an earlier inscr. published by Caruana.
Punic (Bilingual tese is a corrupt
MELITA
Malta lies 60 miles from Pachynuin (Cape Passaro), the southern headland of Sicily, and nearly 200 from Cape Bon, the nearest point of Africa, in lat. 35° 53’ N., long. 14° 30’ It is separated by a channel of geologically recent formation, 44 miles wide, from the Isle of Gozo on the west. The length of Malta is 17 miles, its greatest breadth 9, its circumference 60, its area 95 square miles. Its population is very dense, 2000 per (productive) square mile. The Greeks seem to have colonized it at an early date. It is said (Diod. ν. xii.) that the older inhabitants were Pheenician. It was long held by Carthage ; in B.C. 218 it was taken by the Romans, under whom it became part of the province of Sicily (Cicero, in Verr, τι. iv. 18, 46). In A.D. 399 it became parc of the Eastern Empire; Belisarius recovered it in 533 from the Vandals; but in 870 it passed under the power of the Abbasside Caliphs. In 1090 it was reunited by the Normans to Sicily. In 1530 Charles v. gave it to the Knights of St. John, who had just lost Rhodes. he Turks attempted to seize it in 1551, 1563, and 1565, but were gallantly repulsed. On the last occasion, one of the great sieges of history, the Turks lost 30,000 men out of 40,000, and the 9000 defenders were reduced to 600. In 1798 the island was seized by Bonaparte; but the harsh rule of the French led the inhabitants to revolt, and in 1800 the island was taken by the English, to whom it was confirmed by the Treaty of Paris in 1814.
The narrative of the Acts, summarized above, fits well with the topography of ‘St. Paul’s Bay,’ some 8 miles in a direct ΠΣ from Valetta, and hardly 5 from the old capital, Melita, now Medina, Notabile, or Citta-Vecchia. The tradition identi- fying the bay is of great antiquity (see below), and its correctness is practically certain. In 1530 tradition coupled the events with the east side of the bay, where stood the old church of S. Paulo ad mare, and the ‘Ayin tal Razzul (fons Apostoli), and where Quintinus (1533) identifies the ‘locus bimaris’ with the ‘ Chersonesus’ of Ptolemy (Koura Head) projecting into the sea, This can hardly
(After Con. and Howson). A, ‘Ayin tal Razzul; B, St. Paul = aa 5 ἴδ the Wied tal Puales. Valetta is about 8 miles E.S.E.
be correct, as the ship would more probably, as Smith and all modern investigators assume, be stranded on the west side of the bay; it may be noticed, moreover, that the oldest map (repent
below) shows the serpents, etc., on the west side, opposite the islet of Selmun, though the church at St. Paul is shown on the E. side. If the modern view is correct, the ‘locus bimaris’ will be a spit of mud projecting under the sea with deep water on either side—possibly, as Ramsay
MELITA MELZAR 337 etc., suggest, between the islet of Selmun and the | the establishment of some local tradition. Citta- Ἐπ ΑΙ δες Vecchia abounds with sites traditionally associated
1530. The church on the left of the bay is St. Paul ad mare. Oittd-Vecchia is beyond the letter M at the corner.