vy. VOYAGE FROM ALEXANDRIA TO ROME, — The voyage from Alexandria to Rome was a much more difficult and tedious matter than the voyage from Rome to Alexandria, owing to the pre- valence during summer of westerly winds in the
* Ships ready to sail from Puteoli in June must doubtless have started from Alexandria in the previous year (like St. Paul's ships); those which started from Alexandria at the very be- ginning of the open season would not be able to sail from Puteoli fill the end of July. See below, §$ vi.
+ Mere carelessness must also be allowed for in remote places: thus Nero’s death was matter of current knowledge in Elephantine within fifty-seven. days; and yet on the fifty-eighth day a document was dated in Thebes by his reign (though Thebes must have received the news before Elephantine). Again, in (villages of the city) Arsinoé the accession of Pertinax (i January) was currently known on 19 May, but ignored on 2 June: it was known in the Fayum before 1 April. Wilcken (loc. cit.) also. gives examples of an Emperor ignored in common documents five or even eight months after his accession.
t Berl. Gr. Urkunden, No. 646, Wilcken, /.c. p. 802.
§ There is no evidence as to the exact time occupied in trans- mission, except that it was less than twenty-seven days (Wilcken, loe, cit. ; CLG 4957).
380 ROADS AND TRAVEL (IN NT)
ROADS AND TRAVEL (IN NT)
Mediterranean. The ships had to help themselves by the uncertain and fitful breezes on the coasts. Now it was unsafe to keep too southerly a course owing to the great quicksands, Syrtes, on the African coast: even if the winds permitted, ships could not venture from Alexandria on a course which would keep them near the Cyrenaic shore lest the wind might shift round towards the north and drive them too far south (Ac 27”). They were compelled to take a northerly course, keeping as much to the west of north as the wind would allow. Thus they might fetch the Lycian coast, or, in very favourable circumstances, possibly ships might even make the Rhodian or Cretan coast ; but it may be regarded as absolutely certain that they could never attempt a course across sea from the Egyptian coast direct to Italy or Sicily. Rather they would make for the south-east end of Crete—at the best—though with the prevailing west or north-west winds such a course could rarely have been sailed. In ordinary circum- stances, the usual aim of ships from Alexandria undoubtedly was to reach the Lycian coast, keep- ing west of Cape Akamas in Cyprus; but some- times they made too much leeway, and failed to clear the western point of Cyprus. In the former case the harbour of Myra was, apparently, the usual point to which ships ran (Ac 21”), In the latter case ships seem to have run for the Syrian coast, perhaps because the south coast of Cyprus was dangerous from its shallow and harbourless character. Examples of voyages northwards from Alexandria are given below: on the voyage south from Rhodes to Alexandria, see p. 382°.
After reaching some point on the south coast of Asia Minor the westward-bound ship was obliged to work along the coast from point to point, taking advantage of the land breezes. Dion Chrysostom in his second Oration at Tarsus speaks of the fitful and uncertain character of those breezes, compar- ing to them the policy of a city governed for brief periods by a succession of magistrates.* Not a moment could safely be lost in taking advantage of such a breeze, lest it should fall again, or change its direction, before the ship got past the promontory ahead. The progress along the coast in this part of the voyage was necessarily slow, and sometimes exceedingly tedious. St. Paul’s ship took fifteen days from Czesarea to Myra (Ac 27° [Western text).
This part of the voyage frequently ended with the harbour of Rhodes. Vespasian touched at Rhodes on his voyage from Alexandria to Rome in A.D. 70.+ So did Philotimus on his way from Cesar in the East to Cicero at Brundisium in July, B.C. 47 (see footnote on p. 3874). Herod the Great sailed in winter from Alexandria by the Pamphylian coast and Rhodes to Rome by way of Brundisium in B.C. 40, and in B.C. 14 touched at Rhodes on his voyage from Czsarea to the Black Sea,t as did St. Paul when making the reverse voyage (Ac 21!),
Gregory of Nazianzus in the 4th cent. sailed from Alexandria to Greece, keeping under (i.e. south and west of) Cyprus, and reached Rhodes apparently on the twentieth day (Carm. de vita sua, 128 ff. ; de rebus suis, 312; Or. xviii. 31).
The ship on which St. Paul sailed for Rome is not stated to have touched at Rhodes, and the ex- pression that it came over against Cnidus (Ac 27’) suggests that it kept north of Rhodes as if in- tending to cross among the Cyclades to Malea. Lucian’s Ship, also, sailed north of Rhodes.
* Bowep of rois &royélos, uxrAoy B8 ToIs aad TAY YvbgaY rvEbMLcEs tAéoyres, XXXiv. 36, p. 424. He had probably experienced these winds on the voyage back from Alexandria.
+ Josephus, BJ vit. ii. 1; Suet. Vesp. 7; Dion Cass, Ixvi. 9 ; Zonaras, xi, 17. He landed at Brundisium,