Neap'olis (\f«7roX«c, Nete City, a frequent name in Gneco-Bonian times, like Newtown with us; see be- low), the place in Northern Greece where I'aul and his associates first landed in Europe (Acts xvi, 11) ; where, no doubt, he landed also on his second visit to ;Macedonia (Acts XX, 1), and whence certainly he embarked on his last journey through that province to Troas and Jerusa- lem (.Vets XX, 6 ). Bhili])pi being an inland town, Neap- olis was evidently the ])ort ; and hence it is accounted for that Luke leaves the verb which describes the voy- age from Troas to Ncapolis {li'^vC uo^iijnafnr^ to de- scribe the continuance of the journey from Neajiolis to Philippi. The distance from Pliiliiipi was ten miles (Strab. vii, 3.30; .\ppian, Hel. Civ. iv, 106; Ptolemy, iii, 13,9; Pliny,iv,ll ). It was probably the same place with Datum (A(ir()j'), famous for its gold mines (Ilerod. ix, 75 ; com]). Biickh's Pub. Fcon. Athens, i>. H, 228 ). The town of Neapolis was within the boimds of the province of Thrace (Pliny, N. It. iv, 18); but the emperor Vc8-
NEAPOLIS
891
NEAPOLIS
pasian attached it to Macedonia (Suetonius, Vesp, 8) ; and hence, while Pliny locates it in Thrace, Ptolemy (iii, 13) and Strabo (vii, 330) assign it to Macedonia. During the great batile of Philippi the fleet of Brutus and Cassius lay in the bay of Neapolis (Appian, Bel. Civ. iv, 106), which Appian states was nine miles dis- tant from their camp at Philippi. Neapolis, therefore, like the present Kuvulla, which occupies this position, was on a high rocky promontory jutting out into the ^gean. The harbor, a mile and a half wide at the entrance and half a mile broad, lies on the west side. The indifferent roadstead on the east should not be called a harbor. Symbolum, 1670 feet high, with a de- file which leads into the plain of Philippi, comes down near to the coast a little to the west of the town. In winter the sun sinks behind Mount Athos in the south- west as early as four o'clock P.M. The land along the eastern shore is low, and otherwise unmarked bj' any peculiarity. The island of Thasos bears a little to the S.E., twelve or fifteen miles distant. Plane-trees just beyond the walls, not less than four or five hundred years old, cast their shadow over the road which Paul followed on his way to Philippi. The shore of the mainland in this part is low, but the mountains rise to a considerable height behind. To the west of the chan- nel, which separates it from Thasos, the coast recedes and forms a bay, within which, on a promontory with a port at each side, the town was situated (Conybeare and Howson, Life and Ep. of St. Paul, i, 308). From the time that Paul visited this place Christianity has, to a greater or less extent, existed in it. In the 6th and 7th centuries it was a bishop's see, but it is now represented by a small seaport (Leake, Northern Greece, iii, 180). It has a population of five or six thousand, nine tenths of whom are Mussulmans, and the rest Greeks. For fuller or supplementary information, see Smith, Diet, of Class. Geo(j. ii, 411; comp. Philippi. The following arguments on the identity of the place are taken from Smith's Diet, of the Bible, s. v. :
Cousineiy {Voyage dans la Macedoine) and Tafel (De Via Militari Momawrum Egnaiia, etc.) maintain, against the common opinion, that Luke's Neapolis was not at Kaval- lii, the inhabited town of that name, but at a deserted harbor ten or twelve miles farther west, known as Eaki, or Old Kaealla. Most of those who contend for the other idemiricati')n assume the point without much discns.-iioii, and the subject demands still the attention of the Biblical geographer. It may be well, therefore, to mention with some fulness the reasons which support the claim of Ka- valla to be regarded as the ancient Nenpolis, in opposi- tion to those which are urged in favor of the other harbor.
First, the Roman and "Greek ruins at Kavalla prove that a port existed there in ancient times. Neapolis, wherever it was, formed the point of contact between Northern Greece and Asia Minor at a period of great commercial activity, and would be expected to have left vestiges of its former impiirtaiice. The antiquities fmnd still at Kavalla fulfil entirely that presumption. One of these is a massive aqueduct, which brintrs water into the town from a distance often or twelve miles north nf Ka- valla, along the slopes of Symbolum. It is btiilt on two tiers of arches, a hundred feet long and eighty feet high, and is carried over the narrow valley between the prom- ontory and the mainland. The upper part of the work is modern, but the snljstructions are evidently Roman, as is seen frcmi the composite character of the material, the ce- ment, and the style of the masonry. Just out of the west- ern gate are two marble sarcophagi, used as watering- troughs, with Latin inscriptions, of the age of the emperor Claudius. Columns with chaplets of elegant Ionic work- manship, blocks of marble, fragments of hewn stone, evi- dently antique, are numerous both in the town and the suburbs. On some of these are inscriptions, mostly in Latin, but one at least in Greek. In digging for the foun- dation of new houses the walls of ancient ones are often hrou<iht to light, and sometimes tablets with sculptured figures, which would be deemed cnrious at Athens or Cor- inth. For fuller details, see liibliothnca Sacra, Oct. 1S60. On the contrary, no ruins have been found atEski Kavalla, or Paleopoli, as it is also called, which can be pronounced unmistakably ancient. No remains of walls, no inscrip- tions, and no indications of any thoroughfare leading thence to Philippi, are reported to exist there. Cousi- nery, it is true, speaks of certain ruins at the place which he deems worthy of notice; but, according to the testi- mony of others, these ruins are altogether inconsiderable, and, which is still more decisive, are modern in their char- acter. CouBiuury himself, iu fact, corroborates this, when