The island is ab(Uit twenty-five miles in circumfer- ence, has a dcc])ly indented sea-line, and possesses one of the best harbors in the archipelago ; lat. 37° 17' N., long. 26^ 35' E. On the north-eastern side of the island was a town of the same name with the harbor, and the southernmostpoint formed the promontory Amazoniun. It is deficient in trees, but al)ounds in flowering plants and shrubs. Walnuts and other fruit-trees are grown in the orchards ; and tlie wine of Patmos is the strong- est and liest flavored of any in the Greek islands. Maize and barley are cultivated, but not in a quantity sufficient for the use of the inhabitants, and for tlie supplj' of their own vessels and others which often put in at the great harbor for provisions. On tlie ridge of a hill overlooking the harbor of La Scala stand the ruins of the ancient acropolis, and round its
PATMOS
767
PATMOS
base lies the town, which contains more than half the poiiuhition of the ishmd. Its inhabitants are ahout six hundred in number, and between throe and four hundred are scattered about tlie ishind besides. Tliey subsist l)y fishing and tiie poor liarvest their fields aflTord them. They wander away in the autumn months to richer soils, and work as agricultural la- borers ; or carry on a small commerce, leaving their homes to the care of the women ; but this migration has diminished of late j'ears. The educational state of the island is anomalous ; the inhabitants are, as they ever have been, ignorant and superstitious, al- though quiet and peaceable ; but the monastery in which Sonnini found eighty monks, only three of whom could read, has now a staff of teachers, who afford their pupils a course of instruction comprising classic Greek, Italian, general literature, and logic. They have a considerable class from the neighboring islands, and even a few from the mainland. Patmos has been in one respect singularly favored. The Turks have never visited it, none dwell on the island; and the moderate tribute which they exact has been punctuall}' paid, and sent by the islanders themselves to Smyrna. No mosque has ever been erected on the spot rendered sacred bj' the vision of tlie Apoca- lypse. Slavery has been unknown, piracy lias never been practiced, and the orderly life of the inhabitants has rendered unnecessary the interference of any other police than that which they supply themselves : their povert}' has stood them in good stead. The air of Pat- mos is pure and wholesome ; and the plague, so fatal in the islands round about, has never been known there. The aspect of the island is peculiarly rugged and bare. Such a scene of banishment for St. John in the reign of Domitian is quite in harmony with what we read of the custom of the period. It was the com- mon practice to send exiles to the most rocky and desolate islands ("in asperrimas insularum"). See Sueton. Tit. 8; Juven. Snt. i, 73. Such a scene, too, was suitable (if we may presume to say so) to the sublime and awful revelation which the apostle re- ceived there. It is possible indeed that there was more greenness in Patmos formerly than now. Its name in the Middle Ages was Pabnosa. But this has now almost entirely given place to the old classical name in the form Patmo ; and there is just one palm-
tree in the island, in a valley which is called "the Saint's Garden" (o lafKoq tov 'Ocriov). Here and there are a few poor olives, about a score of cypresses, and other trees in the same scanty proportion.
Patmos is divided into two nearly equal parts, a northern and a southern, by a very narrow isthmus, where, on the east side, are the liarbor and the town. On the hill to the south, crowning a commanding height, is the celebrated monastery which bears the name of "John the Divine." It was built by Alexius Comnenus, and in the library' are a great many print- ed books. There were in it formerly also GOO MSS. ; there are now 240. Two ought to be mentioned here, which profess to furnish, under the title of a'l Tripiucoi Tuv 0(u\6yov, an account of St. John after the ascen- sion of our Lord. One of them is attributed to Pro- chorus, an alleged disciple of St. John ; the other is an abridgment of the same b}' Nicetas, archbishop of Thessalonica. Various places in the island arc incor- porated in the legend, and this is one of its chief points of interest. There is a published Latin translation in the Bibliotheca Maxima Patrum (1G77, torn, ii), but with curious modiiications, one great object of which is to disengage St. John's martyrdom from Ephesus (where the legend places it), and to fix it in Rome. Half-way up the ascent of the mountain on which the monastery stands is the cave or grotto where tradition says that St. John received the revelation, and which is still called Tu cnn'jXcnov ri^if; 'ATroKciXv-ipiojc. A view of it (said to be not very accurate) will be found in Choi- seul-Gouffier (i, pi. 57). In and around it is a small church, connected with which is a school or college, where the ancient Greek literature is said to be well taught and understood.