Megiste
- a Roman name given to slaves, Inscr. Fabr. p. 189, n. 433.
MEGISTE(Μεγίστη), an island off the coast of Lycia, opposite to Antiphellus. It contained a town which, if the reading in Strabo (14. p. 666) be correct, was called Cisthene (Κισθήνη), but had perished before the time of Pliny (Plin. Nat. 5.35). There was also an excellent harbour, which appears to have been capable of containing a whole fleet. (Liv. 37.22; comp. Steph. B. s. v.,who calls the town Megiste; Ptol. 5.3.9; Scylax, p. 39.) The island, which derived its name from the fact that it is the largest of a group, is now called Kasteloryzo, or Castel Rosso. The island seems to have been colonised by the Rhodians, or at least to have been in their possession, for inscriptions found there are composed in the Doric dialect. There are but few remains of ancient buildings. (Leake, Asia Minor, p. 184; Fellows, Lycia, pp. 187, &c.)
[L.S]An island in the E Mediterranean off the S coast of Lycia, mentioned by Strabo (14.666). From the middle of the 4th c. B.C. on it was incorporated in the Rhodian domain. Inscriptions speak of ἐπιστάται ῥοδῖhere. In the vicinity of the mediaeval castle of the Knights of Rhodes there was probably also a fortification in Classical times.
On the nearby upland called Palaiokastro, traces of a fortified settlement with an internal wall are recognizable under the remains of mediaeval houses and monasteries and the later church of the Panaghia. Remains include remnants of a massive tower built of large rectangular blocks placed head to foot, and another external wall with at least three towers, a few courses of which are left. The fortification is of Hellenistic date and probably is the Pyrgos of which Strabo speaks. Below the castle is a chambered tomb cut into the rock; it is rectangular, with a platform around the interior perimeter and a Doric facade. The tomb dates from the beginning of the 4th c. B.C. Numerous inscriptions from the island are in the museum of Mytilene.
BIBLIOGRAPHYN. Kyparissis, Deltion 1 (1915) 62ff; Zschietzschmann & Ruge, “Megiste,” RE XV, 1 (1931) 331-32; M. R. Savignac, “Monuments funéraires et religieux de Castellorizo,” RBibl (1917) 520ffPI; A. J. Janssen & id., L'île de Castellorizo, il Cairo (1917); G. Susini, “Iscrizioni greche di Megiste e della Licia al Museo di Mitilene,” ASAtene 30-32 (1952-54) 340ff; R. Hope Simpson & F. Lazenby, “Notes from the Dodecanese II,” BSA 65 (1970) 73ffMPI
M. G. PICOZZI