Patmos

• an island of the Aegean Sea, one of the Sporades, a place of banishment of the Romans, now Patino, Plin. 4, 12, 23, § 69; Vulg. Apoc. 1, 9.

PATMOS(Πάτμος: Patmo), one of the Sporades Insulae, in the south-east of the Aegean, to the west of Lepsia and south of Samos, is said to have been 30 Roman miles in circumference. (Pliny (Plin. Nat. 4.23; Strab. 10. p. 488; Thucyd. 3.23; Eustath. ad Dion. Per.530.) On the north-eastern side of the island there was a town with a harbour of the same name as the island, and the southernmost point formed the promontory Amazonium ( Stadiasm. Mar. Mag. p. 488, ed. Hoffmann). This little island is celebrated as the place to which St. John was banished towards the close of the reign of Domitian, and where he is said to have composed the Apocalypse ( Revel. 1.9). A cave is still shown in Patmos where the apostle is believed to have received his revelations. (Comp. Iren. 2.22; Euseb. Hist. Eccl. 3.18; Dio Cass..) The island contains several churches and convents, and a few remains of the ancient town and its castle. (Walpole, Turkey, tom. 2. p. 43; Ross, Reisen auf den Griech. Inseln, vol. 2. p. 123, foll.)

(Πάτμος). One of the islands called Sporades, in the Icarian Sea, celebrated as the place to which the Apostle John was banished, and in which he wrote the Apocalypse (Pliny , Pliny H. N. iv. 69). See Tozer, Islands of the Aegean (1890).

An island located to the S of Samos. Very few ancient authors mention the island: Thucydides (3.33.3), Strabo (10.5. 13, C488), Eust. (Comm. ad. Dionys. Perieg. 530), an anonymous author (Stadiasmus Mans Magni, 283-GGM, I 498) and Pliny (HN 4.70). Patmos was poorly inhabited in antiquity. The early inhabitants were Dorians. Ionian settlers came later. Political exiles were deported there during the Roman period. On the coastal area, N of the isthmus Stavros, are the foundations of the supposed Temple of Aphrodite. Artemis was worshiped in the place where the Cloister of St. John now stands. The center of ancient Patmos is situated E of the modern harbor of Skala, occupying a narrow isthmus. The acropolis (Kastelli) preserves sections of a fortification wall and three towers, belonging probably to the 3d c. B.C. and built in isodomic style. An ancient necropolis has been located in the vicinity of Kastelli, around Nettia. Tombs have been also reported at Kambos in the N part of the island.

N. Chavarias, “The Acropolis of Patmos” (in Greek), “Elpis” of Syme (1916) no. 1; I. Schmidt, RE XVIII (1949) 2174-91, s.v. Patmos; P. Bocci, EAA 5 (1963) 989, s.v. Patmos; G. Manganaro, “Le Inscrizioni delle Isole Milesie,” Ann. Atene (1963-64) 329-46; E. Kirsten & W. Kraiker, Griechenlandkunde (1967) II 559-60; R. H. Simpson & J. F. Lazenby, “Notes from the Dodecanese II,” BSA 65 (1970) 48-51MP.