Here the apostle Paul in his voyage landed; (see Acts xx 15.) It was an island of the Archipelago.
Sa´mos, an island in the Aegean Sea, near the coast of Lydia, in Asia Minor, and separated only by a narrow strait from the promontory which terminates in Cape Trogyllium. The apostle Paul touched at the island in his voyage from Greece to Syria (Act 20:15). Samos contained, some years ago, about 60,000 people, inhabiting eighteen large villages, and about twenty small ones.
An island of the Archipelago, on the coast of Asia Minor, opposite Lydia, from which it is separated by a narrow strait. The island was devoted to the worship of Juno, who had there a magnificent temple, fragments of which still exist. It was also celebrated for its valuable potteries, and as the birthplace of Pythagoras. The Romans wrote to the governor in favor of the Jews in the time of Simon Maccabaeus. Paul landed here when going to Jerusalem, A. D. 58, Mal 20:15 . It now contains about fifty thousand inhabitants; and though ill-cultivated, is fruitful in oranges, grapes, and olives, and exports corn and wine.\par
Samos. A Greek island off that part of Asia Minor, where Ionia touches Caria. Samos comes before our notice in the detailed account of St. Paul’s return from his third missionary journey. Act 20:15.
("a height".) (especially by the sea shore.) An island off the boundary line between Ionia and Caria, three or four miles from the mainland. Mentioned in Paul’s return from his third missionary journey (Act 20:15), on his way from Chios to Miletus. He spent the night at the anchorage of Trogyllium in the strait between Samos and the extremity of the ridge of Mycale on the mainland. The Greeks conquered the Persians in the sea fight of Mycale, B.C. 479.
Samos (sâ’mos), a height. An island in the Ægean Sea, a few miles from the main land, and 42 miles southwest of Smyrna. The island is 27 miles long, ten miles wide, and has an area of 165 square miles. It was the seat of Juno-worship, the birthplace of Pythagoras, and noted for its valuable pottery. Paul visited the island on his third missionary journey. Act 20:15. Samos was then the capital of the island.
[Sa’mos]
An island in the AEgean Sea, a few miles south-west of Ephesus, only incidently mentioned in the return of Paul’s third missionary journey. Act 20:15. It is still called Samos.
SAMOS was an important island in the Ægæan Sea off the coast of Ionia. It was a centre of luxury, art, and science. In b.c. 84 it was united to the province of Asia, and in b.c. 17 was made a free State by Augustus. This it was when St. Paul touched here (Act 20:15) on his way home from his third journey. There were many Jewish residents on the island, and it was one of the places addressed by the Romans in favour of the Jews (1Ma 15:23).
A. Souter.
Titular see, suffragan of Rhodes in the Cyclades. The island, called in Turkish Soussan-Adassi, is 181 sq. miles in area and numbers 55,000 inhabitants, nearly all of whom are Greek schismatics. There are nevertheless some Catholics dependent on the Latin Bishop of Chios and two convents of Fathers of the African Missions of Lyons and of Sisters of St. Joseph. Since 1832 the island has constituted an autonomous principality, governed by an Ottoman Greek appointed by the Porte and recognized by England, France, and Russia. Samos was first inhabited by the Leleges, Carians, and Ionians, the latter being very active and given to navigation. Its greatest prosperity was attained under the tyrant Polycrates (536-522 B.C.) at whose court the poet Anacreon lived. The philosopher Pythagoras (b. at Samos) seems to have lived at the same time; Æsop also stayed there for a long time. At the assassination of Polycrates Samos passed under Persian domination, and, about 439 B.C., participated in the Greek confederation especially with Athens. This city, under Pericles, took it by force. Henceforth it had various fortunes, until the Romans, after pillaging it, annexed it in A.D. 70. It was included in the Province of the Isles. Under the Byzantines Samos was at the head of a maritime theme or district. It was captured and occupied in turn by Arabian and Turkish adventurers, the Venetians, Pisans, Genoese, and Greeks, and the Turks in 1453. These various masters so depopulated it that in 1550 Sultan Soliman had transported thither Greek families, whence sprang the present population. From 1821 to 1824 Samos had a large share in the war of independence and won several victories over the Turks. Among its bishops Le Quien (Oriens Christ., I, 929-32) mentions: Isidore I, at the beginning of the seventh century; Isidore II, in 692; Heraclius, in 787. Stamatriadès (Samiaca, IV, 169-255) gives a fuller list including two aged bishops, Anastasius and George. St. Sabinianus, b. at Samos and martyred under Aurelian, is venerated on 29 January, at Troyes in Champagne; there is also a St. Leo, d. at Samos, venerated on 29 April, but he seems very legendary. At first a suffragan of Rhodes, Samos was an autocephalous archdiocese in 1730; in 1855 it was a metropolitan see as at present, dependent on the Greek Patriarch of Constantinople. In I Mach., xv, 23, the Roman senate makes known to Samos (Samus) the decree favourable to the Jews. St. Paul stayed there for a short time (Acts 20:15).-----------------------------------SMITH, Dict. of Greek and Roman Geog., s. v.; ROSEN, Reison auf den griech. Inseln (Stuttgart, 1843), 139-150; LACROIX, Iles de la Grèce (Paris, 1853), 214-58; GUÉRIN, Description de l’île de Patmos et de l’île de Samos (Paris, 1856), 123-324; GUINET, La Turque d’Asie, I, 498-523; STAMATIADÈS, Samiaca (5 vols., in Greek, Samos, 1886); BURCHNER, Das ionische Samos (Amberg, 1892; Munich, 1896).S. VAILHÉ Transcribed by Vivek Gilbert John Fernandez Dedicated to the above mentioned, poets, mathematicians and philosophers. The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XIIICopyright © 1912 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, February 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, D.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Samos was renowned in antiquity as one of the noted centers of Ionjan luxury, and reached its zenith of prosperity under the rule of the famous tyrant Polycrates (533-522 BC), who made himself master of the Aegean Sea. He carried on trade with Egypt, and his intercourse with that country, his friendship with Amasis, the famous “ring” story and the revolting manner of the death of Polycrates arere all told in one of the most interesting stories of Herodotus (Herod. iii. 39 ff).
In 84 BC, the island was joined to the province of Asia, and in 17 BC it became a civitas libera, through the favor of Augustus (Dio Cass. liv. 9; Pliny, NH, v. 37). Both Marcus Agrippa and Herod visited the island; and according to Josephus (Ant., XVI, ii, 2; BJ, I, xxi, 11) “bestowed a great many benefits” on it. In the Apocrypha, Samos is mentioned among the places to which Lucius, consul of the Romans, wrote, asking their good will toward the Jews (1 Macc 15:23).
In the New Testament, Paul touched here, after passing CHIOS (which see), on his return from his third missionary journey (Act 20:15). In Textus Receptus of the New Testament, we find in this passage
Literature.
Tozer, Islands of the Aegean (1890). Herodotus and Pausanias have rather full accounts of Samos, and Encyclopedia Brit (11th edition) gives a good bibliography of works both ancient and modern.
(ÓÜìïò)
Samos is one of the fairest and most fertile islands of the aegean, 27 miles long from E. to W. and 14 miles at its greatest breadth, separated from the mainland by the strait of Mycale (the Little Boghaz), seven stadia in width, in which the Greek fleet gained a great victory over the Persians in 479 b.c. The island attained its highest prosperity in the days of Polycrates, and held for a time the naval supremacy of the aegean. It was the birthplace of Pythagoras, and a Samian mariner, ‘not without divine direction’ (Herod. iv. 152), was the first to sail beyond the Pillars of Hercules. Its chief city, also called Samos, was a libera civitas in St. Paul’s time. Situated in the S.E. of the island, it had the largest temple Herodotus ever saw (iii. 60), and disputed with Smyrna and Ephesus the title ‘first city of Ionia.’ There were many Jews in the island (1Ma_15:23), which was visited by Herod in a.d. 14 (Jos. Ant. XVI. ii. 2).
In a voyage down the aegean the ship in which St. Paul was sailing left Chios on a Wednesday morning, ‘struck across to Samos’-here probably the island is meant-and rounded either the west or the east extremity. The Revised Version rendering, ‘touched at Samos,’ conveys the idea of a stoppage, which is not implied in the Greek (ðáñåâÜëïìåí åἰò ÓÜìïí, Act_20:15). Probably the attempt was made to get as far as Miletus the same day, but when Trogyllium, a promontory 5 miles E. of the city of Samos, was reached, the aegean N. wind apparently died away, as it generally does in the late afternoon throughout the summer months, and the passage had to be completed next day with the aid of the fresh breeze that springs up in the early morning. The clause in the Bezan text regarding Trogyllium, which is found in the Authorized Version but relegated to the margin of the Revised Version , was in all probability omitted by the scribes of the great uncials under the mistaken notion that a night had been spent at the city of Samos, and that a second anchorage only 5 miles farther east was out of the question.
Literature.-Strabo, XIV. i. 12-18; H. P. Tozer, The Islands of the aegean, 1890; W. M. Ramsay, St. Paul the Traveller and the Roman Citizen, 1895, p. 293 f.
James Strahan.