It will be observed that in 1853, Captain Spratt discovered an antient causeway and ruins, which wind, which blows off in fearful squalls, but on arriving close under the high land, a good half mile to the east of the port, it fell calm, and continued so to the harbour." At this visit Mr. Brown took an accurate copy of the inscription mentioned in page 256. It is as follows: JOVI. SOLI. OPTIMO. MAXIMO. This interesting and important inscription may be translated thus: "Epictetus the freedman and Recorder (Notary) to Jupiter O. M., to Serapis, and all the Gods, and to the Emp. Cæsar, Nerva, Trajan, Augustus, Germanicus, Dacicus. The work was superintended by Dionysius of Alexandria, the son of Sostratus, and master of the ship whose sign is Isopharia of the fleet of Theon." It proves, in the first place, the prolonged stay of a ship of Alexandria at Port Phenice, otherwise the master of the Isopharia could not have had time to superintend "the work" whatever it was,—clearly pointing to a case of wintering in this harbour; and, in the next place, it proves the accuracy with which St. Luke employs the nautical terminology of Alexandria n seamen in his designations of the master τῷ κυβερνήτῃ (xxvii. 11.), Gubernatore (Inscr.), and of the ship rapaσhuq (xxviii. 11.), parasemo (Inscr.). The Tabularius was an officer of importance in the fleets of the antients, as appears from the inscription given in the Lexicon Antiquitatum Romanorum Petisci, i. 458. CINCIO.L.F. SABINIANO. TABULARIO. GLASS. RAVENN. We can now understand the reasons for the anxiety of the master and owner of St. Paul's ship to move to what appears to have been one of the winter stations between Alexandria and Italy. On the other hand, we can now see that the advice given by St. Paul to remain at Fair Havens was in every point of view sound and judicious: we must remember that the situation of a ship unprovided with a compass was, when blown out to sea at a season when neither sun nor stars could be seen, all but desperate. Now he concluded to be, I have no doubt truly, the port of Lasea; on the other hand, the evidence acquired on the spot, that the ruins discovered by Mr. Tennent and his friends still bore the name of Lasea leaves no doubt but that they were those of the city of Lasea, the situation of which has been hitherto unknown. Both sites are แ nigh unto" Fair Havens, and neither of them could have escaped the notice of St. Luke. It is not necessary to suppose that they were ever continuous; neither Phenice nor Myra were immediately adjoining their harbours, yet St. Luke in mentioning them makes no distinction. There is, however, another difficulty to be removed before this can be fully admitted. Modern map-makers have placed Lebena exactly where the ruins in question stand. The reason of their having done so is obvious; they have followed the generally received reading of Ptolemy, which places Lebena the experience of Messrs. Urquhart, Spratt, and Tennent shows the great probability of such a casualty in crossing the Gulf of Messara, from Fair Havens to Phenice. The reasons for removing from Fair Havens are by no means so strong as I formerly supposed: a certain degree of shelter is afforded by Anchorage Island, to which hawsers could be carried, whilst the stiff clay of the bottom to a ship well provided with anchors and cables, rendered the chance of being driven either on shore or the island very small. The subject was, as may be supposed, discussed by the "master and owner of the schooner, whose sign is St. Ursula, whilst anchored at Fair Havens, and the conclusion arrived at was, that a ship might winter there without much danger. immediately to the east of the promontory of Leon, Asav axpa; but, in the first place, the reading is a doubtful one; in the latest critical edition (Tauchnitz, 1843) the alternative reading Leia (Aɛía) is given, which may well be a clerical error for Lasea (lib. iii. chap. 17.); and in the next place, Strabo lays down the position of Lebena so clearly as to admit of no doubt that it was situated in the Gulf of Messara, considerably to the west of Fair Havens. Dr. Pococke, who visited this part of Crete, pointed out what he considered to be the error of Ptolemy*, but which was probably the error of his transcribers. But in any case, Strabo must be held to be the higher authority in Cretan geography. He was himself of a Cretan family, and his own notices of the places in this part of Crete indicate that he had visited them. According to him, "Lebena was the seaport of Gortyna, which was distant from it, and the Libyan sea, ninety stades" (nine geographical miles†). It was, therefore, at the nearest point of the sea-coast to the city of Gortyna, that is, in the Gulf of Messara. The alleged position assigned to it by modern * Description of the East vol. ii. p. 250. note. geo In Pashley's map, the nearest point of the sea coast is exactly nine geographical miles. The passage in Strabo is as follows: Alexei (Fópruva) dè τῆς Λιβυκῆς θαλάττης καὶ Λεβηνος ἐνενήκοντα (στάδιων), lib. x. cap. iv. X PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. graphers, neither agrees with Strabo's account as to distance or as to its being a seaport; it is, therefore, erroneous, and the difficulty in question is removed. In the first edition I prefixed to the voyage "Notices of the Life and Writings of St. Luke," and added a separate dissertation "On the Sources of St. Luke's Writings." In this edition I have rewritten the whole, and combined both articles in "a Dissertation on the Life and Writings of St. Luke." The importance of the matter in a historical view must be my excuse for stating so fully the evidence which St. Luke's own writings, the epistles of St. Paul, and the works of the early fathers furnish. In the former dissertation on the origin of St. Luke's writings, it was necessary to enter at great length into the question of the origin and connection of the first three gospels. Having, however, in a separate work *, given the whole evidence which a minute comparison of these gospels affords, as well as the conclusions which necessarily flow from it, I limit myself in the present work to so much of the subject as is necessary to elucidate the sources of the writings of St. Luke. *Dissertation of the Origin of the Gospels, &c., 8vo. Edin. 1853. |