Paper, paper reeds, papyrus
See REED, WRITING. PAPHOS (Πάφος) is mentioned in Ac 13 as the residence of the proconsul of Cyprus, SERGIUS PAULUS, who was visited and converted by St. Paul on his first missionary journey. The city here meant is New Drakes the ad- ministrative capital of the Roman province of Cyprus, the ruins of which are to be seen at Baffo, about a mile south of the modern town of Ktima, on the west coast of the island.
These remains, which are all of Roman date, include a small theatre and amphitheatre, traces of a temple, numerous house foundations, parts of the city wall, and the moles of the ancient harbour. Out- side the wall are traces of another columnar edifice, and on and near the site are the ruins of a Greek cathedral and other medieval buildings.
Several groups of rock-tombs in the neighbourhood seem to be of earlier than Roman date, but nothing is known of the settlement to which they may have belonged. Old Paphos, which was deserted in favour of the site already described, lies at Kouklia, on the left bank of the Diérizo river (anc. Bocarus), about 10 miles W.S. W. of Baffo, and alittle inland.
Paphos was one of the most notable cities of ancient Cyprus, and owed its celebrity to the temple and cult of the ‘ Paphian goddess,’ whom the Greeks identified with Aphrodite. Paphos is said to have been founded by the degenslary Kinyras, whose clan retained royal privileges down to the Ptolemaic conquest (B.C. 295), and the priesthood of the god- dess until the annexation of the island to Rome (B.C. 58).
The goddess was worshipped under the form of a conical stone, in an open-air sanctuary, the general appearance of which is known from numerous ΣΘΒΚΘΒΟΠΙΔΌΟΊΕ on Roman imperial coins, and the ground plan from excavations made in 1888 on behalf of the Cyprus Exploration Fund. The temple is known to have suffered severely from earthquakes, and to have been rebuilt more than once.
It consisted in Roman times of an open court surrounded on three sides by chambers and porticos, and was entered through them from the east by a gateway. The position of the sacred stone, and the interpretation of many details shown on the coins, remain uncertain. To the south of the main court lie the remains of what may be an earlier temple, or the traditional tomb of Kinyras, almost wholly destroyed except the western wall of gigantic stone slabs.
After the extinction of the native and Ptolemaic dynasties, and the foundation of New Paphos, the importance of the old town rapidly declined: the place was ruined by earthquakes, and desolate already in Jerome’s time ( Vita Hilarionis) ; though the Acts of Barnabas mention a Christian resident, formerly a ἱερόδουλος. Lireraturs.—Meursius, Cyprus, 4.0. ; Journal of Hellenic Studies, ix. 158-271 (esp. literary sources for history of Old Paphos, 176-192 : excavations in the temple, 195-215). J.
L. Myres. 660 PARABLE (IN OT)