And when they were escaped
From the danger they were exposed to by shipwreck, and were got
safe to land; this is omitted in the Syriac version:
then they knew that the island was called
Melita;
an island toward the African shore, where it is placed both by
Pliny F7, and Ptolomy {h}; in which, the
latter says, was the city Melita: it lies between Sicily and
Tripolis of Barbary, and is now called Malta: it was famous for
the knights of Rhodes, which are now called the knights of Malta:
it has its name from (jlm)
, "to escape", it being formerly a refuge to the Phoenicians,
especially in stormy weather, in their long voyage from Tyre to
Gades; and was indeed a place of escape to the Apostle Paul, and
those that were with him. And perhaps it might be so called from
its being a refuge for pirates; for Cicero F9 says,
here pirates used to winter almost every year, and yet did not
spoil the temple of Juno, as Verres did: though some say it was
so called from the great abundance of honey found in it; for it
was a very pleasant and fruitful island, bringing forth great
plenty of wheat, rye, flax, cummin, cotton, figs, wine, roses,
thyme, lavender, and many other sweet and delightful herbs, from
whence bees did gather great plenty of honey. It was, according
to Pliny, distant from Camerina eighty four miles, and from
Lilybaeum a hundred and thirteen; and it is said to be distant
from the promontory of Sicily an hundred miles, though others say
sixty; and that it was so far from Syracuse, which is the next
place the apostle came to in this voyage, was from Africa an
hundred and ninety miles. On the east side, a little from the
chief city of it, now called Malta, was a famous temple of Juno,
spoiled by Verres, as before observed; and on the south side
another of Hercules, the ruins of both which are yet to be seen.
The compass of the island is about sixty miles, the length
twenty, and the breadth twelve, and has in it five ports, and
about sixty villages.
F7 Nat. Hist. l 3. c. 8.
F8 Geograph. l. 4. c. 3.
F9 Orat. 9. in Verrem, c. 17.