Paphos: The Roman Capital of Cyprus Where Saul Was First Called Paul

Paphos, on the southwestern coast of Cyprus, was the Roman administrative capital of the island in the first century AD, and it is the stage for one of the pivotal scenes of the Acts of the Apostles. Here, according to Acts 13:6-12, the missionaries Barnabas and Saul confronted the magician Elymas before the proconsul Sergius Paulus — and here, at Acts 13:9, the narrative names Saul of Tarsus as "Paul" for the first time. For readers tracing the apostle's road outward from his native Cilicia, Paphos marks the western end of the Cypriot leg of the first missionary journey and the threshold of the mission to the Anatolian mainland.

The Ancient City

The Paphos of Paul's day was, strictly speaking, Nea Paphos — "New Paphos" — a harbour city founded near the end of the fourth century BC on a small promontory beside a sheltered anchorage. It must be distinguished from Palaipaphos ("Old Paphos"), some sixteen kilometres to the southeast at the modern village of Kouklia, whose sanctuary of Aphrodite was among the most celebrated cult centres of the ancient Mediterranean; Greco-Roman writers regarded the goddess as having risen from the sea on this very coast (Tradition). The new city gradually absorbed the older settlement's political importance while the sanctuary retained its religious prestige.

Rome annexed Cyprus in 58 BC. After a period of administrative reshuffling under the early emperors, the island became a senatorial province in 22 BC, governed by a proconsul who resided at Nea Paphos. This detail matters for readers of Acts: Luke calls Sergius Paulus an *anthypatos*, the precise Greek term for a proconsul of a senatorial province, and this exactness of official titulature is frequently cited as a mark of the author's reliability in administrative matters (Scholarship). The city Paul entered in roughly AD 46-48 (the commonly proposed range for the journey's start) was a provincial capital of modest but real consequence — a place of government offices, a garrisoned harbour, temples, a theatre and odeon, and the villas of officials. Earthquakes damaged the city more than once in the Roman period, and it was repeatedly rebuilt, at times with imperial assistance (Scholarship). A Jewish community existed on Cyprus, attested by the synagogues of Salamis mentioned in Acts 13:5, and Barnabas himself was a Cypriot Levite (Acts 4:36).

Paul at Paphos in the Acts of the Apostles

Acts 13 opens at Antioch in Syria, where the church, at the prompting of the Holy Spirit, set apart Barnabas and Saul for missionary work. Sailing from Seleucia, they landed first at Salamis on the east coast of Cyprus, preached in the synagogues there with John Mark as their assistant, and then travelled the length of the island — a journey of well over a hundred kilometres — until they reached Paphos (Acts 13:4-6) (Scripture).

At Paphos they encountered "a certain man, a magician, a false prophet, a Jew, whose name was Bar-jesu" (Acts 13:6, Douay-Rheims), also called Elymas, who was attached to the proconsul Sergius Paulus, described as "a prudent man" (Acts 13:7). The proconsul summoned Barnabas and Saul and "desired to hear the word of God" (Acts 13:7, Douay-Rheims), but Elymas opposed them, "seeking to turn away the proconsul from the faith" (Acts 13:8). What follows is the turning point: "Then Saul, otherwise Paul, filled with the Holy Ghost, looking upon him" (Acts 13:9, Douay-Rheims), denounced the magician and declared that he would be struck blind for a time — a judgment that took immediate effect. "Then the proconsul, when he had seen what was done, believed, admiring at the doctrine of the Lord" (Acts 13:12, Douay-Rheims).

Two observations belong here. First, the text does not describe a change of name conferred at Paphos. As a Roman citizen born at Tarsus in Cilicia, the apostle would have carried more than one name from birth: Saul (Sha'ul) was his Hebrew name, Paulus a Latin cognomen. Luke simply shifts, at the moment the mission turns decisively toward the Greco-Roman world, from the Semitic name to the Roman one, and uses "Paul" ever after (Scholarship). Second, Sergius Paulus is presented as the first Roman official of rank in Acts to believe; whether his belief entailed baptism the text does not say, and interpreters differ (Scholarship). From Paphos, Paul and his companions set sail north to Perga in Pamphylia (Acts 13:13), where John Mark left them.

The Sergii Paulli in the Inscriptions (Scholarship)

The family of the Sergii Paulli is independently documented. A boundary inscription from Rome names a Lucius Sergius Paullus among the curators of the banks of the Tiber under the emperor Claudius — a man of senatorial standing whose career fits the period of Acts 13. A cluster of inscriptions from central Anatolia shows that the family held estates in the territory of Pisidian Antioch, and some scholars have proposed that this connection helps explain why Paul, on leaving Cyprus, pressed inland to that very city — perhaps carrying an introduction from the proconsul to his relations (Scholarship). A fragmentary inscription from northern Cyprus mentioning a "Paulus" as proconsul has also been discussed, though its date and restoration are disputed. None of these stones can be identified with certainty as the Sergius Paulus of Acts, but together they establish the family's existence, rank, and Anatolian interests, and they anchor Luke's account in a verifiable prosopographical setting.

What Remains Today

Modern Paphos preserves one of the richest archaeological landscapes in the eastern Mediterranean, inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1980 (together with Palaipaphos). The Kato Paphos Archaeological Park, beside the harbour, contains the remains of the Roman city: the celebrated floor mosaics of the House of Dionysos, House of Theseus, House of Aion, and House of Orpheus. Most of these mosaics date from the second to fourth centuries AD — later than Paul's visit — but the sprawling House of Theseus is widely interpreted as the residence of the Roman governors in the later imperial period, the successor of the very office Sergius Paulus held (Scholarship). Also within or near the park stand the odeon, the agora, remains of city walls, the Hellenistic-Roman theatre on Fabrika hill, and the medieval fortress of Saranta Kolones. To the north lies the monumental Hellenistic necropolis known as the Tombs of the Kings.

For visitors following Paul, the most evocative site is the precinct of Panagia Chrysopolitissa (Agia Kyriaki), a short walk inland. Here the foundations and column stumps of a great early Christian basilica of the late fourth century spread around a smaller later church. In the courtyard stands a weathered column known as St Paul's Pillar, where, according to a tradition attested from the medieval period, Paul was bound and scourged before the conversion of the proconsul (Tradition). Acts records no such punishment at Paphos, though Paul himself speaks generally of receiving "forty stripes, save one" five times (2 Corinthians 11:24) (Scripture). The pillar is best understood as a monument of long devotion rather than a documented location.

Visiting Context

Paphos today is a coastal town whose modern harbour quarter sits directly on top of, and beside, the ancient city, so the principal remains are unusually walkable: the archaeological park, the harbour, and the Chrysopolitissa basilica lie within a short distance of one another. Travellers reconstructing Acts 13 often pair Paphos with Salamis, near Famagusta on the island's east coast, to trace the missionaries' route across Cyprus from landfall to embarkation; those planning such a crossing of the island should inform themselves about current travel arrangements between its northern and southern parts. In the larger geography of the journeys, mapped in the atlas, Cyprus lies between Syrian Antioch and the Pamphylian coast, and northeast across the sea rises Cilicia with Tarsus, the apostle's birthplace and the centre of this library. Practical guidance for structuring a Pauline itinerary is gathered in the pilgrimage guide.