APPHIA (af'fi-5.), (Gr. 'Ar0(a., ap-fee'a), the name of a woman (Philemon ii), addressed jointly with Archippus and Philemon and proba bly the wife of the latter (A. D. 64), with whom, according to tradition, she suffered martyrdom.
pov, aptee'oo job'ron), a market town in Italy, 43 miles from Rome (Diner. Anton., p. 107), on the great road (via Appza) from Rome to Brundu sium, constructed by Appius Claudius.
The remains of an ancient town, supposed to be Appii-Forum, are still preserved at a place called Casarillo di Santa Maria, on the border of the Pontine marshes.. Its vicinity to the marshes accounts for the badness of the water, as men tioned by Horace (Sat. i:5, 7). When St. Paul was taken to Italy, some of the Christians of Rome, being apprised of his approach, journeyed to meet him as far as Appii-Forum and the Three Taverns (Acts xxviii :15). The Three Taverns were eight or ten miles nearer to Rome than Appii-Forum. The probability is that some of the Christians remained at the Three Taverns, where it was known the advancing party would rest, while some others went on as far as Appii Forum to meet Paul on the road. It must be understood that Tres Tabernm was, in fact, the name of a town ; for in the time of Constantine, Felix, bishop of Tres Tabernx, was one of the nineteen bishops who were appointed to decide the controversy between Donatus and Cxcilianus.
APPLE, (ap'p'l tre). See TAP PUACH. (Cant. ii :3-5 ; vii :8; viii :5; Joel i :12). Spoken of in the Scriptures as excellent "among the trees of the wood," of pleasant shadow, with sweet, beautiful and fragrant fruit. The Hebrew word, by its meaning, is thought to emphasize the latter property.
The apple proper is rare in Syria, and its fruit is inferior. Writers have urged the citron, orange, quince, and apricot as the trees meant. The fruit of the latter two alone is specially aro matic, and of these the quince is not sweet in taste.
The apricot is everywhere abundant in the Holy Land, and of it Tristram says: "Many times have we pitched our tents in its shade and spread our carpets secure from the rays of the sun." "There can scarcely be a more deliciously-per fumed fruit than the apricot ; and what fruit can better fit the epithet of Solomon, 'apples of gold in pictures of silver,' than this golden fruit as its branches bend under the weight in their setting of bright, yet pale, foliage?" The expression of Solomon just referred to (Prov. xxv :II) is also supposed to compare fruit in silver baskets, or salvers curiously wrought like basket-work, and perhaps representing animals or landscapes, to seasonable advice wisely and courteously admin istered (Schaff, Rib. Did.).