DERBE (Alpp71). A town of Lycaonia (Acts xiv. 6), in Asia Minor, situated on the great road from Tarsus to Iconium, and apparently about eighty miles north-west of the former. This road, traces of which still remain, is carried from Cilicia through the Taurus range by a difficult pass called the Cilician Gates ;' it then enters the extensive upland plain of Lycaonia, which stretches away on the north-west to Iconium. Near the opening of the pass into the plain Derbe must have stood, but its exact site has not as yet been satisfactorily identi fied. About twenty miles westward of this pass the mountain of Knra-dagh—a black volcanic cone —rises up from the midst of the plain ; at its base and on its sides are extensive ruins, supposed to be those of Lystra. The ancient road runs past the ruins, and across the plain to Iconium. This was the route followed by Paul on his missionary journey, as recorded in Acts xv. and xvi., when he came from Cilicia ' to Derbe and Lystra.' On a previous occasion he reached Derbe from the op posite direction, having first passed through Lystra. It is evident from these incidental references that the two towns were not far distant from each other ; Derbe lying nearer to the border of Cilicia. Ac
cording to Strabo (Geogr. xi. p. 392, ed. Casaubon), Derbe was in Isauria. but on the confines of Cap padocia and Lycaonia ; and Sephen Byzantium says it was cb,00tipcov 'In-avplas eat Xu.vbv. It was probably a fort' erected to guard the moentain pass ; but it could never have been a Xcf.kiiv. It has been suggested that this word is an error for Mom ; and near the site of Derbe there is a small ' lake.' Hamilton has attempted to identify Derbe with Divle, a small village in a wild valley among the mountains ; but it seems to be too far from the ancient road. It is uncertain whether Lystra or Derbe was the birthplace of Timothy ; the former seems to be the more likely from Acts xvi. I, 2. Derbe was the home of another of Paul's favoured companions, Gaius (Acts xx. 4). A full account of Derbe, Lystra, and the surrounding country is given in Conybeare and Howson's Life of St. Paul, i. 211, 296, seq. Consult also Hamilton's Re searches in Asia Minor, Journal of Geogr. Society, viii. 137, seq.—J. L. P.