PATARA (Heirapa), a town of Lycia in Asia Minor, situated on the sea-coast. The Apostle Paul visited it on his journey from Greece to Syria. His itinerary is given with great minuteness by Luke (Acts xx.) From Miletus he went by Coos and Rhodes to Patara, where he found a ship sail ing to Phcenicia, and embarked in it (xxi. I). Patara was a very ancient city, and is said to have been founded by Patarus (Strabo xiv. 3, p. 665), a son of Apollo (Steph. Byz., s. v.) It was already celebrated in the time of Herodotus for a temple and oracle of this deity (i, 182). It appears to have been colonised by the Dorians. Strabo tells us that Ptolemy Philadelphus repaired it, and called it the Lycian Arsinoe, but its old name was retained (/. c.) At the time of Paul's visit it must have been a splendid as well as an influential and popu lous city. Some of its ruins are of great extent and beauty ; and Livy, speaking of Lycia, calls Patara `caput gentis' (xxxvii. t5 ; cf. Pomp. Mel. i. 15: Polyb. xxii. 26).
In sailing from Rhodes to Patara, Paul had before him some of the grandest scenery in the east. The western extremity of the Taurus range descends from a serried line of snow-crowned peaks, in a series of rugged cliffs and wooded slopes, till at length it dips its rocky base in the Mediter ranean. Crossing the channel from the little har bour of Rhodes, the vessel would skirt for a time the bold coast, and then, passing a noble headland, it would open up the rich valley of the Xanthus, and the little plain at its mouth, which extends some eight miles along the shore, and six or seven inland. Near the eastern extremity of this plain
stood Patara, close upon the beach, separated from the river Xanthus by a broad belt •of drift sand, which the wind and waves have drifted up into bleak mounds and hills. The site of the city is now a desert ; many of its principal buildings are almost covered with sand ; and its harbour, into which Paul sailed, and which was the port of the great city of Xanthus (Appian, B. C. iv. 8i), is now a dismal, pestilential marsh. The walls of Patara can still be traced. The triple arch of one of its gates is standing ; so also are the re mains of a theatre scooped out in the side of a hill (Leake, Asia )l7inor, p. 320) ; of baths near the sea ; of an old castle commanding the harbour ; and of temples, altars, columns, and houses, now ruined and mutilated. A Greek in scription over the great city gateway mentions Patara the metropolis of the Lycians' (Fellows, Lycia, pp. 222, seq. ; Beaufort, Karnzania, pp. 2, seq.;Spratt and Forbes, Travels in Lycia, i. pp. 30, seq., ii. 189). The desolate ruins now bear the same name. St. Paul did not remain long at Patara ; he probably left a few hours after his arrival ; yet Christianity obtained a footing in the city, and it subsequently became the seat of a bishop, and was represented in the Council of Nice (Car. a St. Paul. Geol. Sac. p. 239).—J. L. P.