← Places

Place

Salamis

Salamis was a city on the island of Cyprus where Paul and Barnabas preached the gospel in the Jewish synagogues (Act.13.5).

Salamis was a city located on the eastern coast of the island of Cyprus. It was one of the first places visited by Paul and Barnabas during their missionary journey, as recorded in the book of Acts. After being sent out by the church in Antioch, they arrived in Salamis and proclaimed the word of God in the Jewish synagogues (Act.13.4-5). Salamis was a significant port city and a center of commerce, with a sizeable Jewish population. The city was destroyed by an earthquake in the 4th century AD and was later rebuilt as Constantia. Today, the ruins of ancient Salamis can be found near the modern city of Famagusta, in the Turkish-controlled part of Cyprus.

Approximate location: 35.177, 33.908 · view on a map · on the Bible atlas

Bible dictionary

Salamis Easton Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897)

A city on the south-east coast of Cyprus (Acts 13:5), where Saul and Barnabas, on their first missionary journey, preached the word in one of the Jewish synagogues, of which there seem to have been several in that place. It is now called Famagusta.

Read the full entry →

Salamis Smith Smith’s Bible Dictionary (1863)

(suit), a city at the east end of the island of Cyprus, and the first place visited by Paul and Barnabas, on the first missionary journey, after leaving the mainland at Seleucia. Here alone, among all the Greek cities visited by St. Paul, we read expressly of “synagogues” in the plural, (Acts 13:5) hence we conclude that there were many Jews in Cyprus. And this is in harmony with what we read elsewhere. Salamis was not far from the modern Famagousta, it was situated near a river called the Pediaeus, on low ground, which is in fact a continuation of the plain running up into the interior toward the place where Nicosia, the present capital of Cyprus, stands.

Read the full entry →

Salamis Hitchcock Hitchcock’s Bible Names Dictionary (1869)

shaken; test; beaten

Read the full entry →

Salamis Hastings Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible (1898)

SAL'AMIS (peaceful, or beaten), a seaport-town with a good harbor, on the eastern coast of Cyprus. It was visited by Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey. Acts 13:5. The city was once the capital of Cyprus, and stood on the north side of the river Pediaeus. The land is low in this region, and this river is the only true one in the island, the other streams being merely winter-torrents. We read of "synagogues," from which it is evident that the Jewish population in the city was numerous. The island was productive, and its trade in fruit, wine, flax, and honey, and the farming out of the copper-mines by Augustus to Herod, would naturally attract many Jews to this city. In the time of Trajan and Hadrian, there were great insurrections of the Jews; Salamis was partially destroyed, and its demolition completed by an earthquake, but it was rebuilt by a Christian emperor and named Constantia. Its site is now traced by broken cisterns and columns and the foundations of ancient buildings. The ruins are known as Old Famugusta.

Read the full entry →

Salamis Schaff Schaff’s Dictionary of the Bible

SAL'AMIS (peaceful, or beaten), a seaport-town with a good harbor, on the eastern coast of Cyprus. It was visited by Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey. Acts 13:5. The city was once the capital of Cyprus, and stood on the north side of the river Pediaeus. The land is low in this region, and this river is the only true one in the island, the other streams being merely winter-torrents. We read of "synagogues," from which it is evident that the Jewish population in the city was numerous. The island was productive, and its trade in fruit, wine, flax, and honey, and the farming out of the copper-mines by Augustus to Herod, would naturally attract many Jews to this city. In the time of Trajan and Hadrian, there were great insurrections of the Jews; Salamis was partially destroyed, and its demolition completed by an earthquake, but it was rebuilt by a Christian emperor and named Constantia. Its site is now traced by broken cisterns and columns and the foundations of ancient buildings. The ruins are known as Old Famugusta.

Read the full entry →

Easton (1897), Smith (1863), Hitchcock (1869), Hastings (1898) and Schaff are in the public domain. Parsed text: neuu-org/bible-dictionary-dataset (CC BY 4.0). Headwords and whitespace normalised for this site.

Where Salamis appears

1 verse in 1 book · English text: BSB (change it from the menu at the top) · Strong’s G4529

Acts1

Names, family links and references: STEPBible TIPNR (Tyndale House Cambridge, CC BY 4.0). Short descriptions were drafted with AI assistance by STEPBible. Family links follow STEPBible’s scholarly decisions where genealogies are ambiguous.