SALAMIS

(Salʹa·mis).

An important city of Cyprus. Paul, Barnabas, and John Mark ‘published the word of God’ there near the start of Paul’s first missionary tour in about 47 C.E. How long they stayed in the city is not stated. Apparently there was a large Jewish population in Salamis, as it had more than one synagogue.​—Ac 13:2-5.

Salamis is usually identified with the ruins found some 5 km (3 mi) N of the modern city of Famagusta. This would place it at the E end of a large fertile plain, just N of the river Pedias (Pediaeus). Salamis would thus be some 200 km (120 mi) WSW across the Mediterranean Sea from Seleucia, where Paul had left Syria. Though the Bible does not specifically say that the ship on which Paul traveled anchored in a harbor at Salamis, the city once had a good harbor that is now silted up.

It appears that Salamis was connected by at least one road with Paphos, at the other end of the island. This could have facilitated travel for Paul and his associates as they preached through “the whole island as far as Paphos.”​—Ac 13:4-6.

Barnabas and John Mark likely visited Salamis again in about 49 C.E.​—Ac 15:36-39.