PAPHOS (Ilàpòs, Paphos). – A city of Cyprus, now Baffa, a small port on the western coast of the island, which, together with the nearby centre of Ktinia, has about 5,000 inhabitants.
Ancient Paphos (παλαιά), famous in Homeric times for its temple of Astarte, identified by the Greeks with Aphrodite (Venus), stood about 15 km west-south-west of New Paphos (Baffa). The latter, destroyed by an earthquake in 18–17 BC and rebuilt in 15 BC by Augustus (under the name Sebaste), was the seat of the Roman proconsul. One of these proconsuls, Paulus (v.), mentioned in an inscription in Greek (ἐπὶ Παύλου [ἐνθ] ὑπάτου), was converted by St Paul, despite the opposition of the magician Bar-Jesus (v.), surnamed Elymas, who was punished by St Paul with temporary blindness.
At Paphos, Paul, Barnabas Perge (v.). In a bilingual inscription of the 3rd century AD the city is called “Sebaste, Claudia, Flavia, Paphos, sacred metropolis of the cities of Cyprus.”