NEAPOLIS
(Limassol) Cyprus.
On the S
coast in Greek Lemesos. Remains of a sizable town,
whose limits are difficult to define, are largely covered
by the modern town. The necropolis lies E and N.
Practically nothing is known of the founding of this
town except that it must have succeeded a Late Bronze
Age settlement located N of Limassol. On present-day
evidence the town was in existence from Geometric to
Roman times but the area had been inhabited since the
Early Bronze Age and after the Roman period. Nothing
is known of its early history and by the time this place
is known by a name we are already in post-Roman
times. By the 5th c. A.D. it was a town of some importance with an established episcopal see. It was then
known by several names such as Neapolis, Theodosias,
or Theodosiana. By the following century this had become Nemesos. The name Neapolis, however, might be
earlier (
Βίος Αὐξιβιόυ 13). The Life informs us that
Tychicos I was consecrated to the see of Neapolis in
the time of St. Paul.
The name appears in an inscription of the second half
of the 3d c. B.C. This inscription, which was acquired
in the village of Gypsos in the hinterland of Salamis,
honors Nikandros, commandant of Neapolis, but as no
other town of that name can be found within Cyprus it
may well refer to the predecessor of Limassol.
It has also been suggested that this Neapolis might be
identified with Kartihadast but since this name applies
rather to Kition this view must be dismissed. Moreover
nothing Phoenician has been found so far in Limassol.
The town site is unexplored but many casual finds
have been recorded.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
George Hill, “Two Toponymic Puzzles,”
Journal of the Warburg Institute 2.4 (1939) 375-79; V. Karageorghis, “Chronique des Fouilles et Découvertes Archéologiques à Chypre,”
BCH 84 (1960),
and thereafter every year, under the chapter “Musée
régional de Limassol.”
K. NICOLAOU
