Lasaea

Lasae'a (Λασαία, derivation unknown), a place mentioned only in Ac 27:8, as a city lying near the Fair Havens, in the island of Crete. Other MSS. have Alassa Αλασσα), and some (with the Vulgate) Thalassa (Θάλασσα), which latter Beza adopted (see Kuinol, Comment. ad loc.), and Cramer mentions coins of a Cretan town by this latter name (Ancient Greece, 3:374); but neither of these readings is to be preferred. It is likely that during the stay at the adjoining port the passengers on Paul's ship visited Lassea (Conybeare and Howson's Life and Epist. of St. Paul, 2:320, n.). It is probably the same as the Lisia of the Peutinger Tables, sixteen miles east of Gortyna (see Hock, Kreta, 1:412, 439). In the month of January 1856, a yachting party made inquiries at Fair Havens, and were told that the name Lasaea was still given to some ruins in the neighborhood. It lies about the middle of the southern coast of Crete, some five miles east of Fair Havens, and close to Cape Leonda. Mr. Brown thus describes the ruins: "Inside the cape, to the eastward, the beach is lined with masses of masonry. These were formed of small stones cemented together with mortar so firmly that even where the sea had undermined them huge fragments lay on the sand. This sea-wall extended a quarter of a mile along the beach from one rocky face to another, and was evidently intended for the defense of the city. Above we found the ruins of two temples. The steps which led up to one remain, though in a shattered state. Many shafts, and a few capitals of Grecian pillars, all of marble, lie scattered about, and a gully worn by a torrent lays bare the substructions down to the rock. To the east a conical rocky hill is girdled by a wall, and on a platform between this hill and the sea the pillars of another edifice lie level with the ground" (Smith's Voyage and Shipwreck of St. Paul, Append. 1, page 260, 3d edit., where a plan is given). Captain Spratt, R.N., had previously observed some remains which probably represent the harbor of Lasaea (see pages 80, 82, 245). It ought to be noticed that in the Descrizione dell Isola di Candia, a Venetian MS. of the 16th century, as published by Mr. E. Falkener in the Museum of Classical Antiquities, Sept. 1852 (page 287), a place called Lapsea, with a "temple in ruins," and "other vestiges near the harbor," is mentioned as being close to Fair Havens.