(Ἀδραμύττιον; in the NT only the adjective Ἀδραμυττηνός [Acts 27:2] is found; Westcott-Hort’s Greek Testament Ἀδραμυτηνός).-This flourishing seaport of Mysia was situated at the head of the Adramyttian Gulf, opposite the island of Lesbos, in the shelter of the southern side of Mt. Ida, after which the Gulf was also called the ‘Idaean.’
Its name and origin were probably Phœnician, but Strabo describes it as ‘a city founded by a colony of Athenians, with a harbour and roadstead’ (xiii. i. 51). Rising to importance under the Attalids, it became the metropolis of the N.W. district of the Roman province of Asia, and the head of a conventus juridicus. Though it passed the coast-road which connected Ephesus with Troy and the Hellespont, while an inland highway linked it with Pergamos.
It was in ‘a ship of Adramyttium’-larger than a mere coasting vessel-probably making for her own port, that St. Paul and St. Luke sailed from Caesarea by Sidon and under the lee (to the east) of Cyprus to Myra in Lycia, where they joined a corn-ship of Alexandria bound for Italy (Acts 27:2-6). The modern town of Edremid, which inherits the name and much of the prosperity of Adramyttium, is 5 miles from the coast.
Literature.-Conybeare-Howson, St. Paul, 1877, ii. 381f.; J. Smith, Voyage and Shipwreck of St. Paul4, 1880, p. 62ff.; W. M. Ramsay, St. Paul the Traveller and the Raman Citizen, 1895, p. 316.
James Strahan.