PATMOS. An island W, of Caria, now called Patino , with an area of 16 sq. miles and a population of about 4000. In the Middle Ages its palms gained for it the title of Palmosa, but it is no longer fertile. Its Cyclopean remains show that it was very early inhabited. It is the traditional place to which St. John was banished by Domitian, and in which he wrote the Apocalypse ( Revelation 1:3 ). The ‘Cave of the Apocalypse’ is still shown in which the Apostle is said to have seen the visions. The chief remaining interest of the island is the monastery of St. John, founded in the 11th century. It once contained a valuable library, from which was purchased in 1814 the 9th cent. Plato now in the Bodleian.
A. E. Hillard.