PAULUS, SERGIUS . Proconsul of Cyprus at the time of the visit of Paul and Barnabas in the first missionary journey ( Acts 14:7 ). The translators of the AV [Note: Authorized Version.] always use the term ‘ deputy ’ when speaking of a proconsul. The provinces of the Roman Empire were divided into two classes, governed respectively by ‘proprætors’ and ‘proconsuls.’ Strabo describes Cyprus as governed by a proprætor, and hence some have impugned the accuracy of the author of the Acts; but there is ample evidence to show that it was sometimes under one and sometimes under the other. A coin has been discovered in Cyprus bearing the inscription ‘in the time of Paulus, proconsul.’ This inscription may probably be dated a.d. 55, when its subject would be the proconsul of Acts. Pliny in his Natural History gives Sergius Paulus as his authority for certain facts, and among these are two specially connected with Cyprus.
Morley Stevenson.