CNIDUS nī’ dəs (Κνίδος, G3118). Cnidus was an Argive Gr. colony on the SW tip of Asia Minor, a trading city with connections, with both Egypt and Italy, as early as the 6th cent. b.c. It housed a medical school, possessed the famous statue of Aphrodite by Praxiteles, and was the home of the astronomer Eudoxus. Cnidus fell under Pers. domination in common with all Asia Minor in the 6th cent., and in the 5th was a member of the Athenian-dominated Delian League. Its subsequent history, in Hell. and Rom. times, is not well known. It was a free city in the province of Asia. There were Jewish inhabitants as early as the 2nd cent. From Cnidus the best course for westbound maritime traffic was by one of the routes across the Aegean. The steady thrust of the meltemi, blowing out of Thrace, precluded this navigation at the time of Paul’s voyage (Acts 27:7), but provided a following wind for the shipmaster’s daring attempt to sail S or SW and move W under the lee of Crete. Situated as it was on the end of a long peninsula thrusting seaward between the islands of Cos and Rhodes, Cnidus, with its two harbors, was admirably equipped to form the port and point of departure for such traffic. A few ruins of the temple of Aphrodite are still to be seen.