SAMOS sā’ mŏs (Σάμος, G4904). An island in the Aegean Sea off the W coast of Asia Minor opposite the headlands of Mycale and the city of Ephesus.

It is twenty-seven m. long and fourteen m. wide. It is separated from the mainland by a strait of one m. The entire island is mountainous, but the terraced land is remarkably fertile. It produced olives, unusually fine wine and abundant timber for native shipbuilders in antiquity. Settled by Ionian immigrants from Epidaurus, it enjoyed great prosperity throughout antiquity, but particularly in the 6th cent. Allied with Athens during the 5th cent., it later passed into the hands of Persia, Egypt, and then Pergamum. It was bequeathed to Rome by Pergamum in 133 b.c. and became part of the province of Asia. In the 1st cent. a.d. it became an autonomous city-state.

Paul passed the island on his sea voyage from Troas to Miletus as he returned to Jerusalem at the end of his third missionary journey (Acts 20:15).