Saul, a Pharisee, was born in Tarsus in Cilicia (today part of Turkey), into a strict Jewish family. He was such a dedicated adherent to his religion that he sought out and persecuted members of the new sect, known in Antioch as Christians. On his way to Damascus, Syria, a dramatic change came over him, and he was blind for three days. This experience and spiritual meeting with Jesus Christ turned him into a fervent disciple.
As a Christian, Saul chose the name of Paul. He preached Christianity in Jerusalem, making enemies among the other Pharisees, who sought to kill him. But as a Roman citizen, he appealed to Caesar, and Governor Festus had no option but to send him to Rome for final judgment.
Sime time between AD 59 and 61, he set sail from Caesarea Marittima, the main modern artificial harbour of Roman Palestine – not to be confused with Caesarea Philippi, located at the foot of Mount Hermon in the Golan Heights. He sailed under the command of the Roman centurion Julius of the Augustan cohort or Imperial Guard, from King Herod the Great’s new Judean harbour. Sidon in south Lebanon, was their first port of call.
Their ship was from Adramyttium, (today Edremit in Turkey), which was a good and as yet unsilted harbour, on a broad gulf facing Mitylene on the island of Lesbos in western Asia Minor, not far from Troas.
This was the ship of unspecified size that they disembarked from at the mainland port of Myra in Lycia, in southwest Asia Minor. The centurion Julius then found a much larger grain ship bound for Italy. It was an Alexandrian ship from Egypt, manned by a crew of Hellenic Egyptians. This was the ship that bore them south, rather than north, of Crete, and was caught up in the terrible life-threatening gregale storm, to Malta.
In 2005, Maltese divrs Mark Gatt, an unspecified Antoine, and subsequently Matthew Montebello, followed in Salvino Scicluna’s footsteps to search for anchor stocks beyond Għallis Point. Whereas previous dives had descended some 30 metres they were able to go down to 36 metres, using more advanced methods.
There, Gatt and Antoine located a lead anchor stock, bearing, to their astonishment, in embossed Latin letters, the significant words Isis on one arm, and Sarapi(s) on the other. These are significant because the ancient Hellenic-Egyptian gods Isis and Serapis were not only worshipped all over the Roman Empire but were also protectors of the Alexandrian ship.
Early Christians were often compelled to hide their religious allegiance, due to persecution. Hence the symbolism of an anchor
Moreover, this pointed to a date likely to have been between 100 BC and AD 200. The timeframe is debatable to some extent. This detail might point to it having belonged to the grain ship that 2,000 years previously carried Paul and 275 other passengers, including prisoners, and crew in AD 59-61.
Five other anchors had mpreviously been located in shallower water by Royal Navy, Royal Air Force and Army divers. One of them is the largest lead anchor stock ever found and retrieved in the world – it now lies at the Malta Maritime Museum, Vittoriosa. The location of all six anchors lay outside Għallis Point and east of Qawra Point in Salina Bay. St Paul’s Bay has nothing to compare with these important finds.
It can be safely presumed that, after three months’ wintering in Malta, Paul’s next Alexandrian ship set course for Sicily’s main port city of Syracuse, departing from Valletta’s Grand Harbour’s Roman quays between Marsa and Qormi, at the deep inlet known as Il-Magħluq. This ship’s sign was of the twin brothers Castor and Pollux, who were worshipped all over the Hellenised Roman Empire in grand and lofty temples, including one at Adramyttium in Asia Minor.
They sailed with a southerly wind for Syracuse in eastern Sicily, where they stayed for three days. The favourable wind carried them to Puteoli (Pozzuoli) in mainland Italy and the main port of Naples.
Thereafter they travelled overland and reached Rome, bearing their ship’s precious cargo of free grain for Rome’s poorer citizens, some 200,000 out a total population of about one million. The grain, whence bread was kneaded, was distributed at the Emperor’s expense: Panem et circenses (bread and games) was what kept the city going, and its people in order and under control.
So Paul’s journey involved six ports: Caesarea Marittima, Sidon, and Myra in Lycia, his shipwreck in Malta, Grand Harbour, Syracuse and Pozzuoli. The three ships were an unspecified ship from Adramyttium, a grain ship from Alexandria and another Alexandrian grain ship.
In Rome. Paul was possibly martyred with Simon (St Peter) in AD 67 under Emperor Nero, according to reliable sources. As a Roman citizen Paul was beheaded, while Peter, being a Jew, was reportedly crucified.
An anchor with a crosspiece was an early cryptic symbol of Christianity, reminiscent of Christ’s cross, which was frowned upon by pagans, Gentiles and Jews alike, as representing a terrible punishment and prolonged death, a symbol of shame. Moreover, early Christians were often compelled to hide their religious allegiance, due to persecution. Hence the symbolism of an anchor.