From thence we fetched a compass. — The phrase, now somewhat obsolete, was formerly in common use for a circuitous route by land or sea from one point to another. (Comp. 2 Samuel 5:23; 2 Kings 3:9, and —
“For ‘tis his custom, like a creeping fool,
To fetch a compass of a mile about, “
in Heywood’s Fair Maid of the Exchange, ii. 3.) It is found in most of the English versions, but Wiclif gives “we sailed about,” and the Rhemish, “compassing by the shore.” The latter, however, hardly expresses the fact, which was that the wind being probably from the west, they were compelled to tack so as to stand out from the shore to catch the breeze, instead of coasting.
Came to Rhegium. — This town, now Reggio, was in Italy, on the southern opening of the Straits of Messina. Ships from Alexandria to Italy commonly touched there, and Suetonius relates that the Emperor Titus, taking the same course as St. Paul, put in there on his way from Judæa to Puteoli, and thence to Rome. Caligula began the construction of a harbour at Rhegium for the corn-ships of Egypt; but this work, which the Jewish historian notes as the one “great and kingly undertaking” of his reign, was left unfinished (Ant. xix. 2, § 5).
The south wind blew. — More accurately, when a breeze from, the south had sprung, the form of the Greek verb implying a change of wind. The south wind was, of course, directly in their favour, and they sailed without danger between the famous rocks of Scylla and the whirlpool of Charybdis.
We came the next day to Puteoli. — As the distance was about one hundred and eighty miles, the ship was clearly making good way before the wind. Puteoli (more anciently Dikæarchia, now Pozzuoli) lies in a sheltered recess, forming the northern part of the Bay of Naples. It was at this time the chief port of Rome, and was, in particular, the great emporium for the corn ships of Alexandria, upon which the people of Rome largely depended for their food, and the arrival of which was accordingly eagerly welcomed. A pier on twenty-five arches was thrown out into the sea for the protection of the harbour. It may be noted further that but a few months prior to St. Paul’s arrival it had been raised to the dignity of a colonia (Tac. Ann. xiv. 27). It is hardly necessary to describe the well-known beauties of the bay, but the reader may be reminded that as the ship entered it the eye of St. Paul must have rested on the point of Misenum, to the north, behind which was stationed the imperial fleet; on Vesuvius, to the south; on the town of Neapolis (= New-town), now Naples, which had taken the place of the old Parthenope; on the islands of Capreæ, Ischia, and Procida.