Melita
Μελίτη
Melita (Μελίτη, Scyl. p.8; Steph.B.: Agathem. 1.5; Plin. Nat. 3.30; Itin. Anton.; Peut. Tab.; Μελιτηνή, Ptol. 2.16.14; Μέλετα, Const. Porph. de Adm. Imp. 36; Malata; Geogr. Rav.), one of the Liburnian group of islands. It was so called like its namesake Melita or Malta, from the excellence of its honey; and some erroneously have claimed for it the honour of being the island on which St. Paul was wrecked. (See preceding article.) It is the same as the long narrow and hilly island of Meleda, lying about half-way between Curzola and Ragusa, remarkable in modern times for the singular phenomenon of subterranean noises called Detonazioni di Meleda,
the cause of which has been attributed to the region of volcanic activity which is supposed to underlie the whole of this coast. (Comp. Daubeny, On Volcanoes, p. 333.) The site of a palace which was built by Agesilaus of Cilicia, the father of Oppianus, the author of the Halieutica,
when banished to the island in the time of Septimius Severus, is still shown. (Wilkinson, Dalmatia and Monte-Negro, vol. i. p. 265.)
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.