PATARA  , an

ancient town of Asia Minor, on the Lycian coast, 3 M . E. of the mouth of the Xanthus river (mod . Eshen Chai) . It was noted from early times for its temple and oracle of Apollo, and, as the port of Xanthus and other towns of the same valley, had a large trade, and was regarded as the metropolis of Lycia . Enlarged by Ptolemy Philadelphus I. and renamed for a time Arsinoe, it was adorned by Vespasian with baths . St Paul changed there into a " ship of Phoenicia " on his way to Jerusalem in A.D . 6o . Patara was the reputed birth-place of St Nicholas . The principal extant monuments are a triple triumphal arch, with inscription, through which ran the road to Xanthus, and the walls, discernible on either hand of it; the theatre, 265 ft. in diameter, built in A.D . 145 (as attested by an inscription) and wonderfully well preserved, though largely filled with drift sand; and the thermae built by, Vespasian north of the harbour .