PUBLIUS pub’ lĭ əs (Πόπλιος, G4511; Lat. Publius). The leading man on Malta who for three days hospitably entertained Paul and members of the shipwrecked party (Acts 28:7, 8). His father, sick with fever and dysentery, was healed by Paul (v. 8). The epithet ὁ πρῶτος, “the chief man,” has been confirmed by two Maltese inscrs. as an official title. He was apparently the chief Rom. official on Malta. Ramsay suggested that the peasantry on his estate called Publius by his praenomen, and Luke used the name he commonly heard. Tradition points to Publius as the first bishop of Malta and a martyr.

Bibliography W. M. Ramsay, St. Paul the Traveller (1909), 343; F. F. Bruce, The New International Commentary on the Book of the Acts (1954), 523; C. W. Carter and R. Earle, The Acts of the Apostles (1959), 415f.