Inscriptions possibly naming the proconsul Sergius Paulus

What it establishes

Cyprus was governed by proconsuls after Augustus returned it to the people's administration in about 22 BC (Dio 54.4.1), so Acts' title for the island's governor fits the period, as Ramsay stressed.

A boundary cippus from the Tiber at Rome (CIL VI 31545 = ILS 5926), set up on Claudius's authority (AD 41-54), lists L. Sergius Paullus as one of five curators of the river's banks and channel. A senator bearing both names that Acts gives therefore held public office in Rome under Claudius.

At Pisidian Antioch an undated honorific base (EDH HD046352) names L. Sergius Paullus, son of Lucius, styled filius (the younger), early in a senatorial career: road commissioner (IIIIvir viarum curandarum), military tribune of legio VI Ferrata, and quaestor. Ramsay published an identical text from a copy made at Salir in 1912. A fragment (EDH HD046353) honours the mother-in-law of a Paullus Ser[gius].

A Greek honorific text of AD 81-96 from Pisidian Antioch (IGR III 300) names [Ser]gia(?) Paulla, daughter of Lucius, as wife of C. Caristanius Fronto, Domitian's legate of Lycia and Pamphylia; the name Sergia is partly restored. With the base, it points to a senatorial family of Sergii Paulli honoured at Antioch in the later 1st century.

A Soli epitaph (IGR III 930) records that Apollonios, as censor, revised the council roll in the 10th year under a proconsul Paulus (title partly restored; no era named). A Kythrea fragment (IGR III 935) is read as Quintus Serg- beside an emperor whose name is lost. Editors restore it as a dating formula naming the governor, but Rigsby reads it differently.

What it does not establish

None of these inscriptions securely names the proconsul of Acts 13:7. The Rome stone gives no Cypriot office, the Soli text gives only Paulus, and on the Kythrea fragment the words Paulus and proconsul are wholly editorial restorations.

They do not date Paul's visit to Cyprus. Restorations of the Kythrea text range from Tiberius (Campbell: by AD 37) to Claudius (SEG 20.302: AD 46-48), and the Soli Paulus year names no era.

They do not show that the Antioch Sergii Paulli descend from the Cyprus governor, or that he or his relatives became Christians. Ramsay's family reconstruction rests on inference from names and from silence, and he himself called it a hypothesis. Nor do the stones confirm the Elymas episode.

Where interpreters differ

Is the proconsul of Acts attested in any inscription? Many identify him with the Tiber curator L. Sergius Paullus, because a Cyprus proconsulship could fall before or after a Claudian curatorship. But, as van Elderen stressed, no text connects that man to Cyprus, and Acts gives no praenomen. The Soli Paulus has no family name: Mitford, as reported by van Elderen, computed AD 50 at the earliest and judged the inscription probably considerably later, whereas Ramsay's older reading took the phrase as the stone's own date. At Kythrea only Quintus Serg- survives, so Myres rejected the link. Campbell restored Tiberius and dated the visit by AD 37, a chronology Bernier judges improbable. Van Elderen rejected Ramsay's Antioch family theory as too speculative.

Other readings

Tiber curator identification. On this view the proconsul of Acts 13:7 was L. Sergius Paullus, the Claudian Tiber curator of CIL VI 31545, who governed Cyprus before or after that post. The name and date make this plausible, but no inscription links him to Cyprus, and Acts gives no praenomen.

Quintus Sergius at Kythrea. On Campbell's restoration the fragment names a Quintus Serg[ius Paullus], probably the governor; Paulus and proconsul are wholly restored. Campbell restores Tiberius and so dates the Cyprus mission by AD 37, earlier than usual; the older SEG 20.302 reading restores Claudius (46-48). Myres assumed the Acts proconsul was a Lucius and rejected the link; van Elderen thought it the most attractive candidate, with reservation.

Ramsay's family hypothesis. Ramsay proposed, as a hypothesis, that the Antioch L. Sergius Paullus was the proconsul's son and Sergia Paulla his daughter, and that Christianity passed through her to her son, while the male line stayed pagan. Van Elderen, citing Lake's verdict of ingenious but unconvincing combinations, rejected the scheme.

Not yet attested. No surviving inscription securely names the Acts proconsul. Several senators bore the name Paullus: IGR III 939 at Palaepaphos names Paullus Fabius Maximus, who Dessau inferred had governed Cyprus. A shared name alone cannot settle the identification.