ASSOS ăs’ ŏs (̓́Ασσος). A strategic strongpoint and city on the Gulf of Adramyttium in Mysia, facing S toward Lesbos. It is the modern Bahram Köi. Assos controlled the coastal road, over twenty m. of which Paul journeyed on foot (Acts 20:13, 14), while his traveling companions rounded Cape Lectum by sea. The geographer Strabo described the fortifications of the port. Its defenses and public buildings lay on a steep hillside rising to over seven hundred ft., terraced in a unified architectural scheme and connected with the artificial harbor beneath by a long stairway. Considerable remnants are visible, and some fine sculptures from Assos’ temple of Athena are housed in Paris. In the 4th cent. the port was the headquarters of a school of Platonic philosophers, among whom the great Aristotle was numbered. Cleanthes, the Stoic, was born there. The ancient harbor has disappeared and is now cultivated ground, but the port still functions. Assos was part of the domain of the Pergamenian kings and later a port of the province of Asia. Paul made his way from Troas to Assos on foot for reasons not detailed in Luke’s narrative. It may be supposed that, deeply burdened by the responsibilities of his Jerusalem journey and the growing evidence of global and united Jewish opposition both to the Gospel and to Rome, he sought solitude for thought and meditation.