If our image of Patmos, or especially John on Patmos, is the image of a lonely man on a rocky island, we need to revise that image considerably. Patmos was a regular stop on maritime trade routes between Asia Minor or other eastern Mediterranean points of origin and Greece. The island itself, having a very uneven coast, offered many natural harbors to ships carrying goods back and forth between the two sides of this body of water. It was in fact inhabited by many families throughout the Hellenistic