apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

364 EPISTLES OF S. IGNATIUS.
We gather then that he did not visit Ephesus, Magnesia, or Tralles,
and that he did visit Philadelphia. Now the itineraries show that the
three former places lay on one route to Smyrna, and the last-mentioned
on another, so that if he had visited any one of the former he could
not have visited the latter, and conversely. But this route is nowhere
directly indicated. The notices are all allusive, and the conclusions
inferential.
But the congruity of the narrative does not cease here. Critics
have been perplexed by the presence of delegates from Ephesus, from
Magnesia, and from Tralles, at Smyrna.
It has been objected that if
sufficient time be allowed for sending messengers to all these churches,
apprising them of the saint's arrival at Smyrna, and again for the
journey of the respective delegacies to this last-mentioned city, we
are obliged to postulate a lengthy sojourn at Smyrna, which under
the circumstances is most improbable. The difficulty has arisen from
inattention to the topographical
considerations which a close examination
of the epistles reveals. Now that we have ascertained the
saint's route, the whole matter becomes clear. At the point where
the routes bifurcate, and where Ignatius and his guard
took the
northern road, a messenger despatched along the southern would easily
visit the three cities Tralles, Magnesia, and Ephesus, in succession,
or the message might be passed along from Tralles to Magnesia and
from Magnesia to Ephesus so that ; by one means or another the
delegates would be prepared, and might easily, i{ need required, reach
Smyrna even before Ignatius himself, for he appears to have halted
some time at Philadelphia, if not elsewhere also. It would appear
that from Laodicea on the Lycus, where the two routes diverge, the
lengths of the successive stages in Roman miles by
either road are
somewhat as follows :
6
Laodicea