apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

372 EPISTLES OF S. IGNATIUS.
taking steps to obtain his pardon, or at least to procure a mitigation of
his sentence. How is this to be explained Quite incidentally, and
therefore quite artlessly,
at the close of the letter he mentions certain
persons who had 'gone before him from Syria to Rome' (§ lo), and
he sends a message to them. These persons then were the bearers of
the news of his condemnation and journey to Rome. Thus there is an
undesigned harmony between the general substance and the particular
notices in the letter.
Lastly; the Epistle to the Romans alone of all the letters is dated;
and appropriately enough the Latin mode of dating
is
adopted, 'the gth
before the Kalends of September' (§ lo), i.e. August 24. Appropriate
in itself, this date also agrees well with the day of Ignatius' martyrdom,
as given by the earHest tradition, October 17 (see 11. p. 418 sq). This
interval of 54 days would be long enough, and yet not too long, for the
incidents which must find a place in it. The Epistle to the Romans
was written from Smyrna, and presumably towards the close of the
martyr's sojourn there. From Smyrna he proceeds to Troas. Three
or four days would be a fair allowance for the voyage from Smyrna to
Troas. If he travelled by land, it would occupy a somewhat longer time.
It is not probable that he stayed many days
at Troas. He himself
tells us that his departure was hurried, so that he was unable to write
certain letters as he had intended {Folyc. 8).
What the cause of this
hastened departure may have been, we can only conjecture. Not improbably
his guards now found that, if they were to arrive in Rome in
time for the festival at which their prisoners were destined to fight with
wild beasts, they must avoid all unnecessary delays. From Troas they
sailed to Neapolis {Folyc. 8).
The voyage between these two places
took S. Paul the best part of two days with a good wind (Acts xvi. 11),
but under less favourable circumstances it
occupied five days (Acts
XX. 6).
The distance from Neapolis to Philippi is ten or twelve miles.
Here there appears to have been a short halt (Polyc. Fhil. i, 9, 13)
before setting out for Rome. Elsewhere {Fhilippians p. 38) data are
given from which it appears that the journey from Philippi to Rome
would occupy somewhere about a month, if there was no unnecessary
halting and no inconvenient hurrying. In this case however the soldiers
would probably have commissions to discharge on the way, which
might occupy a little time. Thus the interval of between seven and
eight weeks would be exhausted and not more than exhausted. On
what authority this earliest tradition of the martyr's day, as October 17,
may rest we cannot say; but not it
improbably
is authentic. In
October a. d. 97 Trajan was adopted by Nerva, was nominated Csesar,