Editing Ignatius of Antioch (section)

=== Route of travel to Rome ===
During the journey to Rome, Ignatius and his entourage of soldiers made a number of lengthy stops in [[Anatolia|Asia Minor]], deviating from the most direct land route from Antioch to Rome.<ref name="davies"/>{{rp|176}} Scholars generally agree on the following reconstruction of Ignatius' route of travel:
# Ignatius first traveled from Antioch, in the province of Syria, to Asia Minor. It is uncertain whether he traveled by sea or by land;
# He was then taken to [[Smyrna]], via a route that bypassed the cities of [[Magnesia on the Meander|Magnesia]], [[Tralles]], and [[Ephesus]], but likely passed through [[Alaşehir|Philadelphia]]; (cf. [http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0108.htm Ign. Phil.] 7)
# Ignatius then traveled to [[Alexandria Troas|Troas]], where he boarded a ship bound for [[Neapolis (Thrace)|Neapolis]] in [[Macedonia (Greece)|Macedonia]]; (cf. [http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0110.htm Ign. Pol.] 8)
# He then passed through the city of [[Philippi]]; (cf. [http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0136.htm Pol. Phil.] 9)
# After this, he took some land or sea route to Rome.<ref name="jefford">{{Cite book |last=Jefford |first=Clayton N. |title=The Apostolic Fathers and the New Testament |date=2006 |publisher=[[Baker Publishing Group]] |location=Grand Rapids, MI |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jq4Wo3YFskUC |isbn=978-1-4412-4177-1 |access-date=3 July 2019 |archive-date=28 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240628163109/https://books.google.com/books?id=jq4Wo3YFskUC |url-status=live}}</ref>
During the journey, the soldiers seem to have allowed the chained Ignatius to meet with entire congregations of Christians, at least at [[Alaşehir|Philadelphia]] (cf. [http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0108.htm Ign. Phil.] 7), and numerous Christian visitors and messengers were allowed to meet with him individually. These messengers allowed Ignatius to send six letters to nearby churches, and one to Polycarp, the bishop of Smyrna.<ref name="davies"/>{{rp|176}}

These aspects of Ignatius' martyrdom are also unusual, in that a prisoner would normally be transported on the most direct route to his destination. Travel by land in the [[Roman Empire]] was far more expensive than by sea,<ref name="oxford">{{Cite web |url=https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199935390.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199935390-e-110 |title=Travel in the Roman World |last=Cioffi |first=Robert L. |date=7 March 2016 |website=Oxford Handbooks Online |publisher=Oxford |access-date=3 July 2019 |quote=Roads were by far the costliest means of transporting goods and traveling; according to calculations made by applying the ORBIS model to data from Diocletian's Edict on Maximum Prices of 301 AD, transportation by wagon cost between five and fifty-two times more than travel by boat for equivalent distances... |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199935390.013.110 |isbn=978-0-19-993539-0 |archive-date=3 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190703130450/https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199935390.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199935390-e-110 |url-status=live}}</ref> especially since Antioch was a major sea port. Davies argues that Ignatius' circuitous route can only be explained by positing that he was not the main purpose of the soldiers' trip and that the various stops in Asia Minor were for other state business. He suggests that such a scenario would also explain the relative freedom that Ignatius was given to meet with other Christians during the journey.<ref name="davies"/>{{rp|177}}