tribulation. A careful examination of this letter may convince us
that it contains no reference to the Epistles attributed to
Ignatius of Antioch. Of the seven letters mentioned by Eusebius,
four are said to have been written from _Smyrna_ and three from
_Troas_. But the letters of which Polycarp speaks were written
from neither of these places, but from _Philippi_. In the letters
attributed to Ignatius of Antioch, the martyr describes himself as
a solitary sufferer, hurried along by ten rough soldiers from city
to city on his way to Rome; in the letter of Polycarp to the
Philippians, Ignatius is only one among a crowd of victims, of
whose ultimate destination the writer was ignorant. A considerable
time after the party had left Philippi, Polycarp begs the brethren
there to tell him what had become of them. "Concerning Ignatius
himself, and those _who are with him_, if," says he, "ye have any
sure tidings, certify us." [21:1] In the Ignatian Epistle
addressed to Polycarp, he is directed to "write to the Churches,"
to "call together a godly council," and "to elect" a messenger to
be sent to Syria (sec. 7). Polycarp, in his letter to the Philippians,
takes no notice of these instructions. He had obviously never
heard of them. It is indeed plain that the letter of the
Philippians to Polycarp had only a partial reference to the case
of Ignatius and his companions. It was largely occupied with other
matters; and to these Polycarp addresses himself in his reply.

The simple solution of all these difficulties is to be found in
the fact that the Ignatius mentioned by Polycarp was a totally
different person from the pastor of Antioch. He lived in another
age and in another country. Ignatius or Egnatius--for the name is
thus variously written--was not a very rare designation; [21:3]
and in the neighbourhood of Philippi it seems to have been common.