Sophia Scriptura

To the Romans 5.1

Ignatius of Antioch · To the Romans · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Smyrna · Read in context

Summary: On the journey Ignatius is already “fighting beasts”: his cruel guards.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 24:230–232

Ἀπὸ Συρίας μέχρι Ῥώμης θηριομαχῶ, διὰ γῆς καὶ θαλάσσης, νυκτὸς καὶ ἡμέρας, δεδεμένος δέκα λεοπάρδοις, ὅ ἐστιν στρατιωτικὸν τάγμα· οἳ καὶ εὐεργετούμενοι χείρους γίνονται. ἐν δὲ τοῖς ἀδικήμασιν αὐτῶν μᾶλλον μαθητεύομαι, ἀλλʼ οὐ παρὰ τοῦτο δεδικαίωμαι.

English · Claude translation

From Syria to Rome I am fighting with wild beasts, by land and sea, by night and day, bound to ten leopards, that is, a detachment of soldiers, who become worse when they are treated kindly. Yet by their wrongs I am becoming more of a disciple; “but I am not justified by this.”

About this passage

Source
Lake, LCL 24:230–232 · Kirsopp Lake, ed. and trans., The Apostolic Fathers, vol. 1, LCL 24 (London: Heinemann; New York: Macmillan, 1912), 172–277 · Greek text: K. Lake, The Apostolic Fathers (LCL, 1912-1913), digitized by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin), CC BY-SA 4.0
Also in
PG 5:689b–692a (found by text match)
Translation
Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-26 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Lake (LCL 24, 1912); made independently of existing English translations.
Scripture
Topics
Martyrdom

Notes

Translation notes

  • “Leopards”: his military guard, described as wild animals.

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (digitization slip against Lake's printed text (wrong accent); digitization slip against Lake's printed text (wrong breathing and accent)): ἧμερας → ἡμέρας; οἲ καὶ → οἳ καὶ.

Cite this passage

Ign. Rom. 5.1 (PG 5:689b–692a; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ign-romans/5/1/).

Plain text
Ign. Rom. 5.1 (PG 5:689b–692a; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ign-romans/5/1/).

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