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To the Romans
St Ignatius of Antioch, Lake, Loeb 1912
Chapter 5
His journey, and expectation of martyrdom
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 company of soldiers1), and they become worse for kind treatment. Now I become the more a disciple for their ill deeds, “but not by this am I justified.”
I long for the beasts that are prepared for me; and I pray that they may be found prompt for me; I will even entice them to devour me promptly; not as has happened to some whom they have not touched from fear; even if they be unwilling of themselves, 1 will force them to it.
Grant me this favour. I know what is expedient for me; now I am beginning to be a disciple. May nothing of things seen or unseen envy me my attaining to Jesus Christ. Let there come on me fire, and cross, and struggles with wild beasts, cutting, and tearing asunder, rackings of bones, mangling of limbs, crushing of my whole body, cruel tortures of the devil, may I but attain to Jesus Christ!
Notes
- The first impression made by this passage is that “leopards” was the name of some regiment, and that the following words are an explanatory gloss; but there is no evidence for this use of “leopard.” Τάγμα is perhaps the equivalent of “manipulus” in the later sense of “ten men.” The whole passage is rendered stranger still by the fact that it is the first instance of the word “leopard” in Greek or Latin literature.