their nourishment, while in prison, from friends, is anything but extraordinary, and that bribes should secure access to them in many cases, and some mitigation of suffering, is possible.  The case of Ignatius, however, is very different.  If the meaning of [Greek:  oi kai euergetoumenoi cheirous ginontai] be that, although receiving bribes, the “ten leopards” only became more cruel, the very reverse of the leniency and mild treatment ascribed to the Roman procedure is described by the writer himself as actually taking place, and certainly nothing approaching a parallel to the correspondence of pseudo-Ignatius can be pointed out in any known instance.  The case of Saturus and Perpetua, even if true, is no confirmation, the circumstances being very different; [100:1] but in fact there is no evidence whatever that the extant history was written by either of them, [100:2] but on the contrary, I maintain, every reason to believe that it was not.

Dr. Lightfoot advances the instance of Paul as a case in point of a Christian prisoner treated with great consideration, and who “writes letters freely, receives visits from his friends, communicates with Churches and individuals as he desires.” [101:1] It is scarcely possible to imagine two cases more dissimilar than those of pseudo-Ignatius and Paul, as narrated in the “Acts of the Apostles,” although doubtless the story of the former has been framed upon some of the lines of the latter.  Whilst Ignatius is condemned to be cast to the wild beasts as a Christian, Paul is not condemned at all, but stands in the position of a Roman citizen, rescued from infuriated Jews (xxiii. 27), repeatedly declared by his judges to have done nothing worthy of death or of bonds (xxv. 25, xxvi. 31), and who might have been set at liberty but that he had appealed to Caesar (xxv. 11 f., xxvi. 32).  His position was one which secured the sympathy of the Roman soldiers.  Ignatius “fights with beasts from Syria even unto Rome,” and is cruelly treated by his “ten leopards,” but Paul is represented as receiving very different treatment.  Felix commands that his own people should be allowed to come and minister to him (xxiv. 23), and when the voyage is commenced it is said that Julius, who had charge of Paul, treated him courteously, and, gave him liberty to go to see his friends at Sidon (xxvii. 3).  At Rome he was allowed to live by himself with a single soldier to guard him (xxviii. 16), and he continued for two years in his own hired house (xxviii. 28).  These circumstances are totally different from those under which the Epistles of Ignatius are said to have been written.

“But the most powerful testimony,” Dr. Lightfoot goes on to say, “is derived from the representations of a heathen writer.” [101:2] The case of Peregrinus, to which he refers, seems to me even more unfortunate than that of Paul.  Of Peregrinus himself, historically, we really know little or nothing, for the account of Lucian is scarcely received as serious by anyone. [102:1] Lucian narrates