Now of this total the journey to Smyrna would require forty-four, to which we may add two for delay in Tarsus and elsewhere, and four for the interval spent in Smyrna before the letter to the Romans was written (evidently on the eve of departure); and, as that letter was written on 24 August, the party must have started from Antioch about 6 July, and arrived in Rome about 17 October, on which day he reached Rome accord-
* The passage is discussed in the Appendix to a paper on ‘Tarsus, Cilicia, and the Cilician Gates’ in the Geographical Journal, 1903.
+t Double the unit of distance, 81 Roman miles, while the traveller in carriage or waggon went three units, as is shown below. No Itinerary gives a complete list of the stages or units.
} Allowance for waiting on winds must be made (see Pliny, Epist. 15, 17, who travelled at nearly the same season, Aug. or Sept. a.D, 111); otherwise five days would be an ample allowance.
ing to the oldest authorities (properly interpreted) : see p. 385°. By this rough yet not inaccurate reckoning we are forced to the conclusion that Ignatius is likely to have reached Rome about the day mentioned in the oldest tradition; and it seems not improbable that this day was correctly remembered in tradition, with the probably in- correct addition that he was put to death on the same day that he arrived.
But it is more natural and probable that the execution was postponed until some -great festi- val, when, et 4 the sports of the amphitheatre, Ignatius formed one of the crowd of criminals collected from all parts of the Empire, who were made to struggle with, or die unresistingly before, the starved wild beasts. The later hagiography delighted to represent the Roman government as intent on and wholly absorbed in the punishment of the martyr, and as hurrying him to death the moment he reached Rome ; whereas, in reality, no official in Rome thought or cared about the one individual amidst a crowd of criminals reserved to make the next Roman holiday.
The journey of Ignatius may serve as a fair example of numberless similar journeys made by martyrs to Rome to meet the same kind of death for the amusement of a populace, which was in this way kept in good humour by the Imperial policy. There seems to be nothing exceptional or unusual about this journey. Ignatius was treated somewhat harshly by the soldiers who guarded him and the other prisoners; but naturally the guards were severe with the criminals, whom they were bound to watch, and for whose safe custody they were responsible (Ac 27%).
(6) Travellers driving along the road may prob- ably be taken as going ordinarily at the rate of 4 Roman miles an hour. That is the rate which the writer calculated for the journey of Aristides from Smyrna to Pergamus,* and the minute details which Aristides gives make it possible to attain approximate certainty as to the rate. Ordinary travellers were weighted by luggage, and would not go faster than the heavy waggon on which it was carried. But where they wished, they were able to travel at the faster rate of the Imperial post: see below.
The regular day’s journey for this class of travellers was perhaps only 25 Roman miles—half as long again as the foot traveller’s ordinary journey (faster travellers went double distance, a few quadruple: see below). Twenty-five miles was the average distance between the man- siones on the roads; and, as Friedliinder points out (p. 19), the distance between Bethlehem and Alexandria (which is about 400 Roman miles) was reckoned to be sixteen days’ journey (mamnsiones).+ Between each two mansiones the rule seems to have been that there should be two mutationes, though we have not a complete list for any road, for even the Bordeaux Itinerary omits some.
The roads, therefore, appear to have been divided into stages of about 84 Roman miles in length. Thelength of the stages was, undoubtedly, closely related to the average daily distances in ordinary travelling.
(c) The rate at which the Imperial couriers travelled is difficult to estimate with any exact- ness. Chambalu (de magistratibus Flaviorwm, p. 8) supposes that they travelled at the rate of 160 Roman miles per day; and Friedlander (p. 23) quotes this estimate with apparent approval. But such a rate is entirely inconsistent with the long interval which (as we have seen) elapsed before
* Journal of Hellenic Studies, 1881, p. 49.
+ Sulpicius Severus, Dial. i. 4. So twenty-five mansiones from Edessa to Jerusalem (S. Silvie Ag. Peregrin. 47); the distance by Antioch is not much under 625 miles,
ROADS AND TRAVEL (IN NT)
ROADS AND TRAVEL (IN NT) 387
events at Rome of great importance in the Imperial family became known in Egypt. If the couriers travelled at that rate, important events in Rome, like the proclamation of an Emperor, ought to have been known at Alexandria within twenty days at all seasons of the year; but news seems to have taken three or four times as long, except when it could be carried by ship direct from Italy. We have seen in § iy. a clear case: the accession of Pertinax on 1 January had just become known (probably on the preceding day) to the prefect of Egypt in Alexandria on 6 March A.D, 193, implying a period of sixty-four days spent on the journey. his may seem to imply a very slow rate of travel for government couriers; and even if we suppose that the prefect in early March A.D. 193 was absent from Alexandria, and had to be summoned, the delay cannot have been more than a day or two. Had the governor been far from Alexandria, he would not have waited till he returned there before issuing his edict. Neglect or delay in celebrating the accession would have been disloyal, and, in the Roman sense, impious. Moreover, another well-attested interval confirms this case. News of the death of Gaius Cesar at Limyra on the coast of Lycia on 21 February A.D. 4 reached Pisa on 2 April.* If we allow that it reached Rome four days earlier, this would give thirty-six days from Limyra to Rome. News of this tragic event of Imperial importance would not linger on the way; and there seems no reason to think that it would be concealed on arriving in Rome. Doubtless, public mourning was ordered instantly by Augustus. . Moreover, for a long journey such a rate of travelling was sufficiently fatiguing. The couriers, undoubtedly, were soldiers ; + only to them could such an important service be entrusted; and doubtless picked men alone were employed. The service must have been planned with a view to be consistent with what can judiciously be expected from good soldiers as a permanent duty. It would appear that a courier carried through to its des- tination the despatches with which he was en- trusted, and that these were not passed from hand to hand. The latter method would have given greater possibility of speed, but the former was more safe and useful. Hence, for example, Tacitus (Hist. ii. 73) mentions that the couriers (specu- latores) from Syria and Palestine gladdened Vitellius by describing how the Eastern legions had taken the oath to him. See Suet. Aug. 42. Chambalu and Friedliinder have been misled by some exceptional cases of rapid travelling. <A great effort can be made for a few days ; but the steady all-the-year-round rate of travelling for the couriers must be estimated on a very different scale. We are not told how many horses were killed in those exceptional rides. We have laid down as the ruling principle of the government courier-service that regularity and certainty were more prized than mere speed; the government desired to know confidently at what date it could be reckoned that instructions would be received and put in effect. The headlong speed of modern government messages had no analogy in ordinary Roman practice, though exceptional characters, like Julius Cesesar Ma some others, knew the value of speed in critical circumstances, and risked everything to attain it. ; p The postal service across Asia Minor before the