Ignatius
Ignatius names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Ignatius A bishop of Antioch
1000 Classical Characters (1900)
A bishop of Antioch, torn to pieces by lions in the amphitheater at Rome A. D. 107. His works consisted of letters to the Ephesians, Romans, etc. He zealously supported the doctrine of the divinity of Christ. Iguvium (Gubbio or Eugubio). An important town in Umbria , on the south slope of the Apennines. On a mountain near this town was a celebrated temple of Jupiter , in the ruins of which were discovered seven brazen tables, covered with Umbrian inscriptions, and which are still preserved at Gubbio. These tables, frequently called the Eugubian Tables, contain more than one thousand Umbrian words, and are of great importance for a knowledge of the ancient languages of Italy.
Ignatius surnamed THEOPHORUS
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
surnamed THEOPHORUS, a father of the Church, and martyr; a native of Syria, and disciple of St. John the Evangelist, by whom he was made bishop of Antioch, A. D. 68. After discharging the episcopal office with great zeal for 40 years, the Emperor Trajan , passing through Antioch, endeavored to prevail upon him to renounce his religion. Ignatius continued inflexible; on which the emperor him to Rome, where he was exposed sent to wild beasts in the amphitheater. His disciples conveyed his bones to Antioch.
Ignatius a Church father
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a Church father; born about 798. When his father, the Emperor Michael I., was deposed he entered a monastery, assuming the name of Ignatius. In 846 he was raised to the patriarchate of Constantinople. His refusal to admit Bardas, brother of the Empress Theodora, as a communicant, on account of his reported immorality, led to his deposition in 857. He was reinstated in 867. He died in 878.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The bare outline still stands: Ignatius of Antioch wrote a set of letters on his way to death in the Roman arena, and seven of them, in what scholars call the middle recension, are still accepted as genuine, while longer and shorter versions circulating under his name are treated as later reworkings. What has shifted is confidence in the details Collier's gave in 1921. The claims that he was a disciple of St. John, was made bishop in A.D. 68, and was martyred under Trajan in 107 all come from later tradition rather than from the letters themselves, and many scholars now place his death anywhere from the 110s to the middle of the second century, with a minority dating the correspondence later still. The Umbrian bronzes noted under Iguvium also remain in Gubbio, and Umbrian is now a reasonably well-understood Italic language rather than the near-riddle it was in 1900.
Written for this edition, 2026.