ABSTRACT
Ignatius was born to pagan parents at Antioch, the capital of Syria, during the second quarter of the first century, about A.D. 30. One of the largest cities of the Roman Empire, the terminus of both Eastern caravan routes and Mediterranean sea-lanes, Antioch was the center of commerce and Greek culture in the eastern Mediterranean region. It contained a large Jewish refugee population but was also the site of the first gentile Christian community, which became the mother church of Christian churches throughout the Roman Empire.
