Epistle to the Philippians
Smyrna · 155
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Polycarp of Smyrna
Polycarp of Smyrna
69 CE–155 CE · Smyrna
Polycarp (c. 69–155 CE) was bishop of Smyrna in Asia Minor and a crucial link between the apostolic generation and the later church, reportedly a disciple of the Apostle John according to Irenaeus of Lyons. He corresponded with Ignatius of Antioch and wrote an epistle to the Philippians that survives, though some scholars hold it to be a composite of two letters. Late in life he traveled to Rome to confer with Bishop Anicetus on the Quartodeciman controversy over the date of Easter. He was martyred at Smyrna at an advanced age; the eyewitness account known as the Martyrdom of Polycarp is among the earliest Christian martyrdom narratives.
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Stop 1 of 269–155Bishopric And Martyrdom
SmyrnaIonia (Asia Minor)
What they did here
Polycarp served as bishop of Smyrna for decades and was martyred there — fire was attempted first, then he was stabbed — around 155 AD, according to the Martyrdom of Polycarp; Eusebius places the martyrdom later under Marcus Aurelius (c. 166–167), but modern scholarship largely follows the earlier date supported by the proconsulship of Statius Quadratus.
Smyrna in this era
Under Roman imperial rule in the province of Asia, Smyrna hosted one of the seven churches addressed in the Book of Revelation (c. 95 CE), where John of Patmos commended its community for enduring poverty and persecution without wavering — a congregation shaped by daily pressure from the city's prominent imperial cult.
About Smyrna
Smyrna, modern İzmir on the Aegean coast of Turkey, was a leading Ionian Greek polis and a major center of rhetoric and learning under Rome. The sophist Marcus Antonius Polemon taught there, the orator Aelius Aristides was closely associated with the city, and it was one of several places claiming to be the birthplace of Homer. The mathematician Theon of Smyrna and the epic poet Quintus Smyrnaeus take their names from it.
In Smyrna at the same time
Across the traditions, in Smyrna at the same time
In the same place & time
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Sages whose lives overlapped with Polycarp of Smyrna’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
Across the traditions
In the same tradition
Marcion of Sinope, Justin Martyr, Valentinus, Irenaeus of Lyons, Pope St. Pius I, Tatian, Ignatius of Antioch
The world in their lifetime
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Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Polycarp of Smyrna’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Works(2)
The Martyrdom of Polycarp
Smyrna · 155