Among the many remarkable features of Ignatius' letters there is perhaps nothing more curious than his peculiar ideas about the value attaching to silence. There is something almost comic in his insistence that when a bishop is saying nothing he is then to be regarded with special awe. It is apparently his firm conviction that the best thing a bishop can do is to refrain from speech altogether. The purpose of this brief note is to attempt an interpretation of the passages where he brings forward this notion, and to suggest that the explanation of them in the standard commentators upon Ignatius' epistles is not satisfactory.

A haematite amulet against colic, belonging to the National Museum at Copenhagen and published in Symb. Osl., XIX, 76 f. (Fig. 2), has increased in interest since Campbell Bonner studied the type closely and on important points corrected my own interpretation, Harvard Theological Review, XXXV, 87 ff., XXXVII, 333 f. The place of origin of these amulets is Syria; the Michigan specimen discussed by Bonner derives from Aleppo and has been republished by P. R. Mouterde (Mélanges de l'Université Saint Joseph, XXV (1942–43), 112, no. 20, see ib., pl. 7, no. 20): “Dieu imberbe, nu, à g., debout sur une base moulurée; il porte une besace sur l'épaule g. et dresse la droite. Au pied de la base, à g., aigle éployé tourné vers le dieu. Dans le champ, à g., signe indistinct, astérisque et une lettre ou deux lettres liées, Δ, ou | Δ, ou Δ |. Une palme, au sommet et à dr., encadre la scène.” This Michigan specimen reproduces only one half of the original figuration, as we conclude from the Copenhagen specimen. If we follow the suggestion of Campbell Bonner, p. 87, we may guess that the original colic-amulet has been bisected, in order to make two equally good amulets “against colic” — in fact the design divides itself into two independent parts. The right one represents the “Marsyas” of the Forum Romanum, as H. Seyrig saw, referring to Hill's publication of the Palestine coins in the Brit. Mus., Cat., Nos. 118–120 (see Campbell Bonner, l.c., p. 334.)

Volume XLIII (1950), page 57, note 67.

In the article “Paul of Constantinople,” Section IV and the sentence to which Note 67 refers, the words “northwards” and “for delivery on the coast of Asia Minor” should be deleted. Père Peeters merely argues that the raft afforded escape from Tyre. In the first instance, Athanasius was carried away from his goal.