Travel and Transport in St. Paul’s Time
Over a period of some ten years in the middle of the first century, St. Paul made three journeys, traveling through Anatolia and Greece spreading the gospel. In the course of these, he visited much of Anatolia, probably walking a good deal of the way, accompanied by one or more companions. It has been estimated that St. Paul traveled some 20,000 km on his missionary journeys. A considerable part of this was overland through Anatolia, on Roman roads which followed the ancient routes that trailed the natural river and mountain passes which had been used for military transportation since antiquity. The Romans had began to construct these roads immediately after they established the province of Asia in the 130s BCE and by the time of St. Paul had extended their network covering southern Anatolia as far as Syria proper.
At the time St. Paul traveled on these roads the regular posting stages belonging to the Roman government post were not yet known. The information about the inns of the period is not flattering. They were known to be dirty and dangerous spots. In the apocryphal Acts of St. John, St. John, as he traveled from Ephesus to Laodicea (on the lycus river), when bothered by bed-bugs in the inn where he spent the night, banished them from his room. Nevertheless, next morning he found the insects waiting outside for his permission to return to their dwelling. Ancient literature gives the impression that people preferred, when or where this was possible, to stay at other people’s houses. If they had no acquaintances, arriving in an unknown town, they probably walked to the shrine of their cult, in the case of Jews to the synagogue, or to the market place with the members of their profession or guild, and introducing themselves expected an offer of hospitality. Being of the same country, religion or profession may have increased one’s chance of receiving an invitation. At the time of St. Paul’s journeys some of the synagogues in Anatolia and Greece probably had hostels.
If one, however, remembers what the Apostle preached and how the Jewish communities reacted, St. Paul should not have expected much hospitality from his own race. Acts mentions St. Paul’s overnights at friends’ houses such as at Lydia’s in Philippi (Acts 16: 15) and the tentmakers Aquila and Priscilla’s in Corinth (Acts 18:3), Mnason’s in Jerusalem (Acts 21: 16), and others. This is also expressed by St. Paul himself when he wrote to Philemon of Colossae and asked him to prepare a guest room for him (phlm 22). The period of St. Paul’s travels saw a considerable expansion of Anatolia prosperity and the roads were increasingly used by traders and private travelers.
