Magnesia is a small town a few miles from Ephesus.

It has given its name to the magical rocks that could either attract or repel each other -- "magnets".

The river has also given its name to the loops formed in the lower course of a river -- the River Meander.

A problem at Magnesia was that the bishop was young and inexperienced; some members of the church had taken to ignoring him and holding meetings independently. As might be expected, this was denounced by Ignatius, who, he thinks, should see the bishop as one standing in the place of God.

An odd slip of the pen has Jesus being _born_ under the governemnt of Pontius Pilate; even taking the view that the Lukan nativity story implies his birth in 6 CE, the governor then would be Coponius, some thirty years before Pilate.

Verse 9:1 is sometimes quoted as the first evidence for Christians observing Sunday rather than the Sabbath, but this turns on a point of translation (www.cogwriter.com/ignatius.htm)