“I have learned that your way of thinking is blameless and unwavering in endurance, not by force of habit but by your very nature, just as Polybius, your bishop, showed me. He arrived in Smyrna by the will of God and Jesus Christ, and so rejoiced together with me, who am in chains in Jesus Christ, so that I saw your entire congregation in him. I was exultant when I received your act of godly kindness through him, for I found that you were imitators of God, as I had known.”
Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, while under Roman guard in Smyrna en route to Rome for his martyrdom during the reign of Trajan (98-117), was visited by Polybius, Bishop of Tralles of Asia. Polybius ministered refreshment to Ignatius on behalf of his congregation. In response Ignatius wrote To The Trallians, and this excerpt is from 1.1-2.3.