As bearers of these letters Tychicus and Onesimus set out for Asia Minor. But Tychicus was charged with another letter, the Epistle to the Ephesians, either addressed to the Christians in the capital of proconsular Asia, or intended as a circular letter for the use of the various churches in that province[1161]. In this Epistle, the thoughts and language of which betray a very considerable resemblance to those employed in that to the Colossians, the Apostle, after a summary (chiefly in the form of thanksgiving) of the Christian doctrines (Eph. i.‒iii. 19), exhorted the Ephesians to unity (Eph. iv. 1–16), the abstinence from heathen vices (Eph. iv. 17‒v. 21), the faithful discharge of their domestic duties as wives and husbands, children and parents, servants and masters (Eph. v. 22‒vi. 9), and urged them, amidst surrounding dangers and temptations, to be vigilant, and to array themselves in the whole panoply[1162] of God (Eph. vi. 10–20). After the dispatch of these three letters in the spring of A.D. 62, the Apostle’s heart was cheered by the arrival of a contribution from the Philippians, brought by Epaphroditus, a leading presbyter in that church. Though apparently in ill-health when he set out, he had, in the face of some unusual danger, persevered in his journey (Phil. ii. 30), in order that he might present to the Apostle this fresh proof of the noble liberality of the church over which he presided. Till the close of the year A.D. 62, or the commencement of A.D. 63, Epaphroditus continued at Rome, and while tendering his services to the Apostle fell dangerously ill. Subsequently, however, he fully recovered, and was filled with anxiety to return to his friends at Philippi, who he learnt were in much distress on receiving intelligence of his sickness (Phil. ii. 26). St Paul was also himself anxious that he should return (Phil. ii. 25, 28), and resolved to make him the bearer of a letter to the Philippian church in acknowledgment of the kindness he had experienced from its members. His own circumstances were somewhat changed since he wrote to the Colossians and Ephesians. Though what had befallen him had tended rather to the furtherance than hindrance of the message he proclaimed, and his chains had become _well-known throughout the whole prætorium_[1163] (Phil. i. 12, 13); though also by the energy of the Apostle himself and of many of the brethren no little impression had been made on the masses of heathendom in the city (Phil. i. 14–18); yet the course of political events was sufficient to excite considerable apprehension. The virtuous Burrhus was dead[1164], and had been succeeded in the command of the prætorian guards by Fenius Rufus and Sofonius Tigellinus, the former a man of no capacity, the latter notorious for determined wickedness. About the same time also Nero contracted an alliance with the infamous Poppæa[1165], a Jewish proselytess, whose influence over the emperor