On the silence of 2century apologists

[MrMacSon]

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One really good reason for [Paul] being in the areas that he was (Greece, Macedonia, Asia Minor, Illyricum), that I can see, would have been him being part of the conflicts taking place there in the 1st century BCE.

What conflicts in those areas, if you don't mind me asking?

AFAIK Paul is the only one in the NT that uses military imagery and refers to others as "fellow solders", that and the fact that he writes to and mentions three places that are Roman military veteran colonies begun just after those conflicts.

If he was part of the conflicts in that area and time, then the three cities, Corinth, Philippi, and Troyas, could have been where his war buddies now lived ...

What war buddies?

[Jax]

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One really good reason for [Paul] being in the areas that he was (Greece, Macedonia, Asia Minor, Illyricum), that I can see, would have been him being part of the conflicts taking place there in the 1st century BCE.

What conflicts in those areas, if you don't mind me asking?

AFAIK Paul is the only one in the NT that uses military imagery and refers to others as "fellow solders", that and the fact that he writes to and mentions three places that are Roman military veteran colonies begun just after those conflicts.

If he was part of the conflicts in that area and time, then the three cities, Corinth, Philippi, and Troyas, could have been where his war buddies now lived ...

What war buddies?

Three wars that stand out in the areas of Greece and Macedonia in the mid to later half of the 1st century BCE are the civil war of Julius Caesar and the battle at Pharsalus in 48 BCE, the Liberators war between Brutus and Cassius and Octavian and Mark Antony with the battle at Philippi in 43-42 BCE, and finally the civil war between Octavian and Antony at Actium in 31 BCE.

I consider it possible that Paul was part of an auxiliary unit attached to a Roman force during at least one of these conflicts. It would seem to help make sense of the data.

Julius Caesar refounded Corinth in 44 BCE with retired soldiers and Troyas and Philippi were colonized by the retired soldiers of Octavian between Philippi in 42 BCE and after Actium in 31 BCE.