Pliny, Letters and Panegyricus, LCL 059: Pliny II, Books 8-10
Translated by Betty Radice
Number of quotes: 8
Book ID: 345 Page: 201/203
Section: 4B
XXIX, PLINY TO THE EMPEROR TRAJANSEMPRONIUS CAELIANUS, who is an excellent young man, has discovered two slaves among his recruits and has sent them to me.{3} I have postponed judgement on them until I could ask your advice on what would be a suitable sentence, knowing that you are the founder and upholder of military discipline. My chief reason for hesitating is the fact that the men had already taken the oath of allegiance but had not yet been enrolled in a unit.{1} I therefore pray you, Sir, to tell me what course to follow, especially as the decision is likely to provide a precedent.
{1} It is uncertain whether these recruits are for legions or auxilia.
{3} No slave could serve in the army in any capacity; the offence was one of seeking citizenship by illegal means and punishable by death.
Quote ID: 7974
Time Periods: 12
Book ID: 345 Page: 203
Section: 4B
XXX, TRAJAN TO PLINYSEMPRONIUS CAELIANUS was carrying out my instructions in sending you the slaves.{2} Whether they deserve capital punishment will need investigation; it is important to know if they were volunteers or conscripts, or possibly offered as substitutes. If they are conscripts, then the blame falls on the recruiting officer; if substitutes, then those who offered them as such are guilty; but if they volunteered for service, well aware of their status, then they will have to be executed. The fact that they were not yet enrolled in a legion makes little difference, for the truth about their origin should have come out on the actual day they were accepted for the army.
{2} Only holders of imperium could conduct a capital trail, so Caelianus could not act himself.
Quote ID: 7975
Time Periods: 12
Book ID: 345 Page: 209
Section: 4B
XXXIV, TRAJAN TO PLINYYou may very well have had the idea that it should be possible to form a company of firemen at Nicomedia on the model of those existing elsewhere, but we must remember that it is societies like those which have been responsible for the political disturbances in your province, particularly in its towns. If people assemble for a common purpose, whatever name we give them and for whatever reason, they soon turn into a political club. It is a better policy then to provide the equipment necessary for dealing with fires, and to instruct property owners to make use of it, calling on the help of the crowds which collect if they find it necessary.
Quote ID: 7976
Time Periods: 12
Book ID: 345 Page: 213
Section: 4B
XXXVIII, TRAJAN TO PLINYSTEPS must be taken to provide Nicomedia with a water supply, and I am sure you will apply yourself to the task in the right way. But for goodness’ sake apply yourself no less to finding out whose fault it is that Nicomedia has wasted so much money up to date. It may be that people have profited by this starting and abandoning of aqueducts. Let me know the result of your inquiry.{1}
{1} This sounds like a personal note from Trajan who has not read Pliny’s letter carefully. Its main point was the request for an engineer.
Quote ID: 7977
Time Periods: 12
Book ID: 345 Page: 233
Section: 4B
LV, TRAJAN TO PLINYNEITHER can I see any other solution myself, my dear Pliny, to the problem of investing public funds, unless the rate of interest on loans is lowered. You can fix the rate yourself, according to the number of potential borrowers. But to force a loan on unwilling persons, who may perhaps have no means of making use of it themselves, is not in accordance with the justice of our times.
Quote ID: 7978
Time Periods: 12
Book ID: 345 Page: 285/287/289/291
Section: 4B
XCVI, PLINY TO THE EMPEROR TRAJAN{2}{2} For this celebrated exchange of letters, see Tertullian,ApologyII. 6-10, and Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. III. 33; for trails of Christians, see Eusebius, IV. 15, V. 1, etc. Note that P. first executes Christians for their contumacia, then has doubts and seeks advice; but the charge is never that of maiestas.
It is my custom to refer all my difficulties to you, Sir, for no one is better able to resolve my doubts and to inform my ignorance.
I have never been present at an examination{3} of Christians.
{3} The term cognitio indicates that this was a formal trail presided over by the holder of imperium, assisted by aconsilium; cf. the court at Centum Cellae, VI. 31.
Consequently, I do not know the nature or the extent of the punishments usually meted out to them, nor the grounds for starting an investigation and how far it should be pressed. Nor am I at all sure whether any distinction should be made between them on the grounds of age, or if young people and adults should be treated alike; whether a pardon ought to be granted to anyone retracting his beliefs, or if he has once professed Christianity, he shall gain nothing by renouncing it; and whether it is the mere name of Christian which is punishable, even if innocent of crime, or rather the crimes associated with the name.{1}
For the moment this is the line I have taken with all persons brought before me on the charge of being Christians. I have asked them in person if they are Christians, and if they admit it, I repeat the question a second and third time, with a warning of the punishment awaiting them. If they persist, I order them to be led away for execution; for, whatever the nature of their admission, I am convinced that their stubbornness and unshakeable obstinacy ought not to go unpunished. There have been others similarly fanatical who are Roman citizens. I have entered them all on the list of persons to be sent to Rome for trail.{2}
{1} Action taken by the Romans against foreign cults was usually directed against their associated flagitia, Pliny’s concern is with what the Christian apologists called accusatio nominis, i.e. membership of the cult, approved by Trajan in his reply. See S-W. Appendix V, pp. 772 ff.
{2} It is not clear whether P. was obliged to do this, whether or not those charged had (like St. Paul) exercised their right to appeal (provocation), but it was probably the custom to do so.
Now that I have begun to deal with this problem, as so often happens, the charges are becoming more widespread and increasing in variety. An anonymous pamphlet has been circulated which contains the names of a number of accused persons. Among these I considered that I should dismiss any who denied that they were or ever had been Christians when they had repeated after me a formula of invocation to the gods and had made offerings of wine and incense to your statue (which I had ordered to be brought into court for this purpose along with the images of the gods), and furthermore had reviled the name of Christ: none of which things, I understand, and any genuine Christian can be induced to.
Others, whose names were given to me by an informer, first admitted the charge and then denied it; they said that they had ceased to be Christians two or more years previously, and some of them even twenty years ago. They all did reverence to your statue and the images of the gods in the same way as the others, and reviled the name of Christ. They also declared that the sum total of their guilt or error amounted to no more than this:{1} they had met regularly before dawn on a fixed day to chant verses alternately among themselves in honour of Christ as if to a god, and also to bind themselves by oath, not for any criminal purpose, but to abstain from theft, robbery and adultery, to commit no breach of trust and not to deny a deposit when called upon to restore it. After this ceremony it had been their custom to disperse and reassemble later to take food of an ordinary, harmless kind; but they had in fact given up this practice since my edict, issued on your instructions, which banned all political societies. This made me decide it was all the more necessary to extract the truth by torture from two slave-women, whom they call deaconesses. I found nothing but a degenerate sort of cult carried to extravagant lengths.
{1} For a full discussion on this evidence for the services of the early Church, see S-W, pp. 702 ff. The morning service seems to be one of prayer and reading, the evening one the combined Eucharist and Agape. It is the latter which comes under the ban oncollegia (cf. X. 34).
I have therefore postponed any further examination and hastened to consult you. The question seems to me to be worthy of your consideration, especially in view of the number of persons endangered; for a great many individuals of every age and class, both men and women, are being brought to trail, and this is likely to continue. It is not only the towns, but villages and rural districts too which are infected through contact with this wretched cult. I think though that it is still possible for it to be checked and directed to better ends, for there is no doubt that people have begun to throng the temples which had been almost entirely deserted for a long time; the sacred rites which had been allowed to lapse are being performed again, and flesh of sacrificial victims is on sale everywhere, though up till recently scarcely anyone could be found to buy it. It is easy to infer from this that a great many people could be reformed if they were given an opportunity to repent.
Quote ID: 7979
Time Periods: 12
Book ID: 345 Page: 291/293
Section: 4B
XCVII, TRAJAN TO PLINYYOU have followed the right course of procedure, my dear Pliny, in your examination of the cases of persons charged with being Christians, for it is impossible to lay down a general rule to a fixed formula. These people must not be hunted out; if they are brought before you and the charge against them is proved, they must be punished,{1} but in the case of anyone who denies that he is a Christian, and makes it clear that he is not by offering prayers to our gods, he is to be pardoned as a result of his repentance however suspect has past conduct may be. But pamphlets circulated anonymously must play no part in any accusation. They create the worst sort of precedent and are quite out of keeping with the spirit of our age.
{1}i.e. the charges must be properly made against individuals by delatio and a trail held before the governor. There are to be no mass prosecutions. Note that Trajan never answers Pliny’s original question on the extent of punishments.
Quote ID: 7980
Time Periods: 12
Book ID: 345 Page: 295
Section: 4B
CII, PLINY TO THE EMPEROR TRAJANWE have celebrated with due solemnity the day{2} on which the security of the human race was happily transferred to your care, commending our public vows and thanksgiving to the gods to whom we owe your authority.
{2} 28 January; cf. Ep.52.
Quote ID: 7981
Time Periods: 12
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