PART III
CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN PLINY AND TRAJAN
PLINY'S LETTER TO TRAJAN AND THE EMPEROR'S
"RESCRIPT"—GENUINENESS OF CORRESPONDENCE
Introductory
A flood of light is poured upon the early history of
Christianity in the correspondence which passed between
the Emperor Trajan and his friend and minister Pliny
the Younger, who had been appointed to the governorship[1] of
Bithynia and Pontus,the district lying in the north of Asia Minor.
The letter of Pliny, containing his report of the trial and inquiry into the matter of the accused Christians of his province, and asking for direction, was written to the Emperor Trajan in the autumn of A.D. 111; and the reply of Trajan, which contained the famous rescript concerning the Christian sect—an ordinance which regulated the action of the government of Rome towards the disciples of Jesus for many long years—was dispatched a few months later.
The correspondence was quoted and commented upon at some length by the Latin Father Tertullian before the close of the second century. Eusebius again refers to it, translating the quotations of Tertullian from a Greek version of the celebrated Christian Father.[2]
- ↑ The full official title of Pliny the Younger in this governorship was "Legatus proprætore provinciæ Ponti et Bithyniæ consulari potestate." That eminent statesman was entrusted with this province mainly on account of its needing special attention at that time.
- ↑ Tertullian, Apologeticum, 2; Eusebius, H. E. III. xxxii. 33.
