b

sury of Saturn; which trust seems to have been conferred on him jointly by Nerva and Trajan. He was consul in the third year of the reign of Trajan, in the year of our Lord 100; when he pronounced his celebrated panegyric upon that emperor. He was also augur, and for a while governor of Pontus and Bithynia. It is very probable that he did not survive Trajan, who died on the tenth of August, in the year 117. It is more reasonable to think that he died several years before him; forasmuch as there is nothing extant, either in his epistles, or elsewhere, that should induce us to think he lived long after his provincial government.

e

Pliny had not the title of proconsul, but was sent into the province by the emperor, as his lieutenant and proprætor, with proconsular power; as appears from some ancient inscriptions still remaining.

But learned men are divided about the time of his government, and consequently of his letter to Trajan, which must be alleged presently. The great Joseph Scaligers acknowledged the difficulty of this point.

Some think he went into the province in the year 101, and that the persecution which the christians underwent in his time, happened in the year 103. Others suppose that he got into the province in the latter part of the year 103, and left it in the summer of 105, staying there about eighteen months; which term of his government is generally agreed to. Basnage and cardinal Noris were inclined to

b Ut primum me, Domine, indulgentiâ VESTRA promovit ad præfecturam ærarii Saturni. Lib. x. ep. 20.

Sed primum meâ, deinde patris tui valetudine, postea curis delegati a vOBIS officii, retentus, &c. Ib. ep. 24. c Nondum biennium compleramus in officio laboriosissimo et maximo, quum tu nobis, optime principum,— consulatum obtulisti. Paneg. cap. 91. d Vid. Ep. L. x. ep. 109,

et 113.

f

e

Pagi Anno. 117. num. vi. Basnag. ann. 117. num. ii. C. PLINIUS

CECILIUS SECUNDUS

COS. AUGUR. LEGAT. PRO. PRÆT.

PROVINC. PONTI. CONSULARI. PO

TESTATE. IN. EAM. PROVINCIAM. AB.

IMP. CÆSARE. NERVA TRAIANO
AUG. GERMANICO. MISSUS.

Ap. Gruter. p. 454. 3. Et Conf. p. 1028.
h That

¤ Vid. ejus Animadvertiones in Euseb. Chron. p. 207. was the opinion of James La Baune, editor of the ancient Panegyrists in usum Delphini. De Vitâ Plinii. It was likewise the opinion of Mr. Dodwell. Missus est in provinciam Bithyniam anno sequente, CI.-Ita inciderit persecutio illa Plinii in annum Domini, CIII. accuratissime. Dodw. Diss. Iren. i. § xvi. So Tillemont. Persécution de l'Eglise sous Trajan. art. iv. Hist. des Emp. Tom. 2. Which was also the opinion of J. Masson, de Vitâ Plin. Jun. A. c. p. 129, &c.

k

think that Pliny went thither in the year 109, and left it in 111. Pagi's computation makes it still later; for he says that Pliny did not enter into the province before the year 110. Le Clerc, in his Ecclesiastical History of the first two centuries, follows Pagi, placing Pliny's letter concerning the christians in the year 111.

In order to form a judgment concerning this point, some things may be observed by us. In the first place it is generally allowed that the emperor Trajan was at Rome all the time that Pliny was in the province; which appears to be very evident from his letters written to Trajan in that space. This does not favour the early date of Pliny's governments; for at that time Trajan must have been engaged in the Dacian wars. Secondly, another thing, which much weakens the supposition of that early date, is this: Pliny was consul in the year of our Lord 100; but he did not go into his province the year after; several years passed between his consulship and his provincial government; as has been shown by divers learned men.

n

Nevertheless I do not see sufficient reason to defer his government so long as some have done. And I am inclined to think that Pliny was sent into the province in the year 106, and left it in 108. I see no good reason to believe that Trajan was absent from Rome in that space of time. The Dacian wars, and the two triumphs for them," might be over by the end of the year 105, or the middle of 106.

We can perceive from Pliny's panegyric, pronounced in the beginning of September, in the year 100, that? the war against the Dacians was even then designed by Trajan, and that, probably, preparations were then making for it.

k Currente anno injunctam esse Plinio Bithyniæ legationem, cum eruditissimo Norisio, probabilissimum existimamus. Basn. Ann. 109. num. ii.

1 Plinius igitur anno Christi centesimo decimo Bithyniam intravit. Pagi Crit. in Baron. ann. 102. num. vi. m Tandem supponendum, per totum illud temporis spatium, quo noster in provinciâ moratus est, Trajanum Romæ egisse. Quod certum ex lib. x. ep. 13, 14, 15, &c. Masson ubi supra. Cæterum recte Loydio observatum, totum illud tempus Trajanum Romæ egisse, quo Plinius in Bithyniâ fuit. Pagi ann. 102. num. viii. Vid. et Basnag. ann. 107. num. iii. n Vid. Pagi Crit. in Baron. ann. 102. n. vii. viii. Basnag. ann. 109. num. ii. Optime facis, quod bellum Dacium scribere paras. Nam quæ tam recens, tam copiosa, tam lata, quæ denique tam poetica materia? Dices immissa terris nova flumina, novos pontes fluminibus injectos-pulsum regiâ, pulsum etiam vitâ, regem nihil desperantem. Super hæc, actos bis triumphos; quorum alter ex invità gente primus, alter novissimus fuit. Plin. ad Caninium. Ep. 4. L. 8. Conf. Dion. Cass. 1. 68. p. 1123— 1133. ed. Reimar. P Quod si quis barbarus rex eo insolentiæ furorisque processerit, ut iram tuam indignationemque mereatur, næ ille, sive interfuso mari, seu fluminibus immensis, seu præcipiti monte defenditur, omnia hæc tam prona, tamque cedentia virtutibus tuis sentiet, ut subsedisse montes,

S

The Dacian wars began in that same year, or in the following, and lasted five years. They ended therefore in the year 105, or the beginning of 106.

In the year 102, Trajan obtained a signal, though difficult, victory over the Dacians, and triumphed at Rome upon that account in the year 103: of this there is fullt proof. The first war therefore was completed" in two years. The second could not last much longer.

V

After these wars Trajan staid a long while at Rome. For, though some learned men have thought otherwise, it seems to me to have been well shown by Pagi, and Basnage, that Trajan did not go into the East before the year 112. During that stay at Rome he received the solemn embassies of divers eastern princes, raised many new buildings, and repaired others, built his forum, and erected the famous column, which was not finished and dedicated before the year 112 or 113.

What has been already said must be sufficient to render it probable that Trajan was at Rome in the year 107, and afterwards.

Another argument for the time of Pliny's government offers itself here from the martyrdom of Ignatius, which must be supposed to have some connection with the rescript of Trajan, to be produced hereafter, and which cannot be removed from the tenth of Trajan, and the hundred and seventh of our Lord, where it is placed by Eusebius in his chronicle, and by Jerom in the chapter of Ignatius, in his Book of Illustrious Men. Eusebius could not be mistaken about the time of the martyrdom of a bishop of a city so near his own.

And by the Acts of Ignatius, which we have, his martyr

S

flumina exaruisse, interceptum mare, illatasque sibi non esse classes nostras, sed terras ipsas, arbitretur. Paneg. cap. 16. 1 Primum ab octobri mense. A. U. C. 853 [A. D. 100] usque ad finem anni 855 duravit, triumpho acto sequenti anno 856. Reimar. ad Dion. 1180. • Anno præterito Trajanus expeditionem in Dacos susceperat, in quo magna quidem cædes hostium facta, multo tamen sanguine Romanorum victoria constitit. Basnag. ann. 102. ii. Vid. et. Ann. 101. i. Επραχθη δε μοι το έργον T8TO EV EVIAUTOIS ELOW TO TEVTE. Trajan. ap. Julian. Cæs. p. 327. D. ed. Spanheim. * Trajanus hoc anno e Daciâ Romam redux de Decebalo Dacorum rege triumphavit, ut certum facit nummus a Card. Norisio in Epistolâ Consulari ex Thesauro Mediceo productus. Pagi ann. 103. viii. et Basn. ann. 103. i. u Quare biennium in id insumtum, Reimar. ad Dion. w Ann. 107.

p. 1130.

iii. et 112. ii. iii.

t

▾ Ann. 105. ii. iii. et 112. iii.

X

* Pagi ann. 104. ii. 113. i. Basn. ann. 113. i. y Ejus certum tempus habemus in Actis Ignatii, Consulatum Suræ et Senesionis, annum Domini cvII. Dodw. Diss. Cypr. xi. sect. 18. Vid. et Basnag. ann. 107. v.-viii. And the Credibility, &c. Vol. ii. p. 77.

dom is placed in the time of Sura and Senecio, who were consuls in the tenth of Trajan, and the year of Christ 107.

Those Acts indeed are not sincere and incorrupt, nor, perhaps, of the highest antiquity. In them it is supposed that Ignatius was condemned at Antioch by Trajan in person, and sent by him to Rome; which is inconsistent with the just mentioned consulship: at which time Trajan was not at Antioch, as was before shown. Nor does Eusebius, or Jerom after him, say any thing of Ignatius having been condemned by Trajan himself; a remarkable circumstance, which, if true, could not have been omitted by writers, who have enlarged so much in their accounts of this bishop and martyr. Moreover, if Trajan had been at Antioch, Ignatius would have suffered in that city. His being sent to Rome is an argument that Trajan was there. So now, as we shall see presently, Pliny having some christians brought before him, who were citizens, he sent them to Rome, where Trajan certainly was at that time. And that Trajan was at Rome, when Ignatius suffered there, is expressly said by a christian writer of the ninth century. Pliny, then, was sent from Rome in the summer of the year 106. He went by the way of Ephesus, and arrived in Bithyniac on the eighteenth of September, which was the genuine, or natural birthday of Trajan. He seems also in one of his epistles to speak of the same birthday in another year. Whilst he was in the province he twice celebrated the day of Trajan's accession, or the anniversary of his empire. The first time may have been on the 27th of January, in the year 107; the next, or second, on the same day of January, in the year 108. It is likely that he did not leave the province before the summer of that year. Consequently

d

b

a

z Nos vero sententiæ sumus ejusmodi, post Eusebium nata esse Acta hæc Ignatii. Basnag. Ann. 107. viii. a Quod si audiatur Ado, Romæ adfuit Trajanus, cum excessit Ignatius, ut legitur in libello de Festivitatibus Apostolorum. Basnag. ann. 107. viii. b Vid. 1. x. ep. 26. et 28.

C

c Rursus, quum transissem in orarias naviculas, contrariis ventis retentus, aliquanto tardius quam speraveram, id est, xv. Calend. Octobris, Bithyniam intravi. Non possum tamen de morâ queri, cum mihi contigerit, quod erat auspicatissimum, natalem tuum in provinciâ celebrare. L. x. ep. 28.

-diem illum, triplici gaudio lætum, qui principem abstulit pessimum, dedit optimum, meliorem optimo genuit. Paneg. cap. 92. a Opto, Domine, et hunc natalem, et plurimos alios, quam felicissimos agas. L. x. ep. 89. Vid. et ep. 90. e Diem, Domine, quo servâsti imperium, dum

suscipis, quantâ mereris lætitià celebravimus, &c. L. x. ep. 60.

Quantâ religione ac lætitiâ commilitones cum provincialibus, te præeunte, diem imperii mei celebraverint, libenter, mi Secunde carissime, cognovi ex literis tuis. Ep. 61. Vid. et ep. 103, et 104.

he was there eighteen months, or longer. According to this computation, Pliny's letter to Trajan, concerning the christians, was written in 107, and the emperor's rescript, or answer to it, in the same year.

6

II. The letter of Pliny is in these words.

Pliny to the emperor Trajan wisheth health and happi

ness.

in

Its is my constant custom, Sir, to refer myself to you 'all matters concerning which I have any doubt. For who can better direct me where I hesitate, or instruct me where I am ignorant? I have never been present at any trials of

6

6

f C. Plinius Trajano Imp. S. Lib. x. ep. xcvii.

5 Solenne est mihi, Domine, omnia, de quibus dubito, ad te referre. Quis enim potest melius vel cunctationem meam regere, vel ignorantiam instruere ? Cognationibus christianorum interfui nunquam. Ideo nescio quid et quâtenus aut puniri soleat, aut quæri. Nec mediocriter hæsitavi, sitne aliquod discrimen ætatum, an quamlibet teneri nihil a robustioribus differant: deturne pœnitentiæ venia, an ei qui omnino christianus fuit, desiisse non prosit: nomen ipsum, etiamsi flagitiis careat, an flagitia cohærentia nomini puniantur. Interim in iis qui ad me tamquam christiani deferebantur, hunc sum secutus modum. Interrogavi ipsos, an essent christiani. Confitentes iterum ac tertio interrogavi, supplicium minatus: perseverantes duci jussi. Neque enim dubitabam qualecunque esset quod faterenter, pervicaciam certe, et inflexibilem obstinationem, debere puniri. Fuerunt alii similis amentiæ; quos, quia cives Romani erant, annotavi in Urbem remittendos. Mox ipso tractu, [al. tractatu] ut fieri solet, diffundente se crimine, plures species inciderunt. Propositus est libellus sine auctore, multorum nomina continens, qui negârunt se esse christianos, aut fuisse, quum præeunte me, Deos appellarent, et imagini tuæ, quam propter hoc jusseram cum simulacris numinum afferri, vino ac thure sacrificarent, præterea maledicerent Christo; quorum nihil cogi posse dicuntur, qui sunt revera christiani. Ergo dimittendos putavi. Alii ab indice nominati, esse se christianos dixerunt, et mox negaverunt: fuisse quidem, sed desiisse, quidam ante triennium, quidam ante plures annos, non nemo etiam ante viginti quoque. Omnes et imaginem tuam, Deorumque simulacra, venerati sunt. Îi et Christo maledixerunt. Affirmabant autem, hanc fuisse summam vel culpæ suæ, vel erroris, quod essent soliti stato die ante lucem convenire, carmenque Christo, quasi Deo, dicere secum invicem; seque sacramento non in scelus aliquod obstringere, sed ne furta, ne latrocinia, ne adulteria committerent, ne fidem fallerent, ne depositum appellati abnegarent: quibus peractis, morem sibi discedendi fuisse, rursusque coeundi ad capiendum cibum, promiscuum tamen, et innoxium; quod et ipsum facere desiisse post edictum meum, quo secundum mandata tua hetarias esse vetueram. Quo magis necessarium credidi, ex duabus ancillis, quæ ministræ dicebantur, quid esset veri et per tormenta quærere. Sed nihil aliud inveni, quam superstitionem pravam et immodicam. Ideoque dilatâ cognitione ad consulendum te decurri. Visa est enim mihi res digna consultatione, maxime propter periclitantium numerum. Multi enim omnis ætatis, utriusque sexûs etiam, vocantur in periculum, et vocabuntur. Neque enim civitates tantum, sed vicos etiam et agros superstitionis istius contagio pervagata est. Quæ videtur sisti et corrigi posse. Certe satis constat, prope etiam desolata templa cœpisse celebrari, et sacra solennia diu intermissa repeti; passimque vænire victimas, quarum adhuc rarissimus emptor inveniebatur. Ex quo facile est opinari, quæ turba hominum emendari possit, si sit pœnitentiæ locus.