Pliny, Letters 10.96-97

Translated by J. B. Firth

Pliny the Younger (60–113 CE, named so to distinguish him from his uncle, an author and scholar commonly

referred to Pliny the Elder) was a prominent person in Roman public life in the end of the 1st century CE and the

beginning of the 2nd century CE. Throughout his life he wrote hundreds of letters, from which we can learn a great

deal about Roman society and politics during those years. The letters that he wrote (and usually also the response

letters that he got back) were arranged in a collection of ten books, probably by Pliny himself. These books were then

copied multiple times throughout the centuries by people interested in Roman history. This is why we are still able

to read them today.

In the year 111 CE Pliny became governor of the Roman province Bithynia (today in northwest Turkey). During his

time there he wrote many letters to the emperor Trajan (Roman emperor between 98–117 CE) to consult with him

about various administrative matters. In the letter below, Pliny asks Trajan how to deal with a problem he is facing

for the first time: Christians. This is the earliest Roman document that mentions Christians and how the Roman

empire dealt with them, and so it is of great historical importance.

Pliny’s letter to the Emperor Trajan

It is my custom, Sir, to refer to you in all cases where I do not feel sure, for who can better direct

my doubts or inform my ignorance? I have never been present at any legal examination of

the Christians, and I do not know, therefore, what are the usual penalties passed upon them, or

the limits of those penalties, or how an inquiry should be made. I have hesitated a great deal in

considering whether any distinctions should be drawn according to the ages of the accused;

whether the weak should be punished as severely as the more robust; whether if they renounce

their faith they should be pardoned, or whether the man who has once been a Christian should

gain nothing by recanting; whether the name “Christian” itself, even though otherwise innocent

of crime, should be punished, or only the crimes that gather round it.

In the meantime, this is the plan which I have adopted in the case of those Christians who

have been brought before me. I ask them whether they are Christians; if they say yes, then I

repeat the question a second and a third time, warning them of the penalties it entails, and if

they still persist, I order them to be taken away to prison. For I do not doubt that, whatever the

character of the crime may be that which they confess, their pertinacity and inflexible obstinacy

certainly ought to be punished. There were others who showed similar mad folly whom I

reserved to be sent to Rome, as they were Roman citizens. Subsequently, as is usually the way,

the very fact of my taking up this question led to a great increase of accusations, and a variety of

cases were brought before me. A pamphlet was issued anonymously, containing the names of a

number of people. Those who denied that they were or had been Christians and called upon the

gods in the usual formula, reciting the words after me, those who offered incense and wine

before your image, which I had given orders to be brought forward for this purpose, together

with the statues of the deities – all such I considered should be discharged, especially as they

cursed the name of Christ, which, it is said, those who are really Christians cannot be induced to

do. Others, whose names were given me by an informer, first said that they were Christians and

afterwards denied it, declaring that they had been but were so no longer, some of them having

recanted many years before, and more than one so long as twenty years back. They all

worshipped your image and the statues of the deities, and cursed the name of Christ. But they

declared that the sum of their guilt or their error only amounted to this, that on a stated day

they had been accustomed to meet before daybreak and to recite a hymn among themselves to

Christ, as though he were a god, and that so far from binding themselves by oath to commit any

crime, their oath was to abstain from theft, robbery, adultery, and from breach of faith, and not

to deny trust money placed in their keeping when called upon to deliver it. When this ceremony

was concluded, it had been their custom to depart and meet again to take food, but it was of no

special character and quite harmless, and they had ceased this practice after the edict in which,

in accordance with your orders, I had forbidden all secret societies. I thought it the more

necessary, therefore, to find out what truth there was in these statements by submitting two

women, who were called deaconesses, to the torture, but I found nothing but a debased

superstition carried to great lengths. So I postponed my examination, and immediately

consulted you.

The matter seems to me worthy of your consideration, especially as there are so many

people involved in the danger. Many persons of all ages, and of both sexes alike, are being

brought into peril of their lives by their accusers, and the process will go on. For the contagion

of this superstition has spread not only through the free cities, but into the villages and the rural

districts, and yet it seems to me that it can be checked and set right. It is beyond doubt that the

temples, which have been almost deserted, are beginning again to be thronged with

worshippers, that the sacred rites which have for a long time been allowed to lapse are now

being renewed, and that the food for the sacrificial victims is once more finding a sale, whereas,

up to recently, a buyer was hardly to be found. From this it is easy to infer what vast numbers

of people might be reclaimed, if only they were given an opportunity of repentance.

Trajan’s response to Pliny

You have adopted the proper course, my dear Pliny, in examining into the cases of those who

have been denounced to you as Christians, for no hard and fast rule can be laid down to meet a

question of such wide extent. The Christians are not to be hunted out ; if they are brought before

you and the offence is proved, they are to be punished, but with this reservation – that if any

one denies that he is a Christian and makes it clear that he is not, by offering prayers to our

deities, then he is to be pardoned because of his recantation, however suspicious his past

conduct may have been. But pamphlets published anonymously must not carry any weight

whatsoever, no matter what the charge may be, for they are not only a precedent of the very

worst type, but they are not in consonance with the spirit of our age.