How to Live Forever

С. PLINI CAECILI SECUNDI

EPISTULARUM LIBER

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Text And Notes:

I. Gratulatoria ob imperium [I]

II. Gratias agit [II]

III A. De Sortitione patrocinii adversus Marium Priscum [III]

(also III B. Trajan’s reply)

IV. Petit latum clavum amico [IV]

V. Civitatem Romanam Harpocrati iatraliptae suo petit  [V]

VI. Agit gratias [VI]

VII. Trajan’s reply [VII]

VIII. De statuis principum in municipium transferendis [VIII]

IX. Trajan’s reply [IX]

X. Impetratae civitatis Alexandrinorum pro Harpocrate gaudium [X]

XI. Medici sui propinquis civitatem petit [XI]

XII. Praeturam amico petit [XII]

XIII. Sacerdotium sibi petit [XIII]

XIV. Gratulatoria ob victoriam [XIV]

XV. De itinere suo in Bithyniam [XV]

XVI. Trajan’s reply [XVI]

XVII A. In Bithyniam se venisse scribit [XVII]

(also XVIIB. A postscript )

XVIII. Trajan’s reply [XVIII]

XIX. Decustodiis [XIX]

XX. Trajan’s reply [XX]

XXI. De numero militum Gabio Basso praefecto adsignatorum [XXI]

XXII. Trajan’s reply [XXII]

XXIII. De balineo Prusensium [XXIII]

XXIV. Trajan’s reply [XXIV]

XXV. De adventu Servilii [XXV]

XXVI. Pro Rosiano Gemino [XXVI]

XXVII. De militibus Maximo procuratori adsignandis [XXVII]

XXVIII. Trajan’s reply [XXVIII]

XXIX. De servis inter tirones inventis [XXIX]

XXX. Trajan’s reply [XXX]

XXXI. De iis qui ex damnatione servi publici essent [XXXI]

XXXII. Trajan’s reply [XXXII]

XXXIII. De collegio fabrorum Nicomedensium instituendo [XXXIII]

XXXIV. Trajan’s reply [XXXIV]

XXXV. Votorum nuncupatio [XXXV]

XXXVI. Trajan’s reply

XXXVII. De aquae ductu Nicomedensium

XXXVIII. Trajan’s reply

XXXIX. De theatro Nicensium

XL. Trajan’s reply

XLI. De lacu Nicomedensium

XLII. Trajan’s reply

XLIII. De Byzantiorum inpendiis

XLIV. Trajan’s reply

XLV. De diplomatibus

XLVI. Trajan’s reply

XLVII. De privilegio Apameoriim

XLVIII. Trajan’s reply

XLIX. De religioso templo transferendo

L. Trajan’s reply

LI. Gratias agentis

LII. Ad diem imperii

LIII. Trajan’s reply

LIV. De pecunia fenoris

LV. Trajan’s reply

LVI. Consultatio super restitutione exulis

LVII. Trajan’s reply

LVIII. De Archippo philosopho

LIX. De eodem Archippo

LX. Trajan’s reply

LXI. De lacu Nicomedensium

LXII. Trajan’s reply

LXIII. De tabellario regis Sauromatae

LXIV. Diploma commodasse

LXV. De adsertione ingenuorum qui servi educati sunt

LXVI. Trajan’s reply

LXVII. De legato regis

LXVIII. De reliquiis sepultorum transferendis

LXIX. Trajan’s reply

LXX. De loco balinei Prusensibus concedendo

LXXI. Trajan’s reply

LXXII. De adsertione ingenuorum

LXXIII. Trajan’s reply

LXXIV. De Callidromo Laberii Maximi fugitivo

LXXV. De testamento Largi

LXXVI. Trajan’s reply

LXXVII. De centurione luliopolim mittendo

LXXVIII. Trajan’s reply

LXXIX. De magistratibus provincialium

LXXX. Trajan’s reply

LXXXI. De Dione qui reliquias suorum religioso loco posuisset

LXXXII. Trajan’s reply

LXXXIII. De Nicaeensibus

LXXXIV. Trajan’s reply

LXXXV. Commendat Maximum, libertum

LXXXVI A and B. Commendat Gabium Bassum et Fabium Valentem

LXXXVII. Commendat Nymphidium Lupum

LXXXVIII. Ob diem natalem

LXXXIX. Trajan’s reply

XC. De aqua Smopensium perducenda

XCI. Trajan’s reply

XCII. De petitione Amisenorum

XCIII. Trajan’s reply

XCIV. Ius trium liberorum amico petit

XCV. Trajan’s reply

XCVI. De Christianis

XCVII. Trajan’s reply

XCVIII. De platea Amastrianorum

XCIX. Trajan’s reply

С. Votorum nuncupatio

CI. Trajan’s reply

СИ. Ob diem imperii

CIII. Trajan’s reply

CIV. Ius Quiritium Latinis suis petit

CV. Trajan’s reply

CVI. Civitatem Romanam petit filiae centurionis

CVII. Trajan’s reply

CVIII. De exactione pecuniarum

CIX. Trajan’s reply

CX. De Iulio Pisone

CXI. Trajan’s reply

CXII. De adiectione buleutarum

CXIII. Trajan’s reply

CXIV. De adiectione civium

CXV. Trajan’s reply

CXVI. De divisione sportularum

CXVII. Trajan’s reply

CXVIII. De Iselasticis

CXIX. Trajan’s reply

CXX. De diplomatibus

CXXI. Trajan’s reply

---

[I]

Gratulatoria ob Imperium

C. PLINIUS TRAIANO IMPERATORI

¹Tua quidem pietas, imperator sanctissime, optaverat ut quam tardissime succederes patri ; sed dii immortales festinaverunt virtutes tuas ad gubernacula rei publicae quam susceperas admovere. ² Precor ergo ut tibi et per te generi humano prospera omnia, id est digna saeculo tuo contingant. Fortem te et hilarem, imperator optime, et privatim et publice opto.

§ 1. Contrary to your own filial wishes, Heaven has seen fit to put the empire into your hands. § 2. I pray that your reign may be marked by prosperity to yourself and to the world at large. As an individual and a citizen, I wish you strength and happiness.

Nerva died on Jan. 28, 98 A. D. Trajan had been adopted on Oct. 27 of the previous year whilst still legatus pro praetore Germaniae superioris. Dio Cass. 68, 3; Aur. Vict. Caes. c. 13; Plin. Panegyr. 8. The news of the death of Nerva was announced to him at Colonia Agrippinensis (Köln), where he was regulating the affairs of Germania Inferior. As Trajan did not return to Rome till towards the close of 99, this letter must have been sent to Germany. It was written at Rome, where Pliny was praefectus aerarii Saturni. See on Ep. 3.

§ 1. tua quidem pietas. Antoninus Pius is said to have received his cognomen from the respect he paid to Hadrian’s memory, in whose honour he instituted a festival named ‘Pialia.’ It afterwards became one of the regular titles of the emperors, while ‘Pietas Augusti’ frequently appears on coins. Cf. the phrase on funeral inscr. ‘ex pietate.’

sanctissime. As an epithet implying high moral character, see Ep. iii 3, 1 ; i 12, 5; iv 17. 4; infra, 3, 3. As a peculiar title of honour given to the emperors, see Ov. Fast. ii 127. ‘Sancte pater patriae.’ Mart. v  6, 8, ‘intra limina sanctioris aulae.’ At the root of both lies the idea of inviolability. So the tribunes were sacrosancti : the senate was sanctus. Cf. Hor. Od. iv 513 ; Verg. Aen. i 426 ; Cic. Cat. i 4, 9 ; Dig. 40,11,3.

optaverat : pluperf., because referring to a time previous to Nerva’s death. See Roby, Lаt. Gr. § 1487.

quam tardissime : cf. Panegyr. 10, ‘neque aliud tibi ex illa adoptione quam filii pietatem adsereres, longamque huic nomini, aetatem, longam gloriam precarere.’

succederes patri. Trajan was adopted on Oct. 27, 97, by adrogatio. The people were assembled in the Forum, and Nerva, as pont. max., announced the adoption. See Dio Cass. 68, 3 ; Plin. Panegyr. 8 : and cf. the adoption of Tiberius by Augustus, Suet. Aug. 65 ; and of Nero by Claudius, Tac. Ann. xii 25. On the other hand, Piso was adopted by Galba without the observance of the usual forms. Tac. Hist. i 18 ; De la Berge, Essai sur le regne de Trajan, p. 17. On adrogatio, see Gaius, Comm. i 99.

quam susceperas. There may, as Ernesti thinks, be a slight confusion of metaphor here, though a gubernator might justly be said, ‘suscipere curam navis.’ See Cic. pro Sext. c. 22, ‘neminem unquam fore qui auderet suscipere contra improbos cives reipublicae salutem.’

§ 2. generi humano. As used by Pliny to Trajan, the phrase, though not without an element of exaggeration, yet is used in a much more concrete sense than Cicero’s ‘consulere generi hominum,’ De Rep. 3, 12 ; and Horace’s ‘o deorum quicquid in caelo regit terras et humanum genus, Epod. 5, 2 ; cf. Ep. 17, 4, ‘in ea erga te fide quam de generi humano mereris.’ There is an inscr. to Trajan, Orell. 795, ‘conservatori generis humani.’

digna saeculo tuo : cf. 3, 2, ‘tranquillitati saeculi tui;’ and iv 11, 6, of Domitian, ‘ut qui inlustrari saeculum suum eiusmodi exemplis arbitraretur ;’ also Tac. Agric. iii, ‘primo beatissimi saeculi ortu.’ In these passages saec. means the reign of a particular emperor. But in Ep. 97 infra, ‘nam et pessimi exempli nec nostri saeculi est ;’ and Tac. Hist. ii 37, ‘corruptissimo saeculo ;’ and Germ. 19, ‘nec corrumpere et corrumpi saeculum,’ it is rather the spirit of the age. Cf. Ep. 55, ‘non est ex iustitia nostrorum temporum.’

fortem te et hilarem opto. I wish you good health and spirits.

et privatim et publice. These are best taken with opto, i.e. ‘in my own name and that of the republic :’ cf. Ep. 14, ‘tuo nomine et reipublicae gratulor.’

[II]

Gratias agit

С. PLINIUS TRAIANO IMPERATORI

¹Exprimere, domine, verbis non possum quantum mihi gaudium attuleris, quod me dignum putasti iure trium liberorum. Quamvis enim Iulii Serviani, optimi viri tuique amantissimi, precibus indulseris, tamen etiam ex rescripto intellego libentius hoc ei te praestitisse, quia pro me rogabat. ²Videor ergo summam voti mei consecutus, cum inter initia felicissimi principatus tui probaveris me ad peculiarem indulgentiam tuam pertinere; coque magis liberos concupisco, quos habere etiam illo tristissimo saeculo volui, sicut potes duobus matrimoniis meis credere. ³Sed dii melius, qui omnia integra bonitati tuae reservarunt. ٭Malui hoc potius tempore me patrem fieri quo futuras essem et securas et felix.

٭maluere, Ernesti.

§ 1. I am inexpressibly grateful to you, sire, for granting the ius trium liberorum. Though granted at the request of Iulius Servianus, your rescript shows that the recipient was not overlooked. § 2. I am delighted to have received one of the first favours of your reign. Even in the late reign of terror, my previous marriages prove that I was anxious for children. § 3. To be a father now will be a still greater blessing.

This letter was also written from Rome probably shortly after the former, as is proved by the words ‘inter initia felicissimi principatus tui.’

§ 1. domine. This is not an official title of the emperor, but simply a polite mode of address which was usual (1) between lovers. See Ov. Heroid. 13, 145, ‘ille ferens dominae mandata recentia secum; Met. ix 465, ‘iam dominum appellat’ : (2) by children to their father, Mart. i 81, ‘A servo scis te genitum blandeque fateris, Quum dicis dominum, Sosibiane, patrem’ : (3) by superiors to inferiors, through a wish to be specially polite; thus Epict. Diss. ii 15, 15, by a patient to his physician, Nοσῶ κύριε˙ βοήθησόν μοι; Fronto, Epp. ad M. Caes. i. 6 ed. Nieb. p. 31, by Antonius to his teacher, ‘fave mi domine magister’ : (4) by clients to patrons, Mart. ii 68, 1, 2, ‘Quod te nomine iam tuo saluto, Quem regem et dominum prius vocabam,’ vi 88, ix 92 ; and (5) generally by inferiors to superiors ; thus in the Testamentum Dasumianum we have ‘Servianus dominus meus’ The procurator of Mauritania addresses the legatus of Numidia as ‘domine,’ Mommsen, Arch. Ztg. N. F. iii 1870: (6) by individuals to assemblies and corporations, Suet. Tib. c. 29, ‘et bonos et aequos et faventes vos habui dominos.’ Claudius even called the spectators in the amphitheatre ‘dominos,’ Suet. Claud. 21 : cf. also Tac. Ann. xvi 4, and Dio Cass. 61, 20; (7) by those who met others in the street whose names they do not know, Sen. Epp. iii 1, ‘Obvios, si nomen non succurit, dominos salutamus;’ (8) by near relations to one another, Sen. Epp. 104, 1, ‘dominus meus Gallio,’ etc. Under the empire there was a tendency from the first to apply this title in a special and quasi-official sense to the emperors. Augustus, however, refused it, Suet. Aug. 53, ‘domini appellationem . . . semper exhorruit,’ and even forbade his children and grandchildren to employ it either to him or among themselves; id. ib., ‘dominumque se posthac appellari nec a liberis quidem aut nepotibus suis passus est.’ So, too, Tiberius (Suet. Tib. 27), ‘dominus appellatus a quodam denuntiavit, ne se amplius contumeliae causa nominaret’ ; and Tac. Ann. ii 87, ‘acerbeque increpuit eos qui divinas occupationes ipsumque dominum dixerant.’ On the other hand, Domitian assumed it as a regular title, Suet. Dom. 13, ‘acclamari etiam in amphitheatro epulari die libenter audiit : domino et dominae feliciter ;’ and ‘Pari arroganti quum procuratorum suorum nomine formalem dictaret epistulam sic coepit : “dominus et deus noster sic fieri iubet,”‘ Juv. iv 96; Mart. v 8; ‘edictum domini deique nostri,’ ix 67. Trajan declined the title in any official sense; Plin. Panegyr. § 3, ‘non de domino sed de parente loquimur’ ; also §§ 7 and 45. Also Martial, x 72, now says, ‘non est hic dominus sed imperator.’ Lastly, from the time of Septimius Severus, the evidence of inscriptions shows that ‘dominus noster’ became one of the regular titles of the emperors in official documents or records. See Wilmann, Exx. Inscr. Lat. 1280, 1482, 1508, and passim for the later emperors. See Friedländer, Sittengesch., vol. i pp. 428-435, and Eckhel, Doctr. Numm. viii p. 364.

iure trium liberorum. By the Lex Iulia et Papia Poppaea, as the revised law passed 9 A. D. was called (Tac. Ann. iii 25 ; Suet. Aug. 34), certain disqualifications were imposed on caelibes between the ages of twenty and sixty, and on orbi (i.e. men married but childless) ; Gaius, ii 111 and 286. Thus caelibes could not take inheritances or legacies except from the nearest relatives; orbi could only take half the amount. Privileges, on the other hand, were given to those who were married (mariti), and especially to those who had three children in Rome, or four in Italy, or five in the provinces ; Just. Inst. Tit. 25; Orell. 3750. To mariti were assigned special seats in the theatre ; Suet. Aug. 44, ‘maritis e plebe proprios ordines assignavit’ ; Mart. v. 41, ‘Sedere in equitum liceat an tibi scamnis Videbo, Didyme : non licet maritorum.’ The privileges attached to the ‘ius trium liberorum’ (Plin. Panegyr. 26) were (1) inheritances left to caelibes were passed on to them if mentioned in the will ; Gaius ii 206, ‘post legem vero Papiam deficientis portio caduca fit et ad eos pertinet qui in eo testamento liberos habent’ : cf. Tac. Ann. iii 28 ; see also Gaius iii 42, 47 ; (2) preference was given to them in petendis honoribus ; Tac. Ann. ii 51, ‘contra plerique nitebantur ut numeras liberorum in candidatis praepolleret, quod lex iubebat’ ; Plin. Ep. vii 16, ‘Ille me in tribunatu liberorum iure praecessit ; ‘Tac. Ann. xv 19 ; (3) offices might be held before the legal age, or without the legal interval ; Digest, iv 4, 2, ‘quod enim legibus cavetur ut singuli anni per singulos annos remittantur, ad honores pertinere divus Severus ait non ad rem suam recipiendam’; Plin. Ep. vii 16, cited above; (4) preference was given in the assignment of provinces; Dio Cass. 53, 13; Tac. Ann. xv 19, ‘cum propinquis comitiis aut sorte provinciarum plerique orbi fictis adoptionibus adsciscerent filios ;’ (5) precedence before others of the same rank or before colleagues ; Aulus Gellius, ii 15, ‘Sic capite septimo legis Iuliae priori ex consulibus fasces sumendi potestas fit, non qui plures annos natus est, sed qui plures liberos quam collega, aut in sua potestate habet, aut bello amisit’ ; (6) exemption from the duties of tutor and iudex ; Just. Inst. Tit. 25 ; Dig. xxvii 1, 18 ; Cod. v 66, ‘qui ad tutelam vel curam vocantur, Romae quidem trium liberorum incolumium numero . . . , in Italia vero quatuor, in provinciis autem quinque, habent excusationem;’ (7) alleviation of punishment in certain cases ; Dio Cass. 69, 23 ; Dig. 48, 20. Neither the penalties nor the privileges answered their purpose (Tac. Ann. iii 25), and the ius trium liberorum was often granted as a favour by the emperors either to those who had no children or not the necessary number. Emperors like Trajan were sparing in giving it, and probably only gave it to those who by marriage had shown a desire to have children; Plin. Ep. ii 13, 8; ‘quod cum parce et cum delectu daret ;’ also infra, Ep. 93, where Pliny, in asking for the ius tr. lib. for Suetonius, says, ‘parum felix matrimonium expertus est’ ; and Ep. 94, ‘Quam parce haec beneficia tribuam . . . haeret tibi’ ; Suet. Claud. 19 ; Galba, 14, ‘Iura trium liberorum vix uni atque alteri (dedit)’ ; Dio Cass. 55, 2, ‘οἷς γὰρ ἂν τὸ δαιμόνιον, εἴτ οὗν ἀνδρῶν εἴτε γυναικῶν, μὴ δῷ τοσαυτάκις (τρὶς) τεκνῶσαι, τούτων τισιν ὁ νόμος, πρότερον μὲν διὰ τῆς Βουλῆς, νῦν δὲ διὰ τοῦ αὐτοκράτορος τὰ τῶν γεγεννηκότων δικαιώματα χαρίζεται,’ and 6o, 24. Domitian, however, gave it even to unmarried men like Martial; Mart. ii 91, 5-6, and 92, 1-3, ‘Natorum mihi ius trium roganti Musarum pretium dedit mearum Solus qui poterat.’ Titus seems to have granted it to him for a certain time before, iii 95, 5-6, and ix 98, 5. See also viii 31, 5-6, ix 67, 3-4. See also Juv. ix 87-90. Since Augustus the Vestals had the ‘ius trium liberorum’ ; Dio Cass. 56, 10.

Iulii Serviani. From Mommsen’s Index it appears that his full name was L. Iulius Ùrsus Servianus. After being consul, he was legatus pro praet. Germaniae superioris, probably succeeding Trajan in 98 A.D. (Plin. Ep. viii 23, 5). From that he was transferred to Pannonia (Plin. loc. cit.). To one of these provinces Pliny sent the letter, iii 17, probably to the latter. He was certainly in Germany when he obtained the ius trium liberorum for Pliny. He was consul II ordinarius in 102 : married Domitia Paulina, Hadrian’s sister (Vit. Hadr. 1, 2); was Consul III ordin. in 134, and was killed by order of Hadrian in 136, at the age of 90 (Dio Cass. 69, 17). He is mentioned, as stated above, in the Testamentum Dasumianum, as ‘Servianus dominus meus.’ See also Plin. Ep. vi 26, vii 6, 8 ; Dio Cass. 76, 7 ; and Vita Hadr. 15, 23, and 25.

ex rescripto. Rescriptum was the name given to a special kind of imperial constitutions, usually written to magistrates asking for advice. In this sense they were often called epistulae. Thus Trajan’s epistulae to Pliny were technically rescripta. In the present case the document was of a formal kind, as a distinct legal privilege was granted by it. The rescripta were prepared by the quaestor imperatoris, or sacri palatii, and signed by the emperor in purple ink. Cf. De Instit. i. 4, 1, ‘quodcunque igitur imperator per epistulam et subscriptionem statuit vel cognoscens decrevit . . . vel edicto praecepit, legem esse constat.’

§ 2. inter initia felicissimi principatus tui. Cf. Tac. Agric. iii, ‘quamquam . . . augeat quotidie felicitatem temporum Nerva Traianus ;’ id. ib. c. 44, ‘Nam sicut durare in hanc beatissimi saeculi lucem ac principem Traianum videre,’ etc.

ad peculiarem indulgen tiam tuam. Pec. here means more ‘personal’ than ‘special.’ The conferment of the ius tri. lib. was a personal privilege of the emperor. Cf. Ep. i 8, 16, ‘me vero peculiaris impedit ratio,’ and Mart. iv 64, 8, ‘luce nitet peculiari.’ Cf., however, Ep. ii 13, 8, ‘quod quamquam parce et cum delectu daret mihi tamen tamquam eligeret induisit.’

illo tristissimo saeculo. See supra : cf. Juv. iv 37, ‘Cum iam semianimum laceraret Flavius orbem Ultimus et calvo serviret Roma Neroni ;’ and 92, 93, ‘Sic multas hiemes atque octogensima vidit Solstitia, his armis illa quoque tutus in aula;’ Tac. Agric. 44, ‘Ita festinatae mortis grande solatium tulit evasisse postremum illud tempus, quo Domitianus non iam per intervalla ac spiramenta temporum, sed continuo et velut uno ictu rem publicam exhausit.’ Cf. Panegyr. § 90.

concupisco liberos. Cf. Ep. viii 10, 3, ‘Neque enim tu ardentius pronepotes quam ego liberos cupio.’

duobus matrimoniis meis. It seems necessary with Mommsen to refer these two marriages to the reign of Domitian, otherwise they would not prove his desire to have children ‘illo tristissimo saeculo.’ Döring, with some plausibility, puts quos — volui in brackets, and refers sicut to concupisco. One wife, the stepdaughter of Vettius Proculus (Ep. ix 13, 13, ‘uxoris meae quam amiseram vitricus’), died in 97; Ep. ix 13, 3, ‘quamquam tum maxime tristis amissa nuper uxore.’ The date is fixed by the words ‘occiso Domitiano’ earlier in the letter. Her mother seems to have been the rich Pompeia Celerina to whom Ep. i 4 is written, and who is mentioned iii 19, 8, and vi 10, 1, and ad Trai. 51. Of the first wife nothing is known, but in 98 he married Calpurnia, granddaughter of Calpurnius Fabatus. See Ep. iv 1, 1, and 19, 1. For further particulars of this marriage, see infra in Ep. 120.

§ 3. sed dii melius. Cf. Tac. Ann. iv 38, ‘melius Augustum qui speraverit,’ and Germ. 19, ‘melius quidem adhuc eae civitates.’

omnia integra — reservarunt. It seems to me, in opposition to Döring, that Pliny undoubtedly means that it was better to become a father now by Trajan’s favour, than naturally under Domitian.

malui. This is the reading of Avantius and Aldus, and seems distinctly preferable to Ernesti’s maluerunt.

hoc potius tempore patrem fieri : cf. Panegyr. § 26, ‘Super omnia est tamen quod talis es ut sub te liberos tollere libeat expediat.’

futurus essem. Past tense, because referring to the time (expressed by malui) when he made the petition: subjunctive because implying the motive then in his mind.

[III] A [XX]

De Sortitione patrocinii adversus Marium Priscum

C. PLINIUS TRAIANO IMPERATORI

¹Ut primum me, domine, indulgentia vestra promovit ad praefecturam aerarii Saturni, omnibus advocationibus, quibus alioqui numquam eram promiscue functus, renuntiavi, ut toto animo delegato mihi officio vacarem. ²Qua ex causa, cum patronum me provinciales optassent contra Marium Priscum, et petii veniam huius muneris et impetravi. Sed cum postea consul designatus ٭censuisset agendum nobiscum, quorum erat excusatio recepta, ut essemus in senatus potestate pateremurque nomina nostra in urnam conici, convenientissimum esse tranquillitati saeculi tui putavi praesertim tam moderatae voluntati amplissimi ordinis non repugnare. ³Cui obsequio meo opto ut existimes constare rationem, cum omnia facta dictaque mea probare sanctissimis moribus tuis cupiam.

٭censuisses tacendum, Ald. censuisses faciendum, Casaubon.

censuisset agendum, Gruter.

§ 1. Since I was promoted, sire, to the praefecture of the aerarium Saturni, I have declined to act as advocate, and have devoted myself to my official duties. § 2. Accordingly when the provincials of Africa asked me to appear against Marius Priscus, I begged to be excused. But when the consul designatus proposed a formal resolution that I should place myself at the disposal of the senate, I thought it best to consent. § 3. I hope my action will meet with your approval.

This letter was certainly written in the second half of 99; possibly after Trajan’s return from Germany. The case of Marius was finally settled in January 100 A.D. : Ep. ii 11, 10, ‘Princeps praesidebat ; erat enim consul ; ad hoc Ianuarius mensis cum cetera tum praecipue senatorum frequentia celeberrimus.’ This fixes the date absolutely, as Trajan was neither in Rome nor consul in Jan. 99; and Panegyr. 95 shows that the case was over in September 100.

§ 1. indulgentia vestra. This implies that Pliny was appointed during the lifetime of Nerva. In Panegyr. (§ 90) he says so expressly, ‘Habuerat hunc honorem periculis nostris divus Nerva ut nos, etsi minus ut bonos, promovere vellet,’ etc., where the promotion referred to can only be the appointment to the aerarium Saturni. In Panegyr. (§91) Pliny says, ‘nondum biennium compleveramus in officio laboriosissimo et maximo, cum tu nobis . . . consulatum obtulisti.’ Mommsen proves (Hermes, iii) that the consules suffecti for the year were designated on January 9. As Nerva died on January 27, Pliny must have received his appointment between those two dates in 98 A.D.

praefecturam aerarii Saturni. Under the republic the aerarium Saturni was the only treasury, and was administered by the two city quaestors. Marquadt, Staatsverw. ii. p. 299. But Augustus after the division of the provinces in 27 B.C. created two new treasuries, the fiscus into which came the proceeds of the imperial provinces, and the aerarium militare, founded in 6 A.D. and supported by the vicesima hereditatum and the centesima rerum venalium. The aerarium Saturni in addition to its former revenues now received the proceeds of the senatorial provinces. Nominally the senate had the disposal of it, and was allowed by Augustus to choose praefects (Tac. Ann. i 75, and xiii 29), who were praetorii in rank, Dio Cass. 53, 2. ‘δύο κατ’ ἔτος ἐκ τῶν ἐκστρατηγηκότων αἱρεῖσθαι ἐκέλευε, and Suet. Aug. 36; but virtually the emperor had the real power; Dio Cass. 53, 16.

Tac. Ann. xiii 29 gives the history of the office up to Nero, ‘Varie habita ас saepe mutata eius rei forma. Nam Augustus senatui permisit deligere praefectos : deinde ambitu suffragiorum suspecto, sorte ducebantur ex numero praetorum, qui praessent : neque id diu mansit, quia sors deerrabat ad parum idoneos. Tunc Claudius quaestores rursum imposuit ; iisque, ne metu offensionum segnius consulerent, extra ordinem honores promisit. Sed deerat robur aetatis, eum primum magistratum capessentibus. Igitur Nero praetura perfunctos, et experientia probatos delegit.’ See also Suet. Claud. 24, Dio Cass. 60, 4 ; Tac. Hist. iv 9 shows that Vespasian appointed praetores again. Since Nerva two praefecti aerarii were appointed by the emperor from the number of the praetorii to hold office for three years. The praefects had to administer the aerarium, to assign money for various purposes, and to superintend the jurisdiction of all treasury cases. See Marquadt. Staatsverw. ii 302, 303 ; Mommsen’s Staatsrecht’; vol. ii pp. 544-547 ; and Pauly, Real Encyclop. vol. vi p. 9 ; also the Pliny-inscription, and Orelli, 77, and 3168.

advocationibus. Under the Republic the advocatus was a jurisconsult who did not speak for his client in court, which was the duty of the orator or patronus, but simply supported the points of law by his opinion or presence. Under the empire the distinction between the speaker and the expert disappeared, and the advocatus combined both functions. Pauly, Real Encyclop. vol. i. p. 78.

quibus numquam eram promiscue functus. Pliny began his career as an advocate when still young ; Ep. i 18, 3, ‘eram acturus adolescentulus adhuc.’ Both in this letter, and in vi 23 he speaks as an advocate much in vogue, and able to give advice and patronage to younger and less experienced men. He usually pleaded before the centumviri in cases relating to wills and successions; Ep. vi 12, 2, ‘in arena mea, hoc est apud centumviros’; and Mart. x 19, ‘Totos dat (Plinius) tetricae dies Minervae, Dum centum studet auribus virorum.’ See also iv 16 ; iv 21 ; v 9, 2 ; ix 23, 1, etc. On two occasions he takes up the cause of a town, as that of his native place, Comum, Ep. ii 5, and that of Firmum, vi 18. Ordinary criminal cases before the praetors, he only mentions twice, i 18, 6, and vi 33, 9. Of state trials on the charge of repetundae before the senate, Pliny had up to this time only undertaken one, viz. that on behalf of the provincials of Baetica against Baebius Massa, the proconsul there. See vii 33, and vi 29. After a preliminary inquiry ‘an danda esset inquisitio,’ the case was tried before the senate, Pliny and Herennius Senecio being appointed advocates of the province by the senate. Massa was condemned, and it was decreed ‘ut bona eius publice custodirentur.’ The date is fixed by Tac. Agr. 45, ‘et Massa Baebius iam tum reus erat,’ i.e. at the death of Agricola.

delegato mihI offlcio. Cf. Ep. viii 3, ‘curis delegati a vobis officii detentus.’

§ 2. cum patronum me provinciales optassent contra Marium Priscum. Cf. iii 9, 1, whence it appears that it was not the province collectively, ‘sed Marium una civitas publice multique privati reum peregerunt,’ i.e. it was not the ‘concilium provinciae’ as in the case of Varenus, vii 6, but only one town and a number of individual accusers. For the case of Marius see Juv. i 49, viii 120; Pliny, ii 11, iii 4, iii 9, vi 29. According to Mommsen’s Index Marius Priscus was a native of Baetica, iii 9 3, consul probably in 87, septemvir epulonum, ii 11, 12, and proconsul of Africa. On being accused Marius ‘omissa defensione iudices petiit,’ ii 11, 2; i.e. he pleaded guilty of minor malpractices such as might be tried by the recuperatores or iudices recuperatorii, a board of three or five members who had only to decide upon the money to be reimbursed. The mere fact, however, of going before the iudices seems to have involved infamia (see iv 9), ‘negant enim congruens esse retinere in senatu cui iudices dederis.’ Pliny and Tacitus, who had been assigned as advocates to the provincials by the senate, objected that the accusations were too heavy to go before the iudices. After some dispute it was agreed that Marius Priscus should be tried before the iudices on the charge of repetundae, but the parties to whom Marius was said to have sold the deaths of innocent persons should be summoned before the senate. Vitellius Honoratus, accused of having bought the exile of a Roman eques, and the death of seven of his friends for 300,000 sesterces, Flavius Marcianus, of having caused another eques to be scourged, condemned to the mines, and strangled by a payment of 700,000 sesterces, were accordingly summoned. Honoratus was dead, but Marcianus appeared. It was however thought fairer that Marius should appear with his accomplice, and the case was put off till the next meeting of the senate in January 100, when the emperor himself presided. Meanwhile Marius had been condemned by the iudices on the charge of repetundae (ii 11, 13), ‘erat ergo perquam onerosum accusare damnatum.’ After a three days’ trial, it was decreed, on the proposal of Cornutus Tertullus, one of the consules designati (the trial therefore was later than the 9th of January), ‘septingenta millia quae acceperat Marius aerario inferenda : Mario urbe Italiaque interdicendum : Martiano hoc amplius Africa.’ It was carried as a rider, ‘quod ego et Tacitus iniuncta advocatione diligenter et fortiter functi essemus, arbitrari senatum ita nos fecisse ut dignum mandatis partibus fuerit.’ Whether the case of Classicus was begun in September 99 or September 101 is disputed between Mommsen, who takes the latter view, and Masson, Stobbe, and Peter, who take the former. A comparison of iii 4, 2, and ad Trai. 8, 3, prove September to have been the date at which the case was given to Pliny. In September 100 Pliny was consul, and therefore 99 and 101 alone. remain. The chief argument for 99 seems to be the order in which Pliny mentions the cases in vi 29. But stronger arguments on the other side are ( 1 ) iii 4, 8, ‘Computabam si munere hoc iam tertio fungerer,’ and (2) as both cases were during the praefecture of the aerarium, the hesitation as to whether his duties would allow him to undertake the case would naturally be expressed with regard to the former of the two cases. Mommsen’s view, however, supposes that Pliny was praefectus aerarii Saturni for four years instead of three, 98-101 A.D. See also p. 23, note 8.

consul designatus censuisset. The consules ordinarii were designated at the end of the year ; the consules suffecti not till the following January ; see above. The consul designatus, therefore, must be Sex. Iulius Frontinus. If it had been Trajan, as the reading  ‘censuisses’ would imply, the words at the end of the letter, ‘opto ut existimes constare rationem’ would be needless.

nomina nostra in urnam conici. The procedure seems to have been this : when a governor was accused of repetundae, if the provincials did not ask for any particular advocate, the senate named several, who were then selected by sortitio. The provincials, however, often did ask for some particular patronus ; cf. iii 4, 2, ‘Legati provinciae Baeticae advocatum me a senatu petierunt.’ The senate then passed a decree, if it consented, that this patronus should be assigned, if he was willing to act. But the form of sortitio was still observed. Hence the words used in this letter. Cf. Ер. v. 20, 1, ‘quem nuper adversus Bassum advocatum et postularant et acceperant?’

tam moderatae voluntati ; with reference to the wording ‘ut pateremur,’ etc.

§ 3. constare rationem ; that my reasons were well grounded. Professor Mayor on iii 18, 10, points out that it was originally a mercantile phrase. He cites among other passages, i 5, 16 ; ii 4, 4 ; and Panegyr. § 38.

sanctissimis. See supra on Ep. i 1.

III В [XXI]

TRAIANUS PLINIO S.

¹Et civis et senatoris boni partibus functus es obsequium amplissimi ordinis, quod iustissime exigebat, praestando. Quas partes inpleturum te secundum susceptam fidem confido.

In obeying the senate you have discharged the duty of a good citizen and a good senator. I am confident that you will perform loyally what you have undertaken.

[IV] IIII [III]

Petit latum clavum amico

C. PLINIUS TRAIANO IMPERATORI

¹Indulgentia tua, imperator optime, quam plenissimam experior, hortatur me ut audeam tibi etiam pro amicis obligari ; inter quos sibi vel praecipuum locum vindicat Voconius Romanus, ab ineunte aetate condiscipulus et contubernalis meus. ²Quibus ex causis et a divo patre tuo petieram ut illum in amplissimum ordinem promoveret. Sed hoc votum meum bonitati tuae reservatum est, quia mater Romani liberalitatem sestertii ٭quadragiens, quod conferre se filio codicillis ad patrem tuum scriptis professa fuerat, nondum satis legitime peregerat ; quod postea fecit admonita a nobis. ³Nam et fundos emancipavit et cetera quae in emancipatione inplenda solent exigi consummavit. ⁴Cum sit ergo finitum quod spes nostras morabatur, non sine magna fiducia ٭٭subsigno apud te fidem pro moribus Romani mei, quos et liberalia studia exornant et eximia pietas, qua hanc ipsam matris liberalitatem et statim ٭٭٭patris hereditatem et adoptionem a vitrico meruit. ⁵Auget haec et natalium et paternarum facultatum splendor ; quibus singulis multum commendationis accessurum etiam ex meis precibus indulgentiae tuae credo. ⁶Rogo ergo, domine, ut me exoptatissimae mihi gratulationis conpotem facias et honestis, ut spero, adfectibus meis praestes ut non in me tantum verum et in amico gloriari iudiciis tuis possim.

٭quadragiens, B. and Budaeus.; quadringentiens, Ald.

quater decies, Gronovius.;  CCCC HS., Gesner.

٭٭ subsigno apud te, Ald.²; subsigno. Adit te, Ald. ¹

subsigno. Adverte, B.; subsigno. Auget, Cat.

٭٭٭patriis, Ald.

§ 1. I am emboldened by your kindness to me to ask favours for my friends. Of these none has a greater claim on me than my comrade and fellow –  student Voconius Romanus. §2. I had begged your deified father to admit him into the senate, but his mother had not completed a deed of gift which she had promised, and so the favour is still to grant. § 3-4. These preliminaries have now been arranged, and I venture to appeal to you for my friend, who has cultivated tastes, the entire confidence of his own family, as well as hereditary éclat and considerable wealth. § 5-6. I hope you will consider my interest in him to be an additional recommendation, and that you will confer another distinction on me by honouring my friend.

The letter was evidently written shortly after the death of Nerva, and so probably in 98.

§ 1. quam plenissimam experior. Cf. Ep. 51, 2, and 94, 3.

Voconius Romanus. Mommsen gives his full title, C. Licinius Voconius Romanus, from C. I. L. ii 3866. Pliny writes to him i 5, iii 13, and probably ii 1, vi 15, vi 33, viii 8, ix 7, ix 28. In ii 13 Pliny says that his father was ‘in equestri gradu,’ that his mother was of a noble family ; that he was adopted by his stepfather ; that he was ‘eruditum in causis agendis,’ and ‘epistulas scribit, ut Musas ipsas Latine loqui credas.’ According to Mommsen’s reading of the passage, he was ‘flamen Hispaniae citerioris’ : a condiscipulus and contubernalis of Pliny, who obtained for him from Nerva the ius trium liberorum, and in ii 13 asks for some appointment for him from Neratius Priscus legate of Pannonia.

condiscipulus et contubernalismeus. Cf. ii 13, ‘Hunc ego, cum simul studeremus, arte familiariterque dilexi : ille meus in urbe, ille in secessu contubernalis, cum hoc seria, cum hoc iocos miscui.’

ut ilium in amplissimum ordinem promoveret. Under the republic there were two means of entering the senate, (1) by the lectio of the censors; (2) by the tenure of the necessary offices, such as the quaestorship, etc. Iulius Caesar had made use of a third means, viz. his own direct nomination, as dictator, and so had filled the senate with Gauls and others, who, it was mockingly said, would have to be shown the way to the senate house. Augustus renounced this right of direct nomination by the princeps. Under him entry into the senate and the various grades of senatorial dignity were gained by passing through the qualifying offices, the quaestorship, the tribunate or aedileship, the praetorship, and the consulship ; and the only influence so far exercised by the emperor was by means of his recommendation of the candidati Caesaris, by which a certain number of magistracies, and thus indirectly of admissions to the senate, was virtually in his hands. He was, however, strictly limited by the three necessary qualifications for senatorial rank-(1) free birth, (2) a census of 1,200,000 sesterces, Suet. Aug. 41, ‘senatorum censum ampliavit ac pro octingentorum millium summa duodecies sestertio taxavit,’ and Dio Cass. 55, 13; (3) the attainment of the twenty-fifth year, Dio Cass. 52, 20 ; Tac. Ann. xv 28. While Augustus, however, as princeps, had a very limited power of appointing to the senate, by the possession of the censoria potestas, granted for certain periods and renewed, he could by what was now called ‘adlectio’ exceed the nominal number of the senate by fresh appointments; Orelli 3146, ‘a Tiberio Claudio Caesare Augusto Germanico censore adlecto in senatum,’ and Henzen 6005. But by means of the adlectio the emperor could do more than merely admit to the senate ; he could promote his nominee at once to one of the higher grades of senatorial rank, although he had not held the offices entitling to the lower ones ; see note on decuriones, Ep. 8. Thus Orelli 3559, ‘adlecto inter praetorios a divis Vespasiano et Tito censoribus’ ; and Pliny, i 14, 5, ‘Minucius Macrinus equestris ordinis princeps. adlectus a divo Vespasiano inter praetorios’; also Orelli 1170. So too he could promote a senator from a lower to a higher class ; Henzen, 6461. Although Augustus had limited the senate to those living in Italy (Dio Cass. 52, 20), later emperors admitted many from the provinces ; Tac. Ann. iii 55, ‘simul novi homines e municipiis et coloniis et etiam provinciis in senatum crebro adsumpti domesticam parsimoniam intulerunt’ ; especially Claudius, Tac. Ann. xi 23-25 ; and Vespasian, Suet. Vesp. 9. In all these cases, however, up to the time of Domitian it was not as princeps, but as censor, that the emperors made these appointments ; and no adlectio on the part of any of those emperors is recorded who did not have the censorial power. But Domitian in 84 assumed the censorship for life ; Dio Cass. 67, 4, ‘τιμητὴς διὰ βίου πρῶτος δὴ καὶ μόνος τῶν ἰδιωτῶν καὶ αὐτοκρατόρων ἐχειροτονήθη’ ; and with it the right of appointing to the senate at any time without restriction. Nerva also, and Trajan, and the later emperors, although they did not retain the perpetual censorship, still retained an unlimited power with regard to senatorial nomination without it. It is of this period that Dio Cass. says (53, 17), ‘καὶ τοὺς μὲν καταλέγουσι καὶ εἰς τὴν ἱππάδα καὶ ἐις τὸ βουλευτικόν, τοὺς δὲ καὶ ἀπαλείφοσιν.’ So Wilmann, 2243, ‘huic divos Hadrianus latum clavum cum quaestura optulit,’ Henzen, 5970, and 5317; Plin. Ep. ii 9, ‘Ego Sexto latum clavum a Caesare nostro . . . impetravi.’ In the case of impoverished senators it was not unusual for the emperor to make up the requisite census ; Tac. Ann. ii 48, xii 52 ; Suet. Aug. 41 ; Tib. 47 ; Vespas. 17 ; Dio Cass. 52, 19, and 54, 17.

§ 2. liberalitatem sestertii quadragiens. The largeness of the sum 40,000,000 sesterces, if we read ‘quadringentiens’ with Aldus, has always been a difficulty, to meet which Gronovius conjectured ‘sestertii quater decies,’ and Gesner CCCC HS., or 400,000 sesterces. The Bodleian copy (В.), I think, solves this difficulty by reading ‘quadragiens.’ ‘Quadringentiens,’ it is true, is in the margin also in the scribe’s hand, but deleted. This reading is confirmed by a citation of the passage in Budaeus, De Asse., bk. iii, who also has ‘quadragiens.’ On the relation of Budaeus to the Codex Parisiensis, see Introduction, p. 67. It is not necessary to suppose that the money was given to make up the senatorial census of 1,200,000 HS. A provincial with only the minimum census, unless his other claims had been overpowering, would probably have had little chance of receiving the honour. Voconius had already received the inheritance of his father, and Pliny specially recommends him on the ground of the ‘paternarum facultatum splendor’ ; and the bounty of his mother was not so much a sine qua non as a splendid endowment for the promised dignity. After all the property was not extraordinarily large. The fortune of Cn. Lentulus, the augur, and Nero’s freedman Narcissus, was ten times as large. As Mommsen says, Rom. Gesch. v 68, no places enjoyed greater facilities for trade than the towns on the east coast of Spain ; and Saguntum, apparently the native town of Voconius (C. I. L. ii 3866 and 38650), not far from the mouth of the navigable river Pallantias, had long been rich and prosperous.

codicillis. Here in its ordinary sense of a letter or petition ; cf. Tac. Ann. iv 39, ‘componit ad Caesarem codicillos’; Suet. Tib. 51; Claud. 5, etc. Sometimes it means a diploma, or cabinet order of the emperor, Suet. Tib. 22, ‘hunc tribunus militum custos appositus occidit, lectis codicillis, quibus ut id faceret, jubebatur’; also id. Calig. 18, ‘sed et senatori ob eandem causam codicillos, quibus praetorem eum extra ordinem designabat.’ As a legal term it was a short addition to a will already made ; cf. Plin. Ep. ii 16, 1, and Tac. Ann. 15, 64.

§ 3. fundos emancipavit. The ‘mancipatio’ was the old ceremonial sale ‘per aes et libram.’ In it, owing to the non-existence of documentary forms, a number of symbolical acts had to be performed, the most important being the traditio or actual delivery of the thing sold or its symbol. Mancipatio could only take place between citizens, and in regard to ‘res mancipi,’ of which land and slaves were the most important. Besides the vendor (‘qui mancipio dat’) and the purchaser (‘qui mancipio accipit’), five witnesses were required and a libripens with the scales ; see Gaius, i 119, and Maine, Ancient Law, p. 278. In later times the form of mancipatio was observed as a ‘venditio imaginaria’ in the cases ( 1 ) of making a ‘testamentum per aes et libram,’ see Maine, p. 217; (2) of emancipating a son from the patria potestas ; and (3) of making a donatio or liberalitas to any one consisting of things, included under ‘res mancipi.’ So in the present instance the fundi were made over to Voconius by his mother by means of a fictitious sale with all its formalities, ‘quae in emancipatione inplenda solent exigi.’ He would have to place a sesterce in the scales held by the libripens, and say ‘hanc ego rem ex iure Quiritium meam esse aio, eaque mihi empta est hoc aere aeneaque libra.’ In this sense the phrase  nummo uno addicere’ is used, because the buyer put down a sesterce, ‘dicis causa,’ i.e. for form’s sake ; cf. Hor. Sat. ii 5, 106-8, ‘si quis Forte coheredum senior male tussiet, huic tu Die, ex parte tua seu fundi sive domus sit Emptor, gaudentem nummo te addicere.’ Cic. Rab. Post. 17, 45, ‘ecquis est ex tanto populo qui bona С. Rabirii Postumi nummo sestertio sibi addici velit ?’ Suet. Caes. 50, ‘cui bello civili super alias donationes amplissima praedia ex auctionibus hastae nummo addixit.’ Orelli, 4358, D. M.  M. Herenni Proli. V. A. xxii. M. ii. D. vi. fecerunt parentes M. Herennius Agricola et Herenni Lacena filio : chirographum : ollaria n. iiii, cineraria n. liii intrantibus parte laevaque sunt in monumento T. Flavi Artemidori quod est via Salaria in agro Volusi Basilides ientibus ab urbe parte sinistra donationis causa mancipio accepit M. Herennius Agricola de T. Flavio Artemidoro HS. n. I. libripende M. Herennio Iusto”; also Nos. 4421 and 4425.

§ 4. subsigno apud te fidem. I pledge my good name with you ; cf. Ep. iii 1, 12, ‘idque iam nunc apud te subsigno.’ Apud te is the reading of the second Aldine edition. The first edition had ‘adit te’ after a full stop. B. has the unintelligible reading ‘Adverte fidem.’

liberalia studia. Cf. ii 13, 6 and 7, where Pliny says of Voconius, ‘Mira in sermone, mira etiam in ore ipso vultuque suavitas. Ad hoc ingenium excelsum, subtile, dulce, facile, eruditum in causis agendis.’ In vi 33 he sends him a speech for criticism and revision. He may possibly be the Voconius of whom Appuleius (Apol. i p. 95, ed. Lugd. 1604) relates ‘Divus Hadrianus cum Voconii amici sui poetae tumulum versibus veneraretur ita scripsit-lascivus versu, mente pudicus erat’ ; Pauly, Real Encyclop. vol. vii p. 2722.

statim patris hereditatem. The greatest honour which a father could show to a son was to make him his sole heir. Cf. Cic. pro Quint. iv, ‘moritur in Gallia Quintius, . . et moritur repentino ; heredem testamento reliquit hunc P. Quintium, ut, ad quem summus moeror morte sua veniebat, ad eundem summus honos quoque perveniret.’ Testamentary dispositions were looked upon as the ‘suprema iudicia’ of the deceased. Suet. Aug. 66, ‘amicorum tamen suprema iudicia morosissime pensitavit.’ So on the other hand for a son to refuse the hereditas was most dishonourable ; see Cic. Phil. ii 16, ‘Quamquam hoc maxime admiratus sum mentionem te hereditatum ausum esse facere, cum ipse hereditatem patris non adisses.’

adoptionem a vitrico. Cf. ii 13, 4, ‘clarior vitricus, immo pater alius : nam huic quoque nomini pietate successit.’ The double gentile name Licinius and Voconius points to the fact of the adoption, the former being that of the adoptive father. See Mommsen, Hermes, iii, on adoption and change of names among the Romans.

§ 5. natalium, pedigree ; cf. iii 20, 6, ‘Non numquam candidatus aut natales competitoris aut annos aut etiam mores arguebat’ ; and vi 23, 3, ‘Quod si cui, praestare Rusoni meo debeo, vel propter natales ipsius, vel propter eximiam mei caritatem’ ; and Juv. viii 231, ‘Quid, Catalina, tuis natalibus atque Cethegi Inveniet quisquam sublimius?’ Cf. also infra Ep. 12 and 72. Professor Mayor also cites Tac. Hist. iv 15 ; Ann. xi 21. Though the father of Voconius was only of equestrian rank, the importance of the family in Hispania Citerior is evidenced by the two Saguntine inscrip., and also by Pliny’s words in ii 13, 4.

paternarum facultatum splendor. See supra.

exoptatissimae mihi gratulationis. ‘A joy which I so exceedingly covet.’ Cf. Cic. pro Mur. 5, ‘hic parenti suo. . solatio in laboribus, gratulationi in victoria fuit.’

§ 6. honestis, ut spero, adfectibus meis, to what I hope is an honourable affection. For the plural used in this sense, cf. Juv. xii 10, ‘Si res ampia domi similisque adfectibus esset,’ on which passage Professor Mayor cites Plin. Ep. ii 1, 8, ‘ille mihi tutor relictus adfectum parentis exhibuit’; iv 19, 1 ; viii 11, 1 ; and ix 13, 16; to which add Panegyr. 79, ‘temptabitque adfectus nostros, ut solet, cohibere, nec potent,’ where I think Lewis and Short are wrong in explaining it as ‘low or ignoble passion.’

iudlciis tuis. For iudicia in the sense of ‘recognition of a person’s merits,’ see Tac. Ann. iv 39, ‘(Seianus) benevolentia patris Augusti, et mox plurimis Tiberii iudiciis ita insuevisse’; Cic. Ros. Am. 37, 108, ‘de quo nomine vos tanta et tam praeclara iudicia fecistis.’ Cic. ad Fam. x 1, 4, ‘quicquid in eum iudicii officiique contuleris,’ and xiii 46, ‘ut . . . hominem probatum existimares qui patroni iudicio ornatus esset’; also Plin. Ep. iv 8, 1, ‘gravissimi Principis iudicium.’

[V] [IIII]

Civitatem Romanam Harpocrati iatraliptae suo petit

C. PLINIUS TRAIANO IMPERATORI

¹Proximo anno, domine, gravissima valitudine usque ad periculum vitae vexatus, iatralipten adsumpsi ; cuius sollicitudini et studio tuae tantum indulgentiae beneficio referre gratiam parem possum. ²Quare rogo des ei civitatem Romanam. Est enim penegrinae conditionis, manumissus a peregrina. Vocatur ipse Harpocras, ٭patronam habuit Thermuthin Theonis, quae iam pridem defuncta est. Item rogo des ius Quiritium libertis Antoniae Maximillae, ornatissimae feminae, Hediae et Antoniae Harmeridi ; quod a te petente patrona peto.

٭matronam habet, B. and Ald. ¹ patronam habuit, Cat.

patronam habet Ald. ²

§ 1. During my dangerous illness of last year I called in an iatraliptes whom I can only adequately reward with your help. § 2. I therefore beg that you will confer on him the ‘civitas.’ At present he is a peregrinus, having been emancipated by his patrona Thermuthis now dead. I also beg you to grant the ‘ius Quiritium’ to two freedwomen of Antonia Maximilla, at whose request I make this petition.

From Ep. 8, 3, infra, it appears that Pliny’s illness was either simultaneous with or only just before the fatal illness of Nerva ; i.e. either at the end of 97 or the beginning of 98. This letter is probably written therefore in 99 ; or it may be 98, as Keil decides.

§ 1. gravissima valitudine ; see Ep. 8, 3, ‘sed primum mea deinde patris tui valitudine.’

iatralipten, a physician standing half way between the γυμναστής and the ἰατρός, whose treatment depended on diet, bodily exercise, and systematic rubbing and anointing of the body. The elder Pliny (Nat. Hist. 29, 2) assigns the invention of the treatment to Prodicus of Selymbria ‘Nec fuit postea quaestus modus, quoniam Prodicus Selymbriae natus . . . instituens quam vocant Iatralipticen reunctoribus quoque medicorum ac mediastinis vectigal invenit.’ Cf. Plato,de Repub. 406 A.C. who gives the name as Herodicus. Cf. Celsus, i 1. Some members of this profession made the training of gladiators a speciality, Juv. iii 76 ; others made a more dishonourable use of their professional attendance, Juv. vi 422. The gymnasium, without which no villa was complete (Ep. ii 17, 7), was principally designed for purposes of iatraliptice. The treatment was the subject of conversation at a banquet given by Apicius, at which Isidorus one of its votaries was present, hale and hearty in his ninety-first year, Aelian, ed. Hercher, ii 240, quoted by Friedländer, vol. ii p. 469 ; Petron, c. 28.

gratiam parem : an adequate thank-offering. Cf. Cic. pro Sull. 16, 47. ‘magno meo beneficio affecti cumulatissime mihi gratiam rettulerunt,’ and Phil. iii 15, 39.

§2. civitatem Romanam. Under the republic the political rights involved in the civitas had been (1) ius suffragii (2) ius honorum (3) ius provocationis. Of those under the empire the last alone remained absolute. The ius suff. had lost all meaning, while the ius honorum, as far at least as the senatorial ‘cursus honorum’ was concerned, was subject to certain modifications. Thus the Roman citizens in Gaul were definitely excluded from the senate by Augustus, Tac. Ann. xi 23. By Claudius and other later emperors indeed they were admitted, but Trajan by enacting that all provincial candidates for office should invest one-third of their property in Italian land (Plin. Ep. vi 19), put a very practical limit upon admission into the senate. In addition to the political rights Roman citizens were protected by the lex Porcia and lex Sempronia from shameful forms of punishment. More important were the private rights (1) ius conubii, without which there was no patria potestas nor ius agnationis, (2) ius commercii, which involved the right of acquiring and alienating property ex iure Quiritium, and also the right of testamentary disposition and inheritance according to the civil law. The civitas might be acquired (1) by birth (2) by manumission (3) by direct bestowal either to communities or individuals. (1) All persons born in lawful wedlock from burgesses of municipia or coloniae civium Romanorum were themselves cives. (2) Freedmen manumitted with the full ceremonial, iusta manumissio, by citizens gained the civitas. Those, on the other hand, whose masters had omitted the full ceremonial, or had only had dominium in bonis over them, became  ‘Latini Iuniani.’ The direct bestowal of the ‘civitas’ had under the republic been the privilege of the Comitia Tributa or Centuriata. Cf. Livy, iv 4, 6, 7 ; Dionys. 5, 40. Thus it was by the Lex Iulia and a subsequent plebiscitum that the socii were admitted to the civitas after the Social war. It was, however, the custom occasionally to delegate this power (1) to the commissioners sent out to establish Roman colonies Cic. Brut. 20, 79, pro Balbo 21, 48 ; (2) to generals after victory Cic. pro Balbo, 8, 19 ; 14, 32, and 20-22. This latter usage in the course of time received an important modification. The generals came to be entrusted on their appointment with the general power of conferring the civitas, which they generally used mainly as a means of enlisting non-citizens into the leigonary forces. This was done to a large extent by Marius (Plutarch, Mar. 28, Cic. pro Balb. 20) ; by Sulla (Cic. pro Arch. 10) ; by Pompeius (Cic. Phil. 1, 10), while by Caesar, whole legions were so formed, called vernaculae legiones (see Mommsen in Hermes, xix, p. 13). Under the empire all these powers passed naturally to the princeps. He could either confer the civitas on whole communities by establishing a colony of Roman citizens, Tac. Ann. xiv 27, ‘vetus oppidum Puteoli ius coloniae et cognomentum a Nerone apiscuntur,’ or by raising a town with the Latin right into a municipium ; or he could confer it on individuals. In regard to this last point the custom of different emperors varied. Augustus was very sparing with it ; Suet. Aug. 40, ‘magni praeterea existimans sincerum atque ab omni colluvione peregrini ac servilis sanguinis incorruptum servare populum, et civitatem Romanam parcissime dedit, et manumittendi modum terminavit,’ also с. 47. See also Tac. Ann. i 58, and Dio Cass. 56, 33. Claudius was more generous with it ; Dio Cass. 60, 17, ‘συχνοὺς δὲ δὴ  καὶ ἄλλους ἀναξίους τῆς πολιτείας ἀπήλασε καὶ ἑτέροις αὐτὴν καὶ πάνυ ἀνέδην, τοῖς μὲν κατ’ ἄνδρα, τοῖς δὲ καὶ ἀθρόοις ἐδίδου.’ Nero even granted it to a number of Greek Pyrrhic dancers ; Suet. Nero, 12, ‘quibus post editam operam diplomata civitatis Romanae singulis obtulit.’ Galba on the other hand, Suet. Galb. 14, ‘civitatem Romanam raro dedit.’ See also Tac. Hist. i 78, and infra Ep. 107. See also Suet. Gramm. 22, ‘tu Caesar civitatem dare potes hominibus, verbo non potes,’ Dio Cass. 57, 17. Mommsen has lately shown in Hermes, xix, that the civitas was very commonly given to non-citizens on their enlistment in the legions. The diplomata militaria (see С. I. L. iii) show that it was also frequently granted to the auxiliary troops serving in the cohortes and alae on the completion of their twenty-five years’ service ; also Tac. Ann. i 58, ‘Segestes a divo Augusto civitate donatus.’ Some emperors sold the civitas ; cf. Acts of the Apostles, 22, 28, ‘ἐγὼ πολλοῦ κεφαλαίου τὴν πολιτείαν ταύτην ἐκτησάμην.’ Freedmen who obtained the civitas either by manumission or direct bestowal had not the ius honorum, though their descendants had it; while all new citizens were subject to the heavy ‘vicesima hereditatum’ unless they received the ius cognationis from the emperor. Cf. Plin. Panegyr. § 37, ‘novi (cives) seu per Latium in civitatem seu beneficio principis venissent, nisi simul cognationis iura inpetrassent, alienissimi habebantur quibus coniunctissimi fuerant.’

peregrines conditionis. The peregrini were strictly all those who were strangers to the Roman state, and so included the Latini, who were thus the most privileged class of peregrini. Since however, they possessed a modified kind of civitas, and since a Latin by passing through certain offices in his town became ipso facto a civis Romanus, the Latini were generally regarded as an intermediate class. Among the peregrini proper there were numerous gradations, according as they belonged to a libera civitas, or to a civitas foederata (in which case again all depended on the nature of the foedus) or to a civitas stipendiaria. Medical men at Rome were as a rule peregrini except those rewarded as here with the civitas. Cf. Suet. Aug. 42, ‘peregrinosque omnes, exceptis medicis et praeceptoribus . . . urbe expulit.’

manumissus a peregrina. Naturally a freedman could never by the mere fact of manumission rise to a higher grade of privilege than his patron, nor would the full ceremonial of manumissio be completed by a non-citizen.

vocatur ipse Harpocras. The peregrini are always designated officially by one name only and the name of the father : cf. Theomuthis Theonis and passim the names of the auxiliary soldiers in the mil. diplomata. Thus C. I. L. iii p. 844 seqq. Diomedes Artemonis, f. ; Reburrus Severi f. ; Thoemus Horati, f., etc. On becoming a citizen Harpocras would probably assume the nomen Ulpius. Cf. the number of Claudii and lulii to be found in Gaul.

patronam. On this sense of the word i.e. the former master of a freedman, cf. Tac. Hist. ii 2, ‘corrapti in dominos servi, in patronos liberti.’

ius Quiritmm. That Antonia Maximilla was herself a Roman citizen is clear from the context, but as a woman she was not able to employ the iusta manumissio, i.e. man. vindicta or man. censu ; she would therefore use one of the less formal methods man. inter amicos, or per epistulam or per mensam. By the lex lunia Norbana of 19 A.D., freedmen so manumitted had not the complete civitas but were in a class by themselves called ‘Latini Iuniani,’ with rights not dissimilar to those of the Latin colonists. Cf. Tac. Ann. xiii 27. ‘Quin et manumittendi duas esse species institutas ; quos vindicta patronus non liberaverit velut vinclo servitutis attineri.’ These Latini Iuniani, however, could obtain the full civitas by obtaining from the emperor the ius Quiritium : Ulpian iii 2, ‘beneficio principali Latinus civitatem Romanam accipit, si ab imperatore ius Quiritium impetraverit.’ While therefore peregrini when they became citizens were said to receive the ‘civitas Romana,’ the Latini on becoming citizens received the ‘ius Quiritium,’ i.e. those rights, principally in respect of Quiritary ownership, inheritance, and testamentary disposition according to the ‘ius civile’ which was wanting to the Latinitas. So Suet. Claud. 19, mentioning the privileges which Claudius granted to various classes specifies, ‘civi vacationem legis Papiae Poppaeae ; Latino ius Quiritium ; feminis ius quatuor liberorum.’ Also infra Ep. 104, ‘Paulinus excepto Paulino ius Latinorum suorum mihi reliquit : ex quibus rogo tribus interim ius Quiritium des ;’ also Ep. 11.

Hediae et Antoniae Harmeridi. Instead of Antoniae Harmeridi Mommsen conjectures Agathemeridi. In any case they would both be named Antonia, the gentile name of their patrona.

petente patrona. Gaius, iii 72, explains the consequences of this condition not being fulfilled. ‘Si Latinus invito vel ignorante patrono ius Quiritiurn ab imperatore consecutus sit, quibus casibus, ut divus Traianus constituit, dum vivit iste libertus ceteris civibus Romanis libertis similis est, et iustos liberos procreat, moritur autem Latini iure, nec ei liberi eius heredes esse possunt ; et in hoc tantum habet testamenti factionem, ut patronum heredem instituat, eique si heres esse noluerit, alium substituere possit.’ Also Gaius, iii 56-58 ; and Sandars Institutes of Justinian, p. 93, and for the whole question see Pauly, Real Encyclop. sub voc., Manumissio, Latini Iuniani, and Ius Quiritium.

[VI] [XXII]

Agit gratias

C. PLINUS TRAIANO IMPERATORI

¹Ago gratias, domine, quod et ius Quiritium libertis necessariae mihi feminae et civitatem Romanam Harpocrati, iatraliptae meo, sine mora indulsisti. Sed cum annos eius et censum, sicut praeceperas, ederem, admonitus sum a peritioribus debuisse me ante ei Alexandrinam civitatem inpetrare, deinde Romanam, quoniam esset Aegyptius. ²Ego autem, quia inter Aegyptios ceterosque peregrinos nihil interesse credebam, contentus fueram hoc solum scribere tibi, ٭esse eum a peregrina manumissum patronamque eius iam pridem decessisse. De qua ignorantia mea non queror, per quam stetit ut tibi pro eodem homine saepius obligarer. Rogo itaque, ut beneficio tuo legitime frui possim, tribuas ei et Alexandrinam civitatem et Romanam. Annos eius et censum, ne quid rursus indulgentiam tuam moraretur, libertis tuis quibus iusseras misi.

٭eum scilicet, Ald. esse eum, B.      etsi eum, Avant.

§ 1. I thank you, sire, that you have conferred the ius Quiritium upon the freedwomen of my friend Antonia, and the civitas on my physician, Harpocras. But in furnishing, according to your directions, his age and census, I was reminded that as an Egyptian he ought to receive the Alexandrine franchise first. § 2. Not knowing this, I omitted to mention all particulars except the fact of his having been manumitted by a patrona now dead. I now beg you to grant him both the Alexandrine and the Roman civitas. His age and census I have already sent to your freedmen.

§ 1. annos eius et censum : previous to his registration in one of the tribes.

ederem. The verb is often used in the sense of making an official return. Cf. Cic. Legg., 3, 20, 47 (quoted in Lewis and Short), ‘apud eosdem (censores) qui magistratu abierint edant quid in magistratu gesserint.’ Ovid, Met. iii 581 ; and jocularly in Horace, Sat. ii 4, 10, . ‘Ede hominis nomen, simul et Romanus an hospes.’

debuisse me ante ei Alexandrinam civitatem inpetrare. There were in Egypt two classes of inhabitants broadly distinguished from one another, the citizens of the Greek cities, such as Alexandria, Ptolemais, Naucratis and Paraetonion, and the Egyptians belonging to the nomes. To Egypt generally the civitas Alexandrina was what the Romana civitas was to the Roman world, and neither the Ptolemies nor after them the emperors ever, except in very special circumstances, gave this civitas to the Egyptians. Iosephus, contra Apionem 2, c. 6, ‘Aegyptiis neque regum quisquam videtur ius civitatis fuisse largitus neque nunc quilibet imperatorum.’ So too the Roman civitas was given to the citizens of the Greek cities in Egypt as to any other peregrini, but never to the Egyptians from the nomes. See Iosephus, cont. Ap. 2, 4, ‘μόνοις Αἰγυπτίοις οι κύριοι νῦν Ῥωμαῖοι τῆς οἰκουμένης μεταλαμβάνειν ἠστινοςοῦν πολιτείας ἀπειρήκασιν.’ Even the former class were not cives optimo iure, for they were excluded from the senate and were without the ius honorum, Dio Cass. 51, 17. Not even by way of enlistment in the legions do the Egyptians seem to have been able to gain the Roman franchise, as whenever their homes are stated in inscriptions, they are the Greek cities and not the nomes. See Ephemeris Epigraphica, vol. v p. 13, and Mommsen Rom. Gesch. vol. v  p. 561. Pliny’s ignorance of this rule would seem to show however, that it had not always been rigidly observed, and even Trajan makes an exception in this case.

§ 2. esse eum a peregrina. This is the reading of B. for the unintelligible ‘etsi eum’ of Avantius. Aldus conjectures ‘scilicet eum.’

per quam stetit ut. The phrase is very rarely followed by an affirmative. Lewis and Short quote one case, Ter. Andr. i v 2, 17, ‘sed si id non poterit, id faciam in proclivi quod est, per me stetisse ut credat.’ Gesner quotes Quintilian, Declamat. 250, ‘fortasse per te stetit, ut iniuriam hic quoque faceret.’

obligarer, cf. supra Ep. 4, pro amicis obligari.

libertis tuis. All the imperial secretaries like the ‘ab epistulis, a libellis, a censibus’ would have a numerous staff of liberti at their disposal. The reports sent in to the emperor from these various bureaus were called ‘breviaria,’ Suet. Vesp. 21, and Marquadt, Staatsverw., vol. ii p. 217. For Trajan’s treatment of his liberti see Panegyr. § 88, ‘Tu libertis tuis summum quidem honorem, sed tanquam libertis habes, abundeque sufficere iis credis, si probi et fugi existimentur.’

[VII] [XXIII]

TRAIANUS PLINIO S.

¹Civitatem Alexandrinam secundum ٭institutionem principum non temere dare proposui. Sed cum Harpocrati, iatraliptae tuo, iam civitatem Romanam inpetraveris, huic quoque petitioni tuae negare non sustineo. Tu ex quo nomo sit notum mihi facere debebis, ut epistulam tibi ad Pompeium Plantam, praefectum Aegypti, amicum meum, mittam.

٭institutiones, B.

Following the precedent of my predecessors I only grant the Alexandrine civitas in exceptional cases. However, as I have already promised the Roman civitas, I cannot refuse you this. You will have to inform me of the home of Harpocras, that I may write concerning him to Pompeius Planta, praefect of Egypt.

§ 1. secundum institutionem principum. The emperors had throughout a special policy in Egypt which Tacitus Ann. ii 59 ranks ‘inter alia dominationis arcana.’

negare non sustineo. For this construction of sustineo, cf. Juv. xiv 127, ‘neque enim omnia sustinet unquam Mucida caerulei panis consumere frusta,’ and xv 88, ‘sed qui mordere cadaver Sustmuit;’ also Plin. Ep. ix 13, 6, ‘sed non sustinui inducere in animum ; and Panegyr. § 26, ‘tu ne rogari quidem sustinuisti.’

ex quo nomo sit. The country portion of Egypt, ἡ χώρα as opposed to the Greek cities, was divided under the Ptolemies, and remained so under the empire into νομοί, originally thirty-six in number (Diodor. i 54), but afterwards apparently increased to forty-seven. Each νομος had a μητροπόλις, but this neither had a municipal government itself, nor was the administrative centre of the νομος. The real centre of the district was the sanctuary of some deity. The νομοί were under στράτηγοι, who were subordinate to the ἐπιστράτηγοι of Thebais, Heptanomis, and the Delta. These again were under the praefectus. The στράτηγοι were either Greeks or Egyptians and were nominated by the praefectus for three years ; the office was without salary, and was one of the Χωρικαὶ λειτουργίαι  from which citizens of Alexandria were exempt.

Pompeium Plantam. Planta is mentioned as having just died in Ep. ix 1 ; the date of which book is fixed by Mommsen as probably about 108 A.D. A scholium to Juv. ii 99 states that Pompeius Planta wrote an account of the war between Vitellius and Vespasian. Teuffel’s Rom. Literat. 341, 9.

praefectum Aegypti. On account of the character of its population, its position, and the vital importance of its corn trade, Egypt was not treated like the other provinces, and the ordinary provincial administration had no place here. The emperors succeeded directly to the position of the Ptolemies, and they kept the administration in their own hands, appointing as viceroy a praefect of equestrian rank ; Tac. Hist. i 11 , ‘Aegyptum copiasque, quibus coerceretur, iam inde a Divo Augusto equites Romani obtinent loco regum. Ita visum expedire, provinciam aditu difficilem, annonae faecundum, superstitione ac lascivia discordem, ac mobilem, insciam legum, ignaram magistratuum, domi retinere.’ So Strabo xvi p. 797, says, ‘ ὁ μὲν οὖν πεμφθεὶς (ἔπαρχος) τὴν τοῦ βασιλέως ἔχει τάξιν.’ Plin. Nat. Hist. v 57, ‘Cum crescit Nilus reges aut praefectos navigare eo nefas iudicatumest.’ Arrian. Anab. 3, 5, 10. See also Tac. Ann. ii 59 ; Dio Cass. 51, 17. Iosephus calls the praefect ὁ ἱππαρχῶν κατὰ τὴν Αἴγυπτον, Ant. Iud. xix 5, 2. They really belonged to the class of procuratores, but received the special title of praefecti, as having a higher position, and being in command of legionary troops. Augustus had ruled that their decrees should have the same force as the edicts of Roman provincial governors, Tac. Ann. xii 60. The praefect was the supreme judicial authority, had charge of the finances, and was responsible directly to the emperor himself, Philo, in Flaccum, xii p. 533. His official abode was Alexandria, from whence he made rounds of inspection from time to time. His tenure of office depended on the emperor’s will. See Marquadt, Staatsverw. i pp. 441-444, and Mommsen, Rom. Geschichte vol. v, pp. 553, 554.

[VIII] [XXIIII]

De statuis principum in municipium transferendis

C. PLINIUS TRAIANO IMPERATORI

¹Cum divus pater tuus, domine, et oratione pulcherrima et honestissimo exemplo omnes cives ad munificentiam esset cohortatus, petii ab eo ut statuas principum, quas in longinquis agris per plures successiones traditas mihi quales acceperam custodiebam, permitteret in municipium transferre adiecta sua statua. ٭Quod quidem ille mihi cum plenissimo testimonio indulserat; ego statim decurionibus scripseram ut adsignarent solum in quo templum pecunia mea extruerem; illi in honorem operis ipsius electionem loci mihi obtulerant. ³Sed primum mea, deinde patris tui valitudine, postea curis delegati a vobis officii retentus, nunc videor commodissime posse in rem praesentem excurrere. Nam et menstruum meum ٭٭Kalendis Septembribus finitur et sequens mensis complures dies feriatos habet. ⁴Rogo ergo ante omnia permittas mihi opus quod inchoaturus sum exornare et tua statua, deinde, ut hoc facere quam maturissime possim, indulgeas commeatum. ⁵Non est autem simplicitatis meae dissimulare apud bonitatem tuam obiter te plurimum conlaturum utilitatibus rei familiaris meae. Agrorum enim quos in eadem regione possideo ٭٭٭locatio, cum alioqui CCCC excedat, adeo non potest differri ut proximam putationem novus colonus facere debeat. Praeterea continuae sterilitates cogunt me de remissionibus cogitare; quarum rationem nisi praesens inire non possum. ٭٭٭٭⁶Debebo ergo, domine, indulgentiae tuae et ٭٭٭٭٭pietatis meae celeritatem et status ordinationem, si mini ob utraque haec dederis commeatum triginta dierum Neque enim angustius tempus praefinire possum, cum et municipium et agri de quibus loquor sint ultra centesimum et quinquagesimum lapidem.

٭quodque ille, B. and Ald.

٭٭Kalendis Septembribus, B.           Kal. Septembris, Ald.

٭٭٭locatio cum, Cat.                locationem, B and Ald.

٭٭٭٭Debebo, Gronovius.                debeo, B and Ald.

٭٭٭٭٭ pietati, Avantius.

§ 1. When your predecessor, sire, both by precept and example, urged all citizens to acts of public generosity, I begged him to allow me to transfer some statues of the emperors from a country-house of mine to the neighbouring town; and to place his among the number. § 2. He most kindly consented, and I wrote at once to the decurions asking for a site, as I intended to build a temple at my own expense. They left the selection of a site to me. § 3. But I was hindered by my illness, then by your father’s death and the duties of my appointment at Rome. The present seems a convenient time for me to get away. My month of duty ends on the 1st of September, and the next month has several holidays. § 4. I beg, therefore, that you will allow me to add your statue to the work, and grant me leave of absence. § 5. I must not conceal the fact that you will greatly assist by this my private affairs. I have lands in that quarter which bring in 400,000 HS. a year, and for which new tenants must be found at once, as they will have to look after the trimming of the vines. Bad seasons also compel me to make some remissions of rent, about which I can only decide on the spot. § 6. I shall owe, therefore, to your kindness both the speedy accomplishment of my proposed undertaking and the settlement of my private concerns, if you will grant me leave of absence for thirty days, as my estate is distant more than 150 miles.

The date of this letter depends on the question whether Caecilius Classicus was accused in 99 or 101. Cf. Ер. iii 4, 2. ‘Cum publicum opus pecunia mea inchoaturus in Tuscos excucurrissem accepto, ut praefectus aerari, commeatu, legati, provinciae Baeticae questuri de proconsulatu Caecili Classici advocatum me a senatu petierunt.’ See supra note on Ep. 3 § 2 p. 83. If we decide with Mommsen, the letter was written in August 101.

honestissimo exemplo. Instances of Nerva’s public munificence are (1) the institution of the alimentationes in Italian towns, testified to by Aurelius Victor, Epit. c. xii, and coins (Eckhel, vi p. 408, and Cohen, No. 121) with legend ‘Tutela Italiae’ and figures of a woman and child coming before the emperor. See introduction p. 10; (2) provision for the corn supply (Echkel, vi p. 408, has coins with legend ‘Plebei urbanae frumento constituto’); (3) the purchase of land for poor citizens, Dio Cass. 68, 2; (4) the completion of the Forum transitorium begun by Domitian ; and of the temple of Minerva. Suet. Dom. 5; Aur. Vict. Epit. xii; Mart. i 3, 10.

The example of Nerva was not only followed by Trajan and his successors, in connection with the ‘alimentationes’ (see introd. p. 10), and the Tabulae of Veleia and Ligures Baebiani, but also by a number of private individuals. Pliny himself, in addition to the temple mentioned in the present letter, founded (1) a library in Comum, i  8, 2 (though this was under Domitian) ; (2) an endowment of 500,000 sesterces for the education of boys and girls in Comum, i  8, 10; i  5 ; and vii 18, 2 ; (3) he offers to pay the third part of the salary of a professor of rhetoric at Comum, if the town will provide the rest, iii 13, 5 ; (4) repairs a temple of Ceres near one of his estates, ix 39, 1 , (5) by his will Thermae were to be established at Comum, and a capital sum of 300,000 sesterces set apart as an endowment for their internal maintenance, and 200,000 for repairs, etc., inscription, p. 16 ; (6) also by his will he leaves an endowment of 1,866,666⅔ sesterces for an annual alimentation for a hundred of his freedmen, and on their decease for a public feast, inscrip. p. 16. Nor did Pliny stand alone. A similar bequest for his freedmen is found in the testament of Dasumius. Bruns Fontes Iur. Rom. p. 229, ed. 1879; see also the will of Flavius Syntrophus Henzen, 7321 ; an honorary inscription to A. Quintitius Prisais by the senate of Ferentinum for charitable bequests to the municipium. Bruns Font. Iur. Rom. p. 227. So too Caninius Rufus, Pliny’s fellow-townsman, established an endowment for a public entertainment, Ep. vii 18, 1 ; and Calpurnius Fabatus built a public porticus, and also promised money for the adornment of the gates, v 11, 1.

in longinquis agris. This was his Tuscan estate, a villa described at length in v 6, and alluded to, v 18 ; ix 15 ; ix 36, 40 ; iv 1 ; and iii 4.

per plures successiones. Cf. i 12, 4. ‘Nam plerumque morbi quoque per successiones quasdam, ut alia, traduntur.’

in municipium. See iv i, 4, ‘oppidum est praediis nostris vicinum ; nomen Tiferni Tiberini, quod me paene adhuc puerum patronum cooptavit.’ Tifernum Tiberinum was a town in Umbria near the head waters of the Tiber. It was so called to distinguish it from Tifernum Metaurense, also in Umbria, but on the Metaurus : see Plin. Nat. Hist. iii 5.

adiecta sua statua. Nerva was not as fond as some emperors of having statues erected in their honour, and golden statues he altogether forbade. Dio Cass. 68, 2, ‘ἀπεῖπε δὲ καὶ ἆνδριάντας αὐτῷ χρυσοῦς γίγνεσθαι.’

cum plenissimo testimonio. On another occasion also Nerva had borne witness to Pliny’s merits. See vii 33. In 93, when Baebius Massa had been condemned, and his goods were to be publicly guarded, there seemed some probability that the consuls, possibly with the connivance of Domitian, would execute this part of the sentence somewhat laxly. Senecio and Pliny, therefore, the two accusers, went to the consuls on the subject, when Massa accused Senecio of impiety towards the emperor. Pliny

thereupon said, ‘Sed vereor, clarissimi consules, ne mihi Massa silentio suo praevaricationem obiecerit, quod non et me reum postulavit.’ Pliny goes on, ‘Divus quidem Nerva (nam privatus quoque attendebat his quae recte in publico fierent) missis ad me gravissimis litteris non mihi solum verum etiam saeculo est gratulatus, cui exemplum (sic enim scripsit) simile antiquis contigisset.’

decurionibus. The decurions or conscripti (lex Iui. Municip., line 85), less frequently senatores (Tac. Hist. v 19), or collectively ordo decurionum, or ordo alone (Tac. Hist. ii 52 ordo Mutinensis) and in later times curiales (Orelli, 3729), were the senate in all towns of Italian constitution not only in Italy itself, but in the provinces. Cf. infra Ep. 113 and 115; and Orelli 4980, ‘decurio civium Romanorum Mogontiaci.’ They were usually 100 in number (Cic. de leg. agrar. 2, 35, 96), and are sometimes called centumviri. Orelli, 3448, 3739. See also the album of Canusium referred to below. Under the empire election to the ‘ordo’ took place every five years under the authority of the quinquennales, whose duty it was to prepare the ‘album’ (lex Iulia Mun. ad init.). Election to any vacancies was made (1) from those who were qualified through having held the quaestorship or any of the higher magistracies; (2) from those who, though not yet elected magistrates, have the necessary qualifications, and also the senatorial census. These latter when elected were called ‘pedani.’ The others were arranged in the album according to the dignity of the offices they had held, as, e.g. quinquennalicii, duoviralicii, aedilicii, quaestoricii. In addition to these ordinary classes, persons without any of these qualifications, but who had performed some special service to the community, were sometimes added to the ordo either by the decuriones themselves, or even by the emperor. These were called adlecti (Cf. Suet. Claud. 24 and Vespas. 9, for this use of the word adlego), and they might be ranked in any of the classes already mentioned. Thus ‘adlecti inter duoviralicios, etc.’ So Pliny, speaking of the Roman senate, Ep. i 14, 5, says, ‘Minucius Macrinus equestris ordinis princeps adlectus a divo Vespasiano inter praetorios.’ To these various classes who all voted and were included in the hundred, there were two other classes, who are added to the album, and who might be present at meetings of the ordo, but were only honorary or formal members. There were-(1) the patroni, i.e. Roman senators or equites appointed patroni by the local senate. These were placed first in the album, Dig. 50, 3, 2. ‘In albo decurionum in municipio nomina ante-scribi oportet eorum qui dignitates principis iudicio consecuti sunt, postea eorum, qui tantum municipalibus honoribus functi sunt;’ (2) the praetextati or sons of the senators who were allowed to be present, but had no vote. Thus in the Album Canusinum (Orelli, 3721) there are thirty-one patroni c.c.v.v. (clarissimi viri), eight patroni e.e.q.q.R.R. (equites Romani), seven quinquennalicii, four adlecti inter quinquen., twenty-nine duoviralicii, nineteen aedilicii, nine quaestoricii, thirty-two pedani, twenty-five praetextati, i.e. 164 in all, but exactly 100 when the patroni and praetextati are subtracted. Pliny was himself a patronus of Tifernum, probably an hereditary one, as he was appointed when a boy, ‘quod me paene adhuc puerum patronum cooptavit,’ and was therefore on the album decurionum of the town. For the change in the position of the decuriones in later times see note on Ep. 113.

ut adsignarent solum in quo templum pecunia mea extruerem. The abbreviations L. D. D. D. loco dato decreto decurionum, and D.S.P. de sua pecunia are very common on dedicatory inscriptions. The following is an interesting one, and bears a close resemblance to what Pliny’s dedication may have been at Tifernum. Wilmann, 307.

‘Veneri Verae felici Gabinae A. Plutius Epaphroditus, accensus velatorum, negociator sericarius, templum cum signo aereo effigie Veneris, item signis aereis numero IIII dispositis, in Zothecis et balbis aereis, et aram aeream et omni cultu a solo sua pecunia fecit cuius ob dedicationem divisit decurionibus singulis denarios quinos, item seviris Augustalibus singulis denarios binos, item tabernaris intra murum negotiantibus denarios singulos, et HS. decem millia nummum reipublicae Gabinorum intulit, ita ut ex usuris ejusdem summae quod annis iv Kal. Octobr. die natali Plutiae Verae filiae suae decuriones et seviri Augustales publice in tricliniis suis epulentur : quod si facere neglexerint, tune ad municipium Tusculanorum HS. decem millia minimum pertineant, quae confestim exigantur. Loco dato decreto decurionum : dedicata Idibus Maiis. L. Venuleio Aproniano II L. Sergio Paulo II Coss. (i.e. 169 A.D.)

§ 3. primum mea. See on Ep. 5 § 1

deinde patris tui valetudine. This can hardly be any other than Nerva’s last illness in January 98.

curis delegati a vobis offlcii. What kind of duties belonged to the analogous office of praefectus aerarii militaris we see from i 10, 9. ‘Nam distringor officio ut maximo sic molestissimo. Sedeo pro tribunali, subnoto libellos, conficio tabulas, scribo plurimas sed inlitteratissimas litteras.’

a vobis. See note on indulgentia vestra, Ep. 3, 1.

in rem praesentem, to the spot. Cf. ‘in re praesenti,’ Ep. 50, and the note ad loc. also Prof. Mayor’s note on iii 9, 26.

excurrere. Cf. iii 4, 2, ‘cum publicum opus mea pecunia inchoaturus in Tuscos excucurrissem,’ where Professor Mayor cites, Suet. Galb. 18, ‘cumque exterritus luce prima ad expiandum somnium, praemissis qui rem divinam appararent, Tusculum excucurrisset.’

menstruum meum Kalendis Septembribus finitur. Under the republic even the consuls in war held the chief command in monthly rotation. Cf. Dionys. 4, 43, ‘ἦν δὲ ἡ τοῦ Κοιντίῳ προσήκουσα, ὥστε ἀναγκαῖον ἦν τὸν ἕτερον τῶν ὑπάτων μηδὲν ἄκοντος ἐκείνου ποιεῖν.’ Cic. de Repub. ii 31, 55. With regard to the higher magistracies this monthly rotation ceased under the later republic and was revived by Caesar. Suet. Caes. 20 : ‘antiquum rettulit morem, ut quo mense fasces non haberet, accensus ante eum iret, lictores pone sequerentur.’ For the subordinate offices, where the business was chiefly routine, this monthly rotation was no doubt always the rule. On the date of the letter see above. Aldus read Kal. Septembris, which G. H. Schaeffer was the first to emend to Kalendis Septembribus, an emendation now confirmed by the Bodleian MS.

sequens mensis complures dies feriatos habet. The ludi Romani were celebrated from the fourth to the 19th of September. On the second there were ‘feriae ex senatus consulto, quod eo die imp. Caesar divi filius Augustus apud Actium vicit se et Titio consulibus.’ Within the ludi Romani the Ides (13th) were ‘feriae Iovi :’ and since Tiberius ‘feriae ex senatus consulto quod eo die nefaria consilia quae de salute Ti. Caesaris liberorumque eius et aliorum principum civitatis deque republica inita ab M. Libone erant, in senatu convicta sunt.’ On the 17th was the consecration of Augustus ; and on the 18th Trajan’s birthday. The 23d was the ‘natalis Augusti’ and the 20th the dedication of the temple of Venus Genetrix.

§ 4. opus quod inchoaturus sum. Cf. iii 4.

indulgeas commeatum. This was granted as appears both from the following letter and iii 4, 2 : ‘commeatu, ut praefectus aerari, accepto,’ also v 14, 9, ‘nam includor angustiis commeatus.’

§ 5. simplicitatis meae. Cf. Juv. i 151-3: ‘unde illa priorum Scribendi quodcumque animo flagrante liberet Simplicitas?’ and Plin. Ep. vi 12, 5, ‘rogo ut mihi semper eadem simplicitate, quotiens cessare videbor, convicium facias.’

agrorum locatio. Land was usually let for a period of five years ; Plin. Ep. ix 37, ‘nam priore lustro, quamquam post magnas remissiones reliqua creverunt.’ Cf. also Orelli 4323: ‘locantur . . . ex idibus Aug. primis in Idus Aug. sextas, annos continuos quinque;’ and the locatio was frequently made on 1st July. See Suet. Tib. 35 ; Mart. xii 32 ; sometimes on Ist March ; or on the Ides of August. This was the latest regular time, as the ‘novus colonus’ would then have both the vindematio and the putatio, whereas if it were left too late, the vindematio would be over, and his first task would be the putatio. The contract between the locator and the conductor was the ‘lex locationis.’ The conductor was usually called ‘colonus’ and the rent pensio or merces.

cum alioqui cccc excedat, since, moreover, the sum total is more than 400,000 sesterces. This is probably the annual rent estimated for average seasons. We do not know for certain how many estates Pliny had, but we know that nearly all his property was in land (iii 19, 8): ‘sum quidem prope totus in praediis’; but he found his Laurentine property the only one profitable : ‘nihil quidem ibi habeo praeter tectum et hortum statimque harenas.’ The attempt made by Augustus and his successors to restore the former prosperity of Italian husbandry, had been very partially successful. Even the vine culture, which Domitian had discouraged as encroaching too much on the growing of corn (Suet. Dom. 7), appears from this passage-from viii 2, and ix 16, 1-to have been a losing concern. Landowners with large latifundia, worked by gangs of slaves, might perhaps make some profit, but Pliny says expressly (iii 19, 7) : ‘nec ipse vinctos usquam habeo.’ The fact that all provincials who entered on the senatorial cursus honorum were compelled by Trajan to invest one-third of their property in Italian land hardly points to this being a good investment. With regard to the price of land, Pliny talks of buying an estate conterminous with one of his own for 3,000,000 sesterces, iii 19, 7, and adds, ‘non quia non aliquando quinquagies fuerint, verum et hac penuria colonorum et communi temporis iniquitate ut reditus agrorum sic etiam pretium retro abiit’ ; while the price of an ‘agellus’ which he gave to his nurse .was 100,000 sesterces. Pliny’s hereditary estates were in the neighbourhood of Lake Larius, vii 11, 5, but even those seem to have been little profitable, as he says, ii 15, 2, ‘me praedia materna parum commode tractant, delectant tamen ut materna.’

adeo non . . . ut = tantum abest ut . . . ut. Cf. Liv. iii 2, 7: ‘qui adeo non tenuit iram ut gladio invitum in senatum venturum se esse diceret.’ Translate here, ‘can so little be deferred that.’

proximam putationem, the pruning which is just at hand.

continuae sterilitates. Cf. ix 16, 1 : ‘nobis venari nec vacat nec libet : non vacat quia vindemiae in manibus, non libet quia exiguae;’ viii 15, 1: ‘oneravi te tot pariter missis voluminibus . . . quia scripseras tam graciles istic vindemias esse ut plane scirem tibi vacaturum, quod vulgo dicitur, librum legere,’ also ix 20, 2. So iii 19, 7: ‘communi temporis iniquitate.’

de remissionibus. On the general depression, see ii 4, 3 : ‘sunt quidem omnino nobis modicae facultates, dignitas sumptuosa, reditus propter conditionem agellorum nescio minor an incertior ;’ iv 6, 1 ; vi 3, 2 ; ‘postea decrescente reditu, etiam pretium minuit.’ viii 2, 1 : ‘Alii in praedia sua proficiscuntur ut locupletiores revertantur, ego ut pauperior.’ In ix 37 he complains that ‘quamquam post magnas remissiones’ the arrears of rent still increase. ‘Occurendum ergo augescentibus vitiis et medendum est. Medendi una ratio, si non nummo sed partibus (i.e. a proportion of the proceeds) locem, ac deinde ex meis aliquos operis exactores custodes fructibus ponam : et alioqui nullum iustius genus reditus quam quod terra caelum annus refert.’

quarum rationem. How careful Pliny was in apportioning the remissions to the needs of particular cases is seen in viii 2, 1 : ‘Erat expeditum omnibus remittere aequaliter, sed non satis aequum : mihi autem egregium in primis videtur ut foris ita domi . . . agitare iustitiam.’ He accordingly remits one-eighth of the purchase-money to all the purchasers of his vintages; and in addition one-tenth of whatever had been paid by each over 10,000 sesterces.

§ 6. pietatis meae celeritatem. The speedy accomplishment of my pious purpose, i.e. in building the temple.

status ordinationem. The arrangement of my private affairs. Status may refer (1) to political position and privileges ; (2) to social rank and dignity ; or (3) to private circumstances, happy or unhappy. See Lewis and Short.

triginta dierum, i.e. during September.

ultra centesimum et quinquagesimum lapidem. Professor Mayor says that Tifernum Tiberinum was about 20 miles east of Arretium, and that Arretium, by the itineraries, is 164 miles from Rome.

[IX] [XXV]

TRAIANUS PLINIO S.

^٭Et privatas multas et omnes publicas causas petendi commeatus reddidisti : mihi autem vel sola voluntas tua suffecisset. Neque enim dubito te, ut primum potueris, ad tam districtum officium reversurum. Statuam poni mihi a te eo ^٭٭quo desideras loco, quamquam eiusmodi honorum parcissimus, tamen patior, ne inpedisse cursum erga me pietatis tuae videar.

^٭et multas et omnes, B. and Ald.                et privatas multas et, Cat.

^٭٭quod desyderas, Ald. ¹ quo desyderas, Ald.²

Both your reasons are good, but a mere expression of your wish would have been enough. I am sure that you will return to your duties as soon as you can. I do not generally care for my statue to be erected, but as I do not wish to check your loyalty, I consent.

et privatas multas et omnes publicas causas. This, the reading of Catanaeus, can hardly be correct. Keil conjectures ‘multas et privatas et publicas causas.’

reddidisti. You have given to my satisfaction.

tam districtum officium. Cf. i 10, 4, ‘distringor officio.’

eiusmodi honorum parcissimus. Cf. Panegyr., § 82. ‘Itaque tuam statuam in vestibulo Iovis optimi maximi unam alteramve et hanc aeream cernimus. At paulo ante aditus omnes, omnes gradus, totaque area hinc auro hinc argento relucebat, seu potius polluebatur, cum incesti principis statuis permixta deorum simulacra sorderent.’

[X] [V]

Impetratae civitatis Alexandrinorum pro Harpocrate gaudium.

C. PLINIUS TRAIANO IMPERATORI

¹Exprimere, domine, verbis non possum quanta me gaudio adfecerint epistulae tuae, ex quibus cognovi te Harpocrati iatraliptae meo et Alexandrinam civitatem tribuisse, quamvis secundum ^٭institutionem principum non temere eam dare proposuisses. Esse autem Harpbcran ^٭٭νομοῦ Μεμφιτικοῦ indico tibi. ²Rogo ergo, indulgentissime imperator, ut mihi ad Pompeium Plantam, praefectum Aegypti, amicum tuum, sicut promisisti, epistulam mittas. Obviam iturus, quo maturius, domine, ^٭٭٭exoptatissimi adventus tui gaudio frui possim, rogo permittas mihi quam longissime occurrere tibi.

^٭institutiones, B.

^٭٭ νομοῦ Μεμφιτικοῦ, H. Stephanus.    νομοῦ Μεμφίτου, B,    νομοῦ Μεμφύτου, Ald.

^٭٭٭exoptatissime, Ald.

§ 1. I cannot say how glad I am that you have consented to grant the Alexdrine ‘civitas’ to my physician Harpocras. Memphis is his nome. § 2. I beg you to write at once as you promised to the praefect of Egypt. I should also wish to be allowed to meet you on your welcome return to Rome.

The date of this letter is fixed by the last sentence. Trajan returned from Germany in the second half of 99, in time to canvass personally for the consulship.

νομοῦ Μεμφιτικοῦ. Memphis, the metropolis of the nome, was in Heptanomis or Middle Egypt (see p. 92), Herod. II  99 : ‘ἔστι γὰρ καὶ ἡ Μέμφις ἐν τῷ στεινῷ τῆς Αἰγύπτου.’ It was formerly the capital of the Egyptian kings. Tac. Hist. iv 84, ‘Memphin inclutam olim et veteris Aegypti columen’ ; Plin. Nat. Hist. v 9, ‘quondam arx Aegypti regum.’ Its climate was very favourable, Hor; Od. III 26, 10, ‘Memphin carentem Sithonia nive,’ and Mart. vi 80, ‘Navita derisit Pharios Memphiticus hortos.’ Even in Strabo’s time (p. 807, ed. Casaubon) it was ‘πόλις μεγάλη τε καὶ εὔανδρος, δευτέρα μετ’  Ἀλεξανδρείαν.’ There were two pyramids in the nomos Memphites, Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxvi 12, and a number of ancient temples in Memphis itself. Pliny gives a list of the nomes, Nat. Hist. v 9, and says that that of Memphis extends ‘usque ad summum delta.’

exoptatissimi adventus tui (see above, and life of Trajan, p. 5). Trajan had spent almost two years in Germany since his adoption by Nerva, and a year and a half since Nerva’s death. He was engaged in the rectification of the Rhine frontier, and it was in connection with this important work, and to draw attention to the affairs beyond the Rhine, that Tacitus published the Germania in 98 (see c. 37). But although Trajan’s absence was acquiesced in, there was naturally some impatience for his return. Thus Martial, x 7, addressing the Rhine, says, ‘Traianum populis suis et urbi, Tibris te dominus rogat, remittas.’ Pliny (Panegyr. § 20) contrasts the moderation which marked his progress through Italy with the luxury and exactions of Domitian. ‘Quam dissimilis nuper alterius principis transitus ! si tamen transitus illa, non populatio fuit’ ; and Trajan himself published the expenses of the two journeys, ‘Itaque non tam pro tua gloria quam pro utilitate communi edicto subiecisti quid in utrumque vestrum esset impensum.’ The entry into the city, the demonstrations of the crowd, and the courtesy of Trajan, are described in Panegyr. § 22.

[XI] [VI]

Medici sui propinquis civitatem petit

С. PLINIUS TRAIANO IMPERATORI

¹Proxima infirmitas mea, domine, obligavit me Postumio Marino medico ; cui parem gratiam referre beneficio tuo possum, si precibus meis ex consuetudine bonitatis tuae indulseris. ²Rogo ergo, ut propinquis eius des civitatem, Chrysippo Mithridatis uxorique Chrysippi Stratonicae Epigoni, item liberis eiusdem Chrysippi, Epigono et Mithridati, ita ut sint in patris potestate utque iis in libertos servetur ius patronorum. Item rogo indulgeas ius Quiritium L. Satrio Abascanto et P. Caesio Phosphoro et ٭Panchariae Soteridi ; quod a te volentibus patronis peto.

٭Panchay : ae : ac, B.

§ 1. My recent illness has put me under an obligation to Postumius Marinus, my physician, whom I can only adequately reward by your help. § 2. My petition therefore is that you will grant the Roman civitas to some of his relations, viz. to Chrysippus and his wife Stratonice and his children Epigonus and Mithridates ; and the ‘ius Quiritium’ to L. Satrius Abascantus, P. Caesius Phosporus, and Pancharia Soteris. I make this request at the desire of their patrons.

The reference to the illness approximately determines the date of the letter.

§ 1. proxima inflrmitas mea. See above, in Ep. 5, 1, and 8, 3.

Postumio Marino. He evidently had the civitas himself, having probably received the iusta manumissio from one of the Postumian gens. He was, however, a peregrinus by origin, as the condition of his relatives proves.

§ 2. des civitatem. See above in Ep. 5, 2.

Chrysippo Mithridatis. The ordinary way of stating the name of a peregrinus, see above, p. 90.

Epigono et Mithridati. The children according to the ordinary Greek custom were named after their grandfathers.

ita ut sint in patris potestate. This is, of course, the natural consequence of the father and mother receiving the civitas, which involved conubium. Gaius, i 67, ‘quia non aliter quisquam ad patris conditionem accedit, quam si inter patrem et matrem eius conubium sit,’ and he adds, ‘when wife and son enter into the Romana civitas “ex eo tempore incipit filius in potestate patris esse.”‘ In order that Chrysippus might have the ‘patria potestas,’ it was necessary that his wife and sons should also receive it.

utque iis in libertos servetur ius patronorum. This is an exceptional privilege granted to the sons. As peregrini they had the usual rights over their freedmen, with which the father could not interfere, but on coming under the patria potestas, the son would naturally lose not only his right of testamentary disposition and owning property, but also his rights over his freedmen. These consisted (1) in the general obsequium, reverentia, or honour, which the freedman had to render to his patron, Cic. ad Quint. frat. i  1, 4, Dionys. iv 24 ; and (2) in the fulfilment of certain promises made on the manumission to supply dona, munera, bona, operae. Cic. ad Attic. vii 2, ad fam. xiv 4 ; (3) the right of guardianship over the wives, daughters, and infants of their freedmen ; (4) claims on the intestate succession to the estates of their freedmen ; (5) the right in case of ingratitude or impiety to make the manumission void. Suet. Claud. 25 ‘Ingratos (libertinos) et de quibus patroni quererentur revocavit in servitutem.’ This was, however, apparently a temporary measure, as we find the same proposal made under Nero, Tac. Ann. xiii 26 : ‘Per idem tempus actum in senatu de fraudibus libertorum, efflagitatumque ut adversus male meritos revocandae libertatis ius patronis daretur.’ It was, however, finally settled that they should decide each case upon its merits ‘quotiens (liberti) a patronis arguerentur.’

ius Quiritium. See on Ep. 5, 2.

volentibus patronis. See on petente patrona, Ep. 5, 3.

[XII] [VII]

Praeturam amico petit

C. PLINIUS TRAIANO IMPERATORI

¹Scio, domine, memoriae tuae, quae est bene faciendi tenacissima, preces nostras inhaerere. Quia tamen in hoc quoque indulsisti, admoneo simul et inpense rogo ut Attium Suram praetura exornare digneris, cum locus vacet. Ad quam spem alioqui quietissimum hortatur et natalium splendor et summa integritas in paupertate et ante omnia felicitas temporum, quae bonam conscientiam civium tuorum ad usum indulgentiae tuae provocat et attollit.

I am aware, sire, that our petitions never escape your memory. But I am emboldened by your previous indulgence to remind you of my request that you should confer the first praetorship vacant on Attius Sura. Though naturally retiring, he is encouraged to hope for your indulgence both by the prestige of his birth and the integrity which he has shown amid comparative poverty.

bene faciendi tenacissima. Cf. Ер. 85 ; ‘disciplinae tenacissimum’ ; Quint. i  1, 19, ‘memoria tenacissima’; also Juv. viii 25; Verg. Aen. iv 188.

in hoc, so far.

admoneo simul et inpense rogo. I remind you and at the same time add urgency to my request.

Attium Suram. Mommsen thinks he may be identified with the Suberinus or Suburanus mentioned in vi 33 as laying claim to the property of the father of Attia Viriola, who had disinherited her in favour of a stepmother. Although there is an inscription cited, Hermes, in 132, naming a Sex. Attius Suburanus, the identification seems hardly made out, especially as the Suberinus mentioned in vi 33 was disinherited by his own father, and is described as ‘singulari impudentia alieni patris bona vindicans, non ausus sui patris.’

praetura exornare. Election to the old republican magistracies, after the exceptional period in which the triumvirs had done what they liked in this respect as in others, was again placed by Augustus in the hands of the popular assemblies. Suet. Aug. 40, ‘comitiorum pristinum ius reduxit’ ; and Tac. Ann. iii 28, ‘Sexto demum consulatu Caesar Augustus, potentiae securus, quae triumviratu iusserat abolevit.’ He, however, seems to have looked upon the popular election as a necessary evil, and on several occasions when popular feeling about the elections ran high, he himself appointed to the consulships (Dio Cass. 54, 10), or even to all the magistracies, Dio Cass, 55, 34, ‘πάντας τοὺς ἄρξοντας αὐτός, ἐπειδήπερ ἐστασιάζετο, ἀπέδειξε.’ The need for this exceptional action passed away when Tiberius, perhaps as a part of the Augustan policy, transferred in 14 A.D. the comitia from the campus to the senate, Tac. Ann. i 15. But both before and after this change, which placed the election to the consulship, praetorship, tribunate, aedileship, and quaestorship in the hands of the senate, there were two ways by which the emperors could exercise considerable influence on the elections: ( 1 ) by the right which as presiding magistrate he shared with the consuls of testing the qualifications of candidates. Those who were approved were ‘nominati,’ i.e. allowed to receive votes, Dio Cass. 53, 21. The emperors had not the sole right of nominatio, as appears from Tac. Ann. i 81, ‘plerumque eos tantum apud se professos disseruit, quorum nomina consulibus edidisset ; posse et alios profiteri si gratiae aut meritis confiderent.’ But as a matter of fact the emperor’s nominees would always stand the best chance of election, and if he chose to nominate exactly the number of vacancies, the election was practically decided by his nomination. Tac. Ann. i 14, ‘Candidatos praeturae duodecim nominavit, numerum ab Augusto traditum : et hortante senatu ut augeret, iureiurando obstrinxit, se non excessurum.’ Also in ii 36, Asinius Gallus proposes that the emperor ‘duodecim candidatos in singulos annos nominaret.’ There was sometimes, however, a real contest in the senate, Tac. Ann. ii 51 ; and Suet. Vesp. 2, and the number of the emperor’s nominees, no doubt, varied from time to time. Cf. also Dio Cass. 58, 20.

(2) By a development from the old Republican custom of commendatio, the emperors had the right of recommending a certain number of candidates (candidati Caesaris), who were, as a matter of course, elected without any opposition, Tac. Ann. i 25, ‘moderante Tiberio ne plures quam quatuor candidatos commendaret, sine repulsa et ambitu designandos.’ This passage (referring to the praetorship) proves that out of twelve appointments only four were absolutely at the disposal of the emperor, who did not, however, himself appoint, but merely recommended to the senate. It is noticeable that no instance is known of the emperor’s commendatio for the consulship, until the end of Nero’s reign, Tac. Hist. i 77, ‘ceteri consulatus ex destinatione Neronis aut Galbae mansere,’ and Hist. ii. 71, after which the consulship was absolutely at the disposal of the emperor, to a much greater extent than any of the subordinate magistracies. With regard to these latter the right of commendatio remained unaltered. It is mentioned but indefinitely in the ‘lex regia de imperio,’ previous to Vespasian’s reign, ‘uti quos magistratum potestatem imperium curationemve cuius rei petentes senatui populoque Romano commendaverit quibusque suffragationem suam dederit promiserit, eorum comitiis quibusque extra ordinem ratio habeatur.’ Those who were thus commended usually received the honorary title of praetor or quaestor candidatus. Thus Orelli, 133, 2759. 3151, also I.N. 5983, ‘per omnes honores candidatus Augustorum.’ See also Vell. Paterc. ii 124, ‘Quo tempore mihi patrique meo candidatis Caesaris, proxime a nobilissimis ac sacerdotibus viris destinan praetoribus contigit, consecutis, ut neque post nos quemquam Divus Augustus neque ante nos Caesar commendaret Tiberius. Pliny, Panegyr. 69, describes, as Mommsen shows, the praetorian comitia, Staatsrecht, vol. ii p. 879. In this case Trajan introduces his candidati in person, being himself consul, ‘alii cum laetitia’ (i.e. the commendati) ‘alii cum spe’ (i.e. thenominati) ‘recesserunt.’

The number of praetors varied at different times. Under Augustus it was usually 12, Dio Cass. 56, 25, ‘ἀλλʹ οἱ δώδεκα πολὺ κατέστησαν,’ but sometimes sixteen.

Under Tiberius some extraordinary praetorships were conferred upon delatores. Tac. Ann. ii 32, ‘praeturae extra ordinem datae iis qui senatorii ordinis erant’ ; and, accordingly, Dio Cass. 58, 20, ‘πεντεκαίδεκα στρατηγοὶ ἐγένοντο˙ καὶ τοῦτο ἐτὶ πολλὰ ἔτη συνέβη.’ So, too, under Caligula, Dio Cass. 59, 20. Under Claudius it varied from fourteen to eighteen, Dio Cass. 60, 10, ‘ἀνωμάλως δὲ δὴ οἱ στρατηγοὶ ἀπεδείκνυντο˙ καὶ γὰρ τεσσαρακαίδεκα καὶ ὀκτωκαίδεκα, διὰ μέσου τε . . . ἐγένοντο.’ Under Nero there was a fixed number, probably seventeen, Tac. Ann. xiv 28 ; while Nerva added one to preside over cases of dispute between individuals and the fiscus, Dig. 1, 2, 2, 32; Panegyr. 36. The judicial functions of the praetors were diminished (1) by the judicial power of the princeps ; (2) of the senate ; (3) of the praefectus urbi. But the praetor urbanus and praetor peregrinus still retained their judicial functions, Tac. Ann. i 15, ‘mox celebratio ad praetorem translata cui inter cives et peregrinos iurisdictio evenisset’ ; others presided over the various iudicia, Tac. Ann. i 75, ‘nec patrum cognitionibus satiatus iudiciis adsidebat in cornu tribunalis, ne praetorem curuli depelleret,’ and Suet. Tiber. 33 ; one at least presided over cases of fidei commissa, Suet. Claud. 23, and Orelli, 3135, ‘praetori de fidei commissis,’ and one after Nerva over cases connected with the fiscus. But by the time of Nero there was not sufficient judicial work for all, Tac. Agric. vi 4, ‘idem praeturae tenor et silentium : nec enim iurisdictio obvenerat.’ But the number of praetorian appointments was so large, e.g. the less important provincial commands both senatorial and imperial, the legateship of the legions, etc. etc., that the number of praetors could not be diminished. But a large proportion of them probably had chiefly to provide for, and to preside at, the various games and festivals, Tac. Ann. i 15 ; Agric. vi 4 : ‘ludos et inania honoris’ ; Suet. Vesp. 2 : ‘Praetor . . . ludos extraordinarios pro victoria eius Germanica depoposcit ; Dio Cass., 54, 2: ‘καὶ τοῖς μὲν στρατηγοῖς τὰς πανηγύρεις πάσας προσέταξεν’ ; also Juv. x 36, xi 191, xiv 256. See Mommsen’s Staatsrecht, vol. ii pp. 193 ff., and pp. 877-887, and Pauly, Real Encyclop. vol. vi pp. 23 ff. Pliny, therefore, requests Trajan to use his commendatio for Attius Sura.

cum locus vacet. This might refer to a possible vacancy during the year by death, in which case a praetor suffectus would be appointed, but it seems uncertain whether the emperor’s commendatio applied in these cases (see Tac. Ann. ii 51, ‘de praetore in locum Vipsanii Galli quem mors abstulerat subrogando certamen incessit’). It is, therefore, better to take it as a vacancy in the list of those to whom the emperor had promised his  ‘commendatio.’

natalium splendor. Cf. Ep. 4, 5.

summa integritas in paupertate. As pointed out above, this is hardly consistent with Mommsen’s hypothesis that the poverty was caused by his ‘exheredatio.’

bonam conscientiam. Cf. i 12, 3, ‘optimam conscientiam ; Tac. Agric. i ‘bonae tantum conscientiae pretio’ ; also Sen. Ep. 43, 5, ‘bona conscientia turbam advocat, mala etiam in solitudine anxia est.’

[XIII] [VIII]

Sacerdotium sibi petit

C. PLINIUS TRAIANO IMPERATORI

¹Cum sciam, domine, ad testimonium laudemque morum meorum pertinere tam boni principis iudicio exornari, rogo dignitati ad quam me provexit indulgentia tua vel auguratum vel septemviratum, ٭quia vacant, adicere digneris, ut iure sacerdotii precari deos pro te publice possim, quos nunc precor pietate privata.

٭quia vacant, Cat.                     quia vacat, Ald.

Knowing as I do, sire, how much my reputation is increased by marks of favour from you, I beg you to appoint me either an augur or a septemvir, both which posts are vacant. I shall then be able to offer in a sacred and public capacity the prayers for your prosperity which I now offer in private.

The date of this letter is approximately fixed by comparison with iv 8, where he says, ‘Gratularis mihi quod acceperim auguratum, primum quod gravissimi principis iudicium in minoribus etiam rebus consequi pulchrum est … mihi vero illud etiam gratulatione dignum videtur quod successi Iulio Frontino,’ etc. (1) Frontinus, the author of De agrorum qualitate and De aquaeductibus, had been praetor in 70 (Tac. Hist. iv 39), and Consul III in 100. (2) The augurship was generally conferred after the consulship ; Tac. Agric. 9 ; Hist. i 77, and Henzen, 5431. The letters, however, in Book iv imply Trajan’s presence in Rome, Ep. iv 22 ; and he was away on the first Dacian war from early in 101 till the end of 102. See life of Trajan, pp. 7-8. The augurship was, therefore, probably conferred in 103.

tam boni principis iudicio : cf. iv 8, quoted above.

dignitati ad quam, etc., with special reference to the consulship which Pliny held in September 100.

auguratum vel septemviratum. Both these belonged to the four maiora collegia of sacerdotes, Dio Cass. 53, 1, ‘ταῖς τέταρσιν ἱερωσύναις . . . λέγω δὲ τούς τε ποντίφικας, καὶ τοὺς οἰωνιστὰς τούς τε ἕπτα καὶ τοὺς πεντεκαίδεκα ἄνδρας καλουμένους,’ and Tac. Ann. iii 62. On the number, functions, dignity, etc., of the augurs, see Marquadt, Staatsverw. vol. iii pp. 397 ff. ; Mommsen, Staatsrecht, vol. ii pp. 28 ff., and pp. 1053 ff. ; and Pauly, Real-Encyclop. sub vac. ‘Divinatio.’

The epulones were at first three in number, and were first appointed 196 B.C. Livy, xxxiii 42, ‘Romae eo primum anno triumviri epulones facti, . . . his triumviris, item ut pontificibus, datum togae praetextae habendae ius.’ They were afterwards increased to seven, and called ‘septemviri epulones;’ Aul. Gell. i  12; Lucan, i 602. Under the emperors the number was increased to ten, Dio Cass. 43, 51, but the old name remained; Tac. Ann. iii 64, and Orelli, 2255, 2259, 590, and 773. Their original function was to arrange the ‘epulum Iovis in Capitolio,’ Mart. xii 48, 12, on the 13th November, in connection with the ‘ludi plebeii;’ later, a second epulum Iovis was added on 13th September in connection with the ‘ludi Romani ;’ and lastly, all festivals, dedications, triumphs, birthdays, which were accompanied by a public meal on the Capitol, fell to the department of the epulones. See Marquadt, Staatsverw. vol. iii pp. 347 ff.

Up to 105 B.C. vacancies in these bodies were filled by the cooptatio of the collegia themselves ; but in that year the lex Domitia was passed, according to which the collegia nominated a list of candidates, out of which a ‘quasi comitia’ formed of seventeen out of the thirty-five tribes, drawn by lot, made a selection, as in the case of the pontifex maximus, and the person thus elected by the seventeen tribes was then formally coopted by the collegium ; Suet. Nero 2, ‘Atavus eius (Neronis) Cn. Domitius in tribunatu pontificibus offensior, quod alium quam se in patris locum cooptassent, ius sacerdotum subrogandorum a collegiis ad populum transtulit,’ and Cic. De leg. agrar. ii 7, 18, ‘Hoc idem de ceteris sacerdotiis Cn. Domitius tribunus plebis tulit ut minor pars populi vocaretur, ab ea parte qui esset factus, is a collegio cooptaretur,’ and Vell. Paterc. ii 12, 3. Each member of the collegium could nominate one candidate ; Cic. Phil. xiii 5, 12. So Verginius Rufus used to nominate Pliny each year till his death, ii 1, 8, ‘Illo die quo sacerdotes solent nominare quos sacerdotio dignissimos iudicant, me semper nominabat ;’ and, after his death, Frontinus seems to have done the same, iv 8, 3, ‘Qui me nominationis die per hos continuos annos inter sacerdotes nominabat ;’ but not more than two could nominate the same person ; Cic. Phil. ii 2, 4, ‘me augurem a toto collegio expetitum Cn. Pompeius et Q. Hortensius nominaverunt ; nec enim licebat a pluribus nominari.’ Under the empire three changes took place: (1) After 14 A.D. the election passed from the seventeen tribes to the senate ; Tac. Ann. iii 19, ‘Caesar auctor senatui fuit Vitellio atque Veranio et Servaeo sacerdotia tribuendi ;’ (2) the collegia, instead of nominating a list on the occasion of a vacancy, did so on a fixed day every year, Pliny, ii 1, and iv 8, quoted above ; (3) the emperor seems to have had a right of commendatio for the sacerdotia, as for the other magistracies, cf. Tac. Ann. iii 19, supra, and Dio Cass. 51, 20. As he also had the right of making extraordinary appointments, even when there was no vacancy, Tac. Hist. i 77, ‘Otho pontificatus auguratusque honoratis iam senibus cumulum dignitatis addidit ;’ Ann. i 3 ; Suet. Claud. 4 ; Dio Cass. 55, 9, and 58, 8 ; he is said to have sometimes appointed the majority in the colleges ; Dio Cass. 53, 17: ‘(τοὺς ἀυτοκράτορας) ἐν πάσαις ταῖς ἱερωσύναις ἱερῶσθαι καὶ πρόσετι καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις τὰς πλείους σφῶν διδόναι.’

quia vacant. The augurship, by the death of Sex. Iulius Frontinus : see above, iv 8.

[XIV] XIIII [VIIII]

Gratulatoria ob victoriam

С. PLINIUS TRAIANO IMPERATORI

¹Victoriae tuae, optime ٭imperator, maximae pulcherrimae antiquissimae et tuo nomine et rei publicae gratulor deosque inmortales precor ut omnes cogitationes tuas tam laetus sequatur eventus, ut virtutibus tantis gloria imperii et novetur et augeatur.

٭imperator Maxime, Ald.

I congratulate you, most noble emperor, on your glorious victory, and I pray the gods that similar success may crown all your designs, and so the glory of the empire be restored and increased by your achievements.

Victoriae tuae. No doubt over Decebalus and the Dacians ; but whether the letter was written after the first war, at the end of 102, or after the second war in 106 (see life of Trajan), there seems to be no means of deciding. The epithets maximae, pulcherrimae, antiquissimae, would seem to point to the second war, but Pliny’s use of exaggerated superlatives must modify the force of this inference.

et tuo nomine et rei publicae : cf. Ep. 1, ‘et privatim et publice.’

cogitationes. For the use of cogitatio in the concrete sense of design, see Suet. Calig. 48, ‘vix a tam praecipiti cogitatione revocatas.’

novetur, after the unsuccessful policy of Domitian in Dacia : see life of Trajan, p. 7.

augeatur : possibly by the annexation of Dacia as a province.

optime imperator. Cf. Panegyr. § 2, ‘Iam quid tam civile, tam senatorium quam illud additum a nobis optimi cognomen,’ and see life of Trajan, p. 5, note 11.

[XV] [XXVI]

De itinere suo in Bithyniam

C. PLINIUS TRAIANO IMPERATORI

¹Quia confido, domine, ad curam tuam pertinere, nuntio tibi me Ephesum cum omnibus meis ὑπὲρ Μαλέαν navigasse, quamvis contrariis ventis ٭retentum. Nunc destino partim orariis navibus partim vehiculis provinciam petere. Nam sicut itineri graves aestus ita continuae navigationi etesiae reluctantur.

٭retentum, H. Stephanus.                   retentus, B. and Ald.

You will, I know, be glad to learn that I safely passed Cape Malea, and arrived at Ephesus. I now intend to proceed partly by coasting vessels, partly by carriage. For the heat makes a land journey oppressive, and the Etesian winds will prevent my sailing all the way.

This and the following letters all relate to Pliny’s appointment in Bithynia and Pontus. On the nature of this post and the circumstances which led to it, see introduction, pp. 25 and 48. The date of Pliny’s governorship is fixed approximately by the following considerations : ( 1 ) The other nine books of Letters cover, as Mommsen, Hermes iii, has pointed out, the period between 96 and 108. In them he mentions all the offices he had held up to that time, and all the important ‘advocationes’ which he had undertaken, and the fact that no allusion is made to this, his most important appointment, is proof positive that up to 108 he had not received it. (2) His wife Calpurnia’s grandfather, Calpurnius Fabatus, was alive in 107 or 108, Ep. iv 10 ; 11, 3; 20, 3, according to the date assigned by Mommsen to Book viii ; but we hear of his death during Pliny’s governorship : see Ep. 120, ‘Uxori enim meae audita morte avi volenti ad amitam suam excurrere usum eorum (diplomatum) negare durum putavi.’ (3) Calpurnius Macer is several times mentioned (Epp. 41,61, 62, and 77) in the correspondence with Trajan, in a manner implying that he was the governor of a neighbouring province to Pliny’s. An inscription found in Moesia Superior, C.I.L. Hi 777, ‘Imp. Caes. Div. Fil. Nervae Traiano Aug. Germ. Dacico Pont. max. trib. Pot. xvi Imp. vi Cos. vi p. p. P. Calpurnio Macro Caulio Rufo Leg. Aug. Pro Praet,’ proves that in 112 Calpurnius Macer was Legatus of Moesia Superior, which especially agrees with the reference in Ep. 77. It seems, therefore, most probable that Pliny was appointed in the middle of 111, and remained till early in 113. During the whole correspondence Trajan was evidently at Rome, which also suits this date, since he did not leave Rome for the Parthian war till 113.

me Ephesum navigasse. Ephesus, with its honorary titles,  πρώτη πασῶν καὶ μεγίστη, πρώτη καὶ μεγίστη, μητρόπολις τῆς Ἀσίας, was by far the most important seaport on the coast of Asia Minor, and the one at which Pliny would naturally land on arriving by way of Cape Malea. But from Ulpian, Dig. 1, 16, 4, § 5, it appears that it was a special privilege belonging to Ephesus that the proconsuls of Asia should land first at this port, and the custom may probably have extended to the governors of other provinces in the neighbourhood, who would land first in Ephesus, and from there pass on to their several commands. ‘Quaedam provinciae etiam hoc habent, ut per mare in eam provinciam proconsul veniat, ut Asia, scilicet usque adeo, ut imperator noster Antoninus Augustus ad desideria Asianorum rescripserit proconsuli necessitatem impositam per mare Asiam applicare καὶ τῶν μητροπόλεων Ἔφεσον primam attingere.’ So there are coins with the legend ΕΦΕCΙΩΝ А ΚΑΤΑΠΛΟΥC, i.e. prima navigatio ; Marquadt, Staatsverw. i. p. 337.

ὑπὲρ Μαλέαν, ‘to sail round Malea,’ came to be a proverbial expression from the dangers of its rocky coast and the piratical habits of its inhabitants ; Livy, xxxiv 32 ; Polyb. v 95 ; Symmach. viii 60, ‘Μαλὲαν δὲ κάμψας ἐπιλάθου τῶν οἴκαδε.’ The most usual route from Italy to Greece or Asia Minor was by way of the Gulf of Corinth to Lechaeum, where the isthmus was crossed and a fresh ship taken at Cenchrea; Propert. iii 21, 9-24; Ovid, Trist. i 10, 9-10; Tac. Hist. ii. 1. Sulpicius tells Cicero, Epp. ad Fam, xii 4, that his colleague Marcellus, ‘ὑπὲρ Μαλὲας, in Italiam versus navigaturus erat,’ and Flavius Zeuxis, a merchant of Hierapolis in Phrygia, has left it on record, C. I. G. 3920, that he had sailed ‘ὑπὲρ Μαλέαν εἰς Ἰταλίαν πλόας ἑβδομήκοντα δύο. See Friedländer, vol. ii. p. 23.

quamvis contrariis ventis retentum. Both Avantius and Aldus read ‘retentus,’ which would make it necessary to begin a fresh sentence at ‘quamvis.’ It seems better, with H. Stephanus, to read ‘retentum,’ as the concessive force evidently relates to the previous clause.

vehiculis. This was a word specially used in connection with the imperial post-system established by Augustus. Suet. Aug. 49, ‘Et quo celerius ac sub manum adnuntiari cognoscique posset quid in provincia quaque gereretur, iuvenes primo modicis intervallis per militares vias, dehinc vehicula disposuit.’ The couriers were called speculatores, and were a regularly organised body, some of which were assigned to the emperor’s retinue, Suet. Aug. 74 ; Claud. 35 ; Tac. Hist. ii 11 ; others to the Praetorian cohorts, Tac. Hist. i 29; others to the legions. The system was used (1) by the emperors themselves in travelling, Pliny, Panegyr. 20, ‘nullus in exigendis vehiculis tumultus, nullum circa hospitia fastidium . . . quam dissimilis nuper alterius principis transitus’ ; (2) by the magistrates and provincial governors ; and (3) by any to whom the ‘diplomata’ were given, either by the emperor himself or the provincial governors in his name ; see Epp. infra, 45, 48, 64, 120; also Tac. Hist. ii 65. Along the roads were at certain intervals mutationes, where horses were changed, and mansiones, where shelter was provided for the night. In later times so- called palatia were added to the latter for the entertainment of the governors or the emperor. The various districts were under the charge of praefecti vehiculorum : see C. I. L. passim. The expense was borne by the local governments, until Nerva for Italy at least put part of it upon the fiscus ; hence the coins, Eckhel, vi 408, ‘vehiculatione Italiae remissa.’

graves aestus. Ep. 17, 6, states that he arrived in his province on September 22.

etesiae. See Pliny, Nat. Hist. ii 47, ‘Ardentissimo autem aestatis tempore exoritur Caniculae sidus . . . qui dies xv Augustas Kalend. est. Huius exortum diebus octo ferme Aquilones antecedunt, quos Prodromos appellant. Post biduum autem exortus iidem Aquilones constantius perflant diebus quadraginta (i.e. from Aug. 17 to Sep. 26) quos Etesias vocant. Molliri iis creditur solis vapor geminatus ardore sideris : nec ulli ventorum magis stati sunt.’ Cic. ad Fam. ii 15, writes: ‘Ego nisi quid me Etesiae morabuntur celeriter, ut spero, vos videbo ;’ Lucret. vi 714: ‘Is (Nilus) rigat Aegyptum medium per saepe calorem, Aut quia sunt aestate aquilones ostia contra Anni tempore eo quo Etesia flabra feruntur.’

[XVI] [XXVII]

TRAIANUS PLINIO S.

¹Recte renuntiasti, mi Secunde carissime. Pertinet enim ad animum meum quali itinere in provinciam pervenias. Prudenter autem constituis interim navibus interim vehiculis uti, prout loca suaserint.

You are right, my dear Secundus, to send me news. It concerns me nearly to hear how you reach your province. Your intention to proceed partly by land, partly by sea, is a wise one.

mi Secunde. Up to 79 A.D. Pliny’s full name was probably P. Caecilius L. f. Ouf(entina) Secundus. Mommsen cites an interesting inscription from Gruter, p. 376, 5, probably relating to the father of Pliny and his two sons : ‘L. Caecilius L. f. Cilo iiii vir a(edilicia)p(otestate) xxxx (milia) municipibus Comensibus legavit, ex quorum reditu quotannis per Neptunalia oleum in campo et in thermis et balineis omnibus quae sunt Comi praeberetur, t(estamento f(ieri) i(ussit), et L. Caecilio L. f. Valenti et P. Caecilio L. f. Secundo,’ etc. etc. In 79 A.D. he was adopted by his mother’s brother, C. Plinius Secundus, by the process of testamentary adoption. Mommsen points out, Hermes, iii, that testamentary adoption, which did not come into operation until after the death of the adoptive father, had under the republic all the force of a strict and regular adoption, i.e. the adopted son passed into the tribe of his adoptive father, assumed his praenomen, and was formally designated as his son : his original Gentile name, modified by the suffix-anus, being taken as an additional cognomen. Thus T. Pomponius Atticus, Cicero’s friend, when adopted by the testament of his uncle Q. Caecilius, became Q. Caecilius Q. f. Pomponianus Atticus ; Cic. ad Att. iii 20. But though this was his legal title, he continued in ordinary social intercourse to be known by his original name ; and from the first years of the empire this testamentary adoption came to be little more than a change of name on inheriting property by will. Thus one of the brothers adopted by the will of Cn. Domitius Afer in 50 A.D. was called Cn. Domitius Sex. f. Afer Titius Marcellus Curvius Lucanus, i.e. he remained the son of his natural father Sextus, and retained his former nomen unchanged as one of his cognomina. Manifestly testamentary adoption could not involve subjection to the potestas of the adoptive father, and it came to involve no more than a mere change of gens, the original Gentile name being retained as a cognomen. Thus Pliny’s name after adoption became C. Plinius L. f. Ouf. Caecilius Secundus. Martial speaks of Pliny as Secundus (v 80) : ‘Quid si legeris ipse cum diserto . . . Secundo,’ but in x 19 as Plinius, ‘libellum Facundo mea Plinio Thalia, I perfer.’ The superscriptions of the letters C. Plinius are not original.

interim . . . interim : cf. Tac. Ann. 14, 41 : ‘interim specie legum, mox praevaricando ultionem elusurus ;’ and often in Quintilian. Lewis and Short cite v 10, 34 ; vi 3, 59 ; ix 2, 100.

[XVII] A [XXVIII]

In Bithyniam se venisse scribit

C. PLINUS TRAIANO IMPERATORI

¹Sicut saluberrimam navigationem, domine, usque Ephesum expertus, ita inde, postquam vehiculis iter facere coepi, gravissimis aestibus atque etiam febriculis vexatus Pergami substiti. ²Rursus, cum transissem in orarias naviculas, contrariis ventis retentus aliquanto tardius quam speraveram, id est XV Kal. Octobres, Bithyniam intravi. Non possum tamen de mora queri, cum mihi contigerit, quod erat auspicatissimum, natalem tuum in provincia celebrare. ³Nunc rei publicae Prusensium inpendia reditus debitares excutio ; quod ex ipso ٭tractatu magis ас magis necessarium intellego. Multae enim pecuniae variis ex causis a privatis detinentur : praeterea quaedam minime legitimis sumptibus erogantur. ⁴Haec tibi, domine, in ipso ingressu meo scripsi.

٭tractatu B.                               tractu Ald.

§ 1. My voyage, sire, was favourable as far as Ephesus, but when I began to use the post – service, I was troubled with fever brought on by the heat, and compelled to rest at Pergamum. § 2. I then had recourse to coasting vessels, but owing to contrary winds did not reach Bithynia till September 17. I must not however complain, since it was an excellent omen to celebrate your birthday in my province. § 3. I am now examining the financial matters of the Prusensians, a task which I find more necessary the more I look into them. Many sums of money are in the hands of private individuals, and some grants have been made for illegal purposes. I write this immediately on my arrival.

The date of the letter (17th Sept. 111) is fixed by the last sentence. See also note on Ep. 15.

§ 1. usque Ephesum. For usque with names of towns, cf. Cic. Verr. iv 49 (quoted by Roby. 1108) ‘usque Hennam profecti sunt,’ and Cic. ad Qu. Frat. i  1, 14 ‘ut usque Romam significationes vocesque referantur.’

febriculis vexatus. Cf. Cic. ad Fam. x 21 ‘qui ex labore in febriculam incidit assiduam et satis molestam.’

Pergami substiti. Pergamum in Mysia, formerly the capital of the Attalidae, and enriched and beautified by Eumenes II. It was afterwards one of the μητροπόλεις of the province of Asia, C. I. Gr. 3538. It was situated on the main road from Ephesus and Sardis to the Hellespont, Xen. Anab. vii 8, 8. It was on the northern bank of the navigable Kaikus, 120 stades from the sea. Two smaller streams, the Selinus and Cetius, flowed respectively through and by it, Plin. Nat. Hist., v 126, ‘longe clarissimum Asiae Pergamum, quod intermeat Selinus, praefluit Cetius.’ It was about 700 stades from Ephesus by way of Smyrna. It is mentioned as the head of a conventus by Cic. pro Flacc. 29, 71, ‘ubi et multi cives Romani sunt, et ius a nostro magistratu dicitur,’ and by Pliny, loc. cit., ‘Pergamena vocatur eius tractus iurisdictio.’

§ 2. Bithyniam intravi. In all probability Pliny coasted round as far as Cyzicus where he would take the main road through Miletopolis and Apollonia to Prusa. That he should have proceeded through the interior of Mysia, and over the Olympus range is impossible.

auspicatissimum, cf. Quint. x 1, 85, auspicatissimum exordium ; Tac. Germ. 11, ‘nam agendis rebus hoc auspicatissimum initium credunt.’

natalem tuum celebrare. From the time of Iulius Caesar the birthday of the princeps was observed as a public holiday. Dio Cass. 44, 4, τά τε γενέθλια αὐτοῦ δημοσία θύειν ἐψηφίσαντο.’ So Suet. Aug. 57, ‘Equites Romani natalem eius sponte atque consensu biduo semper celebrarunt.’ Dio Cass. 51, 19, ‘ἔν τε τοῖς γενεθλίοις αὐτοῦ (i.e. Augustus) . . . . ἱερομηνίαν εἶναι (ἐψηφίσαντο).’ So the German legions (Dio Cass. 56, 25), ‘οὐ πάνυ πόῤῥω τοῦ Ῥήνου προῆλθον ἀλλ̉ αὐτοῦ που μέχρι τοῦ μετοπώρου μείναντες καὶ τά τοῦ Αὐγούστου γενέθλια ἑορτάσαντες, καί τινα ἱπποδρομίαν ἐν αὐτοῖς διὰ τῶν ἑκατονάρχωυ ποιήσαντες ἐπανῆλθον.’ On the birth of young Caius Caesar (Dio Cass. 54, 8) ‘βουθυσία τις τοῖς γενεθλίοις αὐτοῦ ἀίδιος ἐδόθη.’ Tiberius took it as a sign that Sejanus was aiming at the first place (Suet. Tib. 65) ‘quum iam et natalem eius publice celebrari. . . videret.’ See also Dio Cass. 60, 12, ‘καὶ τά γενέθλια τά τῆς Μεσσαλίνης δημοσία ἐτίμων.’ The birthdays of the emperors were also observed after their death, Dio Cass. 59, 24, ‘καὶ ἐψηφίσθη ἄλλα τε καὶ ἵνα τοῖς τοῦ Τιβηρίου καὶ τοῖς τῆς Δρουσίλλης γενεθλίοις τά αὐτὰ ἅπερ καὶ τοῖς τοῦ Ἀὐγούστου γίγνηται.’ So Domitian forbade the celebration of Titus’s birthday, Dio Cass. 67, 2, ‘καὶ τὴν ἱπποδρομίαν τὴν τῶν γενεθλίων αὐτοῦ κατέλυσε.’

reipublicae Prusensium. Prusa, the birthplace of Dio Chrysostom, was situated at the foot of the Olympus range. According to Pliny, Nat. Hist. v 32, it was founded by Hannibal. It, however, more probably owed its origin to Prusias himself. It formed one of the διοικήσεις into which Pompeius divided Bithynia, and was also a conventus or administrative district of the province; Dio Chr. ii p. 199 R, ‘καὶ μὴν τὸ νῦν συμβεβηκὸς περὶ τὴν ἡμετέραν πόλιν τὸ μὲν ἀληθὲς ἅπτεται πολλῶν καὶ κνίζει τοὺς ἄλλους πάντας, ὅτι δὴ τὰς δίκας, ὑμεῖς ἀποδέχεσθε καὶ παρ̉  ὑμῖν αὐτοὺς ἀνάγκη κρίνεσθαι.’ It did not, however, attain to the rank of a libera civitas, for Dio says, ii p. 199, ταῦτα γὰρ (i.e. the tribunals of the conventus) ὑμᾶς  πλέον ὀνήσει τῆς ἐλευθερίας αὐτῆς, ἐὰν ἄρα καὶ τούτου τύχητέ ποτε, and it was necessary to obtain leave from the proconsul to hold the public assembly Dio Chr. Or. 48, ii, p. 236 R, ‘πρῶτον μὲν ὦ ἄνδρες τῷ κρατίστῳ Οὐαρίνῳ δεῖ χάριν ἡμᾶς εἰδέναι ὅτι βουλομένοις ἡμῖν ἐκκλησιάσαι πάλιν ἐφῆκεν.’

inpendia reditus debitores excutio. From the time of Trajan the independence of the municipal towns, whether liberae or not, both in Italy and the provinces, was increasingly interfered with by the central authority, and this particularly in respect of their finances, which in too many cases fell into disorder. To revise and arrange these, curatores rei publicae were sent out to particular towns Henz. 6484, Wilmann, 2167 and 2479, or sometimes to a group of towns, Henz. 5126. Occasionally, however, a whole province was so embarrassed that the financial oversight of all its communities was put into the hands of a nominee of the emperor. Thus, under Trajan, Sex. Quintilius Maximus (Plin. Ep. viii 24) was ‘missus in provinciam Achaiam ad ordinandum statum liberarum civitatum’: so Henz. 6483, ‘legatus divi Hadriani ad rationes civitatum Syriae putandas,’ Henz. 6506, ‘curator civitatum universarum provinciae Siciliae,’ Henz. 6484, ‘logista Syriae.’ Sometimes the financial duties of the curator or logista (Cod. Iust. I, 54, 3) were united to a more general authority. Thus, C. I. Gr. 4033, Tiberius Iulius Severus was ‘πρὸς πέντε ράβδους πεμφθεὶς εἰς Βιθυνίαν διορθωτὴς καὶ λογιστὴς ὑπὸ θεοῦ̉ Αδριανοῦ.’ Pliny (for whose formal title see inscr. p. 16) probably united the offices of λογιστὴς and διορθωτὴς. See De la Berge, p. 119; Mommsen, Staatsrecht., ii p. 1037 ; Marquadt Staatsverw. i p. 162. We find him regulating or considering the finances of Sinope (Ep. 90), Nicomedeia (Ep. 37) Nicaea and Claudiopolis (Ep. 39), Byzantium (Ep. 43), Араmаеа(Ep. 47), Amisus (Ep. 92).

tractatu, an emendation of Ritterhusius for the Aldine reading ‘tractu.’ It is now confirmed by the Bodleian MS., which has tractatu in the scribe’s hand in the margin. For a similar doubt cf. Ep. 96 §4.

multae enim pecuniae . . . a privatis detinentur. Money so detained either by magistrates or private individuals was called ‘residuae pecuniae.’ A Lex Iulia of Augustus brought this offence under the head of peculatus, Dig. 48, 13, 2, ‘lege Iulia de residuis tenetur qui pecuniam delegatam in usum aliquem retinuit neque in eum consumpsit : qui pecuniam publicam in usus aliquos retinuerit nec erogaverit : apud quem pecunia publica resedit : qui in tabulis publicis minorem pecuniam scripserit, aliud ve quid simile commiserit.’ The punishment was restitution of the money plus half of its amount. See Pauly, Real Encylop. vii p. 456. The investment of the money so called in placed Pliny in some embarrassment ; see Ep. 53, ‘pecuniae publicae, domine, providentia tua et ministerio nostro et iam exactae sunt et exiguntur ; quae vereor ne otiosae iaceant.’

minime legitimis sumptibus. These would be all not included in what are called (Ep. 35) the ‘erogationes necessariae.’ Thus the Prusenses had been accustomed to make grants of public money for oil for the baths, ‘quam ipsi erogare in oleum soliti.’ Trajan allows them by a special favour (indulgentia) to divert this to the ‘instructio novi balinei,’ but neither of these applications of money was strictly legitimate : nor again was the grant of 12,000 HS. by the Byzantines for sending a legatus every year to the emperor with a complimentary psephisma : nor that of 3000 HS. for sending a legatus to the governor of Moesia (Ep. 43). Extravagant expenditure of this kind left insufficient money for legitimate and necessary objects.

erogantur, the technical word for grants of public money.

in ipso ingressu meo. These words must not be too closely pressed, as Pliny had already had time to look into the finances of Prusa.

XVII В

С. PLINIUS TRAIANO IMPERATORI

Quinto decimo Kalendas Octobres, domine, provinciam intravi, quam in eo obsequio, in ea erga te fide quam de genere humano mereris inveni. ⁵Dispice, domine, an necessarium putes mittere huс mensorem. Videntur enim non mediocres pecuniae posse revocari a curatoribus operum, si mensurae fideliter ٭agantur. Ita certe prospicio ex ratione Prusensium, ٭٭quam cum maxime tracto.

٭aguntur B.                     agantur, Ald.

٭٭quam cum maxime, B.                     quam cum Maximo, Ald.

I entered my province, sire, on 17th September and found it well-affected and loyal. Would it not be well to send here a land surveyor ? Considerable sums of money might probably be recovered from the contractors of public works if the measurements were accurately taken. I am already convinced of this from my inspection of the financial state of Prusa.

The Aldine edition joins this letter to the preceding one. The repetition of the date of entry into the province makes this almost impossible, while the frequent occurrence of ‘domine’ would increase the difficulty. After Pliny had despatched the former letter, the advisability of getting a ‘mensor’ occurred to him. He thereupon wrote this short letter and sent it by a different tabellarius, and in case it might by any chance arrive before the other letter, he more briefly announced the completion of his journey to the province.

de genere humano. See on Ep. 1.

mensorem. The mensores or agrimensores under the empire formed an important college with considerable privileges and handsome pay. On the practical side they were concerned with all boundary questions, whether of public or private land. They had to mark out boundaries in the first instance, and were called upon either as judges or experts in all disputed cases. Theoretically their art was based on an abstruse or special application of mathematical geometry. Subordinate to but connected with the agrimensores there were bodies of specialists concerned (1) with machine construction, ‘mensores machinarii’ Orell. 1567 and 4107 (2) camp measurements, ‘mensores castrorum’ Or. 3473, and (3) architectural measurements ‘mensores ædificiorum’ Or. 3223. It was one of these latter that Pliny required. They were probably identical with the architecti. Cf. Dig. 11, 6, 7, 3.

revocari. Cf. Ep. iii 9, 17, ‘ut pecuniae quas creditoribus solverat revocarentur’ Suet. Ner. 44, ‘a delatoribus potius revocanda praemia’ Suet. Galb. 15 ‘liberalitates Neronis . . . revocandas curavit.’

curatoribus operum. At Rome there were two ‘curatores aedium sacrarum et operum locorumque publicorum’ ; briefly ‘cur. op. pub.’ They performed a portion of the censors’ duties; see Cic. de leg. agrar. iii 3, 7 ; had the charge of public buildings, oversight over temples and the custody of the sacred offerings and gifts, Wilmann, 1224, 1273, 1181, 1142. In municipal towns like Prusa, where offices were less subdivided, they would also have the duty of settling contracts for the construction of public buildings, in which, in the absence of trustworthy mensores, there was room for jobbery and dishonesty of all sorts. An example of the dishonesty often practised by these curatores is given by Suetonius Vitell. 5, ‘curam operum publicorum administravit . . . dona atque ornamenta templorum surripuisse et commutasse quaedam ferebatur proque auro et argento stannum et aurichalcum supposuisse.’

agantur. Döring points out that the word is used specially of land-surveyors and architects ; and cites Ov. Ars Am. iii 558, ‘limes agendus erit,’ and Tac. Germ. 29, ‘limite acto.’ Cf. also Plin. h. n. xv, 3, 14, ‘amurcae mensuram nemo agit.’ The agrimensores were called ‘agentes’ Hyg. Lim. p. 179.

ex ratione ; in the sense of ‘accounts.’ This word is used either in the sing. (Cic. Verr. ii 1, 41, § 106) or in the plur. Cic. ad Fam. v 20, 2, and infra, Ep. 18.

quam cum maxime tracto. Another repetition of the former letter, which makes it impossible to consider the two as one, but it is quite consistent with the view taken above.

cum maxime : at this present moment.

tracto, see above, tractatu.

The Aldine edition followed by all later editions till 1709, has ‘cum Maximo’ (see Ep. 27 and 28). Döring retains this, but it has little to recommend it, and most modern editions have followed the conjecture of Perizonius in the edition of Cortius, ‘cum maxime.’ This is now confirmed by the Bodleian MS.

[XVIII] [XXVIIII]

TRAIANUS PLINIO S.

¹Cuperem sine querella corpusculi tui et tuorum pervenire in Bithyniam potuisses ac simile tibi iter ab Epheso ٭ei navigationi fuisset, quam expertus usque illo eras. ²Quo autem die pervenisses in Bithyniam cognovi, Secunde carissime, litteris tuis. Provinciales, credo, prospectum sibi a me intellegent. Nam et tu dabis operam ut manifestum sit illis electum te esse, qui ad eosdem mei loco mittereris. ³Rationes autem in primis tibi rerum publicarum excutiendae sunt : nam et esse eas vexatas satis constat. Mensores vix etiam iis operibus quae aut Romae aut in proximo fiunt ٭٭sufficientes habeo : sed in omni provincia inveniuntur quibus credi possit, et ideo non deerunt tibi, modo velis diligenter excutere.

٭ei navigationi, Cat.           et nav., B.           ut nav., Ald.

٭٭sufficientes, B.                                   sufficienter, Ald.

§ 1. I wish your journey from Ephesus had been as favourable as your previous voyage. § 2. I note the date of your arrival in Bithynia. The provincials will, I am sure, appreciate my care for them, and you must make it quite clear that you are sent to represent me. § 3. Be particularly careful in scrutinising the financial position of the towns : they evidently are in confusion. As for surveyors, I have not enough for my own building operations here, but there are trustworthy experts in every province to be found with a little inquiry.

§ 1. querella corpusculi tui. Cf. Sen. Qu. Nat., iii 1, 3, ‘pulmonis ac viscerum querellas levare.’ For the humorous use of the diminutive ‘corpusculum’ cf. Juv. x 173, ‘mors sola fatetur Quantula sint hominum corpuscula.’ See Prof. Mayor’s list of the diminutives used in Juvenal ad loc.

simile iter ei navigationi The true reading ‘ei’ conjectured by Catanaeus, I now restore as proved by the Bodleian MS., which has ‘et navigationi.’ Aldus, not understanding the  ‘et,’ changed it against all grammar into ‘ut.’

usque illo. Juvenal has usque adeo, iii 84, v 129, xv 82. Cicero has usque istinc, ad Att. i 14.

§ 2. pervenisses ; pluperf. because previous to the date of Pliny’s letter.

provinciales sometimes used in opposition to Italians as Plin. Ep. ix 23, 2, ‘Italicus es an provincialis?’ and Suet. Vesp. 9 ; often, however, as here for the inhabitants of a particular province : Cic. ad Quint. fr. i 1, 5.

electum te esse qui . . . mittereris, ‘that you were chosen to receive a special mission to represent me.’ See the inscr. p. 16. The words are not really redundant for ‘mei loco missum esse.’ The ‘electum’ implies a special appointment. Cf. Ep. 117, ‘sed ego ideo prudentiam tuam elegi.’

§ 3. rationes … in primis . . . excutiendae. For Pliny’s execution of this injunction see note on Ep. 17a 3.

iis operibus quae aut Romae aut in proximo fiunt. These would be (1) the repair and improvement of the roads in Italy, Dio Cass., 68, 15, ‘καὶ κατὰ τοὺς αὐτοὺς χρόνους τά τε ἕλη τὰ Ποντῖνα ὡδοποίησε λίθῳ καὶ τὰς ὁδοὺς παροικοδομήμασι καὶ γεϕύραις μεγαλοπρεπεστάταις ἐξεποίησεν.’ Eckhel Doc. Num. vi p. 421 ; and especially the construction of a new road from Beneventum to Brundisium- the via Traiana-in 109 A.D., Henz. 5169, ‘Imp. Cæsar divi Nervae f. Nerva Traianus Aug. Germ. Dac. Pont. Max. Tr. pot. xiii, Imp. vi, Cos. v. P. P. viam et pontes Benevento Brundisium pecunia sua.’ (2) The new hexagonal basin above the Claudian harbour at Ostia, the ‘portus Traiani,’ Cohen, ii 365-6. Juv. Sat. xii 75 ff. (3) The new harbour at Centum Cellae (CivitaVecchia) Plin. Ep. vi 31. This was begun in 106 A.D. with Trajan’s villa close by ‘villa pulcherrima cingitur viridissimis agris, imminet litori.’ (4) The harbour of Ancona, which was probably in the course of construction at this time, as the inscription on the arch dates from 115 ; Orell. 792. (5) The construction of the Aqua Traiana (now acqua Paola) Dierauer zur Geschi. Trаjans, p. 132. (6) the Thermae Traianae on the Esquiline ; and (7) the splendid Forum of Trajan with its Basilica, libraries, triumphal arch and column. This was completed in the 6th consulship i.e. 112-113 , Cohen ii 95.

[XIX] XVIIII [XXX]

De custodiis

C. PLINIUS TRAIANO IMPERATORI

¹Rogo, domine, consilio me regas haesitantem utrum per publicos civitatum servos, quod usque adhuc factum, an per milites adservare custodias debeam. Vereor enim ne et per servos publicos parum fideliter custodiantur et non exiguum militum numerum haec cura distringat. ²Interim publicis servis paucos milites addidi. Video tamen periculum esse ne id ipsum utrisque neglegentiae causa sit, dum communem culpam hi in illos, illi in hos ٭regerere posse confidunt.

٭regerere, B. and Cаt.                          regere, Avant. and Ald.

§ 1. I should be glad of your advice, sire, as to whether the prisoners should be guarded by public slaves as hitherto, or by soldiers. I distrust the fidelity of the slaves, and yet I hesitate to employ as many soldiers as would be required. § 2. At present I use some of both, but I fear that this arrangement may enable each to throw any blame incurred on the others.

§ 1. publicos civitatum servos. The publici servi, usually briefly ‘publici,’ were distinguished from ordinary slaves in several points-(1) they had dwellings assigned on public ground ; lex Iul. Municip. 82, ‘quae loca serveis publiceis ab cens(oribus) habitandei utendei caussa adtributa sunt,’ etc. ; (2) they received an annual sum of money for food, cibaria, see Ep. 31, 2, ‘ut publici servi, annua accipiunt’ ; (3) they wore a special dress, the limus ; and hence are often spoken of as limo cincti, Orell. 3219; (4) they were allowed to dispose of half their property by will, Ulpian, 20, 16. They might be acquired by communities through capture in war, or sale, or bequests by individuals. They were employed to forward despatches, Plut. Galb. 8 ; as attendants in the tabularium, Liv. xliii 16; as executioners, Cic. Phil. viii 8; Val. Max. ii 10, 6; Vell. Paterc. ii 19 ; as temple servants, Tac. Hist. i 43 ; Orell. 2470, ‘publicus ab sacrario divi Augusti’ ; as public auctioneers, Plin. Ep. vii 18, ‘agrum ex meis publico actori mancipavi,’ Tac. Ann. ii 30 ; in connection with the aqueducts under the ‘curatores aquarum,’ Frontinus, de Aquaed. 100 ; as library attendants, ‘publici a bybliotheca Latina porticus Octaviae,’ Orell. 2853, Henz. 6270 ; the inferior slaves were assigned ‘ad balineum, ad purgationes cloacarum, munitiones viarum et vicorum,’ Ep. 32, 2 ; Mommsen,Staatsrecht, i 306 ff.; Pauly, Real Encyclop. vi p. 1102.

an per milites. The point of Pliny’s question was not whether it was legal to employ soldiers, on which Gierig cites Tac. Ann. iii 22, ‘cum militari custodia haberentur,’ and Hist. iv 11 ; but whether in a province like Bithynia soldiers could be spared for this purpose ; see on Ep. 21.

custodias, the prisoners. For this use of the abstract for the concrete Döring cites Suet. Nero, 31, ‘quod ubique esset custodiae’; Tib. 61, ‘inrecognoscendis custodiis’; Calig. 27, Dom. 14, ‘solus plerasque custodias audiebat’ ; Sen. Ep. v 7, ‘eadem catena et custodiam et militem copulat.’ Cf. operae = workmen ; inquisitio = inquisitores, Ep. 30 ; amicitia = friends, Tac. Ann. ii 27, 2 ; consilia=advisers, Tac. Ann. iv 40, 2 ; matrimonia = wives, Tac. Ann. ii 13, 3.

non exiguum mffltum numerum. Bithynia as a senatorial province had no legions stationed in it. Pliny, however, had several auxiliary cohorts under his command; see Ep. 21 ; one of which was a ‘cohors sexta equestris’; Ep. 106. Nicomedeia was the chief  ‘statio,’ Ep. 74. Trajan’s instructions were that soldiers should be as little as possible away from their headquarters. Ep. 22 ; ‘curandum ne milites a signis absint’ ; see Ep. 20.

distringat. Cf. i 10, 9, ‘distringor officio’; v 5, 3, ‘quamvis agendis causis distringeretur.’

§ 2. dum. For this semi-causal use of dum see Tac. Ann. ii 84, ‘Romanis haud perinde celebris, dum vetera extollimus recentium incuriosi.’

culpam regerere. Cf. ‘convicia regerere,’ Ноr. Sat. i 7, 29; ‘invidiam regerere,’ Tac. Hist. iii 78.

[XX] XXXI]

TRAIANUS PLINIO S.

¹Nihil ٭opus est, mi Secunde carissime, ad continendas custodias plures commilitones converti. Perseveremus in ea consuetudine quae isti provinciae est, ut per publicos servos custodiantur. Etenim ut fideliter hoc faciant in tua severitate ac diligentia positum est  In primis enim, sicut scribis, verendum est ne, si permisceantur servis publicis milites, mutua inter se fiducia neglegentiores sint : sed et illud haereat nobis, quam paucissimos milites a signis avocandos esse.

٭opus est, Cat.                     opus sit, B. and Ald.

There is no need, my Pliny, to employ more soldiers to guard the prisoners ; better to abide by the custom of the province and use the public slaves. Their loyalty must be your care. As you say, by employing both, you will make both careless, and I am particularly anxious that the soldiers should not be called away from their standards.

commilitones. Augustus in his desire to restore military discipline never used this term of the soldiers. Suet. Aug. 25, ‘neque post bella civilia aut in concione aut per edictum ullos militum commili tones appellabat sed milites : ac ne a filiis quidem aut privignis suis, imperio praeditis aliter appellari passus est: ambitiosius id existimans quam aut ratio militaris aut temporum quies aut sua domusque suae maiestas postularet.’ After the Julio-Claudian line, however, the emperors were much more dependent on the army. Galba twice addresses his soldiers in this way (Suet. Galb. 20) : ‘quid agitis commilitones? ego vester sum, et vos mei’; and (Tac. Hist. i 35) to the soldier who boasted that he had killed Otho, ‘commilito, inquit, quis iussit?’ Trajan, whose early life had been spent in the camp, took especial pains to win the confidence and affection of his soldiers. See Plin. Panegyr. § 13, ‘cum tecum inediam, tecum ferrent sitim ; . . .non tibi moris tua inire tentoria, nisi commilitonum ante lustrasses, nec requiem corpori nisi post omnes dare’; ‘in praesentia quidem, quisquis paulo vetustior miles, hic te commilitone censetur. Quotus enim quisque cuius tu non ante commilito quam imperator?’ Dio Cass. 68, 23.

in ea consuetudine quae isti provinciae est. For this observance of local customs see Ep. 68 109, 115, 113, 48, 93.

mutua inter se fiducia, by each relying on the other.

illud haereat nobis, let us abide by the general rule.

quam paucissimos milites a signis avocandos. Cf. Ep. 22.

[XXI] [XXXII]

De numero militum Gabio Basso praefecto adsignatorum

C. PLINIUS TRAIANO IMPERATORI

¹Gabius Bassus, praefectus orae Ponticae, et reverentissime et officiosissime, domine, venit ad me et conpluribus diebus fuit mecum ; quantum perspicere potui, vir egregius et indulgentia tua dignus. Cui ego notum feci praecepisse te ut ex cohortibus quibus me praeesse voluisti contentus esset beneficiariis decem, .equitibus duobus, centurione uno. Respondit non sufficere sibi hunc numerum idque se scripturum tibi. Hoc in causa fuit quo minus statim revocandos putarem quos habet supra numerum.

Gabius Bassus, the praefect of the Pontic coast, has been with me for some days. As far as I could see, he is well worthy of your favour. I told him that he must be content with the number of soldiers you specified. He declares that they are insufficient, and promises to write to you. Meanwhile I have not recalled those whom he has in excess of the number.

§ 1. Gabius Bassus. Mentioned again in Ep. 86.

praefectus orae Ponticae. Generally speaking, a praefectus was one appointed as a deputy for another. In the provinces the praefecti were, compared with the governor, permanent officials, under the republic appointed by the governors themselves from the number of their friends, Corn. Nep. Attic. 6 ; Cic. ad Attic. vi 3, 6, under the empire, probably by the emperors. Of these some were appointed to civil, others to military duties. The latter were usually taken from the praefecti or tribuni of auxiliary cohorts. They had separate commands, generally at outlying stations) or to protect a particular frontier. The number of troops under them naturally depended on the danger and importance of the post. Thus (Tac. Hist. iv 65) Iulius Tutor was ‘ripae Rheni a Vitellio praefectus,’ i.e. he was entrusted with the protection of the Rhine frontier, and would need considerable troops. Again we find a ‘praefectus ripae fluminis Euphratis,’ Henz. 6943, which would also be an important post ; and a ‘praefectus ripae Tibisci Danuvii,’ Orell. 3234. The ‘praefectus orae maritumae conventus Tarraconensis’ Wilmann, 1611, and the ‘praefectus orae Ponticae’ would have a less important charge, and may probably have had to look after the import duties, and to act as coast-guard officers. Cf. the Praefectura Nymphaei portas in Sardinia, Bormann Bullett. dell’ Inst. 1869, p. 182, and cf. Cagnat, de Municipalibus et Provincialibus Militiis, p. 16 ff.

compluribus diebus. For the ablative in the sense of duration see Roby, Lat. Gr. 1184, 1185. It is only found in post-Augustan Latin ; cf. Tac. Hist. i 53, ‘quatuordecim annis exilium toleravit’ ; and the common phrase on sepulchral inscriptions ‘vixit annis xx.’ etc.

ex cohortibus quibus me praeesse voluisti. We have no means of knowing what cohorts they were, except that one was a cohors sexta equestris ; see Ep. 106. The auxiliary cohorts were either quingenariae with 500 men ; or miliariae with 1000; either of these again might be ‘equitata.’ The cohors miliaria equitata had 240 cavalry and 760 infantry ; the coh. quinq. eq. had 120 cavalry and 380 infantry. Marquadt, Staatsverw ii. p. 470.

beneficiariis decem. All soldiers below the rank of centurion who were raised above the position of common soldiers either by exemption from the munera of the camp, or by any special duty, were called principales ; ‘hi sunt milites principales qui privilegiis muniuntur,’ Vegetius 2, 7. The conferment of any of these privileges was a beneficium ; and the recipients were the beneficiarii of those superiors who granted the privileges. Cf. Tac. Hist. i 25, ‘primores militum per beneficia Nymphidii suspectos.’ Each of the higher officers had a certain number of beneficiarii whom he could himself select and employ for special purposes. Cf. Tac. Hist. iv 48, ‘aequatus inter duos beneficiorum numerus’ ; and we find in inscrip. bf. of the legatus ; the praefectus legionis : the praefectus praetorio; and of the procuratores ; see Marquadt, ii, p. 549 ; see Wilmann, 98, 1727, 1566, etc. The beneficiarii, therefore, were picked soldiers, from whom promotions to superior appointments were made.

equitibus duobus, belonging to a cohors equitata or equestris.

hoc in causa fuit quominus = hac causa prohibitus sum quominus.

[XXII] [XXXII]

TRAIANUS PLINIO S.

¹Et mihi scripsit Gabius Bassus non sufficere sibi eum militum numerum qui ut daretur illi mandatis meis complexus sum. ٭Cui quae rescripsissem ut notum haberes, his litteris subici iussi. Multum interest in ٭٭tempus poscat an hoc munere uti latius velit. Nobis autem utilitas demum spectanda est, et quantum fieri potest, curandum ne milites a signis absint.

٭cui quae rescripsissem, Keil.                    quid quaeris scripsisse me ? B. and Ald.

٭٭ Keil’s conjecture in the text.

te poscat an homines in se ut latius velint. B. and Ald.

res poscat an homines imperare latiusvelint, Cat.

tempus poscat an homines iure uti latius veiint. Orell.

Gabius Bassus has written to me that the number of soldiers which I assigned him is insufficient. My answer I have ordered to be annexed for your information. It is important to distinguish between a temporary demand and a permanent increase of forces. We must look to the general advantage, maintaining as far as possible the rule to keep soldiers by their standards.

mandatis meis complexus sum. For this sense of complecti, to sum up in speech or writing, cf. Cic. Phil. xiv n, 29. ‘causas complectar ipsa sententia.’ Lewis and Short cite also Quintil. iii 6, 13.

cui quae rescripsissem. This is Keil’s emendation for the unsatisfactory reading of the Aldine edition : ‘quid quaeris scripsisse me?’ which Döring and J. C. Orelli retain. Gebauer’s conjecture was ‘quoi quae rescripserim.’

his litteris subici iussi. Trajan sends Pliny a copy of his rescript to Gabius Bassus.

multum interest . . . latius velit. This passage is very corrupt, and modern editors have attempted in various ways to make something out of the text of the old editions,-‘te poscat an homines in se ut latius velint.’ Catanaeus conjectured, ‘res poscat an homines imperare latius velint’; imperare, however, as Döring points out, is inapplicable to a petty official like the praefectus orae Ponticae ; Orelli reads ‘tempus poscat an homines iure uti latius velint,’ which, though generally accepted, seems hardly satisfactory. Homines is hardly a suitable expression ; and the phrase iure uti latius is vague and indefinite. I have adopted Keil’s suggestion, ‘in tempus poscat an hoc munere uti latius velit,’ as at least giving a clear antithesis between the two clauses. For the omission of utrum, cf. Ep. 30.

demum, exclusively. This is a purely post-Augustan use of the word ; cf. Quintil. ii 15, 1, ‘adeo suis demum oculis credidit,’ and i 4, 29, ‘quaedam verba tertiae demum personae figura dicuntur, ut licet, piget’ ; Suet. Oth. 6, ‘nihil magis testatus est quam id demum se habiturum quod sibi ipsi reliquissent,’ and Aug. 16, ‘uno demum navigio.’

ne milites a signis absint. Cf. supra, Ep. 20.

[XXIII] [XXXIIII]

De balineo Prusensium

C. PLINUS TRAIANO IMPERATORI

¹Prusenses, domine, balineum habent et sordidum et vetus. ٭Idque tam inutile aestimant ut novum fieri debeat quod videris mihi desiderio eorum indulgere posse. ²Erit enim pecunia ex qua fiat, primum ea quam revocare a privatis et exigere iam coepi, deinde quam ipsi erogare in oleum soliti, parati sunt in opus balinei conferre ; quod alioqui et dignitas civitatis et saeculi tui nitor postulat.

٭itaque tamen aestimamus novam fieri quod B.

Id itaque indulgentia tua restituere desiderant : ego tamen aestimans novum fieri debere videris- Ald.

§ 1. The people of Prusa, sire, have an old and dilapidated bath-house, which with your permission they wish to restore. My own opinion is that a new one should be built, and I think you may safely grant their request. § 2. Money will be forthcoming for the work. I am already beginning to recover certain sums from private individuals, and the town is prepared to spend on a bath-house the grants which they have hitherto made for oil. Besides the rank of the community and the prestige of your reign demand that the work should be carried out.

§ 1. balineum. Few towns either in Italy or the provinces were without their public bath or baths. The vicus near Pliny’s Laurentine villa had three, Ep. ii 17, 26. These were sometimes built at the public expense, Henz. 6985, ‘colonis incolis peregrinis lavandis gratis D.D. P.P. (i.e., decreto decurionum publica pecunia) ; sometimes by private munificence, Orell. 2287, ‘qui lavationem gratuitam municip. incoleis hospitib. et adventorib. uxorib. serveis ancilleisque eor. in perpetuom dedit,’ Henz. 6625. They were sometimes free from payment, as in the cases above ; sometimes ‘meritoria.’ At Rome the usual charge was a quadrans ; cf. Juv. vi 447, ‘quadrante lavari,’ and Hor. Sat. i 3, 137 ; in smaller places it was rather more. The baths were leased to a manager who had to comply with certain set conditions ; cf. Juv. vii 4, ‘balneolum Gabiis. . . conducere,’ and Hübner and Momms. Lex Metalli Vipascensis, cited by Friedländer III, p. 133. An interesting inscr. is Orell. 3890, ‘T. Varius Rufinus . . . balineum . . . p(ecunia) p(ublice) t(ributa) factum quod respublica a novo refecerat incendio maxima ex parte consumptum operibus ampliatis pec. sua restituit,’ also Orell. 2222, 3982, ‘balneum refectum dec. decr. pecun. public.’ A splendid idea of the public baths of a municipal town may be gained from the Thermae Stabianae at Pompeii. The Baths of Caracalla at Rome are the best example of the magnificent baths of the capital.

The forms balneum and balineum are both found ; the latter being most usual in the prose writers of the post-Augustan age and in inscr. Juvenal, however, has balnea. In the plur. the word is usually heteroclite balneae, balineae.

idque tam inutile etc. This passage has long been considered hopelessly corrupt. Aldus read ‘Id itaque indulgentia tua restituere desiderant : ego tamen aestimans novum fieri debere videris,’ etc., which Keil prints in his edition with a lacuna after aestimans, remarking in his note, ‘lacuna quam indicavi pretium quanti balneum restituendum Plinius aestimavit cum verbo finito ex quo reliqua pendebant, excidisse videtur.’ In this case, however, we should surely expect ‘posse’ rather than ‘debere.’ Now the Bodleian MS. reads after ‘sordidum et vetus,’ ‘itaque tamen aestimamus novum fieri quod videris.’ This, I think, proves that the sentence ‘Id itaque . . . desiderant,’ is an interpolation of Aldus, while it seems to me capable of being restored as I have printed it in the text without any very violent alteration ; ‘desiderio eorum’ would of course be ablative not dative after indulgere.

desiderio, petition. For this post-Augustan sense cf. Tac. Ann. i 19, ‘desideria militum ad Caesarem ferenda’ Suet. Aug. 17, ‘donec desideria militum ordinarentur,’ Plin. Panegyr. 79, ‘videmus ut provinciarum desideriis occurrat.’

quam revocare a privatis. See supra. Ep. 17.

quam ipsi erogari in oleum soliti. It was no uncommon thing for individuals to leave bequests to provide oil gratuitously at the baths on certain anniversaries, cf. Wilm. 2080 d, ‘Caesiae Sabinae Cn. Caesi Athieti. Haec sola feminarum omnium matribus ċ vir. et sororibus et filiab. et omnis ordinis mulieribus municip. epulum dedit diebusque ludorum et epuli viri sui balneum cum oleo gratuito dedit.’ Orell. 748 . . . ‘hic ob dedicationem statuarum equestris et pedestris oleum plebei utriusque sexui dedit ;’ Wilm. 309 ‘et eadem die ex denariis cc oleum in thermas publicas populo praeberi.’ See also Gruter, p. 376, 5. ‘L. Cecilius HS.N. xxx municipibus Comensibus legavit, quorum reditu quotannis per Neptunalia oleum in campo et in thermis et balineis omnibus quae sunt Comi populo praeberetur.’ It is possible, however, that the oil was provided not for the baths, but for the home consumption of the people. At Rome distributions of oil among the people were common in republican times, cf. Liv. xxv 2, 8; Suet. Caes. 38, and measures were taken for keeping down the price of oil, cf. Plin. h. n. 15, 2, and Plut. Caes. 55.

saeculi tui. Cf. on Ep. 1.

[XXIV] ХХIIII [XXXV]

TRAIANUS PLINIO S.

¹Si instructio novi balinei oneratura vires Prusensium non est, possumus desiderio eorum indulgere ; modo ne quid ideo aut ٭intribuatur aut minus illis in posterum fiat ad necessarias erogationes.

٭intribuantur, B. and Ald.

If the construction of a new bath will not cripple the resources of Prusa, we may grant their request, only let no special tax be levied, and nothing must be taken from necessary expenses.

ne quid ideo intribuatur. Let no tax be levied for that purpose ; a rare legal

expression found in no other author.

ad necessarias erogationes ; see on Ep. 17, 3.

[XXV] [X]

De adventu Servilii

C. PLINIUS TRAIANO IMPERATORI

¹Servilius Pudens legatus, domine, VIII Kal. Decembres Nicomediam venit meque longae expectationis solicitudine liberavit.

Servilius Pudens, my legate, arrived on the 24th Nov. at Nicomedia and relieved my long suspense.

Servilius Pudens. See Momms. Hermes, iii 99.

legatus. The proconsuls of the senatorial provinces had under them as assessores, legati pro praetore. The proconsuls of Africa and Asia had three each; the rest only one. They were solely employed in judicial and administrative business. Their Greek title was usually παρεδρεύοντες. Pliny, as holding the place of the proconsul of Bithynia, would have one legatus. See Dio Cass., 53, 14, ‘τοὺς δὲ δὴ παρέδους αὐτὸς ἑαυτῷ ἕκαστος αἷρειται, ἕνα μὲν ὁι ἐστρατηγηκότες (i.e. praetorii) . . . τρεῖς δὲ οἱ ὺπατευκότες (consulares),’ cf. also Cic. ad fam. i 1, 2, 4, and ad Quint. fr. 1 3, 10, where Gabinius and Quintus, governors of Syria and Asia respectively, each have three legati. Cf. also the republican ‘libera legatio.’ Marquadt. Staatsverw, i p. 551.

Nicomediam venit. On Nicomedeia the capital of the province see Ep. 31. Pliny has by Nov. 24 passed from Prusa to Nicomedeia.

longae expectationis. Pliny’s legate seems to have followed him from Rome, and owing to some delays on the road not to have arrived till two months later. Pliny would naturally be both anxious and inconvenienced.

[XXVI] [XI]

Pro Rosiano Gemino

С. PLINIUS TRAIANO IMPERATORI

¹Rosianum Geminum, domine, artissimo vinculo mecum tua in me beneficia iunxerunt. Habui enim illum quaestorem in consulatu ; mei ٭sum observantissimum expertus. Tantam mihi post consulatum reverentiam praestat et publicae necessitudinis pignera privatis cumulat officiis. ²Rogo ergo ut ipse apud te pro dignitate eius precibus meis faveas, cui et, si quid mihi credis, indulgentiam tuam dabis. Dabit ipse operam ut in iis quae ei mandaveris maiora mereatur. Parciorem me in laudando facit quod spero tibi et integritatem eius et probitatem et industriam non solum ex eius honoribus, quos in urbe sub oculis tuis gessit, verum etiam ex commilitio esse notissimam. ³Illud unum, quod propter caritatem eius nondum mihi videor satis plene fecisse, etiam atque etiam facio teque, domine, rogo gaudere me exornata quaestoris mei dignitate, id est per illum ٭٭mea, quam maturissime velis.

٭summe, Avant. and Ald.

٭٭meum B. and Ald.

§ 1. Your kindness, sire, has united Rosianus Geminus to me by the closest bonds. As quaestor he was most respectful to me in my consulship : and he has since then tightened our public connection by private acts of friendship. § 2. I beg therefore that you will, in answer to my request grant him your special favour. I am more sparing in my praise of him because I feel sure that you are well acquainted with his honesty and zeal, both from the offices he has held in the city, and from the campaigns in which he has served under you. § 3. I fear that my recommendation is inadequate to my affection for him, but I again beseech you by advancing my quaestor to increase my dignity in his person.

§ 1. Rosianum Geminum. His full title is given Wilm. 1174 and 1175 T. Prifernius Sex. fil. Paetus Rosianus Geminus, where he is mentioned as one of the patroni lenunculariorum Ostiensium (boatmen of Ostia) ; see also Wilm. 1180.

Pliny writes the following letters to him vii 1, 24, viii 5, 22, ix 11, 30. He probably served as military tribune under Trajan in Germany, see below ‘ex commilitio’ ; he was quaestor in 100 A.D. and in about 108 A.D. (the probable date of the publication of Book ix) was probably holding some office at Lugdunum, Ep. ix 11.

artissimo vinculo ; see below on the relations between consul and quaestor.

tua in me beneficia, with special reference to the consulship.

quaestorem in consulatu. The number of quaestors under the empire was twenty. In their election the emperor had certain candidati, usually two, who when appointed were quaestores principis or Caesaris or Augusti and had special duties. Of the rest two were the quaestores urbani twelve were the provincial quaestores, and the remaining four were the consular or Italian quaestores. Previous to 38 B.C. the consuls had had one quaestor each, but Dio Cassius 48, 43, says ‘ἐπὶ δ̉ Ἀππίου τε Κλαυδίου καὶ Γαϊοὺ Νωρβάνου ὑπάτων, οἷς πρώτοις δύο ἑκατέροις ταμιεῖαι συνεγένοντο κ.τ.λ.’ While the provincial quaestors were assigned to their provinces by sortitio Veil. Paterc. 2, 111 ; Dio Cass. 53, 28, the consuls had the right of selecting theirs for themselves. See Plin. Ep. iv 15, ‘optamus enim tibi (i.e., Fundanus) ominamurque in proximum annum consulatum . . . concurrit autem ut sit eodem anno quaestor, maximus ex liberis Rufi . . . hoc solum dico, dignum esse iuvenem quem more maiorum in filii locum adsumas.’ For consular quaestors see also Tac. Ann. xvi 34, ‘quaestor consulis,’ and Plin. Ep. viii 23 5, ‘qua modestia quaestor consulibus suis (et plures habuit).’ As in some respects the consuls were in Italy what the proconsuls were in the provinces, their quaestors had certain functions in the administration of Italy. They were [at one time stationed (I) at Cales, Tac. Ann. iv 27 ‘Curtius Lupus quaestor, cui provincia vetere ex more Cales evenerant : (2) at Ostia, Vell. Paterc. 2, 94, Suet. Claud. 24, (3) in Padane Gaul, Suet. l. c. ‘Collegio quaestorum pro stratura viarum gladiatorum munus iniunxit, et detracta Ostiensi et Gallica provincia, curam aerarii Saturni reddidit.’ Plut. Sert. 4 ‘ταμιάς ἀποδείκνυται τῆς περὶ Πάδον Γαλατίας;’ (4) possibly at Lilybaeum. See also Dio Cass. 35, 4, ‘of Augustus ‘καὶ ταμίας ἐν τε τῇ παραλίᾳ τῇ τρὸς τῇ πόλει καὶ ἐν ἑτέροις τισὶ τῆς Ἰταλίας χωρίοις ἄρχειν ἐποίησε.’ Their Italian administration was put an end to by Claudius, Suet. Claud. 24, and Dio Cass 6o, 24 ‘τοῖς μὲν οὖν ταμιείαις τὴν διοίκησιν ἀντὶ τῶν ἀρχῶν τῶν ἐν τῇ Ἰταλίᾳ ἔξω τῆς πόλεως ἀντέδωκε,’ and since that time they seem to have assisted the consuls in the urban business. The quaestors were always regarded as in a semi-filial relation to their consuls or proconsuls, see Plin. Ep. iv 15, quoted above, and Cic. ad fam. xiii 10 ‘hanc quaestura coniunctionem liberorum necessitudini proximam esse.’

tantam = tantamdem, quite as much.

privatis cumulat officiis. Pliny’s letters show that they were on intimate terms. Geminus tells Pliny that his books are sold in Lugdunum, somewhat to his surprise ‘bibliopolas Lugduni esse non putabam’ Ep. ix 11.

§ 2. ut ipse apud te… indulgentiam tuam dabis. There are several difficulties in this passage, and probably the reading may be partly corrupt. ‘Apud te’ and ‘cui et’ are especially hard to explain. Döring supposes a strong antithesis between ‘ipse apud te precibus meis faveas’ and ‘cui et indulgentiam tuam dabis,’ the former being a request for Trajan’s good opinion of Rosianus, the latter for some positive promotion, the ‘et’ having a heightening force. But ‘ipse apud te’ is a very awkward expression for ‘in your own mind’ and the ‘preces’ are certainly not for Trajan’s good opinion, but for his ‘indulgentia’ ; ‘pro dignitate’ again does not mean ‘as his worth deserves,’ but ‘in a manner commensurate with his station.’ Precibus meis faveas, and indulgentiam tuam dare, must be taken as synonymous expressions, the latter serving somewhat clearly to define the former. I should prefer to take ‘ipse apud te’ as ‘by your personal intervention’ ; the ‘et’ I should join to ‘tuam’ ; and translate ‘I beg you therefore personally to attend to my petition, and if you attach any weight to my recommendation, you will also grant him the favour as your own.’

ut maiora mereatur to deserve still higher promotion.

ex eius honoribus, quos in urbe . . . gessit. Rosianus was quaestor 100-101 ; he would then be either tribune or aedile, in either case after a full year’s interval ; he may also possibly have been praetor during the interval before the date of this letter, and Pliny may be asking for some praetorian appointment for him such as ‘legatio legionis.’

verum etiam ex commilitio. Mommsen supposes that Rosianus was tribunus militum in the Dacian wars ; but the military tribuneship was held before and not after the quaestorship, cf. the case of Trajan himself and Pliny. See also Plin. Ep. vi 31, 4, and therefore it seems best to refer the commilitium to Trajan’s command in Upper Germany. Or Rosianus may have served in the Dacian wars as praefect of an auxiliary cohort.

§ 3. illud Timim, explained by rogo.

propter caritatem eius qualifies nondum videor.

etiam atque etiam, not ‘again and again,’ but ‘most urgently;’ cf. Cic. Verr. ii 5, 72, ‘haec quamquam nihilo meliora sunt nunc etiam atque etiam multo desperatiora,’ and Lucret. 1, 295, ‘quare etiam atque etiam sunt venti corpora caeca.’

exornata ; cf. Pliny h. n. vii 43, ‘L. Fulvius . . . eodem honore exornatus.’

id est per ilium mea ‘in other words, mine in his person.’

[XXVII] [XXXVI]

De militibus Maximo procuratori adsignandis

C. PLINIUS TRAIANO IMPERATORI

¹Maximus, libertus et procurator tuus, domine, praeter decem beneficiarios, quos adsignari a me Gemellino, optimo viro, iussisti, sibi quoque confirmat necessarios esse milites sex. ٭Tres interim, sicut inveneram, in ministerio eius relinquendos existimavi, praesertim cum ad frumentum comparandum iret in Paphlagoniam. Quin etiam tutelae causa, quia ita desiderabat, addidi duos equites. In futurum quid servari velis rogo rescribas.

٭Ex his interim sicut inveneram, B. and Ald.

The reading in the text is Mommsen’s conjecture.

Your procurator Maximus declares that in addition to the ten beneficiarii, whom by your orders I assigned to Gemellinus, he also must have six. Meanwhile I have left the three he already had in his service, especially as he is going to procure corn in Paphlagonia. Indeed I have added two horsemen as an escort. I beg you to send out word what your wishes are for the future.

Maximus. M. Ulpius Maximus was sub-procurator to Gemellinus ; see Ep. 28 ; he is mentioned Ep. 89.

libertus. The more important procurators were usually taken from the equestrian order, but the inferior and less important posts were filled by freedmen ; see Friedländer, vol. i p, 98.

procurator tuus. One class of procurators was concerned with the collection and settlement of all money paid into the fiscus, both in the imperial and senatorial provinces; cf. Tac. Ann. iv 6 ; res suas Caesar spectatissimo cuique, quibusdam ignotis ex fama mandabat ; cf. also Tac. Ann. xiii 1, ‘Ministri fuere P. Celer, eques Romanus, et Helius libertus, rei familiari principis in Asia impositi.’ Of procurators in senatorial provinces we have examples in Tac. Ann. iv 15, ‘procurator Asiae,’ Tac. Hist. iv 50 ; ‘Baebius Massa e procuratoribus Africae.’ Orell. 3570, proc. prov. Baeticae. Henz. 5456 proc. prov. Narbonensis Orell. 485, proc. Ciliciae, etc., etc. In Bithynia there was a procurator since the province became senatorial, in 27 B.C., to manage the royal domains which had passed into the emperor’s possession. See Dio Cass. 50, 33, and Tac. Ann. xii 21, for Iunius Cilo, who was for four years procurator Bithyniae, or as Tacitus says, ‘proc. Ponti.’ Other procurators of the province are C. Iulius Aquila under Nero, C. I. Gr. 3743. L. Antonius Naso under Vespasian Eckhel 11. 404: and Terentius Maximus under Domitian Plin. ad Trai. 58. After Bithynia became an imperial province (see Introd.) there were several procurators in the province; (1) the procurator Ponti et Bithyniae who took the place of the proconsul’s quaestor; (2) a procurator of the emperor’s estates. Henz. 5530, proc. tam patrimonii quam rationum privatarum ;’ (3) a proc. ad vectig. xx hered. per Pontum et Bithyniam,’ i.e. of the vicesima hereditatum ; (4) a proc. xx lib. C. I. L. iii 249 (vicesima libertatis); and (5) a procurator for the import duty of 2½ per cent. Henz. 5530. Pliny had at least three procurators under him, Gemellinus, Maximus, his adjutor, and Epimachus ; see Ep. 84. These ‘procuratores rei privatae,’ etc., must be distinguished from (1) the procurators who had the sole financial administration of the imperial provinces and who on occcasions even had some military power, Tac. Ann. iv 32 ; and (2) those procurators who were placed by the emperors over the smaller imperial provinces which had no legions quartered in them, such as Judaea, Thrace, etc., see Tac. Hist. i 11; ‘duae Mauretaniae, Raetia, Noricum, Thracia, et quae aliae procuratoribus cohibentur,’ Ann. xv 44. See Mommsen Staatsrecht ii 235 ; Marquadt Staatsverw i p. 555.

beneficiarios. See supra on Ep. 21.

Gemellino. Virdius Gemellinus was a procurator of Bithynia ; see infra, Ep. 28 and 84.

optimo viro. Gemellinus was probably not a freedman, as is also implied in Ep. 84, ‘adhibitis Virdio Gemellino et Epimacho liberto meo procuratoribus.

necessarios esse milites sex. Tres interim sicut inveneram. This is Mommsen’s emendation for the reading of the Aldine ed., ‘milites, ex his interim sicut inveneram?’ Keil supposes that a numeral has dropped out both after milites and after interim ; but ‘ex his’ would still be very awkward, and may well represent ‘sex. tris’ of the M.S. The previous arrangement, therefore, had been that Gemellinus had ten soldiers, and Maximus three, which Pliny, awaiting Trajan’s instructions made up to five from his own cohorts. After Trajan’s rescript in Ep. 28, ‘cum ad pristinum actum reversus fuerit,’ he was to keep the ‘duo equites,’ and to have two of the ten soldiers of Gemellinus, while the other three which Maximus had had when Pliny arrived were restored to their headquarters.

ad frumentum comparandum. Trajan had from the very beginning of his reign laid special stress on facilitating the corn trade throughout the empire. He established corn factories in various places ; and thus guarded against the possibility of famine, not only in Rome, but in every part of the empire, Plin. Panegyr. 29 ‘Instar ego perpetui congiarii reor affluentiam annonae ;’ so that Egypt itself was on one occasion assisted by the capital, Panegyr. 30. The magistrate who had the supreme direction of the corn supply of Rome was the ‘praefectus annonae ; Tac. Ann. i. 7, 13, 22. See Wilm. 691, 1271, 1252, 641, etc. He was the representative of the emperor, and it was his special duty to provide the Roman market with corn, and in later times with the necessaries of life, Henz. 6522 ; ‘adiutori Ulpii Saturnini praef. annon. ad oleum Afrum et Hispanum recensendum,’ etc. The praefectus had agents and assistants in the various provinces, see Orell. 3655, ‘procurator Augg. ad annonam provinciae Narbonensis et Liguriae,’ and Henz. 6522 quoted above. Wilm. 1063. In many of the provinces, however, and especially those which were not especially corn-growing countries, the governors themselves had to attend to the corn-supply both for their own armies, the provincials, and Rome. Thus Orell. 750 ‘we hear of Ti. Plautius Silvanus leg. Aug. prov. Moesiae,’ that he ‘primus ex ea provincia magno tritici modo populum Romanum adlevavit’ ; and similarly here Pliny sends one of his procurators to collect corn from Paphlagonia. All payments for corn to supply the capital or the army were made from the fiscus ; Plin. Panegyr. 29, ‘Emit fiscus quidquid videtur emere, inde copiae, inde annona.’ For the abuses and oppression in connection with the exaction of corn in the provinces, see Cic. Verr. iii 82 ; Tac. Agric. 19.

in Paphlagoniam. Paphlagonia was originally a district intermediate between Bithynia and Pontus. It was bounded on the north by the Euxine, on the south by the mountain-chain of Olgassys, on the east by the Halys, and on the west by the Parthenius. After the conquest of Mithridates, Pompeius joined the sea-coast of Paphlagonia to the new province of Pontus, while the interior of the country he gave back to native dynasts, Strabo. xii p. 541. The strip of coast land belonged permanently to Pontus-Bithynia, but the interior was, during the first century, made a part of Galatia ; see Henz. 6912 and Marquadt  i  p. 358. Paphlagonia was generally a mountainous district, and it was only in the plains along the coast, i.e. in the part belonging to Bithynia, and so under Pliny’s command, that any corn was grown. Amastris, Aboniteichos and Sinope (see Ep. 98, 99, 90, 91) were all in the coast-strip of Paphlagonia.

duos equites. See supra on Ep. 21.

[XXVIII] [XXXVII]

TRAIANUS PLINIO S.

¹Nunc quidem proficiscentem ad conparationem frumentorum Maximum, libertum meum, recte militibus instruxisti. Fungebatur enim et ipse extraordinario munere. Cum ad pristinum actum reversus fuerit, sufficient illi duo a te dati milites et totidem a Virdio Gemellino, procuratore meo, quem adiuvat.

You were right to supply Maximus with a military escort while he is engaged in procuring corn. But when he returns to his usual duties, your two soldiers and two more from Virdius Gemellinus will be quite sufficient.

frumentorum. This is especially used of standing corn ; cf. Caes. Bell. Gall. i 16, 2. Sall. Hist. iii 67, 20. Hor. Ep. i 16, 72. It cannot, however, have this meaning here, as the letter must have been written at least as late as November ; cf. Ep. 25.

et ipse, i.e., as well as Gemellinus, to whom he was usually an adjutor.

extraordinario munere. ‘A special mission’; here almost ‘an independent command,’ as, the procurators being concerned with the fiscus, there was nothing extraordinary in their being sent to procure corn ; see supra.

ad pristinum actum. On ‘actus’ in the sense of ‘munus,’ see Suet. Claud. 15 and 23 ; and the phrase in the Digest ‘ab actu removeri.’

duo a te dati milites. Cf. supra, ‘addidi duos equites.’

[XXIX] XXVIIII [XXXVIII]

De servis inter tirones inventis

С. PLINIUS TRAIANO IMPERATORI

¹Sempronius Caelianus, egregius iuvenis, repertos inter tirones duos servos misit ad me ; quorum ego supplicium distuli, ut te conditorem disciplinae militaris firmatoremque consulerem de modo poenae. ²Ipse enim dubito ٭ob hoc maxime, quod, ut iam dixerant ٭٭sacramento, ita nondum distributi in numeros erant. Quid ergo debeam sequi rogo, domine, scribas, praesertim cum pertineat ad exemplum.

٭ob haec, Ald.

٭٭sacramento militar-i nondum, Ald. ; militari om : ita add., B.

§ 1. Sempronius Caelianus reports that two slaves have been discovered among the enlisted soldiers. I have postponed their punishment until I have consulted you ; § 2. and the more so, as though they have taken the military oath, they have not yet been assigned to any legion. As the matter is important as a precedent, I should be glad of your guidance.

§ 1. Sempronius Caelianus, egregius iuvenis. Probably a military tribune, or a praefect of some military cohort.

repertos inter tirones duos servos. Slaves were never allowed to serve in the army. The rule was : ‘ab omni militia servi prohibentur : alioquin capite puniuntur’ ; cf. Livy xxii, 33 ; ‘servi quinque et viginti in crucem acti quod in campo Martio coniurassent,’ where ‘coniurare’ means to take the military oath. On occasions of necessity, however, slaves were sometimes enlisted, as after the battle of Cannae, Livy xxii 56, 11. In the civil wars, too, slaves were enlisted : by Marius, Plut. Mar. 41 and 43 : by Pompeius, Caes., Bell. Civ. i 24, 2 : by Labienus, Caes. Bell. Afri. 19, 3, by Cn. Pompeius App. Bell. Civ. ii, 103, etc. Even libertini were properly excluded from military service, for which ingenuitas was a necessary condition. The emperor, however, could always in particular cases evade this by the fictitious ‘natalium restitutio,’ and in serious crises freedmen were enrolled in considerable numbers. Suet. Aug. 25, ‘libertino milite bis usus est : semel ad praesidium coloniarum Illyricum contingentium : iterum ad tutelam ripae Rheni fluminis.’ With regard to the recruiting system generally Mommsen has shown in Hermes xix ; (1) that in imperial provinces recruits were enrolled both for the legions and for the auxilliary forces ; (2) that in senatorial provinces only legionaries were recruited ; and (3) that the oriental legions were usually supplied from the oriental provinces, and the western from Gaul, Spain, Italy, and Germany. With regard to Bithynia we know that in the time of Trajan a large number of its recruits were sent to the African legion, III Augusta ; see an inscrip. cited in Hermes, xix p. 9. As Bithynia was temporarily under the emperor’s administration, it is possible that the recruiting may have been for the auxiliary troops to supply the cohorts assigned to Pliny, but see below on ‘distributi in numeros.’

te conditorem disciplinae militaris. Under Domitian there had been a serious military revolt in Upper Germany under L. Antonius Saturninus ; while his jealousy of great commanders like Agricola tended to weaken military discipline. The disasters in the Dacian war of Domitian point to corruption and demoralisation. Domitian had also increased the pay of the legionaries by one-fourth. Suet. Dom. 7, ‘Addidit et quartum Stipendium militi, aureos ternos.’ It was the turbulence of the praetorian cohorts which induced Nerva to adopt Trajan, who restored discipline among these troops. Dio Cass. 68, 3 ; cf. also Plin. Panegyr. 6, ‘Corrupta est disciplina castrorum ut tu corrector emendatorque contingeres,’ and ‘quam speciosum est quod disciplinam castrorum lapsam exstinctamque refovisti depulso prioris saeculi malo.’

ut iam-ita nondum. The ita is wanting in the Aldine ed., which, however, reads militar i nondum. Casaubon conjectured ‘ut iam dixerint.’ Döring takes ‘ut dixerunt’ in the sense of ‘postquam dix.’ Mommsen conjectures needlessly ‘etsi adacti erant.’ I have followed B. in inserting ‘ita.’

dixerant sacramento. Previous to the second Punic war there had been a distinction between the sacramentum taken by the newly enlisted troops, and the voluntary iusiurandum made to the tribunes. When this, however, was made compulsory (Liv. xxii 38 ‘milites tum, quod nusquam antea factum erat, iureiurando a tribunis militum adacti’) sacramentum was used in general for the military oath of allegiance ; cf. Caes. Bell. Civ. i 23. Suet. Claud. 13 ; Dionys. 10, 18, ‘ὅτι πάντες ὀμωμόκασι τὸν στρατιωτικὸν ὅρκον ἀκολουθήσειν τοῖς ὑπάτοις ἐφ̉ οὓς ἂν καλῶνται πολέμους καὶ μήτε ἀπολείψειν τὰ σημεῖα μήτε ἄλλο πράξειν μηθὲν ἐναντίον τῷ νόμῳ. It was originally taken only for the coming campaign, and had to be renewed to a new commander, cf. Liv. xxviii 29. Hence under the empire such phrases as ‘sacramentum Othonis,’ Tac. Hist. i 76, ‘sacramentum Vespasiani,’ id. ib. ii 79. The sacramentum, too, was regularly renewed by all the military forces on the 1st January each year, Tac. Hist. i 55, ‘Inferioris tamen Germaniae legiones solemni Kalendarum Ianuariarum sacramento pro Galba adactae’ ; also infra. Ep. 52 ; on the anniversary of the emperor’s accession. Besides the ordinary phrase ‘sacramentum dicere,’ Tac. Ann. i 28, ‘sacramento dicere,’ to declare by means of the oath, often occurs, etc. Livy ii 24 ; iv 53 ; xxiv 8 ; xli 5. Cf. also, of the tribunes who administered the oath, ‘sacramento rogare,’ Caes. Bell. Gal. iv 12; Livy xl 26, ‘adigere sacramento,’ Tac. Ann. i 37. Livy iv 5, etc.

ita nondum distributi in numeros erant. A ‘numerus’ in post-Augustan times was properly a body of soldiers under the single command of one officer. So centuriae and turmae were not numeri but cohortes were, cf. Tac. Hist. i 87, in numeros legionis ; so also was a legion, Tac. Ann. ii 80, in numerum legionis; cf. ; also Tac. Agric. 18, ‘sparsi per provinciam numeri,’ where it is equivalent to ‘vexillationes’ ; also Tac. Hist. i 6, ‘multi ad hoc numeri e Germania ас Britannia et Illyrico.’ Cf. Suet. Vespas. 6, ‘revocatis ad officium numeris.’ See also Ulpian Dig. 3, 2, 2, 1, ‘exercitum non unam cohortem neque unam alam dicimus, sed multos numeros militum’ ; ‘distribuere in numeros’ seems to be a special phrase for arranging the recruits or newly appointed officers in the various legions, so that ‘in numeros’ almost = in the muster-roll. So when Suetonius wishes to pass on to a friend the military tribuneship which Pliny had procured for him, Pliny says, Ep. iii 8, 4, ‘ego honestissimae voluntati tuae pareo. Neque enim adhuc nomen in numeros relatum est.’ The reading of the Ald. ed. for this was ‘ut iam dixerant sacramento militar i nondum,’ which I have restored from the Bodleian M.S., omitting militari, and inserting ‘ita.’

cum pertineat ad exemplum, cf. vi 29, 2.

[XXX] [XXXVIIII]

TRAIANUS PLINIO S.

¹Secundum mandata mea fecit Sempronius Caelianus mittendo ad te eos de quibus cognosci oportebit an capitale supplicium meruisse videantur. Refert autem voluntarii se obtulerint an lecti sint vel etiam vicarii ٭dati. ²Lecti si sunt, inquisitio peccavit : si vicarii dati, penes eos culpa est qui dederunt : si ipsi, cum haberent conditionis suae conscientiam, venerunt, animadvertendum in illos erit. Neque enim multum interest quod nondum per numeros distributi sunt. Ille enim dies ٭٭quo primum probati sunt veritatem ab iis originis suae exegit.

٭dati. lecti sunt, B. and Ald.                dati. lecti si sunt, Cat.

٭٭pro quo, Ald.                pro. om. B.

§ 1. Sempronius Caelianus has acted agreeably to my instructions in sending you the men. Whether they deserve capital punishment will need investigation. Did they volunteer their services, or did the tribune enroll them, or were they given as substitutes ? § 2. If they were enrolled, the recruiting officers were to blame ; if they were substitutes, those by whom they were deputed ; but if they knowingly and wilfully came forward, they must be executed. That they are not yet arranged on the muster-roll makes no difference. They were bound to declare their origin on the first day of enlistment.

§ 1. refert autem, etc. On the omission of utrum cf. supra Ep. 20. The ‘vel etiam’ is not the third alternative, as the two latter cases where the slaves are not in fault are both opposed to the first.

voluntarii. In republican times those who volunteered their services were said, ‘nomina dare’; Livy x 25, 1, ‘Concursus inde ad consulem factus omnium ferme iuniorum : et pro se quisque nomina dabant, tanta cupido erat sub eo duce stipendia faciendi’ ; also xlii 32, 6. Under the empire the motive for coming forward as volunteers was generally poverty and the desire to earn a living. The number of these volunteers was probably always on the increase, and did not tend to raise the efficiency of the army. Many no doubt, not qualified to serve, succeeded in evading the scrutiny. Cf. Digest, 49, 16, 5, § 10, ‘plerumque voluntario milite numeri supplentur.’ Tac. Ann. iv 4, ‘multitudinem veteranorum praetexebat imperator, et dilectibus supplendos exercitus : nam voluntarium militem deesse ; ас si suppeditet, non eadem virtute ас modestia agere ; quia plerumque inopes ас vagi sponte militiam sumant.’ There were thirty-two ‘cohortes Italicae civium Romanorum voluntariorum,’ consisting of Italians who desired military service, but either could not or would not enter the legions.

lecti ; the ordinary term in connection with the conscription. Cf. Suet. Tib. 30, ‘de legendo vel exauctorando milite.’ The levy was in all cases carried out by virtue of a special commission from the emperor. In the senatorial provinces the proconsul was himself charged with this duty ; in the imperial provinces it was discharged by commissioners of equestrian rank, called dilectatores, and who not only enlisted the soldiers, but scrutinised their bodily fitness as well as their political qualifications. See Hermes xix p. 56, and Mommsen, Staatsrecht, ii p. 820.

vicarii dati. The existence of vicarii in the Roman army, i.e. substitutes provided as recruits by the well-to-do cannot be proved earlier than the time of Trajan, nor do we know to what extent the system at this period had developed. In later times, however, the vicarii formed a large proportion of the legions, and if the ancient practice of excluding slaves was observed in the letter it was broken virtually by the great landowners who were allowed to send as their vicarii into the army large numbers of the coloni or barbarian serfs who were attached to their estates. Indeed the Roman armies who had to defend the frontiers against the Goths and Huns consisted very largely of this sort of soldier ; see Hermes, xix p. 18.

inquisitio. On the abstract term see on Ep. 19. The inquisitores had to examine into the bodily fitness and efficiency of recruits, and also into their political status. Those who passed this scrutiny were ‘probati’ ; see below.

animadvertendum in illos erit, capital punishment will have to be executed upon them.

veritatem originis suae, a true statement of their origin.

[XXXI] [XL]

De iis qui ex damnatione servi publici essent

C. PLINIUS TRAIANO IMPERATORI

¹Salva magnitudine tua, domine, descendas oportet ad meas curas, cum ius mihi dederis referendi ad te de quibus dubito. ²In plerisque civitatibus, maxime Nicomediae et Nicaeae, quidam vel in opus damnati vel in ludum ٭similiaque his genera poenarum publicorum servorum officio ministerioque funguntur atque etiam ut publici servi annua accipiunt. Quod ego cum audissem, diu multumque haesitavi quid facere deberem. ³Nam et reddere poenae post longum tempus plerosque iam senes et, quantum adfirmatur, frugaliter modesteque viventes nimis severum arbitrabar, et in publicis officiis retinere damnatos non satis honestum putabam ; eosdem rursus a re publica pasci otiosos inutile, non pasci etiam periculosum existimabam. ⁴Necessario ergo rem totam, dum te consulerem, in suspenso ٭٭reliqui. Quaeres fortasse quemadmodum evenerit ut poenis in quas damnati erant exsolverentur : et ego quaesii, sed nihil comperi quod adfirmare tibi ٭٭٭possim. Ut decreta quibus damnati erant proferebantur, ita nulla monimenta quibus liberati probarentur. ⁵Erant tamen qui dicerent deprecantes iussu proconsulum legatorumve dimissos. Addebat fidem quod credibile erat neminem hoc ausum sine auctore.

٭similia in his, Ald.          similiaque his, B.

٭٭relinqui, Ald.                         reliqui, B.

٭٭٭possim, B.                          possum, Ald.

§ 1. I must take advantage of your permission to consult you in my difficulties, and ask you to descend to my petty cares. § 2. I find that in several cities, and especially in Nicomedeia, and Nicaea, men condemned to the mines or to the arena, are discharging the duties of public slaves. I am undecided how to proceed in the matter. § 3. It seems hard to send back to their punishment men who have perhaps grown old, and have latterly led an honest life, and yet it is hardly fitting to employ convicts in public situations. I have therefore left the whole matter in suspense, until I have your decision. You will doubtless ask how it was that they were released from their penal position. In spite of inquiry I have no information on this point. The decrees containing their condemnation have been produced, but no documents to attest their release. This may possibly have taken place at the orders of the proconsuls, a view supported by the improbability of any one assuming such a responsibility unempowered.

§ 1. salva magnitudine tua, with all respect to your exalted position.

descendas oportet. I agree with Gierig in opposition to Döring that there is a certain amount of familiarity implied in these words, ‘with all respect to your greatness, you must come down to minor cares.’

de quibus dubito. On the ellipse of the antecedent, see Kennedy, Pub. Sch. Lat. Gram. p. 367.

Nicomediae et Nicaeae. Nicomedeia was founded in 264 B.C. by Nicomedes I, and became the capital, and official residence of the proconsul of the province, Pontus-Bithynia, μητρόπολις καὶ πρώτη Βιθυνίας καὶ Πόντου. It had a temple to Augustus, Dio Cass. 51, 20, and was the seat of the consilium provinciae, C. I. Gr. 1720, κοινὸν τῆς Βιθυνίας ἐν Νικομηδίᾳ. In the third and fourth centuries it increased in importance, and was often the imperial residence. It was termed ‘civitas splendidissima Nicomedensium,’ Orell. 798, and in the fourth century was made a colonia. Orell. 1060. In earlier times the title of μητρόπολις had been contested by Nicaea (Strabo, xii p. 565), which was first founded in 316 B.C. under the name of Antigoneia by Antigonus on the east shore of the lacus Asconius. Lysimachus called it Nicaea after his wife. After the time of Caligula, however, the title of μητρόπολις was finally given to Nicomedeia, although there was still a feeling of soreness about it. But for the title of πρώτη πόλις there was a long and bitter dispute between the two cities. The thirty-eighth speech of Dio Chrysostom was intended to allay this strife which after all was περὶ ὀνόματος μόνον, and as a matter of fact the title was used by both cities. Cf. Dio Chrys. vol. ii p. 140, ἂν δὲ τὸ μὲν τῆς μητροπόλεως ὑμῖν ὄνομα ἐξαίρετον ᾖ τὸ δὲ τῶν πρωτείων κοινὸν ᾖ τί κατὰ τοῦτο ἐλαττοῦσθε; Cf. also Kckhel ii 427, Νεικαιεῖς πρῶτοι Πόντου καὶ Βιθυνίας. For a description of Nicomedeia see Libanius Or. 62, and Ammiam. Marcel. 22, 9, 3, ‘inde Nicomediam venit urbem antehac inclytam, ita magnis retro principum amplificatam impensis, ut aedium multitudinem privatarum et publicarum recte noscentibus regio quaedam urbis aestimaretur aeternae.’

in opus damnati vel in ludum. These were forms of the servitus poenae, the punishment instituted under the empire for ‘personae humiles.’ Damnatio ad metalla (i.e. mines or stone-quarries) was the severest of all. Digest, 1, 13, ‘proxima morti poenae metalli coercitio.’ Damn. ad opus metalli was somewhat milder ; Digest, 48, 19, 8, ‘inter eos autem qui in metalla et eos qui in opus metalli damnantur, difierentia in vinculis tantum est, quod qui in metalla damnantur gravioribus vinculis premuntur, qui in opus metalli levioribus.’ Again, damnatio ad gladium was harsher than damn. ad ludum ‘nam ad gladium damnati statim consumuntur vel certe intra annum debent consumi . . . qui in ludum damnantur non utique consumuntur sed . . . rudem accipere possunt post intervallum ; . . . post triennium rudem induere iis permittitur.’ The crimes usually punished in these ways were furtum, rapina, sacrilegium, incendium and falsum, see Ep. 58. They all involved capitis deminutio maxima, i.e. loss of liberty and citizenship ; cf. Plin. Ep. ii 11, 6. Caligula applied this mode of punishment to those of higher rank ; Suet. Calig. 27, ‘multos honesti ordinis deformatos prius stigmatum notis ad metalla et munitiones viarum aut ad bestias condemnavit.’

publicorum servorum ; see on Ep. 19

annua accipiunt. The public slaves received an annual sum of money for food ; see loc. cit.

reddere poenae. These convicts might without any irregularity have been freed from the poena, but it must have been by a definite decree or edict, which in this case had apparently been dispensed with.

in publicis officiis ; as to the various employments of the publici, see on Ep. 19.

in quas damnati erant. Catanaeus quite unnecessarily alters damnati to dati, possibly out of regard to the phrase in Trajan’s letter following ‘ad balineum . . . dari.’

monimenta. For the use of the word in the sense of written documents see Tac. Hist. ii 101, ‘scriptores temporum qui . . . monimenta belli huiusce composuerunt’ ; Suet, Caes. 54, ‘ut quidam monimentis suis testati sunt’ ; see also Plin. Ep. ii 10, 4, ‘Habe ante oculos mortalitatem : a qua adserere te hoc uno monimento potes.’

quibus liberati probarentur, by which their liberation could be established ; cf. Ер. iii 9, 35, ‘si ille prevaricator probaretur.’

deprecantes, with a view to help them.

proconsulum. On Bithynia as a senatorial province see introduction.

legatorum. Not here the legati Caesaris, as Pliny is the first apparently of these extraordinary governors of the province, but the legati pro praetore or assessores, in Greek παρεδρεύοντες who assisted the proconsuls of the senatorial provinces in their judicial business ; see note on Ep. 25.

quod credibile erat neminem ; not of course so nearly strong as ‘quod incredibile erat aliquem.’ The former case offers simply a fair presumption.

[XXXII] [XLI]

TRAIANUS PLINIO S.

¹Memmerimus idcirco te in istam provinciam missum quoniam multa in ea emendanda apparuerint. Erit autem hoc vel maxime corrigendum, ٭quod qui damnati ad poenam erant non modo ea sine auctore, ut scribis, liberati sunt, sed etiam in conditionem proborum ministrorum retrahuntur. ²Qui igitur intra hos proximos decem annos damnati nec ullo idoneo auctore liberati sunt, hos oportebit poenae suae reddi : si qui vetustiores invenientur et senes ante annos decem damnati, distribuamus illos in ea ministeria quae non longe a poena sint. Solent enim eiusmodi ad balineum, ad purgationes cloacarum, item munitiones viarum et vicorum dari.

٭quod qui, Cat.                quo qui, Ald.

§ 1. We must remember that you were specially sent to the province to bring about certain reforms. And one of these reforms must be brought to bear on the practice of not only liberating convicts without authority, but even restoring them to the position of non-criminal officials. § 2. Therefore those condemned within ten years and liberated without due authority must be sent back to their punishments. Those whose sentence is of longer standing than ten years must be distributed among such semi-penal employments as cleaning the sewers, building roads, and attending at the baths.

meminerimus ; cf. Ep. 34.

idcirco te in istam provinciam missum quoniam, etc.; cf. Ep. 18, ‘tu dabis operam ut manifestum sit illis electum te esse qui ad eosdem mei loco mittereris,’ and Ep. 117, ‘sed ego ideo prudentiam tuam elegi ut formandis istius provinciae moribus ipse moderareris et ea constitueres quae ad perpetuam eius provinciae quietem essent profutura.’ The accusations of Iulius Bassus and Varenus Rufus show how much confusion there had been in the province ; see Epp. iv 9, v 20, vii 6.

damnati ad poenam ; an unusual construction, but framed here on the analogy of damnati in metalla, opus, ludum, etc. ; cf. also Tac. Ann. vi 38, ‘extremum ad supplicium damnatus;’ xvi 21, ‘ad mortem damnabatur.’ Cicero, Caesar, Livy, and Seneca more often use the ablative.

sine auctore. Trajan does not accept the presumption that there must have been an order of some proconsul or his legate.

proborum, i.e. without the stigma of conviction.

retrahuntur. The word implies the illegal restoration in opposition to restituuntur or redduntur.

idoneo auctore. Cf. Cic. Brut. 15, 57, ‘cuius eloquentiae est auctor,et idoneus quidem mea sententia, Q. Ennius.’

vetustiores, of longer standing in regard to their position as convicts.

senes, in regard to age.

ministeria, inferior employments. Cf. Sen. de Benef., ‘beneficium esse quod alienus dat : officium esse filii, uxoris, etc., ministerium esse servi quem conditio sua eo loco posuit ut nihil eorumque praestat imputet.’

sint ; subj., because quae practically = ἃ ἄν.

eiusmodi, men of this sort.

ad balineum, for cleansing the public baths. The managers of the baths, who generally undertook the work on contract, were bound by their agreement to keep the baths open between certain hours, to have fresh water every day, and to clean the baths out at least every month. Cf. Hübner and Mommsen, Lex Metalli Vipascensis, Eph. Epigr. iii 105 seq. The last duty was usually performed by convicts.

ad purgationes cloacarum. At Rome the cloacae were under the charge of the ‘curatores riparum et alvei Tiberis et cloacarum sacrae urbis,’ Wilmann, 851. These officials let the duty out on contract to certain mancipes or redemptores, who were especially looked down upon ; cf. Juv. iii 32 ; and the workmen employed were usually criminals. Prof. Mayor quotes Hieronymus, ‘in urbibus eos qui aliquid commisere flagitii videmus . . . mundare spurcitias cloacarum.’

ad munitiones viarum. Cf. Suet. Calig. 27, cited above.

vicorum. A vicus was properly a complex of buildings ; and so in a city, either a quarter, or a street, ‘quod ex utraque parte viae sunt aedificia,’ Varro, de l. Lat. 5, 145. The streets of a city, however, are also sometimes ‘viae’ ; cf. Lex. Iul. Мuniciр. 7, ‘quae viae in urbem Romam proprius ve urbem Romam passus M., utei continente habitabitur, sunt,’ etc. ; see Tac. Ann. xv 38, ‘flexis atque enorminibus vicis.’

[XXXIII] [XLII]

De collegia fabrorum Nicomedensium instituendo

C. PLINIUS TRAIANO IMPERATORI

¹Cum diversam partem provinciae circumirem, Nicomediae vastissimum incendium multas privatorum domos et duo publica opera quamquam via interiacente, Gerusian et ٭Iseon, absumpsit. ²Est autem latius sparsum primum violentia venti, deinde inertia hominum, ٭٭quos satis constat otiosos et inmobiles tanti mali spectatores perstitisse; et alioqui nullus usquam in publico sipho, nulla hama, nullum denique instrumentum ad incendia conpescenda. ٭٭٭Et haec quidem, ut iam praecepi, ٭٭٭٭parabuntur. ³Tu, domine, dispice an instituendum putes collegium fabrorum dumtaxat hominum CL. Ego attendam ne quis nisi faber recipiatur neve iure concesso in aliud ٭٭٭٭٭utantur ; nec erit difficile custodire tam paucos.

٭Isson, B. and Ald.

٭٭quos, Ritterhusius.                quod. Ald.

٭٭٭ut haec, Ald. ¹ et haec, Ald. ²

٭٭٭٭parabuntur, Cellarius.         parabantur, B. and Ald.

٭٭٭٭٭utantur, Mommsen.                               utatur, Ald.

While I was absent in another part of the province, Nicomedeia was visited with a serious fire, which destroyed many private houses and two public buildings, the Gerusia and the Iseon. The fire spread, both owing to the wind and the lethargy of the people, who are said to have remained mere spectators of the disaster. And indeed there are no fire- engines or buckets, and no appliances for extinguishing fires. I have given orders for these to be provided. It is for you to decide whether a collegium of firemen should not be formed, not to exceed 150 in number. I will take care that they are bona-fide firemen, and that their privileges are not used for other purposes. It cannot be hard to watch so small a number.

§1. circumirem, i.e. to attend at the various conventus in the province.

vastissimum incendium. Fires were extremely frequent in Rome, and though mention of them in other towns is rare, they were not likely to be fewer in the provinces, where less adequate precautions were taken against them. The height of the houses, the narrowness of the streets, and the wooden projections which were frequently attached to the lower stories, all helped to make the danger greater. In 27 A.D. there was a great fire on the Caelian, Tac. Ann. iv 64 ; in 37 A.D. one on the Aventine and in the Circus, Tac. Ann., vi 45. Fires in Caligula’s time are incidentally mentioned, Suet. Calig. 16. The great fire under Nero is described, Tac. Ann. xv 38 seq. after which temples were protected by having their open spaces enclosed by a wall. Under Titus there was a fire in the Campus Martius for three days and nights, Suet. Tit. 8. Under Antoninus Pius 340 dwelling-houses were destroyed by a single fire. All this took place in Rome in spite of the 7000 firemen or vigiles instituted by Augustus, and distributed into the seven cohortes vigilum under the command of the praefectus vigilum. In the provincial towns there can hardly have been more protection against fire as a rule than Pliny finds at Nicomedeia. In 58 A.D. Lugdunum was almost completely destroyed in a single night, Seneca, Epp. 91 ; Tac. Ann. xvii 13. In 53 A.D. Bononia suffered much by a fire, and was assisted by a grant of ten million sesterces ; Tac. Ann. xii 58.

quamquam, with partic. Cf. Plin. Ер. i 12, 3, ‘quamquam plurimas vivendi causas habentem’ ; also iii 4, 5 ; and iii 6, 4 ; Juv. iv 60, ‘quamquam diruta’; and Ep. 39.

Gerusian. This has nothing in common with the political institution of the same name in Ephesus, Strab. 14, 1, 21. Its true character is shown by a passage in Vitruvius, 2, 8, 10, ‘Croesi (domum) Sardiani civibus ad requiescendum aetatis otio seniorum collegio Gerusiam dedicaverunt.’ It is mentioned also by Pliny h.n. 35, 14, 9, and by many inscrr. of Asia Minor. In particular, an inscrip. recently found on the site of the Lycian town, Sidyma (mentioned in Mommsen, Rom. Gesch. v. p. 326) relates that the senate and people determined to institute a gerusia, and to elect for it fifty βουλευταί and fifty other citizens, who were then to appoint a Gymnasiarch. It was no doubt a sort of πρυτανεῖον where there were common meals and common festivals for deserving citizens in their old age.

Iseon. This is no doubt the correct reading, instead of the meaningless Isson of the Aldine text. The worship of Isis was first introduced into Rome soon after the second Punic war, and the sanctuary of the goddess was placed on the Capitol, cf. ‘Isis Capitalina,’ C. I. L., i 1034 ; ‘Isis triumphalis,’ C. I. L. vi 355. Cf. also Suet. Dom. 1 ; Tac. Hist. iii 74. In spite of frequent prohibitions of the senate, the worship gained ground, and 93 B.C. the first public temple to Isis was built by the triumviri in the Campus Martius, Dio Cass. 47, 15. Subsequently other temples were added, but all had to be outside the pomoerium, Dio Cass. 53, 2. The worship of Isis was particularly popular among women ; cf. Juv. vi 522 seq. Tiberius tried to check it, Tac. Ann. ii 85, but later emperors favoured it, as Otho, Suet. Oth. 12, ‘sacra etiam Isidis saepe in lintea religiosaque veste propalam celebrasse dicitur,’ Domitian, Eutrop. 7, 23. Cf. also Lucan, 8, 831. The worship was extended throughout the western provinces. It is attested by inscrr. at Capua, Orell. 1871 ; Southern Gaul, Orell. 1876 ; Vicus Aquensis in Switzerland, Orell. 457 ; at Noreia in Noricum, Orell. 2034 ; in lower Germany, Orell. 1894. In the east and the Greek provinces the Isis-cult was both more ancient and more extended. The following inscrr. from Böeckh, C. I. Gr., prove its existence at Chios, 2230 ; Delos, 2293; Ephesus, 2955; Paros, 2411; Strabo mentions it in Cyprus ; Appian in Rhodes. In Andros was discovered, on four slabs of marble, a hymn to Isis, edited by Sauppe in 1842.

§ 2. alioqui, apart from that.

sipho, properly a small pipe, ‘quem diabeten vocant mechanici,’ here and in the Digest a fire-engine.

hama, fire-bucket. Cf. Juv. xiv 305, ‘Dispositis praedives hamis vigilare cohortem Servorum noctu Licinus iubet.’

nullum instrumentum ad incendia compescenda. A list of these instrumenta is given in the Digest, 23, 7, 18, ‘Acetum quoque, quod extinguendi incendii causa paratur, item centones (pieces of sack-cloth) siphones, perticae quoque et scalae et formiones (mats) et spongias et hamas et scopas (brooms) contineri plerique et Pegasus aiunt.’

§ 3. collegium fabrorum. Collegia might be either religious brotherhoods, as the Collegium Aesculapiiet Hygiae, Wilm. 320, or burial clubs, as the Collegium Lanu- vinum (Henz. 6086), or guilds of workmen, like the various collegia fabrum. In all cases, however, they had peculiar ‘sacra’ of their own, which were the outward sign of their union, definite officers, a common treasury, an annual fête-day, and a regular constitution drawn up in the lex collegii, of which the best example is the lex collegii Lanuvini. The original number of collegia fabrum said to have been founded by Numa Pompilius, gradually received both in Rome and the municipal towns large additions, some with, some without, the consent of the senate. In Rome the various collegia were under the control of the praefectus urbi, in the Italian towns of the aediles, in the provinces of the legati or proconsuls. Towards the close of the republic many of these collegia were used as political clubs, and caused disturbances and corruption at the comitia. In consequence in 68 B.C. by a senatus consultum, ‘collegia sublata sunt quae adversus rempublicam videbantur esse,’ Ascon. in Pis. 4. Clodius, however, in 58 B.C., restored these and added fresh ones ; Cic. pro Sext. 25, ‘ut collegia non modo illa vetera contra senatus consultum restituerentur sed . . . innumerabilia alia nova conscriberentur,’ and Dio Cass. 38, 13. Caesar again, ‘cuncta collegia praeter antiquitus constituta distraxit,’ Suet. Caes. 42, a policy followed by Augustus, id, Aug. 32 ; and Claudius, Dio Cass. 60, 6 ; and Nero, Tac. Ann. xiv 17, ‘collegia quae contra leges instituerant (Pompeiani) dissoluta.’ The formula used for those which were legally constituted was ‘quibus ex senatus consulto coire licet,’ Orell. 1567, etc. Ulpian, Dig. 47, 22, 2, says, ‘quisquis illicitum collegium usurpaverit, ea poena tenetur qua tenentur qui hominibus armatis loca publica vel templa occupasse iudicati sunt.’ See also Dig. 47, 22, 1, ‘Mandatis principalibus praecipitur praesidibus provinciarum ne patiantur esse collegia sodalicia neve milites collegia in castris habeant.’ Among the collegia most frequently mentioned in inscrr. we find collegia fabrum et centonariorum, and simply coll. centonariorum. The centones were coverings of matting or cloth used for protecting military engines against fire, and also for extinguishing fires in towns ; in which connection they are mentioned in the Digest cited above. In all probability these collegia centon. were corps of firemen such as Pliny wished to establish at Nicomedeia. They are found at Lugdunum, Henz. 7256 ; Sarmizegethusa, Henz. 6919 ; Aquileia, Orell. 4082 ; Salonae, Orell. 4429, and in a large number of Italian towns ; see Index in Henzen, pp. 171 and 172. Marquadt, Privatleben, p. 698, supposes that the coll. dendrophororum and tignariorum were also used for firemen. See also Marquadt, Staatsverw. ii p. 530.

dumtaxat hominum CL. Dumtaxat is often used in defining either a maximum or minimum in numerical statements. Cf. Dig. 25, 4, 1, 10, ‘mittantur mulieres liberae dumtaxat quinque.’ Lex Acil. Repet. 32, ‘secum duxerit dumtaxat homines IIL.’ For dumtaxat defining a minimum, see Dig. 50, 16, 202. The members (populus, plebs) of the collegia were sometimes a fixed number, sometimes unlimited. The collegium Aesculapii et Hygiae, e.g., was to be for ‘hominibus numero LX.’

ne quis nisi faber. There were to be no honorary members by whom the coll. might be used for political ends. See Dig. 50, 6, 6, 12, ‘nec omnibus promiscue qui adsumpti sunt in his collegiis immunitas datur, sed artificibus dumtaxat.’

[XXXIV] XXXIIII [XLIII]

TRAIANUS PLINIO S.

¹Tibi quidem secundum exempla ٭conplurium in mentem venit posse collegium fabrorum apud Nicomedenses constitui. Sed meminerimus provinciam istam et praecipue eas civitates eiusmodi factionibus esse vexatas. Quodcumque nomen ex quacumque causa dederimus iis qui in idem contracti ٭٭fuerint . . . hetaeriae aeque brevi fient. ²Satius itaque est conparari ea quae ad coërcendos ignes auxilio esse possint admonerique dominos praediorum ut et ipsi inhibeant, ac si res poposcerit, adcursu populi ad hoc uti.

٭conplurium, Cat.         conplurimum, B. and Ald.

٭٭fuerint, hetaeriae quae breves fient, B. and Ald.

quamvis breves fient, Cat.           ἑταιρίαι ἑταῖροι que brevi fient, Orell.

You think that a society of firemen might be formed at Nicomedeia, as at many other places. But we must remember that your province has been especially disturbed by factions arising from such institutions. Whatever name they bear, it is almost certain that men so united will become a political club. It will be better therefore to supply the necessary apparatus in case of fire, to warn the landlords to take precautions for themselves, and, in case of necessity, to make use of the populace in extinguishing fires.

secundum exempla conplurium. See the Index in Henzen for places where these collegia existed.

provinciam istam, your province. Cf. supra, Ep. 32, ‘te in istam provinciam missum.’

praecipue eas civitates, i.e. Nicomedeia and perhaps Nicaea. These disturbances were among the ‘multa emendanda’ which made a special imperial legate necessary. We learn from Dio Chrys. how Nicomedeia and Nicaea were always quarrelling about the title of πρώτη πόλις, and very likely the collegia may have had an active part in these contentions, just as we find that the quarrel between Nuceria and Pompeii caused the dissolution of a number of illegal collegia, Tac. Ann. xiv 17, cited above.

qui in idem contracti fuerint. This was the common definition of all collegia, which were a collection of a number of personae for some common object.

hetaeriae aeque brevi fient. They will become political associations all the same. The Bodleian MS. and Aldus read hetaeriae quae breves fient. Keil supposes the original to have been hetaeriae que brevi fient after a lacuna. The reading in the text is an admirable conjecture of Bishop Lightfoot. The ἑταιρίαι at Athens were societies not recognised by the state, but at best only tolerated. Their aim was always more or less political. They were sometimes ἐπὶ καταλύσει τοῦ δήμου, Demosth. contr. Steph. ii § 26, or ἐπὶ νεωτέροις πράγμασιν ; sometimes they were συνωμοσίαι ἐπὶ δίκαις καὶ ἀρχαῖς, Thuc. viii 54. Cf. Demosth. in Mid. § 139 ; in Zenoth. § 10, etc. To what an extent the collegia did actually mingle in politics is shown in the Pompeian wall inscrr. See especially Wilmann, 1952 g — p. etc. . . . where the muliones, furunculi, aurifices, lignarii, tonsores, and pomarii recommend their special candidate for the aedileship. In Aurelian’s time the monetarii caused what Vopiscus, Aurel. 38, describes as bellum in the city.

§ 2. dominos praediorum. Here the praedia are the urbana praedia ; cf. Dig. 50, 16, 198, ‘urbana praedia omnia aedificia accepimus … ; urbanum praedium non locus facit sed materia.’

ut et ipsi inhibeant, to employ these means at their own expense ; a rare use of the word. Cf. ‘imperium inhibere,’ Liv. 36, 28.

adcursu populi. Cf. Tac. Ann. iv 41, ‘populi adcursus multitudinem adfluentium increpat.’ Ovid. Fast. ii 372, ‘adcursu praeda recepta Remi.’

[XXXV] [XLIIII]

Votorum nuncupatio

C. PLINIUS TRAIANO IMPERATORI

¹Sollemnia vota pro incolumitate tua, qua publica salus continetur, et ٭suscepimus, domine, pariter et solvimus, precati deos ut velint ea semper solvi semperque signari.

٭suscepimus, Gierig.      suscipimus, B. and Ald.

We have offered our annual vows, sire, for your safety and that of the empire which is involved in it. May heaven grant that they may always be both offered and confirmed.

This letter was written on the 3rd January 112 A.D.

sollemnia vota. The ‘vota publica’ for the emperor’s safety were solemnly paid on the Capitol at Rome, in the various camps and in the provinces, and fresh vows undertaken for the coming year, on the 3rd January. Cf. Plut. Сiс. 2, Capitol, Pert. 6 ‘denique tertium nonarum diem (Ianuarii) votis ipsis,’ etc., vota solvere = to pay vows for the past year ; suscipere vota = to make vows for the coming year ; nuncupare vota=solemnly to repeat the vows made. Cf. Mart. viii 4, ‘Quantus io Latias mundi conventus in aras, Suscipit et solvit pro duce vota suo.’ Suet. Aug. 97, Tac. Ann. iv 17, ‘pontifices eorumque exemplo ceteri sacerdotes, cum pro incolumitate principis vota susciperent, xvi 22,’ etc., Gaius, Dig. 16,233, § 1. ‘Post Kalendas Ianuarias die tertio pro salute principis vota suscipiuntur.’ Publica vota were also made on the anniversary of the emperor’s accession ; cf. Ep. 52, and Panegyr. 94 ; on his return from a journey, Suet. Tib. 38, ‘vota pro itu et reditu suo suscipi passus’ ; and on his birthday, Mart. iv 1.

signari. Catanaeus says, ‘post enim nuncupationem signata servabantur ad finem anni cum persolvebantur et alia nova nuncupabantur.’