Trajan’s reply to Gaius Pliny:
Pliny Secundus, you have followed the correct procedure in examining
those who were accused before you as Christians, for in general no hard
and fast rule can be laid down. They should not be sought out. Those
brought before you and proved guilty should be punished provided that
anyone who denies that he is a Christian and actually proves this by
wor****pping our gods is pardoned on repentance, no matter how suspect his
past may have been. Anonymous accusations, however, should not be
admitted in any criminal case, for this would give a very bad precedent
and would not be worthy of our age.
Correspondence, Trajan with Pliny, Letters X.96–97, A.D. 112.
Megan R. wrote:
> Gaius Pliny, governor in Asia Minor, to the Emperor Trajan:
>
> It is my custom, Sire, to re****t to you everything about which I am in
> doubt, for who could better guide my uncertainty or instruct my
> ignorance?
>
> I have never been present at trials of Christians; therefore I do not
> know what or how much to punish or to investigate. I am also very
> unsure whether age should make any difference, or whether those who
> are of tender age should be treated just the same as the more robust;
> whether those who repent should be pardoned, or whether one who has
> once been a Christian shall gain nothing by having ceased to be one;
> finally, whether the name [of Christian] as such should be punished
> even if there is no crime, or whether only the crimes attributed to
> this name should be punished.
>
> Meanwhile I have followed this procedure with those who were denounced
> to me as Christians: I asked them whether they were Christians. If
> they confessed I repeated the question a second and third time and,
> moreover, under threat of the death penalty. If they persisted I had
> them led away to their death, for I had no doubt that, whatever it was
> that they confessed, their stubbornness and inflexible obstinacy
> certainly deserved to be punished.
>
> There were several others, Roman citizens, who showed the same
> madness, and I noted them to be sent to the city. As often happens
> during legal investigations, the crime became more widespread and
> there were some particular incidents. An anonymous accusation was
> presented denouncing a large number of persons by name. I felt that I
> should acquit those who denied that they were or had been Christians
> if they followed my example and called upon the gods; if they offered
> before your image incense and wine, which I had ordered to be brought
> for this purpose with the statues of the gods; and if they reviled
> Christ besides. It is said that those who really are Christians cannot
> be compelled to do any of these things in any circumstances. Others,
> whose names had been given by an informer, first said they were
> Christians but then soon denied it, saying in fact they had been but
> had ceased to be, some saying three years ago, others longer, and some
> as long as twenty years ago. All of these wor****pped your image and
> the statues of the gods and cursed Christ.
>
> They continued to maintain that the sum of their guilt or error lay in
> this, that it was their custom to meet on a fixed day before daylight
> and, alternating with one another, to sing a hymn to Christ as to a
> god. They also bound themselves mutually by an oath, not in order to
> commit any crime, but to promise not to commit theft, robbery, or
> adultery; not to break their word; and not to deny entrusted goods
> when claimed. After doing this, it was their custom to part from one
> another and then to meet again to share an ordinary and harmless meal.
> But even this they said they had ceased to do since my edict in which,
> in compliance with your injunction, I had forbidden closed societies.
>
> I thought it all the more necessary, then, to find out finally what
> was true by putting to torture two girls who were called serving
> girls. But I found nothing but a depraved and enormous superstition.
> Consequently I adjourned the investigation and now turn to you for
> advice.
>
> The matter seems to me worthy of consultation especially because of
> the large number of those imperiled. For many of all ages, of every
> rank, and of both ***es are already in danger, and many more will come
> into danger. The contagion of this superstition has spread not only in
> the cities but even to the villages and to the country districts. Yet
> I still feel it is possible to check it and set it right. Of this much
> I am sure, that people are beginning once more to frequent the
> beautiful temples which have been almost deserted, so that the
> long-neglected sacred rites are being restored and so that fodder for
> the animals to be sacrificed, for which there was until now scarcely
> any demand, is being bought and sold again. From this it is evident
> that a very great number of people can be brought back to better ways
> if they are given the op****tunity to repent.
>
>
> Greg G. wrote:
>
>> In the same year [A.D. 95] Domitian had executed, among many others,
>> the Consul Flavius Clemens even though he was a cousin of his, and
>> his wife, Flavia Domitilla, who was also related to Domitian. The
>> accusation against both was that of atheism. On the basis of this
>> accusation, many others who had adopted the customs of the Jews were
>> also condemned. Some of them suffered death. Others were at least
>> deprived of their property. Domitilla was merely banished to the
>> island of Pandateria.
>>
>> Dio Cassius, Roman History 67, ch. 14 (after A.D. 200).
>>
>
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