A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

422 PLINIUS. PLINIUS.
of being one of the most learned men of the age; improbable conjecture that Plinius may have written
and his friend Tacitus, the historian, had the same many of his letters with a view to publication, or
honourable distinction. He was also an orator. In that when he was writing some of them, the idea
his nineteenth year he began to speak in the forum of future publication was in his mind. However
(Ep. v. 8), and he was frequently employed as they form a very agreeable collection, and make us
an advocate before the court of the Centumviri acquainted with many interesting facts in the life
(Ep. i. ] 8-ix. 23), and before the Roman senate, of Plinius and that of his contemporaries.
both on the side of the prosecution, as in the cases The letters from Plinius to Trajanus and the emof Baebius Massa and Marius Priscus, and for the peror's replies are the most valuable part of the coldefence, as ill the cases of Julius Bassus and Rufus lection. The first letter in the tenth book is a letter
Varenus (Ep. vi. 29). of congratulation to Trajanus on his accession to the
He filled numerous offices in succession. While imperial dignity. Other letters contain requests for
a young man he served in Syria, as tribunus mili- favours to himself or his friends; and many of them
tum, and was there a hearer of the stoic Euphrates are on public affairs, on which he consulted the em(Ejp. i. 10), and of Artemidorus. He was subse- peror during his government in Asia Minor. The
quently quaestor Caesaris, praetor in or about replies of Trajanus are short, and always to the purA. D. 93 (Ep. iii. 11), and consul A. D. 100, in pose in hand; for instance, in the matter of the
which year he wrote his Panegpyricus, which is ad- aqueduct of Nicomedia (x. 46, 47), and the aqueduct
dressed to Trajanus (Ep. iii. 13). In A. D. 103 he of Sinope (x. 91, 92); as to covering over a dirty
was appointed propraetor of the province Pontica drain in Amastris, which sent forth a pestilent
(Ep. x. 77), where he did not stay quite two years. stench (x. 99); on the plan for uniting the lake of
Among his other functions he also discharged that Nicomedia to the sea by a canal (x. 50, 51, 69,
of curator of the channel and the banks of the 70); and on the proposal to compel the decuriones
Tiber (/Lp. v. 15, and an inscription in Gruter, p. to accept loans of the public money, in order that
454. 3). the interest might not be lost: the emperor's notions
Plinius was twice married. His second wife of justice would not allow him to accede to such a
was Calpurnia, the granddaughter of Calpurnius proposal.
Fabatus, and an accomplished woman: she was con- The letter on the punishment of the Christians
siderably younger than her husband, who has re- (x. 97), and the emperor's answer (x. 98), have
corded her kind attentions to him, and her affection furnished matter for much remark. The fact of a
in a letter to her aunt Hispulla (Ep. iv. 19). He person admitting himself to be a Christian was
had no children by either wife, born alive. sufficient for his condemnation; and the punishThe life of Plinius is chiefly known from his ment appears to have been death (supplicium miletters. So far as this evidence shows, he was a natus: perseverantes duci jussi). The Christians,
kind and benevolent man, fond of literary pursuits, on their examination, admitted nothing further than
and of building on and improving his estates. He their practice of meeting on a fixed day before it
was rich, and he spent liberally. He built a temple was light, and singing a hymn to Christ, as God
at Tifernum, at his own cost, and an aedes to (quasi Deo); their oath (whatever Plinius may
Ceres, on his own property. He contributed, mean by sacramentum) was not to bind them to
or offered to contribute a third of the cost of any crime, but to avoid theft, robbery, adultery,
establishing a school in his patria (probably Co- breach of faith, and denial of a deposit. Two
mum), for the education of the youth there, and he female slaves, who were said to be deaconesses
asked his friend Tacitus to look out for teachers (ministrae), were put to the torture by Plinius,
(Ep. iv. 13). The dedication of a library at the but nothing unfavourable to the Christians could be
same place, and the establishment of a fund for the got out of them: the governor could detect nothing
benefit of youths (annuos sumptus in alimenta in- except a perverse and extravagant superstition
genuorum, Ep. i. 8), are among the instances of his (superstitionem pravam et immodicam). Heregenerosity recorded in his letters. He was a kind upon he asked the emperor's advice, for the conmaster to his slaves. His body was feeble, and tagion of the superstition was spreading; yet he
his health not good. Nothing is known as to the thought that it might be stopped. The Romans
time of his death. had a horror of secret meetings, especially for reThe extant works of Plinius are his Panegyricus ligious celebrations, and they had experience of
and the ten books of his Epistolae. The Panegy- their mischief, as in the case of the Bacchanalia,
ricus is a fulsome eulogium on Trajanus, in the ex- (Liv. xxxix. 8). They made no distinction between
ordium of which he addresses the patres conscripti, the Christians and others who congregated contrary
but in the course of the Panegyricus the emperor to law: nor did they concern themselves about the
himself is addressed in the second person. It is of particular character of any of these unions: the
some small value for the information which it con- Roman policy was generally opposed to all meetings
tains about the author himself and his times. at irregular times or places (Ep. x. 43). " It is
The letters of Plinius, contained in ten books, not true," says Dr. Taylor (Elements of Civil Law,
furnish the chief materials for his life, and also con- p. 579), " that the primitive Christians held their
siderable information about his contemporaries. assemblies in the night to avoid the interruptions
The tenth book consists entirely of letters from of the civil power: but the converse of that proPlinius to Trajanus, and from Trajanus to Plinius. position is true in the utmost latitude; viz. that
The index to Schaefer's edition of Plinius indicates they met with molestations from that quarter, bethe names of all the persons to whom his extant cause their assemblies were nocturnal." It reletters are addressed. mains a question if they would have been permitted
Plinius collected his own letters, as appears from to hold their assemblies in the day time; and it is
the first letter of the first book, which looks some- not clear that they would. This being premised,
thing like a preface to the whole collection. He the emperor's answer is mild and merciful; more
speaks of collecting others of his letters. It is not an mild than the practice of his governor had been, more