Page:The early Christians in Rome (1911).djvu/83

 PART III

CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN PLINY AND TRAJAN

PLINY'S LETTER TO TRAJAN AND THE EMPEROR'S "RESCRIPT"—GENUINENESS OF CORRESPONDENCE

A flood of light is poured upon the early history of Christianity in the correspondence which passed between the Emperor Trajan and his friend and minister Pliny the Younger, who had been appointed to the governorship of Bithynia and Pontus,the district lying in the north of Asia Minor.

The letter of Pliny, containing his report of the trial and inquiry into the matter of the accused Christians of his province, and asking for direction, was written to the Emperor Trajan in the autumn of 111; and the reply of Trajan, which contained the famous rescript concerning the Christian sect—an ordinance which regulated the action of the government of Rome towards the disciples of Jesus for many long years—was dispatched a few months later.

The correspondence was quoted and commented upon at some length by the Latin Father Tertullian before the close of the second century. Eusebius again refers to it, translating the quotations of Tertullian from a Greek version of the celebrated Christian Father.