The Early Christians in Rome

by H. D. M. Spence-Jones

The information supplied by these Letters respecting Christianity at the beginning of the second century, emanating as they do from so trusted a statesman, so distinguished a writer, as the younger Pliny, supplemented by a State communication containing an imperial rescript of far-reaching importance from the hands of one of the greatest of the Roman Emperors, is so weighty that it seems to call for a slightly more detailed notice than the particulars which appear in the foregoing pages of this work.

There is no doubt but that “Letters” such as those written by Pliny during the eventful period extending from the days of the Dictatorship of Julius Cæsar to the reign of Honorius—a period roughly of some four hundred and fifty years—occupied in the literature of Rome a singular and important position.

They were in many cases most carefully prepared and designed for a far larger “public” than is commonly supposed. Long after the death of the writer these Letters, gathered together and “published” as far as literary works could be published in those ages when no printing-press existed—were read and re-read, admired and criticized, by very many in the capital and in the provinces.

The first great Letter-writer undoubtedly was Cicero, who flourished as a statesman, an orator, and a most distinguished writer from the days of the first consulship of Pompey and Crassus, in 70 B.C., down to the December of 43 B.C., when he was murdered during the proscription of the Triumvirate.

Of the multifarious works of the great orator, possibly the most generally interesting is the collection of his Letters, a large portion of which have come down to us.

The art of “Letter-writing” suddenly arose in Cicero’s hands in Rome to its full perfection. It has been well and truly said that all the great letter-writers of subsequent ages have more or less consciously or unconsciously followed the model of Cicero.

But it was in the Roman Empire that the fashion was most generally adopted; of course, in common with so much of classical literature, the majority of this interesting and suggestive literature has perished, but some of it—perhaps the best portion of it—has survived. The great name of Seneca is specially connected with this form of literature. L. Annæus Seneca wrote the Epistolæ Morales, probably “publishing” the first three books himself circa A.D. 57. Among these precious reliquiæ the “Letters of Pliny,” including his famous Letter to Trajan and the response, are very highly prized by the historian and annalist.

The younger Pliny was the nephew and adopted son of the elder Pliny. He was a successful lawyer, and was highly trained in all branches of literature. During his brilliant career he filled most of the public offices of State in turn, and in the end became consul. Of the Emperor Trajan he was the trusted and intimate friend. Trajan appointed him, as we have seen, imperial legate of Bithynia and Pontus, and when holding this important post the famous correspondence between the Emperor and his friend took place. Pliny died some time before his imperial master, not many years after the famous letter respecting the Christians in his province was written.

His was a charming character,—kindly, beneficent, charitable,—deeply impressed with the grave responsibilities of his position and fortune. Carefully educated and trained under the auspices of the elder Pliny,—a profound scholar and one of the most weighty writers of the early Empire,—the younger Pliny, as he is generally called, won distinction at a comparatively early age as a forensic orator. He became Prætor at the age of thirty-one. During the reign of Domitian, however, he took no share in public life. Under Nerva he again was employed in the State service. Trajan loved and trusted him, and we read of Pliny being consul in A.D. 100. He subsequently obtained the government of the great provinces of Bithynia and Pontus, and during his tenure of office there must be dated the correspondence between Trajan and Pliny which has come down to us as the tenth Book of the “Letters of Pliny.”

This Pliny has been described as the kindliest of Roman gentlemen, but he was far more than that. He was a noble example of the trained and cultured patrician, an ardent and industrious worker, an honest and honourable statesman of no mean ability,—very learned, ambitious only of political distinction when he felt that high rank and authority gave him ampler scope to serve his country and his fellows. He was, we learn from his own writings, by no means a solitary specimen of the chivalrous and noble men who did so much to build up the great Empire, and to render possible that far-reaching “Pax Romana” which for so many years gave prosperity and a fair amount of happiness to the world known under the immemorial name of Rome.