CLAS / HIST 4091 / 5091: The Roman Empire

Reading 5: for Friday September 30: Pliny and Trajan

LR sections 19, 63, 69, 78 (p. 67-9; 231-2; 251-5; 295-8)

The Letters of Pliny the Younger Bk. 10 letters 14-121 (on e-reserves at Norlin Library: password "romanempire")

We focus this week on the problems and methods of provincial government, particularly the mutual dependence between the imperial power and the cities of the provinces. The central reading comes from the letters of Pliny the Younger (c. 61 - 113). Pliny was a prominent lawyer and senator and was consul in the year 100. We know a good deal about his life and career from transmitted texts of his personal and official correspondence. Nine books of his personal letters were published already in his lifetime; a tenth, consisting mainly of official correspondence with the emperor Trajan, appeared posthumously. Our discussion will focus on this material, which includes a variety of letters posing official requests for information, advice, privileges etc. Pliny wrote these letters to Trajan while serving as governor of the province of Bithynia Pontus, a senatorial province in the Greek-speaking east. The municipal problems there had prompted the Senate to ask Trajan to send a special governor to sort them out between c. 110-113. It is thus important to keep in mind that this was a province with more than the usual number of problems. It is also important to keep in mind that Pliny was a prolific writer, more so than the average senatorial. Even despite these peculiarities, his letters offer the best single source of insight into how a province of the Roman Empire was run and what the problems faced by an imperial governor were.

Questions

1. From the mass of problems and complaints, try to classify the sorts of matters with which a governor might have to deal.

2. What matters interested the central government and why? What are the principles of government to be deduced from Trajan’s replies to Pliny?

3. What are the underlying problems in the province (political, social, economic)? Are they the same elsewhere? How might they be resolved in the long term?

4. Precisely what problems do the Christians raise for the government?

5. Compare Pliny’s situation in Bithynia Pontus with that of Tiberius Julius Alexander in Egypt. How and why do they differ? Would you say Pliny’s problems and his solutions to them were typical or atypical of provincial administration? Is this even a valid question?

6. What are the avenues available to provincials for communicating problems to the emperor?

7. Did Pliny run his province according to some master plan of provincial administration or were his solutions more ad hoc? Did he operate according to a set of assumptions or was his policy totally random?