1 Earliest Rome

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Tacitus, AnnaisXV.44 J 1.11 Responses to the Christians Therefore, to end the rumour , Nero substituted as the guilty and punished with the choicest penalties those hated for their vices and popularly called Christians. The originator of their name, one Christus, was executed in the Principate of Tiberius by the governor Pontius Pilate; the deadly superstitio was checked for a time, but broke out again, not only in Judaea, the origin of the evil, but even in the capital, where all hideous and shameful practices collect from every quarter and are extremely popular. So first the confessed members were arrested; then, on their evidence a huge number were found guilty, not so much on the charge of arson, as for their hatred of the human race. 1 And those dying were made an object of mockery: covered with animal skins, they were torn to pieces by dogs; or nailed to crosses, when daylight failed, they were set alight as torches to lighten the darkness. 2 1. In face the punishment (execution by fire) is what the law laid down as the penalty for arson. 2. The text of the last clause (from 'Or nailed...') is uncertain 11.11b Correspondence between Pliny and Trajan (c. A.D. 110) Pliny, Lettersx3G~7 Pliny, the governor of Pontus-Bithynia, wrote to the emperor from Pontus about the Christians. Despite his professed inexperience, he knew to release those who denied that they were or ever had been Christians, to punish those who admitted that they were Christians (executing those not Roman citizens, and sending Roman citizens to <strong>Rome</strong> for trial); but he needed guidance on a third category, lapsed Christians, whom he hoped to release. The letters are among our best evidence for Roman expectations of Christian criminal actions, for official procedures, and (along with 12.7d(i)) for second-century Christian practices. Compare the response to the cult of Bacchus (12.1a-b). See further: Vol. 1, 237-8; 10.4 for further correspondence between Pliny and Trajan; Sherwin-White (1966) 691-712; Barnes (1968a) 36-7*; Benko (1984) 4-14*. Pliny to the Emperor Trajan It is my practice, lord, to refer to you on all points where I am doubtful, for who can better resolve my uncertainty or enlighten my ignorance? As I have never taken part in a trial of Christians, I do not know what it is customary to investigate nor how far the penalty should be applied. I hesitated not a little as to whether there should be any distinction drawn between them on grounds of age, or whether rather the young and their elders should be treated alike; whether repentance should lead to a pardon, or whether rather it should not avail those who had once been Christians to have renounced it; and whether the name itself should be punished even if there were no criminal acts, or whether rather the criminal acts associated with the name should be punished. 277
IT. T H R E A T S T O T H E R O M A N O R D E R In the mean time, I have employed the following procedure in relation to those who were denounced to me as Christians. I asked them in person whether they were Christians. If they confessed it, 1 repeated the question a second and third time, threatening them with capital punishment; those who persisted, I ordered to be executed. For I had no hesitation, whatever the nature of their confession, that that stubbornness and rigid obstinacy should certainly be punished. There were others similarly fanatical whom, because they were Roman citizens, I have put on the list of persons to be sent to the city . As a result of the actual investigation, as often happens, these accusations have spread rapidly and further types of the trouble have come to light. An anonymous pamphlet was laid before me containing many people's names. Those mentioned there who denied that they were or had been Christians, I thought should be released, when they repeated after me an invocation to the gods and made a supplicatio of wine and incense to your image, which I had ordered for rhis purpose to be placed with the statues of the gods, and in addition cursed Christ, all things which those who are true Christians, it is said, cannot be brought to do. Others who had been named by an informer said that they were Christians and then denied it; they had been, but had stopped - some two years before, some longer ago, a few actually twenty years ago. All [these] too paid homage to your image and the statues of the gods, and cursed Christ. They claimed that the sum total of their guilt or wrong doing was the following; they had been accustomed to gather on a fixed day before dawn, to sing a song in alternate verses to Christ as to a god, and to bind themselves by an oath, not for any criminal purpose, but that they should not commit theft, robbery or adultery that they should nor break contracts, and that they should return money entrusted to them when called upon. After this ceremony, they said, it had been their practice to depart and reconvene later to take food, which was however ordinary and harmless; but they had ceased to do this after my edict, by which in accordance with your official instructions I had banned political clubs.' This made me believe that it was all the more essential to find out from two slave serving-women, who were called attendants', what the truth was, using torture. I discovered nothing worse than a depraved and excessive superstkio. Therefore, adjourning the proceedings, I have hastened to consult you. The affair seems to me worrh consulting you about, especially because of the numbers of those at risk. Many people of all ages, every status, and both sexes are actually being summoned to trial and this will continue. The taint of this superstitions permeated not only towns, but also villages and the countryside; but it can probably be stopped and cured. It is perfectly clear that temples that had been almost abandoned for a long rime have begun to be frequented, and sacred rites that bad long lapsed have been taken up again, and [the meat] of sacrificial animals is on sale everywhere, though until recently almost no buyers could be found for it. From this it is easy to infer the number of people that can be reformed, if there is any opportunity for repentance. 278
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VOLUME 2 A Sourcebook M A R Y BEARD
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Acknowledgements We would like to e
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Judaism and Christianity) whose ori
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Preface xii the religion of early R
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Conventions and abbreviations XIV I
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I EARLIEST ROME 2 Scullard (1981) 1
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1 EARLIEST ROME Ovid, Fasti n.639-4
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I EARLIEST ROME would have been die
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T EARLIEST ROME words when he cross
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I EARLIEST ROME Miletina, to the th
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I EARLIEST ROME Pliny, Natural Hist
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I EARLIEST ROME Livy History 1.45 1
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I EARLIEST ROME AE{1979) 136 The co
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I EARLIEST ROME buik himself, there
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I EARLIEST ROME 22 ] .7c(ii) Hephae
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I EARLIEST ROME literal truth of th
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2 The deities of Rome 26 Throughout
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28 THE DEITIES OF ROME 1. Trajan -
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2. THE DEITIES OF ROME sometimes is
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2. THE DEITIES OF ROME Ovid, Fasti
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2. THE DEITIES OF ROME 2.3 The deif
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2. THE DEITIES OF ROME 'schools' of
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2. THE DEITIES OF ROME spear, shiel
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2. THE DEITIES OI' ROME 2.7e Magna
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2. THE DEITIES OF ROME Livy, Histor
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1. THE DEITIES OF ROME 52 1. Antoni
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2. T H E DEITIES OF ROME Pectillus
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2. THE DEITIES OF ROME V. Väänän
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3 The calendar 60 The official stat
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3 . T H E C A L E N D A R Deerassi
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3- T H E C A L E N D A R G VINAL.
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3- T H E C A L E N D A R and the a
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3. T H E C A L E N D A R Ides of A
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4 Religious places 78 This chapter
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4· R E L I G I O U S P L A C E S 8
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RELIGIOUS FLAGES 4.13 The house-tom
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A C E S come to venerate the apostl
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5 Festivals and ceremonies 116 Ritu
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•). FESTIVALS AND CEREMONIES 136
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6 Sacrifices 148 Animal sacrifice,
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6. SACRIFICES 150 Frieze from the a
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6. S A C R I F I C E S 6.3c The exp
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7 Divination and diviners 166 This
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8 Priests and priestesses 194 There
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1 2 . R E L I G I O U S G R O U P S
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1 2 . R E L I G I O U S G R O U P S
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348 Paul and Peter pray for Victor.
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13- P E R S P E C T I V E S IGRiv.1
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13. P E R S P E C T I V E S Christ
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13- P E R S P E C T I V E S Let us
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decemviri (sacris faciundis) see qu
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eligio (proper religious observance
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Deities and their epithets 370 Fort
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Bibliography 372 Cassius Dio, Roman
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Paul, Opinions: this work, compiled
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Attridge, H. W. (1978) 'The philoso
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Bibliography 378 Politics in the He
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Cameron, Averil (1969) 'Perronius a
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Bibliography 382 de See. Croix, G.
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Frickel, J. ( 1984) Hellenistische
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Gruen, E. S. (1990) Studies in Gree
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Kirsch, J. P. (1924) Der stadtrömi
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Bibliography 390 Long, A. A. (1974)
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Bibliography 392 Nock, A. D. (1925)
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Potter, D. (1991) Prophecy and Hist
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(1992) 'The religious roles of Roma
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Syme, R. (1978) 'Thepomerium'm the
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Walker, S. and Burnett, A. (1981) T
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Details of illustrations 1.5b(ii) L
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Detaih ofillustrations 404 6. If Re
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Gaius, Institutes ll. 1—11: 10.4c
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CI/72, 476, 523: 12.6d CILl 2 . 101
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General index References are to tex
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General index Dioscuri, see Castor
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General index festivals, sacrifices
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General index Tarquin the Elder (ki
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