In Pliny’s “Letters” to the Emperor Trajan, the Roman Empire’s encounters with early Christianity caused Pliny, the local political authority, to adopt a measured response to the increasingly popular religion, instead of instant termination of the immediate threat. This was done in part as an effort to counteract the religion’s spread without antagonizing what was a growing proportion of the population. As Christianity gained traction, it became necessary for political administrators to reaffirm their citizens’ loyalty to the emperor, not to Jesus Christ. Because of this, a measured response was necessary in order to avoid a populist backlash. Executions were used as a last resort for those who refused to renounce Christianity and only after an extended period of interrogation, while Roman citizens were sent to be dealt with by a higher authority in the capitol.
During Plinys administration, the issue in Rome regarding the proliferation of Christianity continue to grow in…
Within the letter, Pliny asserts that the suspects’ only error was a custom of “meeting on a fixed day,” not committing any crime or breach of ethics. This error would identify them in the minds of others retroactively as Christians after Pliny issued an edict banning such political associations (Pliny 79). As a result, it could be stressed that this small social nuance combined with a trivial legal issue necessitated a response from the government that in no way required much more than a routine investigation. This would in turn show no pragmatism nor a sense of civic responsibility on the part of Pliny and would delineate the modest political response as…
