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Bronze Dupondius of Trajan with reverse image of an arched bridge , 103-111 AD, via the American Numismatic Society
McLean, Iain; Urken, Arnold B., eds. (1995). Classics of social choice. Ann Arbor MI: University of Michigan Press. doi: 10.3998/MPUB.12736. ISBN 9780472104505. S2CID 142220732. Bene ac sapienter, Patres Conscripti, maiores instituerunt, ut rerum agendarum, ita dicendi initium a precationibus capere: quod nihil rite, nihilque providenter homines, sine deorum immortalium ope, consilio, honore, auspicarentur. Qui mos cui potius, quam consuli, aut quando magis usurpandus colendusque est, quam quum imperio senatus, auctoritate reipublicae, ad agendas optimo principi gratias excitamur? Quod enim praestabilius est aut pulchrius munus deorum, quam castus et sanctus et diis simillimus princeps? Ac si adhuc dubium fuisset, forte casuque rectores terris, an aliquo numine darentur: principem tamen nostrum liqueret divinitus constitutum. Non enim occulta potestate fatorum, sed ab Iove ipso coram ac palam repertus, electus est: quippe inter aras et altaria, eodemque loci, quem deus ille tam manifestus ac praesens, quam caelum ac sidera, insedit. Quo magis aptum piumque est, te, Iupiter optime maxime, antea conditiorem, nunc conservatorem imperii nostri, precari, ut mihi digna consule, digna senatu, digna principe contingat oratio: utque omnibus, quae dicentur a me, libertas, fides, veritas constet: tantumque a specie adulationis absit gratiarum actio mea, quantum abest a necessitate.The largest surviving body of Pliny's work is his Epistulae ( Letters), a series of personal missives directed to his friends and associates. These letters are a unique testimony of Roman administrative history and everyday life in the 1st century AD. Especially noteworthy among the letters are two in which he describes the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in October 79, during which his uncle Pliny the Elder died ( Epistulae VI.16, VI.20), and one in which he asks the Emperor for instructions regarding official policy concerning Christians ( Epistulae X.96).
Emperor Trajan died in AD 117. The health of Rome’s greatest conquering emperor had been worsening for some time, and he finally succumbed to the city of Selinus in Cilicia (modern Turkey). That the city was to be henceforth known as Trajanopolis is a clear testament to the reputation the emperor had secured for himself. He was deified by the Senate in Rome, and his ashes were laid to rest under the great Column in his forum. Trajan and his wife Plotina had had no children (indeed, Trajan was reputedly much more inclined towards homosexual relationships). However, he ensured the smooth succession of power by naming his cousin, Hadrian, as his heir (the role of Plotina in this succession remains a subject of historical controversy…). By adopting Hadrian, Trajan ushered in a period that is typically classified as a golden age ; the whims of dynastic succession – and the danger of a megalomaniac such as Caligula or Nero taking power – were reduced. Instead, the emperors would ‘adopt’ the best man for the role, blending dynastic pretensions with meritocracy.
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XII Panegyrici Latini or Twelve Latin Panegyrics is the conventional title of a collection of twelve ancient Roman and late antique prose panegyric orations written in Latin. The first edition of Pliny's Epistles was published in Italy in 1471. Sometime between 1495 and 1500 Giovanni Giocondo discovered a manuscript in Paris of Pliny's tenth book of letters, containing his correspondence with Trajan, and published it in Paris, dedicating the work to Louis XII. The first complete edition was produced by the press of Aldus Manutius in 1508. [25] (See Editio princeps for details.)
Empire Builder: The Conquest Of Dacia Scene of Roman soldiers holding the severed heads of Dacian enemies to the emperor Trajan, from a cast of Trajan’s Column , via the Museum of Natural History, Bucharest
Voting theorists and historians of social choice note Pliny's early mention of how the choice of voting procedure could influence the outcome of an election. [22] [23] On June 24, 105, Pliny wrote a letter to Titius Aristo, [24] where he describes a criminal trial: under the traditional rules of the Senate, there would first be a vote on guilt and then (if the accused were found guilty) on punishment, for which execution and exile were proposed. Of the three distinct proposals, acquittal, exile, and execution, acquittal had the largest number of supporters but not a majority, although exile would have defeated either acquittal or execution in a direct two-way vote. Pliny supported acquittal but anticipated that first guilt and then execution would be chosen under the traditional rules, and so he argued for a novel three-way plurality vote, which would have resulted in acquittal. In response, those in favor of execution withdrew their proposal, the vote defaulted to a traditional majority vote between exile and acquittal, and exile carried. The contributions are generally of high quality, and together they give a good sense of the range of issues upon which the Panegyricus can be brought to bear. By the end, however, a sense of claustrophobia begins to settle over the reader. The world beyond the speech is by no means absent from these discussions, but apart from Roger Rees’ concluding discussion of the speech’s Nachleben, there is a tendency to turn inward and focus on the text itself, rather than to open up the discussion and use Pliny’s work as a window on the world in which he lived. Videor iam cernere non spoliis provinciarum, et extorto sociis auro, sed hostilibus armis captorumque regum catenis triumphum gravem. Videor ingentia ducum nomina, nec indecora nominibus corpora noscitare. Videor intueri imma O novum atque inauditum ad principatum iter! Non te propria cupiditas, proprius metus; sed aliena utilitas, alienus timor principem fecit. Videaris licet quod est amplissimum consequutus inter homines; felicius tamen erat illud, quod reliquisti: sub bono principe privatus esse desiisti. Assumptus es in laborum curarumque consortium, nec te laeta et prospera stationis istius, sed aspera et dura ad capessendam eam compulerunt. Suscepisti imperium, postquam alium suscepti poenitebat. Nulla adoptati cum eo, qui adoptabat, cognatio, nulla necessitudo, nisi quod uterque optimus erat, dignusque alter eligi, alter eligere. Itaque adoptatus es, non, ut prius alius atque alius, in uxoris gratiam. Adscivit enim te filium non vitricus, sed princeps, eodemque animo divus Nerva pater tuus factus est, quo erat omnium. Nec decet aliter filium adsumi, si adsumatur a principe. An Senatum Populumque Romanum, exercitus, provincias, socios transmissurus uni, successorem e sinu uxoris accipias? summaeque potestatis heredem tantum intra domum tuam quaeras? non per totam civitatem circumferas oculos? et hunc tibi proximum, hunc coniunctissimum existimes, quem optimum, quem diis simillimum inveneris? Imperaturus omnibus, eligi debet ex omnibus. Non enim servulis tuis dominum, ut possis esse contentus quasi necessario herede, sed principem civibus daturus es imperator. Superbum istud et regium, nisi adoptes eum, quem constet imperaturum fuisse, etiamsi non adoptasses. Fecit hoc Nerva, nihil interesse arbitratus, genueris an elegeris, si perinde sine iudicio adoptentur liberi, ac nascuntur: nisi tamen quod aequiore animo ferunt homines, quem princeps parum feliciter genuit, quam quem male elegit. de la Ruffinière Du Prey, Pierre (1994). The villas of Pliny from antiquity to posterity (illustrateded.). University of Chicago Press. p.5. ISBN 978-0-226-17300-9.
Bust of Emperor Trajan , 108 AD, via Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (left); with Detail of plaster cast of Trajan’s Column by Monsieur Oudry , 1864, via the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (right) Pliny Letters 3.5.8–12. See English translation ( Plinius the Elder (2)) and Latin text ( C. PLINII CAECILII SECVNDI EPISTVLARVM LIBER TERTIVS). Another independent tradition branches off of M: H (at the British Library: Harleianus 2480), N (at Cluj, Romania: Napocensis), and A (at the Uppsala University Library). [47] H and N are both 15th-century manuscripts, transcribed in a German hand. H shows corrections from a near-contemporary, h. N was copied at some time between 1455 and 1460 by the German theologian Johannes Hergot. [48] Detailed investigation of the manuscripts by D. Lassandro has revealed that A derives from N and N derives from H. [49] H is usually considered the best surviving manuscript. [47] The surviving evidence (which might be prejudiced by Ausonius' Professors of Bordeaux) points to a shift from Autun and Trier as centers of the art in the Tetrarchic and Constantinian period, moving to Bordeaux later in the 4th century. [8] The letters of Pliny the Younger ( Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus ) are presented here in the English translation by J.B.Firth (1900); a few words and phrases have been modified. The comments at the bottom of the letters have been added from various sources. The Latin text is the edition by R.A.B.Mynors (1963), in the Bibliotheca Augustana.Wilken, Robert L. (1984). "Pliny: A Roman Gentleman" in The Christians as the Romans saw Them. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. A tenth volume of 100 letters contains correspondence between Pliny and Emperor Trajan while the former served as governor. Most of the letters deal with common, everyday affairs: legal disputes, protocol, the condition of provincial finances, building schemes, the Nicomedian aqueduct, the theatre at Nicaea, and even how the emperor's birthday was celebrated in the province. The letters were not free of complaints and annoyances. In one letter Pliny asked advice about slaves who wanted to join the Roman army, which was open only to the free-born. Many of the letters, however, were concerned with the growing Christian population. Pliny believed the Christian "fraternities" were perverse as well as "depraved and immoderate" superstitions. Pliny was unsure and sought the emperor's advice on how to deal with what he saw as a major problem. At nunc rediit omnibus terror et metus, et votum imperata faciendi. Vident enim Romanum ducem, unum ex illis veteribus et priscis; quibus imperatorium nomen addebant contecti caedibus campi et infecta victoriis maria. Accipimus obsides ergo, non emimus: nec ingentibus damnis immensisque muneribus paciscimur, ut vicerimus. Rogant, supplicant; largimur, negamus, utrumque ex imperii maiestate: agunt gratias, qui impetraverunt; non audent queri, quibus negatum est. An audeant, qui sciant, te adsedisse ferocissimis populis eo ipso tempore, quod amicissimum illis, difficillimum nobis: quum Danubius ripas gelu iungit, duratusque glacie ingentia tergo bella transportat: quum ferae gentes non telis magis, quam suo coelo, suo sidere armantur? Sed ubi in proximo tu, non secus ac si mutatae temporum vices essent, illi quidem latibulis suis clausi tenebantur; nostra agmina percursare ripas, et aliena occasione, si permitteres, uti, ultroque hiemem suam barbaris inferre, gaudebant. by Pliny the Younger. It was originally a speech of thanks ( gratiarum actio) for the consulship, which he held in 100, and was delivered in the Senate in honour of Emperor Trajan. This work, which is much earlier than the rest of the collection and geographically anomalous, probably served as a model for the other speeches. [28] Pliny was a popular author in the late 4th century— Quintus Aurelius Symmachus modeled his letters on Pliny's, for example [29]—and the whole collection might have been designed as an exemplum in his honor. [30] He later revised and considerably expanded the work, which for this reason is by far the longest of the whole collection. Pliny presents Trajan as the ideal ruler, or optimus princeps, to the reader, and contrasts him with his predecessor Domitian. Bronze Sestertius of Trajan, with reverse depiction showing Parthian King, Parthamaspates, kneeling before the emperor , 114-17 AD, via the American Numismatic Society
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