Roman · Latin · c. 112 CE
Letters, Book X
Pliny the Younger
A provincial governor's correspondence with the emperor Trajan, including the letter asking how Christians should be tried. It is the earliest outside description of Christian practice: they met before dawn on a fixed day and sang to Christ as to a god. Pliny is describing a cult he is prosecuting, and he is describing what its members do rather than reporting anything he knows about its founder.
Read Letters, Book X in full at the linked edition →What this text attests · 1
| Name here | Rank given | # | Powers described |
|---|---|---|---|
Christus = Jesus of Nazareth | Addressed as a god by those on trial | — | Christians meeting before dawn on a fixed day and singing to Christ as to a god, in a governor's letter asking the emperor how to try them. This attests the worship rather than the figure: it is evidence that by about 112 the cult existed in Bithynia and addressed its founder in divine terms, and it is not evidence of anything Pliny knew about him. |