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2 sulerem de modo poenae. Ipse enim dubito ob hoc maxime, quod, ut iam dixerant sacramento, ita nondum distributi in

I ob haec, Ald.

2 sacramento militar-i nondum, Ald. ; militari om: ita add., B.

gusta; see an inscrip. cited in Hermes, xix p. 9. As Bithynia was temporarily under the emperor's administration, it is possible that the recruiting may have been for the auxiliary troops to supply the cohorts assigned to Pliny, but see below on 'distributi in numeros.'

te conditorem disciplinae militaris. Under Domitian there had been a serious military revolt in Upper Germany under L. Antonius Saturninus; while his jealousy of great commanders like Agricola tended to weaken military discipline. The disasters in the Dacian war of Domitian point to corruption and demoralisation, Domitian had also increased the pay of the legionaries by one-fourth. Suet. Dom. 7, "Addidit et quartum stipendium militi, aureos ternos.'

It was

the turbulence of the praetorian cohorts which induced Nerva to adopt Trajan, who restored discipline among these troops. Dio Cass. 68, 3; cf. also Plin. Panegyr. 6, Corrupta est disciplina castrorum ut tu corrector emendatorque contingeres,' and 'quam speciosum est quod disciplinam castrorum lapsam exstinctamque refovisti depulso prioris saeculi malo.'

ut iam-ita nondum. The ita is wanting in the Aldine ed., which, however, reads militar i nondum. Casaubon conjectured ut iam dixerint." Döring takes 'ut dixerunt' in the sense of 'postquam dix.' Mommsen conjectures needlessly 'etsi adacti erant.' I have followed B. in inserting 'ita.'

dixerant sacramento. Previous to the second Punic war there had been a distinction between the sacramentum taken by the newly enlisted troops, and the voluntary iusiurandum made to the tribunes. When this, however, was made compulsory (Liv. xxii 38 'milites tum, quod nusquam antea factum erat, iureiurando a tribunis militum adacti') sacramentum was used in general for the military oath of allegiance; cf. Caes. Bell. Civ. i 23. Suet. Claud. 13; Dionys. 10, 18, ‘ὅτι πάντες ὀμωμόκασι τὸν στρατιω τικὸν ὅρκον ἀκολουθήσειν τοῖς ὑπάτοις ἐφ' οὓς ἂν καλῶνται πολέμους καὶ μήτε ἀπολείψειν τὰ σημεῖα μήτε ἄλλο πράξειν μηθὲν ἐναντίον τῷ νόμῳ. It was originally taken only for the coming campaign, and had to

be renewed to a new commander, cf. Liv. xxviii 29. Hence under the empire such phrases as sacramentum Othonis,' Tac. Hist. i 76, 'sacramentum Vespasiani,' id. ib. ii 79. The sacramentum, too, was regularly renewed by all the military forces on the 1st January each year, Tac. Hist. i 55, Inferioris tamen Germaniae legiones solemni Kalendarum Ianuariarum sacramento pro Galba adactae'; also infra. Ep. 52; on the anniversary of the emperor's accession. Besides the ordinary phrase 'sacramentum dicere,' Tac. Ann. i 28, 'sacramento dicere,' to declare by means of the oath, often occurs, etc. Livy ii 24; iv 53; xxiv 8; xli 5. Cf. also, of the tribunes who administered the oath, sacramento rogare,' Caes. Bell. Gal. iv 12; Livy xl 26, adigere sacramento,' Tac. Ann. i 37. Livy iv 5, etc.

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ita nondum distributi in numeros erant. A numerus' in post-Augustan times was properly a body of soldiers under the single command of one officer. So centuriae and turmae were not numeri but cohortes were, cf. Tac. Hist. i 87, in numeros legionis; so also was a legion, Tac. Ann. ii 80, in numerum legionis ; cf.; also Tac. Agric. 18, 'sparsi per provinciam numeri,' where it is equivalent to ' vexillationes'; also Tac. Hist. i 6, 'multi ad hoc numeri e Germania ac Britannia et Illyrico.' Cf. Suet. Vespas. 6, 'revocatis ad officium numeris. See also Ulpian Dig. 3, 2, 2, 1, 'exercitum non unam cohortem neque unam alam dicimus, sed multos numeros militum'; 'distribuere in numeros seems to be a special phrase for arranging the recruits or newly appointed officers in the various legions, so that 'in numeros' almost in the muster-roll. So when Suetonius wishes to pass on to a friend the military tribuneship which Pliny had procured for him, Pliny says, Ep. iii 8,

4,

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'ego honestissimae voluntati tuae pareo. Neque enim adhuc nomen in numeros relatum est.' The reading of the Ald. ed. for this was 'ut iam dixerant sacramento militar i nondum,' which I have restored from the Bodleian M.S., omitting militari, and inserting 'ita.'

cum pertineat ad exemplum, cf. vi 29, 2.

numeros erant. Quid ergo debeam sequi rogo, domine, scribas, praesertim cum pertineat ad exemplum.

XXX [XXXVIIII]

TRAIANUS PLINIO S.

Secundum mandata mea fecit Sempronius Caelianus mit- I tendo ad te eos de quibus cognosci oportebit an capitale supplicium meruisse videantur. Refert autem voluntarii se obtu- 2 lerint an lecti sint vel etiam vicarii dati. Lecti si sunt, inqui

§ 1. Sempronius Caelianus has acted agreeably to my instructions in sending you the men. Whether they deserve capital punishment will need investigation. Did they volunteer their services, or did the tribune enroll them, or were they given as substitutes? § 2. If they were enrolled, the recruiting officers were to blame; if they were substitutes, those by whom they were deputed; but if they knowingly and wilfully came forward, they must be executed. That they are not yet arranged on the muster-roll makes no difference. They were bound to declare their origin on the first day of enlistment.

§ I. refert autem, etc. On the omission of utrum cf. supra Ep. 20. The 'vel etiam' is not the third alternative, as the two latter cases where the slaves are not in fault are both opposed to the first.

voluntarii. In republican times those who volunteered their services were said, 'nomina dare'; Livy x 25, I, 'Concursus inde ad consulem factus omnium ferme iuniorum : et pro se quisque nomina dabant, tanta cupido erat sub eo duce stipendia faciendi'; also xlii 32, 6. Under the empire the motive for coming forward as volunteers was generally poverty and the desire to earn a living. The number of these volunteers was probably always on the increase, and did not tend to raise the efficiency of the army. Many no doubt, not qualified to serve, succeeded in evading the scrutiny. Cf. Digest, 49, 16, 5, § 10, 'plerumque voluntario milite numeri supplentur.' Tac. Ann. iv 4, 'multitudinem veteranorum praetexebat imperator, et dilectibus supplendos exercitus: nam voluntarium militem deesse; ac si suppeditet, non eadem virtute ac modestia agere ;

quia plerumque inopes ac vagi sponte militiam sumant. There were thirty-two 'cohortes Italicae civium Romanorum voluntariorum,' consisting of Italians who desired military service, but either could not or would not enter the legions.

lecti; the ordinary term in connection with the conscription. Cf. Suet. Tib. 30, 'de legendo vel exauctorando milite.' The levy was in all cases carried out by virtue of a special commission from the emperor. In the senatorial provinces the proconsul was himself charged with this duty; in the imperial provinces it was discharged by commissioners equestrian rank, called dilectatores, and who not only enlisted the soldiers, but scrutinised their bodily fitness as well as their political qualifications. See Hermes xix p. 56, and Mommsen, Staatsrecht, ii p. 820.

ot

vicarii dati. The existence of vicarii in the Roman army, i.e. substitutes provided as recruits by the well-to-do cannot be proved earlier than the time of Trajan, nor do we know to what extent the system at this period had developed. In later times, however, the vicarii formed a large proportion of the legions, and if the ancient practice of excluding slaves was observed in the letter it was broken virtually by the great landowners who were allowed to send as their vicarii into the army large numbers of the coloni or barbarian serfs who were attached to their estates. Indeed the Roman armies who had to defend the frontiers against the Goths and Huns consisted very largely of this sort of soldier; see Hermes, xix P. 18.

inquisitio. On the abstract term see on Ep. 19. The inquisitores had to examine into the bodily fitness and effi

sitio peccavit: si vicarii dati, penes eos culpa est qui dederunt si ipsi, cum haberent conditionis suae conscientiam, venerunt, animadvertendum in illos erit. Neque enim multum interest quod nondum per numeros distributi sunt. Ille enim dies quo primum probati sunt veritatem ab iis originis suae exegit.

I dati. lecti sunt, B. and Ald. dati. lecti si sunt, Cat.

ciency of recruits, and also into their political status. Those who passed this scrutiny were 'probati'; see below. animadvertendum in illos erit,

5 pro quo, Ald.

pro. om. B.

capital punishment will have to be executed upon them.

veritatem originis suae, a true statement of their origin.

XXXI [XL]

De iis qui ex damnatione servi publici essent

C. PLINIUS TRAIANO IMPERATORI

Salva magnitudine tua, domine, descendas oportet ad meas curas, cum ius mihi dederis referendi ad te de quibus dubito. 2 In plerisque civitatibus, maxime Nicomediae et Nicaeae, quiin these words, 'with all respect to your greatness, you must come down to minor

§ 1. I must take advantage of your permission to consult you in my difficulties, and ask you to descend to my petty. cares. § 2. I find that in several cities, and especially in Nicomedeia, and Nicaea, men condemned to the mines or to the arena, are discharging the duties of public slaves. I am undecided how to proceed in the matter. § 3. It seems hard to send back to their punishment men who have perhaps grown old, and have latterly led an honest life, and yet it is hardly fitting to employ convicts in public situations. I have therefore left the whole matter in suspense, until I have your decision. You will doubtless ask how it was that they were released from their penal position. In spite of inquiry I have no information on this point. The decrees containing their condemnation have been produced, but no documents to attest their release. This may possibly have taken place at the orders of the proconsuls, a view supported by the improbability of any one assuming such a responsibility unempowered.

§ I. salva magnitudine tua, with all respect to your exalted position.

descendas oportet. I agree with Gierig in opposition to Döring that there is a certain amount of familiarity implied

cares.

de quibus dubito. On the ellipse of the antecedent, see Kennedy, Pub. Sch. Lat. Gram. p. 367.

Nicomediae et Nicaeae. Nicomedeia was founded in 264 B.C. by Nicomedes I, and became the capital, and official residence of the proconsul of the province, Pontus-Bithynia, μητρόπολις καὶ πρώτη Βιθυνίας καὶ Πόντου. It had a temple to Augustus, Dio Cass. 51, 20, and was the seat of the consilium provinciae, C. I. Gr. 1720, κοινὸν τῆς Βιθυνίας ἐν Νικομηδίᾳ. In the third and fourth centuries it increased in importance, and was often the imperial residence. It was termed 'civitas splendidissima Nicomedensium,' Orell. 798, and in the fourth century was made a colonia. Orell. 1060. In earlier times the title of μητρόπολις had been contested by Nicaea (Strabo, xii p. 565), which was first founded in 316 B.C. under the name of Antigoneia by Antigonus on the east shore of the lacus Asconius. Lysimachus called it Nicaea after his wife. After the time of Caligula, however, the title of μntpóπoλis was finally given to Nicomedeia, although there was still a feeling of soreness about

dam vel in opus damnati vel in ludum similiaque his genera poenarum publicorum servorum officio ministerioque funguntur atque etiam ut publici servi annua accipiunt. Quod ego cum audissem, diu multumque haesitavi quid facere deberem. Nam 3

et reddere poenae post longum tempus plerosque iam senes et, quantum adfirmatur, frugaliter modesteque viventes nimis severum arbitrabar, et in publicis officiis retinere damnatos non satis honestum putabam; eosdem rursus a re publica pasci otiosos inutile, non pasci etiam periculosum existimabam. Ne- 4 cessario ergo rem totam, dum te consulerem, in suspenso reliqui. Quaeres fortasse quemadmodum evenerit ut poenis in quas damnati erant exsolverentur: et ego quaesii, sed nihil

I similia in his, Ald.
similiaque his, B.

it. But for the title of púтn Tóλis there was a long and bitter dispute between the two cities. The thirty-eighth speech of Dio Chrysostom was intended to allay this strife which after all was περὶ ὀνόματος μóvov, and as a matter of fact the title was used by both cities. Cf. Dio Chrys. vol. ii p. 140, ἂν δὲ τὸ μὲν τῆς μητροπόλεως ὑμῖν ὄνομα εξαίρετον ᾖ τὸ δὲ τῶν πρωτείων κοινὸν ᾖ τί κατὰ τοῦτο ἐλαττοῦσθε; Cf. also Eckhel ii 427, Νεικαιεῖς πρῶτοι Πόντου καὶ Βιθυνίας. For a description of Nicomedeia see Libanius Or. 62, and Ammiam. Marcel. 22, 9, 3, 'inde Nicomediam venit urbem antehac inclytam, ita magnis retro principum amplificatam impensis, ut aedium multitudinem privatarum et publicarum recte noscentibus regio quaedam urbis aestimaretur aeternae.'

in opus damnati vel in ludum. These were forms of the servitus poenae, the punishment instituted under the empire for 'personae humiles.' Damnatio ad metalla (i.e. mines or stone-quarries) was the severest of all. Digest, 1, 13, 'proxima morti poenae metalli coercitio.' Damn. ad opus metalli was somewhat milder; Digest, 48, 19, 8, 'inter eos autem qui in metalla et eos qui in opus metalli damnantur, difierentia in vinculis tantum est, quod qui in metalla damnantur gravioribus vinculis premuntur, qui in opus metalli levioribus.' Again, damnatio ad gladium was harsher than damn. ad ludum 'nam ad gladium damnati statim consumuntur vel certe intra annum debent consumi . . . qui in ludum damnantur non utique consumuntur sed

rudem accipere possunt post intervallum ;

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19.

publicorum servorum; see on Ep.

annua accipiunt. The public slaves received an annual sum of money for food; see loc. cit.

reddere poenae. These convicts might without any irregularity have been freed from the poena, but it must have been by a definite decree or edict, which in this case had apparently been dispensed with.

in publicis officiis; as to the various employments of the publici, see on Ep. 19. in quas damnati erant. Catanaeus quite unnecessarily alters damnati to dati, possibly out of regard to the phrase in Trajan's letter following 'ad balineum

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comperi quod adfirmare tibi possim. Ut decreta quibus damnati erant proferebantur, ita nulla monimenta quibus liberati 5 probarentur. Erant tamen qui dicerent deprecantes iussu proconsulum legatorumve dimissos. Addebat fidem quod credibile erat neminem hoc ausum sine auctore.

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Meminerimus idcirco te in istam provinciam missum quoniam multa in ea emendanda apparuerint. Erit autem hoc vel maxime corrigendum, quod qui damnati ad poenam erant non modo ea sine auctore, ut scribis, liberati sunt, sed etiam in 2 conditionem proborum ministrorum retrahuntur. Qui igitur intra hos proximos decem annos damnati nec ullo idoneo 5 quod qui, Cat.

§ 1. We must remember that you were specially sent to the province to bring about certain reforms. And one of these reforms must be brought to bear on the practice of not only liberating convicts without authority, but even restoring them to the position of non-criminal officials. § 2. Therefore those condemned within ten years and liberated without due authority must be sent back to their punishments. Those whose sentence is of longer standing than ten years must be distributed among such semi-penal employments as cleaning the sewers, building roads, and attending at the baths.

meminerimus; cf. Ep. 34.

idcirco te in istam provinciam missum quoniam, etc.; cf. Ep. 18, 'tu dabis operam ut manifestum sit illis electum te esse qui ad eosdem mei loco mittereris,' and Ep. 117, 'sed ego ideo prudentiam tuam elegi ut formandis istius provinciae moribus ipse moderareris et

quo qui, Ald.

ea constitueres quae ad perpetuam eius provinciae quietem essent profutura.' The accusations of Iulius Bassus and Varenus Rufus show how much confusion there had been in the province; see Epp. iv 9, v 20, vii 6.

damnati ad poenam; an unusual construction, but framed here on the analogy of damnati in metalla, opus, ludum, etc.; cf. also Tac. Ann. vi 38, extremum ad supplicium damnatus; xvi 21, 'ad mortem damnabatur.' Cicero, Caesar, Livy, and Seneca more often use the ablative.

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sine auctore. Trajan does not accept the presumption that there must have been an order of some proconsul or his legate.

proborum, i.e. without the stigma of conviction.

retrahuntur. The word implies the illegal restoration in opposition to restituuntur or redduntur.

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