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Pliny opens the letter (sections 1–4) with questions to Trajan concerning trials of Christians brought before him, since he says he has never been present at any trials of Christians. This may indicate that previous trials had taken place and that Pliny was unaware of any existing edicts under Trajan for prosecuting Christians. [ 15 ]
Pliny the Younger wrote hundreds of letters, of which 247 survived, and which are of great historical value. Some are addressed to reigning emperors or to notables such as the historian Tacitus . Pliny served as an imperial magistrate under Trajan (reigned 98–117), [ 2 ] and his letters to Trajan provide one of the few surviving records of ...
The letters also contain the earliest external account of Christian worship, and reasons for the execution of Christians. The letter regarding Christians deserves mention because its contents were, in the view of many historians, to become the standard policy toward Christians for the rest of the pagan era. [ 11 ]
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.
In the first letter of his famous collection of correspondence, the Epistulae, Pliny the Younger credits Septicius’ constant urgings for motivating him to publish his letters. The intimate friendship between the two is evident in another letter where Pliny playfully chides Septicius for not appearing at a lavish dinner party. [2]
The passage shows the clear contempt of Suetonius for Christians - the same contempt expressed by Tacitus and Pliny the Younger in their writings. [2] Stephen Benko states that the contempt of Suetonius is quite clear, as he reduces Christians to the lowest ranks of society and his statement echoes the sentiments of Pliny and Tacitus. [24]
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German theologian Heinrich Meyer suggests that Jesus' challenge to his disciples is to "turn round upon [the] road, and to acquire a moral disposition similar to the nature of little children". [3] Christ blessing the Children by Lucas Cranach the Younger. The Kingdom of Heaven is compared to little children at other places in the New Testament: