page_title: Pliny the Younger on Christians
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Pliny the Younger on Christians / Context and overview / Background
context_page_description: Pliny the Younger, the Roman governor of Bithynia and Pontus wrote a letter to Emperor Trajan around AD 112 and asked for counsel on dealing with the early Christian community. The letter details an account of how Pliny conducted trials of suspected Christians who appeared before him as a result of anonymous accusations and asks for the Emperor's guidance on how they should be treated.
  Neither Pliny nor Trajan mentions the crime that Christians had committed, except for being a Christian; and other historical sources do not provide a simple answer to what that crime could be, but most likely due to the stubborn refusal of Christians to worship Roman gods; making them appear as objecting to Roman rule.
  Pliny states that he gives Christians multiple chances to affirm they are innocent and if they refuse three times, they are executed. Pliny states that his investigations have revealed nothing on the Christians' part but harmless practices and "depraved, excessive superstition." However, Pliny seems concerned about the rapid spread of this "superstition"; and views Christian gatherings as a potential starting point for sedition.
context_section_description: Pliny the Younger was the governor of Bithynia and Pontus on the Black Sea coast of Anatolia, having arrived there around September 111 as the representative of Emperor Trajan. Pliny likely wrote the letters from Amisus before his term ended in January 113. The origin of Christianity in that region is not known, but it has not been associated with Paul the Apostle's travels. Given the reference to Bithynia in the opening of the First Epistle of Peter (which dates to the 60s), Christianity in the region may have had some Petrine associations through Silas.
  In 111 Bithynia et Pontus was known for being in disorder, and Pliny was selected by Trajan because of his legal training and his past experience. Pliny was familiar with the region, having defended two of their proconsuls for extortion in the Senate, one case being around AD 103. However, Pliny had never performed a legal investigation of Christians, and thus consulted Trajan in order to be on solid ground regarding his actions, and saved his letters and Trajan's replies. The way he expressed his lack of familiarity with the procedure may indicate that such prosecutions against Christians had taken place before (namely in Rome), but Pliny had not been involved in them.
  As governor, Pliny held large influence over all of the residents of his province. This was especially true in the legal treatment of Christians. The Roman legal construct of cognitio extra ordinem afforded governors a large amount of discretion in deciding legal cases.
caption: Location of Bithynia and Pontus within the Roman Empire
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