# Pliny–Trajan letters instruct punishment of obstinate Christians while rejecting anonymous lists

Date: 112

## The fact

Pliny’s Bithynian letters, as Loeb/Perseus English, print a governor asking what to do with Christians and a reply: punish the obstinate, ignore anonymous lists, do not [hunt](/people/jeremy-hunt) them. Punishment of a religious minority is a rights-harm path.

It is one event.

## Context

Split the same letters as legal-process access. This stores the printed penalty for obstinacy. Medium-high confidence on the letters as transmitted, not on a unique body count.

Trajan Shared work with other named actors remains in the record.

[Trajan](/people/trajan)’s documented role is bounded by other offices and collaborators named in the sources below. Sharing a field with them is not a reason to drop a documented act, and it is not a reason to assign later consequences done in the name after death.

Conventional reign is 98–117 CE. Dated public instruments here are later inscriptions as published, Pliny as Loeb/Perseus, Dio as LacusCurtius, and museum or UNESCO pages.

Named person as heading of the dated public instrument. Later editors, museums, printers, or offices share publication. Complex where later carriers are the surviving public file.

## Evidence and sources

Perseus — Pliny the Younger, Letters and Loeb — Pliny, Letters and Panegyricus independently describe this instrument.

Official or archival record: Perseus — Pliny the Younger, Letters (https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0139; Perseus Digital Library / Tufts).

## Significance

Printed rescript-on-Christians is a minority-rights path, not a 112 CE diocesan register.

## What is established and what is not

Established as a dated public record of this instrument.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.

Established here: a sourced, dated public instrument with a named contribution by Trajan.

They are not a public rating.

Driver `protection-of-minority-rights` is attached because the Significance sentence names a mechanism from Pliny–Trajan letters instruct punishment of obstinate Christians while rejecting anonymous lists at 0112-01-01, not because a standing driver list needed coverage. Official page: https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0139. Independent page: https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674990661.

## People

- Trajan: https://factrail.ai/people/trajan

## Drivers

- Protection of Minority Rights: https://factrail.ai/drivers/protection-of-minority-rights

## Sources

- https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674990661
- https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0139

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/trj-pliny-christians