The Apostolic Age · c. 112
Letters, Book Ten
Epistulae X
Pliny the Younger · c. 61 – c. 113
What it is
A provincial governor's correspondence with Trajan, including the letter asking what to do about Christians. He has been executing those who persist, torturing two deaconesses, and finding nothing but a depraved and excessive superstition — they meet before dawn, sing to Christ as to a god, and bind themselves by oath not to steal or commit adultery.
Why it lasted
The earliest description of Christian worship by an outsider, and the earliest surviving imperial policy on the question: they are not to be hunted, anonymous accusations are not to be entertained, but those who refuse to recant are to die.
Scripture it works from
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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