10.97

Trajan advises Pliny about how to proceed in trials of Christians. 

Trajan approves of Pliny’s general procedure in punishing confessed Christians for the nomen alone. Trajan barely answers the questions that Pliny asks in 10. 96, but corrects Pliny on two points, inquisition and anonymous accusations, and confirms Pliny’s method of dealing with penitent Christians (Sherwin-White). 

Āctum: “method," "procedure." OLD actus 7.c. 

dēbuistī: supply sequī, based on secutus es below.

in excutiendīs causīs: “in examining the cases.” 

Neque ... aliquid: = nihil, subject of potest.

in universum: “in general” (Kingery). Trajan is insistent upon following local customs. His answer, however, was not a law for the entire empire, although it might be followed as an exemplum by governors of other provinces as they saw fit (Sherwin-White). 

certam: "unvarying"; details of procedure may vary with different cases (Kingery).

(2)

Conquirendī non sunt: Pliny was not to seek out Christians in order to bring them to punishment; but if they were duly and formally accused before him, he was not to be at liberty to overlook their violation of the law (Westcott).

dēferantur et arguantur: the charges must be properly made against individuals by delatio and a trial held before the governor. There are to be no mass prosecutions. Note that Trajan never answers Pliny’s original question on the extent of punishments (Radice).

puniendī: passive periphrastic. I.e. by the sword.

ita tamen ut, quī negāverit … veniam ex paenitentiā impetret: Trajan confirms the details of Pliny’s procedure of remission at some length, because this is the first time that the exception has been ratified. This ruling allows a procedure otherwise unknown in Roman criminal law. This exceptional measure indicates the peculiarity of the situation and possibly the desire of the government to weaken the movement by undermining it from within (Sherwin-White). 

Ita tamen ut: sets up a result clause, looking forward to impetret. 

rē ipsā: "by his actions," specified in the following phrase.

dīs nostrīs: Trajan modestly says nothing of sacrifice to his own image, which was one of the tests applied by Pliny in 10.96 (Kingery).

libellī: “accusations,” “information(s)” (Westcott). 

Sine auctōre vērō prōpositī libellī in nūllō crīmine locum habēre dēbent: Tertullian tells of a proconsul who refused to accept a written, but not anonymous accusation against a Christian. Edicts from Hadrian and Pius required municipal officials from distant areas to put the case in person even against people arrested and charged according to the procedure laid out above. But a veto against anonymous accusations is otherwise unknown until the time of Constantine (Sherwin-White). 

crīmine: "accusation."

et pessimī exemplī nec nostrī saeculī est: genitive of characteristic, with est as normal. AG 343.c. "It is (of) a bad example and is not (characteristic of) our (enlightened) age."