10.5

The first of two letters in which Pliny asks Trajan to make his physician Harpocras (Ἁρποκρᾶς) into a Roman and an Alexandrian citizen.

Book 10 contains letters from Pliny to the Emperor Trajan, and Trajan's replies. 

Imperial grants of citizenship were routine during the High Empire. Caracalla finally gave Roman citizenship with the Constitutio Antoniniana to almost all imperial inhabitants who did not already possess it in AD 212.

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"[In Book 10] Pliny seeks imperial grants of Roman citizenship on behalf of no fewer than ten individuals from a wide variety of backgrounds and circumstances, from two freedwomen of the ornatissima femina Antonia Maximilla to his therapist (iatraliptes) Harpocras. One formal response from Trajan and various expressions of gratitude in Pliny's own letters indicate that the citizenship was conceded to at least three of the persons in question, and there is no reason to doubt that all ten of Pliny's dependents eventually received the citizenship from Trajan as a matter of course." 

Carlos F. Noreña, “The Social Economy of Pliny’s Correspondence with Trajan,” The American Journal of Philology 128, no. 2 (2007): 241.

 

Manumission did not automatically produce Roman citizenship in every circumstance. A slave formally manumitted by a Roman citizen according to the appropriate procedures could become a Roman citizen, but the Augustan legislation, especially the lex Aelia Sentia and lex Iunia, had created several inferior categories of freed persons. The Latini Iuniani, for example, were free but lacked full Roman citizenship and suffered serious testamentary disabilities. An imperial grant could remove such disadvantages. In the Augustan period scheme, the highest status was to be granted only after careful vetting and selection. See Henrik Mouritsen, The Freedman in the Roman World (Cambridge University Press, 2011), 87-88.

 

A freedman himself remained subject to the disabilities associated with freed status, but his freeborn children were Roman citizens without the stigma of being freedmen. Citizenship could thus transform the prospects of a family over a generation. Roman law imposed disabilities on noncitizens in receiving property through Roman wills and in making wills that Roman courts would recognize. Citizenship could therefore make an enormous difference to a freedman who had accumulated property and wanted to transmit it to his children. 

 

This episode shows that citizenship operated partly through patronage. Pliny was converting his own access to the emperor into a very valuable benefit for someone to whom he felt indebted.

Proximō annō: abl. of time when, either "a year ago," or "last calendar year."

domine: while in republican Rome in political contexts this word can suggest unlawful, despotic power, by this period it is a neutral-sounding courtesy title: "Sir."  OLD dominus 4. LS dominus II. Coins bearing the emperor's image were colloquially called domini.

gravissimā valētūdine: abl. of means with vexātus. Pliny's serious illness is mentioned in letter 8.3 as happening before the illness and death of Emperor Nerva (January 27, AD 98), so this letter dates to some time between mid-98 and mid-99, well before Pliny's appointment as legatus in Bithynia.

iātraliptēn: Greek accusative, direct object of adsūmpsī. The iatralipta (or iatroalipta or ἀλειπτης) was a physical therapist / trainer, rather than a doctor. Iatros = doctor, aliptes = masseur.

An iatraliptes was superior to a γυμναστής but inferior to an ἰατρός his treatment depending on massage, exercise, and diet. Cf. Juvenal, Satire 3.76. Petronius, Satyricon 28 (Radice).

adsumpsī: "I engaged (the services of)." OLD assumo 7.b.

cuius sollicitūdinī et studiō tuae tantum indulgentiae beneficiō referre grātiam parem possum: cuius is a connecting relative. order: possum referre parem gratiam sollicitūdinī et studiō eius tantum ("only") beneficiō tuae indulgentiae.

sollicitūdinī: "painstaking attention," referring to Harpocras's treatments. The word is emphasized by its position.

beneficiō tuae indulgentiae: Pliny uses these very respectful terms several times when addressing Trajan.

(2) dēs: subjunctive after after rogō ("I request that"), with ut omitted, as often in Pliny. LS rogo II.β.

peregrīnae condiciōnis manūmissus ā peregrīnā: "a man of peregrine status, freed by a woman of peregrine status." Peregrinus is a legal term for a resident alien. Peregrini had some rights under Roman law, but not full citizenship.

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There would be no difficulty in giving Roman status to an ordinary freeborn peregrinus. But this man was only the freedman of a peregrinus, and in many communes of the Greek speaking provinces freedmen did not acquire the citizenship of their local city. Yet Pliny seems quite unaware of any difficulty in his request. He mentions the death of the patron, but ignores the rights of her heirs. At least in Roman law direct heirs inherited in some degree the rights of the patron over his freedmen (Sherwin-White).

Thermuthin Theōnis: “Thermuthis, wife of Theon." The names are characteristic of the usage of Hellenized Egyptians (Sherwin-White).

iam prīdem: "some time ago."

iūs Quirītium: “citizenship”; lit., “the right of the Quirites," an old term for Roman citizens in their peacetime functions.

The Ius Quiritium granted full civil status to freedmen of inferior status (Latini Iuniani: see 10.104) (Radice).

lībertīs: “to the freedwomen.”

ōrnātissimae fēminae: in apposition with Antōniae Maximillae.

Hediae et Antōniae Harmeridi: in apposition with lībertīs. These are the names of Antonia Maximillia’s freedwomen. Harmeridi is a Greek dative.

petente patrōnā: “at the request of their patroness.” 

Her consent was essential, since the patron of Junians succeeded to their property (Sherwin-White).