10.6

The second letter from Pliny to Trajan about how to acquire citizenship for his physician.

See 10.5.

(1)

iūs Quirītium: direct object of indulsistī, which takes an accusative and a dative. Lit., “the right of the Quirites" (a term used for early Roman citizens), i.e., full citizenship, not the inferior type possessed by Latini Iuniani. This would give them the full rights possessed by an ordinary Roman freedman including, crucially, the power to make a will recognized by Roman law. 

necessāriae: indicates that Antonia Maximilla was a relative of Pliny's. 

The term could include relations by marriage (affīnēs) as well as blood kin (cognātī) (Sherwin-White).

cīvitātem Rōmānam Arpocratī: acc. and dat., to be taken with indulsistī.

iātraliptae meō: in apposition with Arpocratī, “my physician." The iatralipta was a physical therapist / trainer, rather than a doctor.

cum ... ēderem:  "while I was making a formal statement of." A legal term, OLD ēdo 8.

annōs eius et cēnsum: the statement of wealth and age was required because these provided the qualifications for munera (official posts or appointments) and honōrēs (political offices), municipal and Roman, and for the exercise of sundry privileges under the Roman social legislation. The registration of property was also required by the Bureau of the inheritance tax on Roman citizens (Sherwin-White).

sīcut praecēperās: “just as you had instructed.”

admonitus sum ā perītiōribus: “I have been advised by those more skilled (in such matters)” + indirect statement. 

ante: adv., “first,” “previously,” or “beforehand.”

Alexandrīnam cīvitātem: this would mark him as one of the Greek inhabitants of the city of Alexandria, rather than one of the large population peasants from the countryside.

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Egypt differed from all other provinces in that the vast mass of its inhabitants were not organized into self-governing civitates stipendariae (tax-paying communities) possessing local citizenship. Josephus says that the Egyptians were the only people who the Romans have not allowed to “share in any form of citizenship” (Against Apion 2.41). Tacitus describes Egypt as insciam legum ignarum magistratuum (“ignorant of laws and unfamiliar with magistrates,” Histories 1.11). ... The grounds for this disability seemed to have been not technical but moral—their lack of any tradition of self-government and the peculiarity, as with Druids and Jews, of their religious customs. Hence, they were unsuitable candidates for Roman the Roman citizenship, and the grant of Alexandrian status was originally intended to ensure that the person and his descendants should acquire some knowledge of the cultural values of the Greco-Roman world (Sherwin-White).

(2) nihil interesse crēdēbam: “I believed that there was no difference.”

esse eum ā peregrīnā manūmissum: indirect statement in apposition with hoc sōlum. This is what Pliny had written to Trajan.

patrōnamque eius iam prīdem dēcessisse: another indirect statement in apposition with hoc sōlum. This is the second part of Pliny’s report to Trajan.

nōn queror: “I have no regret,” OLD queror 1.

per quam stetit ut: the idiom stat per me ut means, "it is due to me that..." "it is my fault that...." LS sto II.B.4. Pliny substitutes quam (i.e. ignorantiam meam) for mē, hence, "it is down to this (my ignorance) that..." followed by a result clause.

ut ... possim: indirect command after rogō.

beneficiō tuō: "the favor you have conferred" (Radice), abl., with fruī.

lēgitimē: adv., modifying fruī.

nē quid rursus ... morārētur: "to prevent any further delay to" + acc.

lībertīs tuīs: dat., indirect object of mīsī.

The principal secretaries of the ā libellīs (petitions) and ā cēnsibus (registry of the census) departments may have been equestrians in status by this time, but their executive staff continued to be filled by freedmen (Sherwin-White).

quibus iusserās: “as you have instructed.”