Rome, the Greek World, and the East, Vol. 2 - Government, Society, and Culture in the Roman Empire

Trajan 41

thejourney,ifany,willhavebeenmadebysea.Pliny,forhispart,whenhe
wastravellingtotheprovince,hadmadeaseavoyageroundCapeMalea,pre-
sumablystartingfromBrundisium,andhadlandedatEphesus,continuingby
landthroughPergamum,andthen(rathersurprisingly)revertingtocoastal
shippinguntilhereachedBithynia(epist.10.15–17b).Amessengertravelling
westfromSinopetowardsRomecouldhavemadethefirstpartofthejour-
neyeitherbylandorsea.Afterthat,hemightperhapshavefollowedPliny’s
route in reverse,or more probably have taken theVia Egnatia,oralterna-
tively the major route by land from Byzantium via Philippopolis, Naissus,
andSirmiumtonorthernItalyandRome.Inthisinstance,evensixtydays,
ortwomonths,forthejourneyineachdirection,bywhateverroute,might
wellseemanunderestimate.

Conclusion

TheletterswhichPlinysenttoTrajanfromPontusandBithynia,andTrajan’s
replies, have always attracted interest. But I suggest that if we see them in
perspective,againstawiderbackground,theyactuallybecomenotlessbut
more interesting. One sense of the word ‘‘background’’ in this context is
whatweknowofalltheotherformsofcorrespondencewhichpursuedthe
Emperorwhereverhewas,includingthoseletterswhichPlinyhimselfhad
writtentoTrajanintheearlypartofhisreign.Butamoreimportantsenseof
‘‘background’’isthatofthevastspacesoftheRomanEmpire,acrosswhich
messengers and ambassadors had to travel, if words intended for the Em-
perorwereevertoreachhim.Thosedistancesthemselvesimposeddelaysin
timewhich it is genuinely hard now to comprehend, and to take into ac-
count.Itisnoteasyforustograsptheconstantflowofmessages,complaints,
and documents involving complex local issues emanating from the prov-
inces,andofrepliesembodyingtheideology,thepropaganda,thevalues,and
thepreferencesoftheimperialwill,orthefactthatthesehadtobecarried
slowlyeitherbyambassadorsorbycouriersonhorsebackusingwagons(ve-
hicula), and travelling backwards and forwards across literally thousands of
kilometres,betweentheprovincesandwherevertheEmperorwas,whether
inRomeorinanotherprovince,or(onoccasion)beyondthefrontiersofthe
Empire.Buttheyweresocarried,andthereisarealsenseinwhichitwas
thewritingandtransmissionoftheseletterswhichmadetheRomanEmpire
whatitwas.