Letter 82

Trajan to Pliny. You need have had no hesitation, my dear Pliny, on the point concerning which you have thought it necessary to consult me, for you are well aware of my fixed resolve not to seek to make people respect my name by fear and terrorism and charges of treason. Dismiss the inquiry, therefore, which I should not admit even if there were precedents to support it, and let Cocceianus Dion be required to submit the plan of the whole building he has raised under your supervision, as public interests demand that he should. Indeed he does not decline to do so - and ought not to, if he did.

L Trajan to Pliny. You need have had no hesitation, my dear Pliny, on the point concerning which you have thought it necessary to consult me, for you are well aware of my fixed resolve not to seek to make people respect my name by fear and terrorism and charges of treason. Dismiss the inquiry, therefore, which I should not admit even if there were precedents to support it, and let Cocceianus Dion be required to submit the plan of the whole building he has raised under your supervision, as public interests demand that he should. Indeed he does not decline to do so - and ought not to, if he did.