Pliny the Younger

Roman Emperors

Pliny the Younger was an author who attests, in a letter to the emperor Trajan about a grant of citizenship for a therapist named Harpocras, that citizenship was granted to some Egyptians, though far from open-handedly. He states in his letter that , since he was an Egyptian, Pliny should have obtained for him Alexandrian citizenship, then Roman. Since he didn't realize that there was a difference, he merely wrote to the emperor that Trajan was a freedman of an alien woman and that his patron had died.

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Last Updated: June 19th, 2011