Letter 10001: Your filial piety, most sacred emperor, prompted your desire to succeed your father as late as possible, but the...
Pliny the Younger→Trajan|c. 112 AD|Pliny the Younger
grief deathimperial politicsmonasticism
To Trajan.
Your filial piety, most sacred emperor, prompted your desire to succeed your father as late as possible, but the immortal gods have hastened to bring your talents to the guidance of the state which has fallen to your care. * I pray therefore that prosperity may wait upon you, and through you upon the human race - in other words, I pray that whatever befalls may be worthy of your reign. It is my earnest wish that both in public and private life strength and cheerfulness, most excellent emperor, may be yours.
[Note: Nerva, who had adopted Trajan three months previously, died on 28th January, 98 A.D. Trajan received the news of his accession at Cologne, and did not immediately return to Rome.]
L To Trajan.
Your filial piety, most sacred emperor, prompted your desire to succeed your father as late as possible, but the immortal gods have hastened to bring your talents to the guidance of the state which has fallen to your care. * I pray therefore that prosperity may wait upon you, and through you upon the human race - in other words, I pray that whatever befalls may be worthy of your reign. It is my earnest wish that both in public and private life strength and cheerfulness, most excellent emperor, may be yours.
(*) Nerva, who had adopted Trajan three months previously, died on 28th January, 98 A.D. Trajan received the news of his accession at Cologne, and did not immediately return to Rome.
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To Trajan.
Your filial piety, most sacred emperor, prompted your desire to succeed your father as late as possible, but the immortal gods have hastened to bring your talents to the guidance of the state which has fallen to your care. * I pray therefore that prosperity may wait upon you, and through you upon the human race - in other words, I pray that whatever befalls may be worthy of your reign. It is my earnest wish that both in public and private life strength and cheerfulness, most excellent emperor, may be yours.
[Note: Nerva, who had adopted Trajan three months previously, died on 28th January, 98 A.D. Trajan received the news of his accession at Cologne, and did not immediately return to Rome.]
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.