mned by the senate; his acts were rescinded; his exiles recalled;
and under the gentle administration of Nerva, while the innocent
were restored to their rank and fortunes, even the most guilty either
obtained pardon or escaped punishment. [56]

[Footnote 53: The Isle of Pandataria, according to Dion. Bruttius
Praesens (apud Euseb. iii. 18) banishes her to that of Pontia, which was
not far distant from the other. That difference, and a mistake, either
of Eusebius or of his transcribers, have given occasion to suppose two
Domitillas, the wife and the niece of Clemens. See Tillemont, Memoires
Ecclesiastiques, tom. ii. p. 224.]

[Footnote 54: Dion. l. lxvii. p. 1112. If the Bruttius Praesens,
from whom it is probable that he collected this account, was the
correspondent of Pliny, (Epistol. vii. 3,) we may consider him as a
contemporary writer.]

[Footnote 54a: This is an uncandid sarcasm. There is nothing to connect
Stephen with the religion of Domitilla. He was a knave detected in the
malversation of money--interceptarum pecuniaram reus.--M.]

[Footnote 55: Suet. in Domit. c. 17. Philostratus in Vit. Apollon. l.
viii.]

[Footnote 56: Dion. l. lxviii. p. 1118. Plin. Epistol. iv. 22.]

II. About ten years afterwards, under the reign of Trajan, the younger
Pliny was intrusted by his friend and master with the government of
Bithynia and Pontus. He soon found himself at a loss to determine by
what rule of justice or of law he should direct his conduct in the
execution of an office the most repugnant to his humanity. Pliny had
never assisted at any judicial proceedings against the Christians,
with whose name alone he seems to be acquainted; and he was totally
uninformed with regard to the nature of their guilt, the method of their
conviction, and the degree of their punishment. In this perplexity he
had recourse to his usual expedient, of submitting to the wisdom of
Trajan an impartial, and, in some respects, a favorable account of the
new superstition, requesting the emperor, that he would condescend to
resolve his doubts, and to instruct his ignorance. [57] The life of
Pliny had been employed in the acquisition of learning, and in the
business of the world.

Since the age of nineteen he had pleaded with distinction in the
tribunals of Rome, [58] filled a place in the senate, had been invested
with the honors of the consulship, and had formed very numerous
connections with every order of men, both in Italy and in the