EPISTULA TRAIANI AD SMYRNAEOS
   
Letter of Trajan on liturgies
  
( AD 98 or 100 )
 
    
( J. Reynolds, Aphrodisias and Rome, London, 1982, n. 14 ).
 
 
vac. αὐτοκράτωρ Καῖσαρ Τραϊανὸς Σμυρναίοις vac. | οὐδένα βούλομαι ἐκ τῶν ἐλευθέρων πόλεων ἀνανκάζεσθαι εἰς ὑμετέραν λειτουργίαν καὶ | μάλιστα ἐξ Ἀφροδεισιάδος ἐξῃρημένης τῆς πόλεως καὶ τοῦ τύπου τῆς ἐπαρχείας v. ὥστε μήτε | εἰς τὰς κοινὰς τῆς Ἀσίας μήτε εἰς ἑτέρας λειτουργίας ὑπάγεσθαι Τιβέριον Ἰουλιανὸν Ἄτταλον | ἀπολύω τοῦ ἐν Σμύρνῃ ναοῦ καὶ μάλιστα μαρτυρούμενον ὑπὸ τῆς ἰδίας πατρίδος ἔγραψα δὲ περὶ | vac. τούτων καὶ Ἰουλίῳ Βάλβῳ τῷ φίλῳ μου καὶ ἀνθυπάτῳ vac.
 
English translation ( Inscriptions of Aphrodisias Project ).
  
 
Imperator Caesar Trajanus to the Smyrnaeotes. I wish no one from the free cities to be forced into (performing) your liturgy, and especially no one from Aphrodisias, since that city has been removed from the formula provinciae so that it is not liable either to the common liturgies of Asia or to others. I release Tiberius Julianos Attalos from (performance of a liturgy in) the temple in Smyrna ; (he is) a man who has the highest testimonials from his own city ; and I have written about these matters to Julius Balbus, my friend and the proconsul.
 

 
►  Bibliography
 
 
Millar, Emperor in the Roman World, London, 1977, pp. 438-439 ; Bernhardt, Historia, 29, 1980, p. 200 ; Petzl, Die Inschriften von Smyrna, Bonn, 1982-90, n. 593 ; Pleket et al., Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum, XXXII, Amsterdam, 1982, n. 1202 ; Reynolds, Aphrodisias and Rome, London, 1982, n. 14 ; BE 1983, 751 ; AE 1984, n. 868 ; Oliver, Greek Constitutions of Early Roman Emperors from Inscriptions and Papyri, Philadelphia, 1989, n. 48 ; Erdkamp et al., The representation and perception of Roman imperial power : Proceedings of the Third Workshop of the International Network Impact of Empire, Amsterdam, 2003, pp. 251 and 255 ; Smith & Ratté, Aphrodisias papers : New research on the city and its monuments, Portsmouth, 2008, pp. 54 and 57.
 
 
►  Source : Column discovered at Aphrodisias, Turkey, recorded in 1967.