Reading: Christianity Erupts and Reaches Every Rank and Both Genders

Jesus was in his twenties when Gaius Plinius (Secundus, II or Jr.) was born in 23 AD in Como, northern Italy. His father, Gaius, was an Equities, a class of people just below the Roman senator class. The Equities or Equestrians owned land and typically served as leaders in the military.

The Gaius family descended from 4,500 Roman colonists placed in Como, Italy, to subdue Alp tribal warriors in 59 BC. Julius Caesar himself picked these families, and these families were fiercely loyal to Rome.

His father took his son Gaius to Rome to be educated by the most excellent writers and orators. In the early thirties, while Jesus was starting his ministry in Galilee, mobilizing a ragtag group of uneducated fishermen and others, Gaius was being educated at Rome, learning from the likes of Servilius Nonianus.

Gaius was in Rome when Jesus rose from the dead in 33 AD finishing his education. Thirteen years later, Gaius was in the Roman military, and they were conquering German lands. Entire villages were destroyed. Roman military mercy was to spare poor villagers' lives if they became slaves of the Roman empire. Millions took the deal. Many estimate that up to 40% of the Roman homeland were slaves. The slave traders swooped in after each Roman conquest. This action made the military leaders rich. Gaius became wealthy while serving in the military.

By the time of Nero(54AD), Gaius was in Rome again, but he went out of his way to focus his law and writing career on things that would not get the attention of the lunatic Nero. He gave himself to studying grammar during Nero's reign between 54-68AD. 

Nero blamed the burning of Rome on the Christians in 64 AD. Everyone knew that Nero was insane, and the Christians had nothing to do with Rome's burning. Both the Apostle Paul and Peter were said to have been martyred at Nero's hands.

Likely, Gaius never met Peter or Paul.

After Nero's death by suicide in 68 AD, and after a time of unrest, the next Emperor Vespasian, a buddy from their military days, appointed Gaius to various government posts. He served as a governor in northern Africa. His last position was admiral for the Roman fleet at Misenum.

Aside from his government appointments, Gaius became passionate about encyclopedic knowledge. His grand opus was a book called "Natural History," published in 77 AD. This book was considered the Wikipedia of its day. He wrote about such things as nations, animals, and even plants remedies. If you wanted to know about gold mines, you could read how slaves worked them. For example, Gaius wrote,

It was said that Gaius read, researched, and wrote continuously, sometimes falling asleep in mid-sentence only to wake up to read and write more. He reflected the best of Roman writing, remarkable for the first century.

Gaius was a remarkable Roman figure. He was a prosperous lawyer, military officer, a governor, a researcher, a writer, a grammarian, a friend to the Emporer, and an admiral.

Gaius never married, and no biological children are known. His sister Plinia married Lucius Caecilius Clio. Plinia bore a son named Gaius after her older brother. Her husband, Lucius Caecilius, died at a young age. Plinia, and her son came under the care of her older brother Gaius. 

Gaius treated his sister's son as his own. Gaius adopted young Gaius as his heir. Gaius made sure young Gaius, his namesake, was educated with the proper tutors with senior, Gaius the homeschooling headmaster. They had a special relationship. So close that history knows Gaius as Pliny, the Elder, and his adopted nephew, Gaius, as Pliny the Younger.

When Pliny the Elder served as an Admiral for the Roman Fleet in 79 AD at Misenum, Mount Vesuvius erupted. Pliny the Elder went on a rescue mission where he lost his life. The account of Mount Vesuvius's eruption has been passed down by Pliny the Younger, who, at age 18, chronicled the eruption and death of his uncle, Pliny the Elder.

Twenty-five years later, the Younger wrote down a detailed account of the eruption for historian Tacitus. The statement still stands today as a somewhat accurate depiction of the happenings of a volcanic eruption. In this remarkable account, Pliny the Younger made his uncle, Pliny the Elder, a hero who gave his life to rescue people caught in this national tragedy.

Pliny the Younger, like his uncle, excelled at writing. He also excelled at staying on the right side of Roman emperors. His life depended on it, and he was smart enough to know that. One emperor had an order on his desk to have the Younger executed. That order was not carried out because that Emporer happened to be assassinated before that order was completed.

Pliny the Younger inherited his uncle's estates and served the Roman emperors throughout his career, which spanned from 80 AD to 113 AD.

In the early years of the second century, his last post before death found him as imperial governor in Bithynia, modern-day Turkey. Pliny the Younger was nearing his uncle's age when his uncle died at Vesuvius, and he was serving Emperor Trajan.

Many of Pliny the Younger's letters have survived. He asked for Emperor Trajan's governance advice. He reported stories he found interesting. He wrote a story about how a master was beaten and left for dead. The master was pretending to be dead, however. Piny wrote how the master got revenge on his slaves.

Trajan was persecuting and executing Christians as Nero had done. Between 110-113 AD, 80-some years after the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, Pliny encountered Christians. Christianity was rapidly spreading. It was considered a new religious movement separate from Judaism. Christianity had spread to Bithynia, where Pliny the Youngers served as governor. 

Christianity was not well funded as it spread. Tens of thousands were becoming Christians, from every rank. The local leaders were made up primarily of non-paid ordained deacon ministers (diakonoi). Their national and regional leaders were growth-orientated "Visitors or Selectors" ordained as Episcopate or Bishop (epistopoi). (1 Timothy 3:1) The Greek word here comes from the verb "Episkeptomai," which means to inspect, select, go to see, or visit.

The first apostles, for instance, modeled this role when they selected and ordained the first deacon ministers (diakonoi) when more ministry roles needed to be filled at the beginning of the Christian movement in Acts 6:3,

The early apostles and disciples had a process where new ministers (diakonoi) were selected and ordained for ministry. This pattern continued.  The Apostle Paul was selected or “called” as we would say it, by Jesus himself on the road to Damascus in Acts 9. He was first ordained as a deacon minister (diakonos) after Barnabas trained him. Paul retells his ministry journey in Ephesians 3:7:

Later, we find out that his role increased to an apostle in the office of Bishop (Epistopoi). He was sent out on “Christian Movement” journeys, often called missionary journeys, visiting one town after another. He appointed deacon ministers, some who would become movement leaders too, who would travel and select leaders from local believers and leaders to ordain as ministers (diakonoi) (Note: We will dive deeper into this subject later)

The Apostle Paul expanded the selection and ordination process. He appointed Titus to select "mature or older" leaders in Crete to serve the church in Titus 1:5: