Roman Imperial Texts: A Sourcebook

17. Collegium

17 Collegium COLLEGIUM Like certain governments today, Rome was uneasy with allowing people to assemble when their group had no license from the authorities to do so. Various kinds of social groups formed in the Greek and Roman worlds to provide social support for their members: trade guilds represented the economic interests of their members and cared for widows; burial clubs provided funerals and support for the deceased members’ families; and social or drinking clubs provided camaraderie in a pleasant context. This is a level of human relations that is one step lower, or more specific, than the city. The Romans’ term for any such guild, funeral club, or religious association was collegium; the plural is collegia. There was even one type called a collegium tenuiōrum—an “association of the weak”—that provided material support for poor people. The first-century church communities reflected in the New Testament may have been expected to provide support for the poor, as some collegia did in the Mediterranean world (Rom. 12:13, 16; 15:1; Gal. 2:10; 1 Thess. 5:14). Support for widows is attested in 1 Tim. 5:9-12. The language in Rom. 14:7-9 regarding death and life seems like it could fit in a funeral or burial liturgy. While this text does not prove anything, once one realizes how collegia took care of the burial of their members, one begins to wonder when the early churches began to fulfill this function for their members. At the same time, there may have been times when church members expected something like a collegium-sponsored handout at their church. The author’s self-descriptions and directions to the community seem to indicate that some in Thessalonika thought they no longer needed to work, a misunderstanding that seems to be addressed in both letters named for that city (1 Thess. 2:9; 4:11; 2 Thess. 3:6-13). 143 ROMAN LICENSING OF COLLEGIA The Roman imperial government under which first-and second-century churches churches took root and spread was a government very concerned to keep people from forming unlicensed or unrecognized groups. It took special permission for a collegium to be recognized by the government and allowed to convene. Some of the Roman concern evident in the selection below, regarding unlicensed groups, may have been encountered by early Christian assemblies as well. 57. GOVENOR PLINY’S REQUEST FOR A FIRE-FIGHTING COLLEGIUM (ca. 110–112 ce)1 The following exchange of letters between the Roman governor of Bithynia Pliny the Younger and the emperor Trajan illustrates how paranoid an emperor could be regarding allowing a new association to form, even if for a worthy cause. While there were fire companies and neighborhood associations in Rome and in Italy, Trajan seems concerned that no occasion for political unrest arise in Pliny’s eastern province. The significance of this letter exchange for the reader of the New Testament is that we can see how difficult it was for social groups to receive permission from the Roman government to form into a distinct group (collegium) and meet regularly. While I was making the rounds of a different area of the province, a wide-ranging conflagration in Nicomedia consumed many domestic dwellings and two public structures—the senior citizens’ building and the temple to Isis—though a road runs between them. The fire spread out widely, at first by violent wind, then by the apathy of the people who stood idly by, unmoving, standing still as spectators before such a catastrophe. And also there is no hose in public holdings, no water bucket, nor any other tool for firefighting. These items are now provided as I ordered. Please reflect, master, on whether you think a company of firemen—numbering only 150—might be set up. I shall take care that no one shall be received into the company who is not a fireman, and 1. My translation of the Latin text of Pliny, Ep. 10.33–34, in Pliny: Letters and Panegyricus, vol. 2, Letters, Books VIII–X and Panegyricus, trans. Betty Radice, LCL (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press/London: William Heinemann, 1969). 144 | Roman Imperial Texts that what is granted this group by law will not be used for something else. It won’t be hard to keep track of so few. 58. EMPEROR TRAJAN’S RESPONSE TO PLINY (ca. 110–112 ce) According to the precedent of...