XIV TO THE EMPEROR TRAJAN
HAVING safely passed the promontory of Malea, I am arrived at Ephesus with all my retinue, notwithstanding I was detained for some time by contrary winds: a piece of information, Sir, in which, I trust, you will feel yourself concerned. I propose pursuing the remainder of my journey to the province〖Bithynia, a province in Anatolia, or Asia Minor, of which Pliny was appointed governor by Trajan, in the sixth year of his reign, A. D. 103, not as an ordinary proconsul, but as that emperor’s own lieutenant, with powers extraordinary. (See Dio.) The following letters were written during his administration of that province. M.
〗 partly in light vessels, and partly in post-chaises: for as the excessive heats will prevent my travelling altogether by land, so the Etesian winds,〖A north wind in the Grecian seas, which rises yearly sometime in July, and continues to the end of August; though others extend it to the middle of September. They blow only in the daytime. Varenius’ Geogr. v. i. p. 513. M.〗 which are now set in, will not permit me to proceed entirely by sea.