Traiano custode e correttore del passato: la vicesima hereditatium in Plinio, Panegirico 37-40

This article focuses on Trajan’s overhaul of the vicesima hereditatium discussed by Pliny in paneg. 37-40. In Pliny’s view, the inheritance tax breaks family ties generating a social disruption equivalent to a bellum civile. By reforming the vicesima and granting the cognationis iura to his citizens, Trajan is cast as the unifier of dismembered house-holds and as the guardian of family continuity. Furthermore, by cancelling his citizens’ past debts, Trajan corrects retroactively the unfair legislation of the past. This measure is intended by Pliny as a correction of the past itself. Since not even the gods are able to change the past, Trajan is celebrated as superior even to the gods.