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The Letters of Pliny the Younger preserve 121 letters from him to Trajan, and 51 answers from the emperor. This exceptional corpus allows us to see, even through arbitrary choices and the rewriting related to publishing, Trajan’s action in concentric circles, from his immediate entourage to the borders of the Empire, thus showing the unprecedented articulation of the Imperium and libertas, which is specific to his reign. Four themes will be discussed: the vocabulary used by Pliny during official celebrations; the comparison with Domitian; Trajan’s action through his responses to Pliny; the vocabulary of affection between the two men. From this analytical framework emerges a human portrait of the emperor, respectful towards the Senate and towards the institutions of the Res publica, an emperor who was above all the guarantor of their libertas.