Titus Flavius ​​Clemens

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Titus Flavius ​​Clemens († 95 ), also known as Flavius ​​Clemens for short, was a Roman politician ( consul of the year 95) and a close relative of the Flavian imperial family, who was murdered on the initiative of Emperor Domitian . A connection with Clemens' alleged sympathy with Christianity, which was later claimed, is doubtful, however.

family

Titus Flavius ​​Clemens was probably the son of the suffect consul of 69 and 72, Titus Flavius ​​Sabinus . Since the emperor Vespasian was his great-uncle, there was also a close relationship to his sons, the emperors Titus and Domitian . His own brother, whose name was like his father Titus Flavius ​​Sabinus , was the husband of Julia , Titus' daughter.

Flavius ​​Clemens was married to Flavia Domitilla , a niece of Domitian's from whom he had at least seven children. Domitian, who reigned as emperor since 81, appointed two of the sons of Titus Flavius ​​Clemens to succeed them in their earliest youth, had them renamed Vespasianus and Domitianus and gave them the famous rhetorician Quintilian as their teacher.

career

Little is known of the political career of Titus Flavius ​​Clemens. On the night of December 18-19, 69, the young Titus Flavius ​​Clemens was smuggled into the Capitol by his grandfather, probably together with his brother and Domitian, where the followers of Vespasian were besieged by the followers of Vitellius . According to this, no further activity has come down to us from Flavius ​​Clemens for over 25 years. Suetonius calls him " a man of despicable indolence ".

From January to April 95, Titus Flavius ​​Clemens officiated together with Domitian as ordinary consul. In May 95, almost immediately after his consulate, the emperor " suddenly, on the slightest suspicion ", charged him with " godlessness ". It is speculated that he sympathized with the beliefs of Jews or Christians. According to later legend, his wife Domitilla, who was also accused, founded the well-known Christian burial site in the catacombs of Rome ( Domitilla catacombs ).

Nothing precise can be said about the exact relationship with Clement , who was officiating as Bishop of Rome at that time . Some consider the bishop to be a freed Jewish slave of Titus Flavius ​​Clemens, others even consider an identity of the two to be possible. In the pseudo-Cementine homilies (written between 220 and 300) this bishop Clement is related to many important men who belonged to the emperor's family and his father grew up with the emperor.

In any case, Flavius ​​Clemens was executed in the spring of 95, and his wife Domitilla was banished to Pontia . The assassination of Titus Flavius ​​Clemens was one of the acts that contributed significantly to the conspiracy that would fall victim to Domitian in the following year (96). Here Flavius ​​Stephanus (a former slave of Domitilla?) Performed the first trick.

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ Wolfgang Kuhoff :  Titus Flavius ​​Clemens. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 20, Bautz, Nordhausen 2002, ISBN 3-88309-091-3 , Sp. 503-519.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )
  2. ↑ In Eusebius , Kirchengeschichte 3, 18, 4 Flavia Domitilla is not the wife of Flavius ​​Clemens, but the "daughter of a sister". It is true that she was the daughter of Domitian's sister .
  3. ↑ CIL 6, 8942 .
  4. ^ Suetonius , Domitian 15, 1.
  5. ↑ Quintilian, Training for the Speaker 4, Preface 2, 3.
  6. ↑ Tacitus , Historien 3, 69, 3; Cassius Dio 64, 17, 2; his name is not mentioned explicitly.
  7. ^ Suetonius, Domitian 15, 1.
  8. ^ Cassius Dio 67, 14, 2
  9. ↑ Robert Eisenman: James, the brother of Jesus . Munich 1997, pp. 419, 790.
  10. ↑ Pseudoclemens H IV 7.2 u. H XII 8.2 acc. Wilhelm Schneemelcher (ed.): New Testament Apocrypha II (1997) 471 u. 461. Here, however, the emperor is called Tiberius.
  11. ^ Suetonius, Domitian 15, 1; Cassius Dio 67, 14, 1; see. Eusebius, Church History 3, 18, 4.
  12. ↑ Der Kleine Pauly , Vol. 2, Col. 574f.
  13. ↑ Robert Eisenman: James, the brother of Jesus . Munich 1997, pp. 419, 795.
personal data
SURNAME Flavius ​​Clemens, Titus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Clement, Titus Flavius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION roman consul 95
DATE OF BIRTH at 50
PLACE OF BIRTH Rome
DATE OF DEATH May 95
Place of death Rome