Claudius

Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus

Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, was the fourth Roman emperor, ruling from AD 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Claudius was born to Drusus and Antonia Minor at Lugdunum in Roman Gaul, where his father was stationed as a military legate. He was the first Roman emperor to be born outside Italy. Nonetheless, Claudius was an Italian of Sabine origins.

Although he had a limp and slight deafness due to sickness at a young he was an able leader considering. The ancient historians Tacitus wrote a narrative that Claudius was a passive pawn and an idiot in affairs relating to the palace and often in public life. While the historian Suetonius saw Claudius as a ridiculous figure and attributed many of his acts and good works to others.

Exiled Christians

"The Roman government under Augustus had already been issuing (inscribed ) Tesserae (tiles) as proof of entitlement to the periodic grain doles."

In the time of Caligula, there is a record of the people providing what would be called in Greek a charagma. A charagma was required, by the time of Nero, to do business in the market place, but before him, we know that Claudius had exiled many Jews because of their lack of cooperation and trouble making. A marked Tesserae could be required as a form of passport to even enter parts of the city.

What kind of trouble and what kind of Jew?

Christians for the most part were considered Jews. They claimed Jesus was proclaimed a king of the Jews as their king and often did contrary to the decrees of Caesar.

It has been written, “Since the Jews constantly made disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus , he expelled them from Rome.”

Chrestus, was either some Hellenist, who caused a political disturbances or he was Christ whose teachings was causing an actual dissension between orthodox Jews and Christians Jews, or even among Roman who were beginning to convert to the Corban of Christ. See Chrestus.

Suetonius does appear to confound the name Christ, "which was most unusual as a proper name, with the much more frequent appellation of Chrestus (see Tertullian, Apol. 3; Lactantius, Instit. 4:7, 5; Milman, History of Christianity, 1:430)."

Chrestus

The references of Suetonius (69-122 AD) with the words Chresto and Christiani that is believed to be Christ and Christians gives some extra validity to what appears in copies of Tacitus about Christians. These accounts of the Lives of the Twelve Caesars were published around around AD 120 and can be used by people who feel a need to offer proof that Jesus existed.

Christians for the most part were considered Jews at first. The followers of Jesus who were the followers of "the way", were first called Christians in Antioch around the A.D. 40s or 50s. They claimed Jesus was proclaimed a king of the Jews as their king and often did contrary to the decrees of Caesar.

Claudius and Chresto

There are numerous translations of the early Latin text:

From The Lives of the Twelve Caesars by C. Suetonius Tranquillus

published in the Loeb Classical Library, 1914
The life of Claudius (25)
translated J. C. Rolfe,
Internet Ancient History Sourcebook, ed. Paul Halsall, 1999

"4 Since the Jews constantly made disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus, he expelled them from Rome. He allowed the envoys of the Germans to sit in the orchestra, led by their naïve self-confidence; for when they had been taken to the seats occupied by the common people and saw the Parthian and Armenian envoys sitting with the senate, they moved of their own accord to the same part of the theatre, protesting that their merits and rank were no whit inferior. 5 He utterly abolished the cruel and inhuman religion of the Druids among the Gauls, which under Augustus had merely been prohibited to Roman citizens; on the other hand he even attempted to transfer the Eleusinian rites from Attica to Rome, and had the temple of Venus Erycina in Sicily, which had fallen to ruin through age, restored at the expense of the treasury of the Roman people. He struck his treaties with foreign princes in the Forum, sacrifi­cing a pig⁠ and reciting the ancient formula of the fetial priests.⁠ But these and other acts, and in fact almost the whole conduct of his reign, were dictated not so much by his own judgment as that of his wives and freedmen, since he nearly always acted in accordance with their interests and desires."(Latin)

Alternate translation"He drove out from Rome the Jews who stirred up by Chrestus continually caused unrest." From the work The Lives of the Caesars by the Roman historian Suetonius, also called the The Twelve Caesars found in (Claudius 25) translated from the Loeb Classical Library edition, specifically the translation by J.C. Rolfe.

This was in the biography of the Emperor Divus Claudius, which refers to agitations in the Roman Jewish community and the expulsion of Jews from Rome by Claudius during his reign (AD 41 to AD 54), which may be the same expulsion mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles 18:2.

Nero and Christians

In Nero 16, Suetonius writes of executive orders signed by the Emperator Nero to maintain public order. He halted chariot races because there was belief the drivers were cheating which lead to riots. Also there were forms of lockdowns that affected serving of cooked foods in taverns and the distribution of public welfare(Public banquets, such as the civic feasts offered for all of the inhabitants of a city or epulum a "public feast"). Some of the food given to the poor was being sold in taverns because the poor exchanged it for drink including wine, Cannabis and opium.

Tertullian(160-240 AD) wrote of Nero being the first Emperor to murder Christians: "We read the lives of the Cæsars: At Rome Nero was the first who stained with blood the rising faith" Tertullian, Chapter XV. He depended upon the writings of Suetonius to make this comment.

From The Lives of the Twelve Caesars by C. Suetonius Tranquillus

published in the Loeb Classical Library, 1914
The life of Nero

16,2 "During his reign many abuses were severely punished and put down, and no fewer new laws were made: a limit was set to expenditures; the public banquets were confined to a distribution of food; the sale of any kind of cooked viands in the taverns was forbidden, with the exception of pulse and vegetables, whereas before every sort of dainty was exposed for sale.⁠45 Punishment was inflicted on the Christians, a class of men given to a new and mischievous superstition. He put an end to the diversions of the chariot drivers, who from immunity of long standing claimed the right of ranging at large and amusing themselves by cheating and robbing the people. The pantomimic actors and their partisans were banished from the city."(Latin)

Another translation of that Latin statement by Suetonius can be produced because the Latin term "maleficus", meaning "evil-doing" or "wicked" and "afflicti suppliciis" is a Latin phrase that translates to "afflicted with punishments" or "punished with tortures". .

"Christians, a race(kind) of men afflicted with punishments, are possessed by a new and evil superstition;"

Bias of historians

Christians are mentioned in Suetonius' biography of the Emperor Nero (Nero 16) as among those persecuted by him around AD 64 which was the year of the Great Fire of Rome. In this passage Suetonius describes Christianity and its excessive religiosity using the term superstitio as do others like Tacitus and Pliny.

At first there was little distinction between Christians and Jews prior to Nerva's modification of the Fiscus Judaicus in AD 96.

What is the source and cause of their contempt, bias, and bigotry toward Christians?

If we understand that writers like Suetonius and Tacitus had a bias for the Senate who were the Consctipi Patri, Conscripted Fathers, and Christians would call no man father upon the earth because of the directive of their King.

He was also high priest which why he was to be called the Son of God instead of Caesar who was also called the Son of God. The government of Rome obtained more and more power because they offered more and more gifts, gratuities, and benefits. This would of course ruin Rome the Republic, degenerate the masses who lined up for free bread and become the foundation for a Christian conflict.

This idea that eating the free bread provided at the tables of the Imperial Cult of Rome was some how immoral was an insult to Romans just as it would be to the people dependent on the welfare State today.

Religio et superstitio

Lucius Annaeus Seneca, the Younger, has been reported as saying, "Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful." While I have not found that quote he does makes a distinction between these two Latin words "Religio et superstitio quid differant" that are each sometimes translated as “religion”. The first is regarded as virtue and the other vice.

Pious Piety

Pious is an adjective describing a person who is deeply devoted while piety can specifically refer to devotion to one's family (filial piety). The word piety has a direct relationship to the rights of a father through the concept of that filial piety, which emphasizes duties like respect, honor, and care for parents. Judeo-Christian values include "Honor your father and mother" commandment which means to care for your father and mother and not go the the Fathers of the earth.

To Seneca, being pious meant living in harmony with universal Reason (Logos). That Logos of Christ said to call no man "Father". The Logos of Christ which is the word of God has always warned of the dainties of Rulers, the snare and trap of coveting his rewards.

"... religio denotes the pious and sound worship of the gods, whereas superstitio stands for instrumental worship as a result of unreasoning fear."

Enlightened view

" religio becomes obligation, an objective bond" according to Seneca and Cicero and later Christian authors like Lactantius and St. Augustine. But while some see the obligation as enforceable in public religion which create the bands of Civil government others see the love and charity of Christian practices establishing Social bonds between the believers and their God.

"But it was the enlightened view, the philosophic view of the rationalizing Romans which dissociated religio ‘religious scruple’, authentic worship, from superstitio, a degraded and perverted form of religion." Chapter 7: Religion and Superstition

The Ionic Greek term thrēskeíē is unknown in Attic Greek appearing in the first century B.C. a complex system of beliefs and practices can be considered religion as in the performance of a duty. The nature of that duty may differ.

There has always been a duty connected to religion and the means and method of enforcement determines the nature of that religion. The genius of Caesar was different than that of Christ and what He called the weightier matters. To do what Christ commanded the early Church to do nurtures the Social virtues that appear in true fellowship described by Paul and the apostles who considered faith with out the works was dead. Polybius points out that it is our appetite and avarice that degenerates the masses and ushers in the tyrants.

Jew and Christian

At first there seemed to be no practical distinction between Jew and Christian. But the difference was acute and caused a stirring in the hearts of people everywhere. [Rome] had rose to prominence with an all voluntary system of social welfare that bound their society so tightly together that local militias would come together at a moments notice to oppose any danger to the peace of the community.

This was no longer the situation in or state of Rome. The government was centralized power first in an indirect democracy and then the empire through the covetous practices of the Imperial Cult of Rome, the republic was all but dead. The free bread and circuses provided at someone else's expense placated the populous which degenerated the masses and fed on the authoritarian benefactors of the new Roman Empire.

Just as the Pharisees hated Christ many Romans and Greek would first envy and hate the Christian because Christians did what they no longer had the will or moral character to do. Christian created a social safety net through the charitable practice of pure Religion and a daily ministration of love.

Romans had compromised their morals with the treats and gratuities of Julius Caesar at the expense of the Gauls which ruined the Roman people.

"That the man who first ruined the Roman people twas he who first gave them treats and gratuities." Plutarch's Life of Coriolanus (c. 100 AD.)

The general magistrate power was not granted to the praefectus until Claudius in 44 AD.

But we know that at least according to the Jewish Virtual Library the term "Procurator" is defined with the addition of "From a recently discovered inscription in which Pontius Pilate is mentioned, it appears that the title of the governors of Judea was also 'praefectus'."

Seneca on Benefits of Caesar

Seneca writes of who one should take a benefit:

"Crispus Passienus was wont to say that some men's advice was to be preferred to their presents, some men's presents to their advice; and he added as an example, "I would rather have received advice from Augustus than a present; I would rather receive a present from Claudius than advice." I, however, think that one ought not to wish for a benefit from any man whose judgement is worthless. What then? Ought we not to receive what Claudius gives? We ought; but we ought to regard it as obtained from fortune, which may at any moment turn against us. Why do we separate this which naturally is connected? That is not a benefit, to which the best part of a benefit, that it be bestowed with judgment, is wanting: a really great sum of money, if it be given neither with discernment nor with good will, is no more a benefit than if it remained hoarded. There are, however, many things which we ought not to reject, yet for which we cannot feel indebted." Seneca ON BENEFITS, DEDICATED TO AEBUTIUS LIBERALIS. BOOK I. XIV.

Early Christians, like Abraham who would not take a buckle, would not take a benefit from either Augustus Caesar nor Claudius. David and Paul Proverbs and Apostles saw the welfare of rulers as a snare and a trap and told us not to eat of their tables because they were an idolatry that would make us merchandise and curse children. Besides Christ forbid it.

• “And there stood up one of them named Agabus, and signified by the Spirit that there should be great dearth [economic depression] throughout all the world: which came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar.” Acts 11:28

Pudens and Paul

Clement, presented as the third bishop of Rome, claimed "St. Paul came to Britain and preached in the extremity of the West." When Saul's Father died Prassede married, Pudentinus, a high Roman official stationed in Cilicia who Fathered Rufus Pudens, born in Umbria.

Santa Pudenziana is a church of Rome, a basilica built in the 4th century and dedicated to Saint Pudentiana, sister of Praxedes and daughter of Pudens (mentioned by Paul the Apostle in 2 Timothy 4: 21)

Paul the Apostle was born Saul the son of Prassede, his mother, and a wealthy Benjaminite of the republic of Tarsus, whose father had purchased the status of Rhomaios (a high sui juris status of Rome) for himself and his descendants.

It is believed by many that Rufus met and married a beautiful British Princess Gladys who was renamed Claudia by the Emperor Claudius when he adopted her as his own daughter.

She was the daughter of Caratacus or Caractacus, also known as Caradoc, Caradog who was quartered in the Plautium Britannicum during the time Paul visited Rome.

Paul makes mention of his half brother in Romans 16:13 “Salute Rufus chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine.” Rufus Pudens and Claudia had at least two daughters Prassede and Pudenziana named after their grand parents.

The church of Santa Prassede and Santa Pudenziana still stand in Rome. The church of Santa Pudenziana, "the most sacred and most ancient of churches," bears the second century inscription "known as that of the Pastor, dedicated by Sanctus Pias Papa, formerly the house of Sanctus Pudens, the Senator, and the Home of the Holy Apostles."

Family of Paul

• Prassede, Paul's mother a Benjaminite>> Saul/Paul

Prassede's husband died and She married Pudentinus

• Prassede, Paul's mother >> Pudentinus, Who Fathered Rufus Pudens who would marry Claudia, also known as Gladys, daughter of King Caratacus or Caradoc.
• Caradoc, King in Britain >> daughter Gladys/Claudia-Rufina married Rufus Pudens.
  • Claudia and Rufus Pudens had a Son Linus, (Bishop), two daughters Prassede and Pudentiana

Paul the Apostle was their uncle who knew them as they grew up.

Paul used his status as both of Rhomaios, a wealthy Jew from Celicia and Tarsus. His wealth and high status of Rhomaios allowed him some immunity to administrative law. But also his relationship with a high Roman official who was his step father Pudentinus, his half brother Rufus Pudens and his imperially favored royal in-laws Claudia and whose husband was Rufus Pudens and their son was Linus who all together gave Paul a level of protection from the corruption and intrigue which was rampant in the courts and governments of Rome.

Also, Rufus Pudens and Claudia were the parents of Paul's devout and courageous nieces, Prassede and Pudenziana who would collect the bodies of Christians to be buried after persecutions under Nero.

“Do thy diligence to come before winter. Eubulus greeteth thee, and Pudens, and Linus, and Claudia, and all the brethren.” 2 Timothy 4:21

See http://www.preparingyou.com/wiki/Paul_the_Apostle

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