Caesar's Messiah: The Roman Conspiracy to Invent Jesus:Flavian Signature Edition by Joseph Atwill Read Free Book Online

successor, because of the traditional view that he was a member of the Flavian family.
    The notion that Pope Clement was a Flavian was recorded in the Acts of Saints Nereus and Achilleus , a fifth- or sixth-century work based on even earlier traditions. This work directly linked the Flavian family to Christianity, a fact that is noted in The Catholic Encyclopedia :
     
Titus Flavius Sabinus, consul in 82, put to death by Domitian [the Emperor Titus’ brother], whose sister he had married. Pope Clement is represented as his son in the Acts of Saints Nereus and Achilleus . 33

    Titus Flavius Sabinus’ brother, Clemens, was also linked to Christianity. The Acts of Saints Nereus and Achilleus states that Clemens was a Christian martyr. Clemens is believed to have married Vespasian’s granddaughter and his first cousin, Flavia Domitilla, who was yet another Christian Flavian. In the case of Flavia Domitilla there is extant evidence linking her to Christianity. The oldest Christian burial site in Rome has inscriptions naming her as its founder:
     
The catacomb of Domitilla is shown by existing inscriptions to have been founded by her. Owing to the purely legendary character of these Acts, we cannot use them as an argument to aid in the controversy as to whether there were two Christians of the name of Domitilla in the family of the Christian Flavians, or only one, the wife of the Consul Flavius Clemens. 34

    The Talmud records the genealogy of Christianity’s purported first pope differently than does the Acts of Saints Nereus and Achilleus . It records that the Flavia Domitilla who was the mother of Clemens (Kalonymos) was not Titus’ niece but rather his sister. This links Peter’s purported successor a generation closer to Titus, perhaps placing him within his very household. 35
    Nereus and Achilleus, the authors of their Acts , are listed within The Catholic Encyclopedia as among the religion’s first martyrs and were also linked to the Flavian family.
     
The old Roman lists, of the fifth century, and which passed over into the Martyrologium Hiernoymianum, contain the names of the two martyrs Nereus and Achilleus, whose grave was in the Catacomb of Domitilla on the Via Ardeatina …
The acts of these martyrs place their deaths in the end of the first and beginning of the second centuries. According to these legends, Nereus and Achilleus were eunuchs and chamberlains of Flavia Domitilla, a niece of the Emperor Domitian. The graves of these two martyrs were on an estate of the Lady Domitilla; we may conclude that they are among the most ancient martyrs of the Roman Church, and stand in very near relation to the Flavian family, of which Domitilla, the foundress of the catacomb, was a member. In the Epistle to the Romans, St. Paul mentions a Nereus with his sister, to whom he sends greetings. 36
     
    This reference by Paul to a Nereus and his sister is interesting. Tradition maintains that Domitian killed several family members who were Christians, as well as someone named Acilius Glabrio, whom a tradition also claims was a Christian, all of which permits the conjecture that the Nereus mentioned by Paul may have been the author of the Acts ,and that the Achilleus Domitian slew may have been Nereus’ literary partner.
    Another individual linked to both Christianity and the Flavian family was Bernice, the sister of Agrippa, who is actually described in the New Testament as having known the Apostle Paul. She became Titus’ mistress and was living with him at the Flavian court in 75 C.E., the same time Josephus was purportedly writing Wars of the Jews .  Of interest is that Bernice’s name in Greek is Berenice, pronounced Beh-reh-nih-kee, and in Hebrew her name is Veronica.  It is also of note that the early Christian cult of Veronica is headquartered at the palace of Bernice in Rome.
    Flavius Josephus, an adopted member of the family, also had a connection to the beginnings of Christianity. His works provided the New