Caesar's Messiah: The Roman Conspiracy to Invent Jesus:Flavian Signature Edition

by Atwill, Joseph

  Josephus, in proclaiming himself God’s minister, also described an ending of God’s “contract” with Judaism that was quite similar to the position that the New Testament takes concerning Christianity—the only difference being that Josephus believed that God’s good fortune had gone over not to Christianity but to Rome and its imperial family, the Flavians.

  Since it pleaseth thee, who hast created the Jewish nation, to depress the same, and since all their good fortune is gone over to the Romans, and since thou hast made choice of this soul of mine to foretell what is to come to pass hereafter, I willingly give them my hands, and am content to live. And I protest openly that I do not go over to the Romans as a deserter of the Jews, but as a minister from thee.18

  Scholars have dismissed Josephus’ application of Judaism’s messianic prophecies to Caesar as simple flattery. I disagree, and shall show that not only did Josephus “believe” Vespasian to be “god,” and Titus therefore the “son of god,” but that his histories were entirely constructed to demonstrate that very fact.

  There was nothing unusual in Josephus’ recognition of Vespasian as a god. The Flavians merely continued the tradition of establishing emperors as gods, that the Julio-Claudian line of Roman emperors had begun. Julius Caesar, the first diuus (divine) of that line, claimed to have been descended from Venus. The Roman Senate is said to have decreed that he was a god because a comet appeared shortly after his death, thus demonstrating his divinity.

  In 80 C.E., Titus established an imperial cult for his father, who had passed away during the previous year. The cult was politically important to Titus because Vespasian’s deification would break the Julio-Claudian line of divine succession and thereby secure the throne for the Flavians.

  Because only the Roman Senate could bestow the title of diuus, Titus first needed to convince them that Vespasian had been a god. There was evidently some difficulty in arranging this, however; Vespasian’s consecratio did not occur until six months after his death, an unusually long interval.19 Titus also created a priesthood, the flamines, to administer the cult. The cult of Vespasian was not isolated to Rome, and appointments were made throughout the provinces. In the areas surrounding Judea, a Roman bureaucracy called the Commune Asiae oversaw the cult. Notably, all seven of the Christian “churches of Asia” mentioned in Revelation 1:11 had agencies of the Commune located within them.

  Upon her death, Titus also secured the deification of his sister, Domitilla. In going through the process of deifying his father and sister and establishing their cults, Titus received an education in a skill few humans have ever possessed. He learned how to create a religion.

  Titus not only created and administered religions, he was a prophet. While emperor, he received the title of Pontifex Maximus, which made him the high priest of the Roman religion and the official head of the Roman college of priests—the same title and office that, once Christianity had become the Roman state religion, its popes would assume. As Pontifex Maximus, Titus was responsible for a large collection of prophecies (annales maximi) every year, and officially recorded celestial and other signs, as well as the events that had followed these omens, so that future generations would be able to better understand the divine will.

  Titus was unusually literate. He claimed to take shorthand faster than any secretary and to be able to “forge any man’s signature” and stated that under different circumstances he could have become “the greatest forger in history.”20 Suetonius records that Titus possessed “conspicuous mental gifts,” and “made speeches and wrote verses in Latin and Greek” and that his “memory was extraordinary.”21

  Titus’ brother Domitian, who succeeded him as emperor, also used religion to his advantage. In addition to deifying his brother, Domitian attempted to link himself to Jupiter, the supreme god of the Roman Empire, by having the Senate decree that the god had mandated his rule.

  Not only did the Flavians create religions, they performed miracles. In the following passage from Tacitus, Vespasian is recorded as curing one man’s blindness and another’s withered limb, miracles also performed by Jesus:

  One of the common people of Alexandria, well known for his blindness … begged Vespasian that he would deign to moisten his cheeks and eyeballs with his spittle. Another with a diseased hand prayed that the limb might feet the print of a Caesar’s foot. And so Vespasian … accomplished what was required. The hand was instantly restored to its use, and the light of day again shone upon the blind.22

  The Gospels record that Jesus also used this method of curing blindness, that is by placing spittle on a blind man’s eyelids.

  After thus speaking, He spat on the ground, and then, kneading the dust and spittle into clay, He smeared the clay over the man’s eyes and said to him,

  “Go and wash in the pool of Siloam”—the name means “sent.” So he went and washed his eyes, and returned able to see.

  John 9:6-7

  Other stories were circulated about Vespasian that suggested his divinity. One involved a stray dog dropping a human hand at Vespasian’s feet. The hand was a symbol of power to first-century Romans. Another tale described an ox coming into Vespasian’s dining room and literally falling at the emperor’s feet and lowering his neck, as if recognizing to whom its sacrifice was due.

  Circulating tales that suggested they were gods was no doubt thought by the Flavians to be a good tonic for hoi polloi. The more an emperor was seen by his subjects to be divine, the easier it was for him to maintain his control over them. The Flavians certainly focused on manipulating the masses. To promote the policy of “bread and circuses” they built the Coliseum, where they staged shows with gladiators and wild beasts that involved mass slaughter.

  Imperial cults that portrayed Roman emperors as gods and workers of miracles appear to have been created solely because they were politically useful. The cults seem to have evoked no religious emotion. No evidence of any spontaneous offerings attesting to the sincerity of the worshipers has ever been discovered.

  The advantage of converting one’s family into a succession of gods appealed to many Roman emperors: 36 of the 60 emperors from Augustus to Constantine and 27 members of their families were apotheosized and received the title diuus.

  Of course, inventors of fictitious religions must have a certain cynicism in regard to the sacred. Vespasian was quoted on his deathbed as saying:

  “Oh my, I must be turning into a god!”23

  Pliny commented on the cynicism that the Flavians felt toward the religions they had created. Notice in the following quote Pliny’s understanding that Titus had made himself a “son of a god.”

  Titus deified Vespasian and Domitian Titus, but only so that one would be the son of a god and the other a brother of a god.24

  The cynicism that the patrician class felt toward religion was a subject of the satires of the Roman poet Juvenal. While the exact dates of Juvenal’s birth and death are unknown, it is believed that he lived during the era of the Flavians. One of his satires concerns Agrippa and Bernice, the mistress of Titus.25 Tradition has it that Juvenal was banished from Rome by Domitian.

  Sophisticated Romans, like those Juvenal wrote about, did not believe in the gods but rather in fortune and fate. The prevailing ethos of the patrician class was that the world was either ruled by blind chance or immutable destiny:

  Fortune has no divinity, could we but see it: it’s we, we ourselves, who make her a goddess, and set her in the heavens. 26

  Judging from the works of Juvenal, many Romans saw all religious belief, including their own, as ridiculous.

  Just hark at those loud denials, observe the assurance of the lying face

  He’ll swear by the Sun’s rays, by Jupiter’s thunderbolts,

  by the lance of Mars, by the arrows of Delphic Apollo,

  by the quiver and shafts of Diana, the virgin huntress,

  by the trident of Neptune, Our Father of the Aegean:

  he’ll throw in Hercules’ bows and the spear of Minerva,


  the armories of Olympus down til their very last item:

  and if he’s a father, he’ll cry; “May I eat my own son’s noodle—poor child!

  —well boiled and soused in a vinaigrette dressing!” 27

  Juvenal was also cynical toward Judaism. His attitude regarding the religion suggests that many within the patrician class saw the religion and, no doubt, its offspring Christianity, as barbaric cults.

  … A palsied Jewess, parking her haybox outside, comes begging in a breathy whisper. She interprets Jerusalem’s laws; she’s the tree’s high priestess … She likewise fills her palm but more sparingly: Jews will sell you whatever dreams you like for a few coppers.28

  Given this patrician cynicism, it is odd that so many members of the Flavian family were recorded as having been among Christianity’s first members. Why was a Judaic cult that advocated meekness and poverty so attractive to a family that practiced neither? The tradition connecting early Christianity and the Flavian family is based on solid evidence but has received little comment from scholars.

  The best known of the “Christian Flavians” was (Pope) Clement I. He is described in The Catholic Encyclopedia as the first pope about whom “anything definite is known,”29 and was recorded in early church literature as being a member of the Flavian family.

  Pope Clement was the first pope who was referred to by individuals known to history, and who left behind written works. He purportedly wrote the Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians, quoted previously. Thus, Clement is of great significance to the church’s history. In fact, while The Catholic Encyclopedia currently lists Clement as the fourth “bishop of Rome,” or pope, this was not the assertion of many early church scholars. St. Jerome wrote that in his time “most of the Latins”30 held that Clement had been the direct successor of Peter. Tertullian also knew of this tradition; he wrote, “The church of Rome records that Clement was ordained by Peter.”31 Origen, Eusebius, and Epiphanius also placed Clement at the very beginning of the Roman church, each of them stating that Clement had been the “fellow laborer” of the Apostle Paul.

  Scholars have seen that the list of popes given by Irenaeus (circa 125–202) that names Clement as the fourth pope is suspect and it is notable that the Roman Church chose to use it as its official history. This list names “Linus” as the second pope, followed by “Anakletus” and then Clement. The list comes from Irenaeus, who identifies “Linus the Pope” as the Linus mentioned in 2 Timothy 4:21. Scholars have speculated that Irenaeus chose Linus simply because he was the last male that Paul mentioned in the epistle, which supposedly was written immediately before Paul’s martyrdom. The provenance of Pope Anakletus may be no better. In Titus, the epistle that immediately follows Timothy in the canon, it is stated, “the bishop shall be irreproachable.” In Greek, “irreproachable” is anenkletus.32

  Irenaeus may not have known who the popes between Peter and Clement were and therefore had to invent names for them. If this was the case, then after creating “Linus” as Peter’s successor, “Irreproachable” as the next bishop of Rome, his imagination may have become strained, because the name he chose for the sixth pope in his list was “Sixus.”

  It also seems strange that the Roman church chose to use Irenaeus’ list, considering that it originated in the East. The idea that Clement was the second pope is no weaker historically and reflects the papal sequence that was known in Rome. Perhaps early church officials preferred not to use a list stating that Clement was Peter’s direct 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 Testament with its primary independent historical documentation and were certainly read by his imperial patrons. In fact, Titus ordered the publication of Wars of the Jews. In his autobiography, Josephus writes that Titus “was so desirous that the knowledge of these affairs should be taken from these books alone, that he affixed his own signature to them and gave orders for their publication.” 37

  Perhaps the most unusual connection between Christianity and the Flavians, however, is the fact that Titus Flavius fulfilled all of Jesus’ doomsday prophecies. As mentioned above, the parallels between the description of Titus’ campaign in Wars of the Jews and Jesus’ prophecies caused early church scholars to believe that Christ had seen into the future. The destruction of the temple, the encircling of Jerusalem with a wall, the towns of Galilee being “brought low
,” the destruction of what Jesus described as the “wicked generation,” etc., had all been prophesied by Jesus and then came to pass during Titus’ military campaign through Judea—a campaign that, like Jesus’ ministry, began in Galilee and ended in Jerusalem.

  Thus the Flavians are linked to Christianity by an unusual number of facts and traditions. Early church documents flatly state that the family produced some of the religion’s first martyrs, as well as the pope who succeeded Peter. The Flavians created much of the literature that provides documentation for the religion, were responsible for its oldest known cemetery, and housed individuals named in the New Testament within their imperial court. Further, the family was responsible for Jesus’ apocalyptic prophecies having “come to pass.”

  These connections clearly deserve more attention than they have received. Some explanation is required for the numerous traditions linking an obscure Judean cult to the imperial family—connections that include not merely converts to the religion, but, if the Acts of Nereus and Achilleus and Eusebius are to be believed, the direct successor to Peter.

  If Christianity was invented by the Flavians to assist them in their struggle with Judaism, it would merely have been a variation upon a long-established theme. Using religion for the good of the state was a Roman technique long before the Flavians. In the following quote, which could well have been studied by the young Titus Flavius during his education at the imperial court, Cicero not only prefigures much of Christian theology but also actually advocates for the state to persuade the masses to adopt the theology most appropriate for the empire.