THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS

A Clement is also mentioned in the Shepherd of Hermas A popular second-century Christian text composed of visions, mandates, and similitudes., Vision 2. 4, 3, in which it is stated that it was his duty to write to other churches. This certainly points to a Clement in Rome exercising the same functions as the writer of 1 Clement; but Hermas is probably somewhat later than 1 Clement, and the reference may be merely a literary device based on knowledge of the earlier book.

More complicated and more interesting are suggestions that Clement may be identified or at least connected with Titus Flavius Clemens, a distinguished Roman of the imperial Flavian family. This Titus Flavius Clemens was in 95 A.D. accused of treason or impiety original: "ἀθεότης" impiety From the Greek 'atheotes'; in the Roman world, this often referred to the refusal to worship the state gods, a charge frequently leveled against Jews and Christians. by Domitian, his cousin, owing, according to Dio Cassius A Roman statesman and historian who wrote in Greek., to his Jewish proclivities. He was put to death and his wife, Domitilla, was banished. There is no proof that he was really a Christian, but one of the oldest catacombs Subterranean cemeteries used by early Christians in Rome. in Rome is supposed to have belonged to Domitilla, and certainly was connected with this family. It is not probable that T. Flavius Clemens was the writer of 1 Clement, but it is an attractive and not improbable hypothesis that a slave or freedman of the Flavian family had the name of Clemens, and held a high position in the Christian community at Rome.

The date of 1 Clement is fixed by the following considerations. It appears from chapter 5 to be later than the persecution in the time of Nero The Roman Emperor who initiated the first state-led persecution of Christians after the Great Fire of Rome in 64 A.D., and from chapters 42–44 it is clear that the age of the apostles is regarded as past. It can therefore scarcely be older than 75–80 A.D. On the other hand chapter 44 speaks of presbyters From the Greek 'presbyteros', meaning 'elders'; these were the early officials who led the Christian community. who were appointed by the apostles and were still alive, and there is no trace of any of the controversies or persecutions of the second