Domitian’s persecution spread beyond his family. The Christians of Asia
Minor were particularly targeted. Many Christians in Pergamum were
beheaded. Pliny the Younger, writing to the Emperor Trajan in 112 AD,
mentioned how Christians in the province of Bithynia had been forced to
renounce their faith twenty years earlier. The last surviving Apostle, St.
John, was arrested and brought to Rome, and after miraculously escaping
martyrdom in a cauldron of boiling oil, found himself exiled to the island of
Patmos. Titus, bishop of Crete, and St. Timothy, bishop of Ephesus, were
respectively martyred in 96 and 97 AD.
The last year of Domitian’s reign resembled that of Nero’s. He was now
half-mad, and feared everything and everyone around him (it is said that he
spent most of his time in a room of polished surfaces so he could see
anyone attempting to attack him from behind). A reign of terror operated
through a network of informers. All philosophers were driven from Italy
and all citizens were compelled to swear by and sacrifice to his divine
genius. In 96 AD, a conspiracy of praetorians and palace officials ended the
nightmare, sending a former slave of Flavius Clemens by the name of
Stephanos to strike Domitian down with a dagger. The elderly and virtuous
senator Nerva was named Emperor in his place. It is not known what ever
happened to the two young Christian heirs to Domitian’s throne.
Under Nerva, peace would return to the Church. The bishop of Rome at the
time was St. Clement, third successor to St. Peter and Pope since 88 AD.
Of the life and death of St. Clement very little is known. He had been a
slave of Flavius Clemens and took the name of Clement in honor of his
former master. St. Irenaeus¹ states that St. Clement knew and worshipped
with Sts. Peter and Paul. According to Tertullian², it was St. Peter who
ordained him as presbyter and then bishop. Both Origen and Eusebius
identify him as the Clement who collaborated with St. Paul and mentioned
in his Epistle to the Philippians (4, 3), but all other authorities doubt this.
Around the 100 AD, the Emperor Trajan had him exiled to the Chersonese
(Crimea). There, he found two thousand other Christians, also exiled and
working in the marble quarries. They enjoyed a certain liberty that enabled
St. Clement to preach. Converts were numerous and churches were built.
News reached Trajan, who ordered St. Clement to sacrifice to the gods.
1
Against Heresies 3, 3, C. 180 AD.
2
The Demurrer Against the Heretics 32, C. 199 AD.
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