Michael Flexsenhar III - Christians in Caesar’s Household: The Emperors’ Slaves in the Makings of Christianity

Christians in Caesars Household

INVENTING CHRISTIANITY

Series Editors

L. Stephanie Cobb

David L. Eastman

In the second and third centuries, insiders and outsiders alike were grappling with what it meant to be Christian. In this period, there were shifting and competing centers of clerical and textual authority and disagreements over group boundaries, interpretive strategies, and ritual practices. Inventing Christianity examines the numerous ways in which early Christianity was inventedthat is, given definition and boundariesby different people in different times to different ends. The series contributes to the study of second- and third-century Christianity by exploring how the very notion of Christianity developed and redeveloped in multiple forms and through cultural interactions.

ADVISORY BOARD

Nicola Denzey Lewis

Kim Haines-Eitzen

Robin M. Jensen

David Konstan

Jeffrey Siker

Jeanne-Nicole Mellon

Saint-Laurent

Christians in Caesars Household

The Emperors Slaves in the Makings of Christianity

Michael Flexsenhar III

The Pennsylvania State University Press | University Park, Pennsylvania

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Flexsenhar, Michael, III, 1984 author.

Title: Christians in Caesars household : the emperors slaves in the makings of Christianity / Michael Flexsenhar III.

Other titles: Inventing Christianity.

Description: University Park, Pennsylvania : The Pennsylvania State University Press, [2019] | Series: Inventing Christianity | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Summary: Examines the role of the Roman emperors slaves in the rise of Christianity, and how imperial slaves were essential to early Christians self-conception as a distinct people in the MediterraneanProvided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018055873

Subjects: LCSH: Christian slavesRome. | Church historyPrimitive and early church, ca. 30600. | SlaveryRome.

Classification: LCC HT913.F64 2019 | DDC 274.45/3201dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018055873

Copyright 2019 Michael Flexsenhar III

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

Published by The Pennsylvania
State University Press,

University Park, PA 168021003

The Pennsylvania State University Press is a member of the Association of University Presses.

It is the policy of The Pennsylvania State University Press to use acid-free paper. Publications on uncoated stock satisfy the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Material, ANSI Z39.481992.

To Juju

This book is about the cultural history of early Christianityfrom its origins to late antiquityand the pivotal role that the Roman emperors slaves played in that history. It is a book that reflects my own history, growing up in the South, where Christianity and slavery were once intertwined, much like in Roman antiquity, and where the effects are still felt today. It is a book that has evolved alongside current debates. I researched and wrote while influential secular and religious institutions publicly questioned their complicated histories and redressed their past ties to slavery. I researched and wrote while groups sometimes violently clashed over monuments of material culture and memories of slavery. I researched and wrote while groups fought over minority cultural representation, marginalization, and persecution. In some ways, then, this book is also entangled in all of these topics. I developed the subject for this book in the intense early years of my studies. A seminar on slavery in Pauls letters showed me how complicated the topic of slavery in early Christianity was and how much was still left unexplored. A seminar on Ostia Antica opened up for me the lives of slaves and freedpersons, especially through the study of their epigraphy. I remember being struck by how complicated those ancient lives were, and surprised at how integrated into Roman society they could be. I thought the topic warranted further investigation. As I began to research the marriage practices of Roman freedmen in Ostia, who in many cases married free womenoften women with more money, independence, or social statureI stumbled upon imperial freedmen. This led me to P. R. C. Weavers book, Familia Caesaris (1972). Weavers work on imperial slaves and freedmen was utilized in some of the more influential social descriptions of early Christianity. Most notable for me was Wayne Meekss classic The First Urban Christians (1983), which drew attention to the implications of Pauls reference to familia Caesaris in Philippians 4:22. I noticed that some other Christian writings after Paul also mentionedor seemed to mentionChristians in the familia Caesaris and that there were even Christian inscriptions from some imperial slaves and freedmen. In short, I soon realized that the topic of familia Caesaris in early Christianity was really important though largely understudied. Meanwhile, the seminars on slavery in Pauls letters and Ostia Antica were combined with some hot summers of archaeological fieldwork at the ancient Jewish synagogue of Ostia Antica (20092016). Studying the Roman world on the ground in the trencheswith Italys dirt in my face and its sun on my backhelped bring into sharper focus my budding ideas about the relationship between imperial slaves and early Christianity. As part of the University of Texas OSMAP field team I often had access both on site at Ostia and in Rome to research materials that would eventually become a book. So as in the case of the seminars, without those summers in Ostia this book would never have happened.

I was lucky to find such an interesting research topic. I was also lucky that others thought the topic interesting as well. A project such as this one would not have been possible without the help of many others. I owe a special thank you to L. Michael White, who taught both seminars and kept me coming back to Rome and Ostia. LM was invariably enthusiastic about my project and continued to be generous with his time and his insights. I will always look back fondly at the many discussions we had in his office over espressos. Thanks also for the input of Steven Friesen, Christine Thomas, Karl Galinsky, and Philip Harland. Even now I see their fingerprints on this book.