Novosedoff Posted October 25, 2021 Report Share Posted October 25, 2021 (edited) Hi there all, Here is the relevant article in wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudia_gens My question is about 2 biblical characters: Pontius Pilate and Saint Pudens Pontius Pilate is said to be married to Claudia Procula: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontius_Pilate's_wife While Saint Pudens (or, alternatively, Aulus Pudens) is said to be married to Claudia Peregrina https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aulus_Pudens Does this mean that both were married to women from the same Claudia house? The thing is that Pontius Pilate is known to have used the temple treasury (korbanos) to pay for a new aqueduct to Jerusalem. Because that was considered illegal Pilate's case was brought up to the attention of the Roman Senate and Pilate even stood trial for the accusations of corruption. But someone from the Senate apparently was pulling the strings for Pilate, so he was acquitted, though lost his job in Judea shortly. Saint Pudens' father was Roman senator Quintus Cornelius Pudens. Could it be him who helped Pilate to get acquitted of all accusations? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quintus_Cornelius_Pudens The other interesting thing is that Pilate was replaced by Marcellus as new prefect of Judea https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcellus_(prefect_of_Judea) Marcellus was just another branch of the same Claudia house... So effectively, Pilate was acquitted because of his family ties and replaced by another relative .. This may help to explain why Jewish High Priest Caiaphas actually served till 37 AD, so effectively Caiaphas served for 18 years under both Valerius Gratus, Pilate and Marcellus (Marcellus left prefect office in 37) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caiaphas They were all from the same vicious circle of widespread corruption. Just to remind you Saint Pudens was the first person to establish a Christian church in Rome. All early Roman Popes lived and served in Pudens family' property till 4th century AD, when Christianity became official:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Pudenziana So effectively the early Christian church was financed from Sadducee gold stolen from the Jerusalem temple under the pretext of building an aqueduct.. Edited October 28, 2021 by Novosedoff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crispina Posted October 25, 2021 Report Share Posted October 25, 2021 Interesting. Thanks for sharing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Novosedoff Posted October 25, 2021 Author Report Share Posted October 25, 2021 (edited) Btw the Pudens family came into the spotlight of the official Roman political arena at least a few times, despite the fact cognomen Pudens translates from Latin as moderate / shy. Perhaps the most noticeable member of that family was another senator of the 2nd half of 2nd century AD called Quintus Servilius Pudens, who was married to emperor Hadrian's granddaughter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quintus_Servilius_Pudens A few members from a few different generations of Pudens family were canonized as Saints by the official Roman Catholic church, which testifies that the family took a rather special place in the whole history of Christianity. Edited October 25, 2021 by Novosedoff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pompieus Posted October 28, 2021 Report Share Posted October 28, 2021 It is extremely unlikely that the ladies mentioned were members of the patrician Claudii or even of the plebian Claudii Marcelli. Pontius Pilate was an equestrian official and not even close to the nobility of those prominent republican consular families...if they still existed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Novosedoff Posted October 28, 2021 Author Report Share Posted October 28, 2021 (edited) Well, even if we reject the notion of kinship between the mentioned women (Peregrina means "foreigner", which may hint at adoption, but not kinship anyway), do you find it unlikely that the political rationale behind the investigation against Pilate could have encouraged Pilate to start seeking contacts among Roman senators in order to get their support, which undoubtedly would have been generously rewarded from whatever had been actually stolen from the temple? Btw Being a senator's son, Aulus must have completed his "cursus honorum" and as centurion could have crossed his path with Pilate's over the years of his military service (if I recall correctly, being a senator's son did not automatically promote to senators ranks, but could make Aulus equestrian, which was the common rank for military officers, including Pilate) Edited October 28, 2021 by Novosedoff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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