What impact did Domitian have on Christian history?

The Cruel Reign of Domitian

Domitian, the younger brother of Titus, ascended the throne in A.D. 81. But he was of a temper totally different from his father and brother. They tolerated the Christians he persecuted them. His character was cowardly, suspicious and cruel. He raised a persecution against the Christians because of some vague and superstitious fear that he entertained of the appearance of a person born in Judea of the family of David, who was to obtain the empire of the world. But neither did he spare Romans of the most illustrious birth and station who had embraced Christianity. Some were martyred on the spot, others were banished to be martyred in their exile. His own niece, Domitilla, and his cousin Flavius Clemens, to whom she had been given in marriage were the victims of his cruelty for having embraced the gospel of Christ. Thus we see that Christianity, by the power of God, in spite of armies and emperors, fire and sword, was spreading, not only amongst the middle and lower, but also amongst the higher classes.

"Domitian," says Eusebius, the father of ecclesiastical history, "having exercised his cruelty against many, and unjustly slain no small number of noble and illustrious men at Rome, and having, without cause, punished vast numbers of honourable men with exile and the confiscation of their property, at length established himself as the successor of Nero in his hatred and hostility to God." He also followed Nero in deifying himself. He commanded his own statue to be worshipped as a god, revived the law of treason, and put in fearful force its terrible provisions: under these circumstances, surrounded as he was with spies and informers what must this second persecution of the Christians have been!*

Next, we have the reign of Domitian, who had been nominated to the throne of his brother Titus. What a period! We question if the blackest page of history can furnish one equal to it. For about 15 years from A.D. 81 the Roman world lay bleeding at the feet of the despot. The wickedness of this man, who spared neither age, sex, nor rank in the gratification of his avarice and cruelty, is without a parallel. The sufferings of the Christians under the second legal persecution during this dismal reign were truly awful, and the torments to which they were subjected barbarous in the extreme. Domitian not only trod closely in the steps of Nero, but even exceeded that insane tyrant and hater of mankind in glutting himself with the blood and agonies of his subjects and of the saints of God.

It is traditionally reported that the beloved Apostle John and the then only survivor of "The Twelve," was brought before the Emperor, and after a brief examination, ordered to be cast into a cauldron of flaming oil, but after a few hours came out unhurt. Tertullian, who flourished in the third century, asserts the truth of it, and, it has been asked, which, if any, of the early writers denies it? It is certain, however, that John was doomed to perpetual banishment in the rocky isle of Patmos. In that dreary convict establishment of about 25 miles in circumference, washed by the waves of the Aegean Sea, the worst of criminals were sent to drag out a weary existence by labouring in the mines which then existed in the island. We may be sure that the stern Roman Emperor would allow the prisoner of the Lord no exemption from the hard toil and vicious society of Patmos. There is a Greek monastery in the island, and the lazy monks profess to point out the very cave where John was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, where the visions and sights narrated in the Apocalypse were seen, and where the prophecy was written. On the accession of Nerva, the edicts of Domitian were cancelled, the banished Christians recalled, and their confiscated property restored. John, on the general authority of antiquity, returned from the inhospitable isle of Patmos to Ephesus, the flourishing capital of Asia, and there peacefully ended his days at the advanced age of 100, full of love and labour for his beloved Master.

On the very day of Domitian's death, Nerva was chosen by the Senate to be Emperor, September 18th, A.D. 96. He was a man of blameless reputation. The character of his reign was most favourable to the peace and prosperity of the church of God. The Christians who had been banished by Domitian were recalled, and recovered their confiscated property. The Apostle John returned from his banishment in the isle of Patmos, and resumed his place of service among the churches in Asia. He survived till the reign of Trajan, when, at the advanced age of about 100 years, he fell asleep in Jesus.

There is a tradition about two of his grandsons, which is both interesting and apparently true. It has been handed down by Eusebius from Hegesippus, a converted Jew. Domitian, the Emperor, having heard that there were some of the line of David, and kindred of Christ still alive, moved with jealousy, ordered them to be seized and brought to Rome. Two grandsons of Jude were brought before him. They frankly confessed that they were of the line of David, and kindred of Christ. He asked them about their possessions and estates. They told him they had but a few acres of land, out of the fruits of which they paid him tribute and maintained themselves. Their hands were examined and were found rough and callous with labour. He then inquired of them concerning the kingdom of Christ, and when and where it would come. To this they replied, that it was a heavenly and spiritual, not a temporal kingdom; and that it would not be manifested till the end of the world. The Emperor, being satisfied that they were poor men and harmless, dismissed them unbound, and ceased from his general persecution of the church. When they returned to Palestine, they were received by the church with great affection, as being nearly allied to the Lord, and as having nobly confessed His name- His kingdom, power, and glory.

Prof. Blaiklock in his delightful little book "Out of the Earth: the Witness of Archeology to the New Testament" Paternoster Press) shows that by the end of the First Century Christianity had gained a place in the highest circles of Rome: Flavius Clemens, a cousin of the Emperor, was put to death, and his wife Domitilla, a niece of the Emperor, was banished, for confessing Christ. Next to the Emperor these two held the highest rank in the Empire.

We are not told how long he was on Patmos "for the word of God and the testimony" as a very aged man, but it may well have been a year or more. Patmos is a very rocky island off the coast of Turkey. The sun beats down upon it and it is hot. Nothing grows very well there. The Roman emperor Domitian thought he had silenced John, but from that place the Lord has given us a book without which Scripture would not be complete. We are not told the order of John's five books although we find his commission to write in the Revelation. I do not know, but it may have been that he wrote his other writings afterwards. All the evidence shows that all his books were written when he was a very aged man.

Let us look briefly first at the open attack which, as it makes a figure in ecclesiastical history, gives us a date to attach to the period before us. Even those who do not see the historical application of these addresses generally admit a reference in the "tribulation ten days" to ten persecutions under the Roman emperors. That there were just so many can hardly be made out, and the expression need not be pressed so literally. It is quite plain, nevertheless, how the address to Smyrna suits this period, which lasted from Domitian's persecution now begun, right on to Constantine, — that is, for over two centuries. This was undoubtedly the martyr-age of the Church as a whole, although the persecution may have been more bitter locally in other periods. The power of Rome, absolute as it was throughout her wide-spread empire, when wielded against Christianity, left little room for escape any where, while as a heathen power it was antagonistic to all that professed the name. The address to Smyrna, therefore, comes exactly in place here and the very name — "myrrh," — used, as this was, in the embalming of the dead, reminds us of how "precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints."

He announces that the devil would cast some of them into prison, that they should have tribulation for ten days, and that it would require faithfulness unto death to gain the crown of life. The Apostolic age was followed by the martyr age, which lasted up to the beginning of the fourth century. Pagan emperors under the inspiration of Satan, the roaring lion, persecuted the Church. No one knows how many hundreds of thousands died the martyr's death, flayed and burned alive, cast before wild animals and cruelly tortured; thus they were faithful unto death and gained the crown of life. It is also significant that the address to Smyrna contains the number ten; Church history records ten great persecutions.

But even then, all was not perfection; so He says, "I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan" -- referring to the Judaizing movement that came into the church in the early centuries. It was the leaven of Galatianism which had never been wholly judges, and which made astonishing progress in the second and third centuries. He says, "Fear not... thou shalt have tribulation ten days." It is significant that in the two centuries of Roman persecution, which began with Nero and which terminated 312 A.D., there were ten distinct edicts demanding that governors seek out Christians everywhere and put them to death. The last was under Diocletian. He was the tenth persecutor. The early Christians believed he would be the last, and he was. "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church," said Augustine. The testimony of the dying again and again led their very persecutors to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior because of the convincing power of the truth manifested in the martyrs. Satan's effort to destroy Christianity by persecution was in vain. But those were days when it meant something to be a Christian. When God's people were being crushed like myrrh, what a sweet odor of devotion, what fragrance of Christian love was wafted up to the very throne of God!