Caesar's Household
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CAESAR’S HOUSEHOLD. The extended family of the Roman emperor, including all slaves (servi) and freedmen (liberti) in his service, constituted the household of Caesar.
The familia Caesaris was no different than the familia possessed by members of any great Roman clan (gens). From the earliest times the Roman familia “consisted of the conjugal family plus dependents,” and “could in its widest sense, refer to all persons (and property) under the control (patria potestas) of the head of the family (paterfamilias)” (Rawson 1986: 7–8). Accordingly, the households of wealthy nobles could become very large indeed. Under the empire, by far the wealthiest of Romans was the emperor, and his household was correspondingly greater than any other.
The familia Caesaris consisted of thousands of slaves and freedmen of the emperor. Their function was not necessarily servile, though many worked the emperor’s estates and properties, while others filled traditional servant roles in caring for the persons of the emperor and his relatives. Quite the contrary, many of the emperor’s slaves and especially freedmen functioned as managers of estates, enterprises, or other properties throughout the empire. Others took part in the administration of the government itself, which in the early empire remained attached to the emperor’s household in the same way as did his personal property. The first Roman civil service developed out of the secretariats manned by the freedmen of Caesar and headed by a few elite freedmen who thus came to possess power far greater than that of the Roman nobility itself, and ultimately formed in imperial society a new influential class. For their role in the administration and governance of the empire, as well as in the personal service of the emperor, see Weaver 1972.
Bibliography
Rawson, B. 1986. The Roman Family. Pp. 1–57 in The Family in Ancient Rome: New Perspectives, ed. B. Rawson. Ithaca, NY.
Weaver, P. R. C. 1972. Familia Caesaris: A Social Study of the Emperor’s Freedmen and Slaves. Cambridge.
John F. Hall
Freedman, D. N. (1996, c1992). The Anchor Bible Dictionary (1:798). New York: Doubleday.
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CAESAR’S HOUSEHOLD* Term referring to imperial servants, both slave and free, in Rome and in the provinces of the Roman Empire. The apostle Paul closed his letter to the Philippian Christians with greetings from those “of Caesar’s household” (4:22, rsv). The imperial household staff numbered in the hundreds, and the positions carried a certain amount of social importance.
According to the Martyrdom of Paul, written in the second century, when Paul arrived at Rome, he was greeted by people “from Caesar’s household.” He put himself in communication with the local Jewish leaders and preached and taught unhindered (Acts 28:17, 31). Some men and women were convinced and believed (Acts 28:23–24), no doubt including some in Caesar’s household. The message even spread to the whole Praetorian Guard (Phil 1:13). Some scholars trace certain believers mentioned in Romans 16 to members of the imperial household.
See also Caesars, The.
Elwell, W. A., & Comfort, P. W. (2001). Tyndale Bible dictionary. Tyndale reference library (248). Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers.
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CAESAR’S HOUSEHOLD. A Roman aristocrat’s household (Gk. oikia, Lat. familia) was his staff of servants, primarily those held in slavery, but probably also including those manumitted and retaining obligations of clientship as his freedmen. Their duties were extremely specialized, and covered the full range of domestic service, professional duties (medicine, education, etc.), and business, literary and secretarial assistance. In the case of the Caesars, their permanent political leadership made their household the equivalent of a modern civil service, providing the experts in most fields of state. Its servile origins, and the eastern responsibilities of the Caesars, made it largely Greek and oriental in its composition. It is not therefore surprising to find it well represented amongst the believers in Rome (Phil. 4:22).
Bibliography. J. B. Lightfoot, Philippians7, 1883, pp. 171–178; P. R. C. Weaver, Familia Caesaris, 1972. e.a.j.
Wood, D. R. W., Wood, D. R. W., & Marshall, I. H. (1996, c1982, c1962). New Bible Dictionary. Includes index. (electronic ed. of 3rd ed.) (154). Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press.
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Caesar’s household, a collective designation for the thousands of slaves and freedmen of the ruling Roman emperor who typically performed various lower-level governmental functions. Because even the freedmen retained fixed obligations of service, these individuals formed a stable corps of civil administrators and workers, and they labored in every part of the Empire. If certain freedmen attained to exceptional power (Pallas [brother of Felix, Acts 23-24] and Narcissus under Claudius, Nymphidius under Nero), most kept their same tasks throughout their lives. Phil. 4:22 refers to members of Caesar’s household found either at Rome or, more probably, at Ephesus. Since such people were debarred from military service, Phil. 1:13 very likely refers to a different group of people. See also Felix, Antonius; Philippians, The Letter of Paul to the. R.A.W. ’S HOUSEHOLD
Achtemeier, P. J., Harper & Row, P., & Society of Biblical Literature. (1985). Harper's Bible dictionary. Includes index. (1st ed.) (149). San Francisco: Harper & Row.
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Caesar’s Household
Paul extended greetings from “those of Caesar’s household” (Phil. 4:22). This may indicate that Paul wrote from Rome while awaiting trial before Caesar, and that conversions occurred among Caesar’s family. However, the phrase had several meanings. As early as Augustus, the empire could be referred to as the emperor’s household since he was the paterfamilias of the whole realm. Tacitus referred to the incorporation of Egypt into the domus Caesaris (Hist. 1.11). Most often, it referred to the vast imperial bureacracy consisting of personal servants, freedmen, and slaves (Philo Flacc. 35).
Scott Nash
Freedman, D. N., Myers, A. C., & Beck, A. B. (2000). Eerdmans dictionary of the Bible (208). Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans.
