DOMITIAN. The Emperor Domitian, son of Vespasian, brother to Titus, and the last of the twelve Cæsars, succeeded his brother Titus in the Year of Jesus Christ 81, on the 13th of September, and was in great disesteem for his debaucheries and cruelty. He persecuted the Church, and, as is said, put to death Pope St. Cletus. The Apostle St. John, being at Rome, was put Tertull. præscrip. c. 36. Hieronym. de Scriptorib.into a Caldron of boiling oil near the Latin Gate, but suffered no harm by it. He was afterwards banished into the Isle of Patmos, which is one of the Sporades in the Archipelago. In the same persecution, Domitian knowing that there were some Christians of the race of David, and related to Jesus Christ, was apprehensive of their undertaking something against the state ; the persons whom he was thus afraid of, were grandsons to Judas, brother to our Lord after the flesh, and in all probability Hegesip. apud Euseb. l. 3. c. 20. Hist. Eccles.son to Joseph by a former wife. They were carried to Domitian by a Soldier ; the Emperor asked them if they were of David’s family? they confessed they were. He farther enquired of them, how much land they were possessed of, and what money they had? they answered, that for themselves, who were two in number, they had to the value of nine thousand deniers, not in money, but in lands, containing only nine and thirty plethra, which make about seven acres, and four perches ; that for these they paid taxes, cultivated them themselves and subsisted on them ; at the same time they shewed their hands, which were all callous, and their bodies which were hardned with labour.
The Emperor asked them, what the Kingdom of Jesus Christ was, when, and in what place he was to reign ? They answered, that his kingdom was not earthly and of this world, but heavenly and angelical, that it would appear at the end of the world, when he would come with majesty to judge both the quick and dead. Domitian despising them as vile persons, sent them away without doing any harm to them. He moreover gave orders to put a stop to the persecution, at least in Judæa. These two Confessors governed afterwards the Churches, and lived to the time of Trajan. Domitian died in the year of Jesus Christ 96, on the 17th of September, in the fifteenth of his Reign.