Keti’a Bar Shalom

KETI'A BAR SHALOM (first century C.E.), Roman councillor or senator who sacrificed his life to save the Jews of the Roman Empire from extermination (or persecution), probably toward the end of *Domitian's reign (c. 96 C.E.). According to the main source (Av. Zar. 10b), an emperor who hated the Jews – presumably Domitian – consulted his councillors as to whether a sore on the foot should be cut away, i.e., whether the Jews should be exterminated, or be left alone to cause pain. The councillors favored "radical" treatment, but Keti'a b. Shalom pointed out that the Jews, scattered as they were all over the world, could not be exterminated anyway; that the world could not exist without Israel; and that the empire would be crippled without the Jews. The emperor agreed with the soundness of Keti'a's reasoning, but nevertheless ordered him to be put to death. Advised by a Roman matron who exclaimed, "Pity the ship that sails without paying the tax," Keti'a circumcised himself, so that he should enter paradise as a Jew. Just before his execution he willed all his property to R. Akiva (cf. Ned. 50b) and his colleagues who were in Rome at the time.

In a similar story told in Deuteronomy Rabbah 2:24, an unnamed senator commits suicide (after having himself circumcised) in order to annul a Senate decree to exterminate the Jews within 30 days. Graetz plausibly identifies Keti'a with Flavius *Clemens, Domitian's nephew, who was executed for "atheism," i.e., for Judaizing tendencies. Keti'a b. Shalom is a fictitious name meaning "through circumcision he obtained salvation" (so J.Z. Lauterbach, quoted by Braude) or, more probably, "the circumcised one, may he rest in peace."

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Graetz, Gesch, 4 (19084), 109–11, 402f.; idem, in: MGWJ, 1 (1852), 192–202; J. Kobak, in: Jeshurun, 8 (1871/72), Heb. pt. 161–70; B.J. Bamberger, Proselytism in the Talmudic Period (1939; repr. 1968), 235–8, 279, 282f.; W.G. Braude, Jewish Proselyting (1940), 75; Alon, Toledot3, 1 (1959), 74f.

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/keti-x0027-a-bar-shalom

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titus_Flavius_Clemens_(cónsul)

Titus Flavius Clemens

Titus Flavius T. f. T. n. Clemens was a nephew of the Roman Emperor Vespasian. He was the son of Titus Flavius Sabinus, consul in AD 52 and praefectus urbi during the reign of Nero, and a brother of Titus Flavius Sabinus, consul in AD 82. The emperors Titus and Domitian were his cousins.

As a child, Clemens was besieged along with his family in the capitol, when the soldiers of his uncle, Vespasian, were approaching Rome. His father was captured and slain by the forces of Vitellius, who burnt the capitol, but the rest of the family escaped.

Clemens' brother was consul with Domitian, shortly after the latter's accession, but the emperor put his cousin to death on the pretext that the herald proclaiming him consul had called him Imperator. In fact, the emperor was more likely motivated by his love for his cousin's wife, Julia Flavia (who, as the daughter of his brother Titus, was also his niece).

Clemens also married one of his cousins, Flavia Domitilla, daughter of Vespasian's daughter, Domitilla, who was thus also a niece of Domitian. They had two sons, whom Domitian intended to succeed him in the empire, renaming one of them Vespasian and the other Domitian. However, in AD 95, when Clemens and the emperor were consuls, Domitian had his cousin put to death.

According to Cassius Dio, Clemens was put to death on a charge of atheism, for which, he adds, many others who went over to the Jewish opinions were executed. This may imply that Clemens had become a Christian. For the same reason, his wife was banished to Pandataria.

To this Clemens in all probability is dedicated the church of St. Clement at Rome, on the Caelian hill, which is believed to have been built originally in the fifth century, although its site is now occupied by a more recent, though very ancient, structure. In the year 1725 Cardinal Annibal Albani found under this church an inscription in honour of Flavius Clemens, martyr, which is described in a work called T. Flavii Clementis Viri Consularis et Martyris Tumulus illustratis. Some connect Clemens with Clemens Romanus, perhaps the author of the Epistle to the Corinthians.

Source :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titus_Flavius_Clemens_(consul)