Aulus Pudens

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Aulus Pudens was a native of Umbria and a centurion in the Roman army in the late 1st century. He was a friend of the poet Martial, who addressed several of his Epigrams to him. He is identified by some with Saint Pudens, an early Roman Christian.

Martial writes of Pudens' marriage to "Claudia Peregrina" ("Claudia the Foreigner") in Epigrams IV:13, who is likely identical with Claudia Rufina, a Briton he writes of in Epigrams XI:53. Martial also writes of Pudens's passions for young male slaves, his desire to own original copies of Martial's poems, and his ambitions of being promoted to Primus Pilus, the chief centurion of a Roman legion. In one poem (Epigrams VI:58) he writes of a nightmare that Pudens had been killed in action in Dacia.

[edit] Pudens' connection to Paul of Tarsus

A scholar tradition of the 19th century connects Pudens to Paul of Tarsus and with the British king Caratacus. The key of this connection is Claudia, Pudens' wife. According to this hypothesis, it is possible that the couple may be identified with the Claudia and Pudens mentioned in 2 Timothy 4, 21^[1].

Against this hypothesis:

1. Martial wrote in the 90s, while the Pastoral Epistles are traditionally dated to the 60s, so this identification would appear doubtful;
2. If the Pastoral Epistles are pseudepigraphic and mid-dated, as some argue, their contents could also be considered doubtful;
3. according to the scholars at CCEL these claims are specifically refuted by the Bollandists.

For this hypothesis:

1. this hypothesis had a long tradition of being supported by historians, in the 16th-19th centuries;
   1. the 16th Century vatican historian Baronius claims it in Annales Ecclesiastici
   2. as well as his contemporary William Camden, who repeats it in his 1586 work Britannia and credits earlier sources, John Bale and Matthew Parker Arch-bishop of Canterbury.
   3. the assertion was further supported by 17th century scholars James Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh, in his British Ecclesiastical Antiquities, and his contemporary Cardinal Alford in Regia Fides.
   4. 19th century historian Archdeacon John Williams explored it further in his 1848 book Claudia and Pudens.
   5. Giovanni Battista de Rossi, a Christian archaeologist, and his school.
2. many critical scholars consider the Pastoral Epistles to be pseudepigraphic and date them to the 90s;

[edit] Notes

1. ↑  "Eubulus saluteth thee, and Pudens, and Linus, and Claudia, and all the brethren."

[edit] References

• Martial, Epigrams, ed. & trans. D. R. Shackleton Bailey, Harvard University Press, 1993