Genealogies of the Aristocracy

Below you will find genealogies that show the relationships between various members of the Roman and Jewish aristocracies and the Roman historians who mention Christianity or Christians. The genealogies should demonstrate that royalty only married their relatives, which means no one other than those individuals who were of royal blood could ever rule. Some of the genealogies do not just consist of a chart and a little bit of information, but in depth explanations regarding why the genealogies are accurate.

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The Roman Emperors from Antoninus Pius (86-161 C.E.) onward were descended from the powerful senatorial family the Calpurnius Pisos, the common ancestor being a man called Arrius Calpurnius Piso (known in history as Flavius Josephus). Previously, the genealogies below have only been traced back to one certain individual and have appeared to end with that individual, with no apparent way to continue the line.

 

It seems, most likely through no real fault of their own, that previous scholars have taken the historical information at face value, which the information below shows. The ancient royal relationships look to have been purposely made hard to discover and can only be connected by being able to deduce the rest of the family line and their relatives. This is done by building profiles with all of the information that is available on those individuals and taking into account the many literary devices that look to have been used, some of which are mentioned on the home page. That is where prosopography comes in, which is used to examine the lives of multiple individuals in order to explain the structures of politics and society. It works by analysing relevant biographical information and patterns in regards to a defined group of people.

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