Anacletus, Bishop of Rome
?–88 CE · Rome
Anacletus—also known as Cletus—appears in early Roman episcopal lists as Linus's successor and is traditionally counted as the third pope, succeeding Linus. He is among the most obscure of the early bishops of Rome, and virtually nothing reliable survives about his life or acts. Confusion in ancient sources, which sometimes split the single name into two separate popes, reflects how thin the record is. The later Liber Pontificalis assigns him an origin and various administrative decrees, but such details are legendary accretions. His significance is essentially as a name in the apostolic succession lists that early writers like Irenaeus compiled to demonstrate continuity from the apostles.
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RomeרומאItaly
We know they were here, but the specifics of what they did at this stop aren’t recorded yet in our corpus.
Rome in this era
Under the Julio-Claudian and Flavian emperors Rome was the capital of a pagan empire with an early Christian community. According to Acts, the apostle Paul arrived there as a prisoner around 60 CE; Christian tradition holds that both Peter and Paul were martyred under Nero, c. 64-68 CE.
About Rome
Rome, on the Tiber in central Italy, grew from an Iron Age settlement into the capital of the Roman Republic and then of an empire that by the 1st century CE ruled the whole Mediterranean. Its Jewish community, attested from the 2nd century BCE, is among the oldest in Europe. Christian tradition holds that the apostles Peter and Paul died there, and the city became the seat of the popes. After the Western Empire ended in 476 it passed to Gothic kings, to Byzantium and then to papal rule as capital of the Papal States, until it became the capital of unified Italy in 1871. Vatican City, independent since 1929, lies within it.
In Rome at the same time
Across the traditions, in Rome at the same time
In the same place & time
Sages whose lives overlapped with Anacletus, Bishop of Rome’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
Across the traditions
- Pliny, the Elder· Rome
- Silius Italicus, Tiberius Catius· Rome
- Berenice· Rome
- Musonius Rufus· Rome
- Quintilian· Rome
- Josephus· Rome
- Titus· Rome
- Martial· Rome
- Valerius Flaccus, Gaius· Rome
- Statius, P. Papinius (Publius Papinius)· Rome
- Plutarch· Rome
- Domitian· Rome
- Epictetus· Rome
- Juvenal· Rome
- Tacitus, Cornelius· Rome
- Pliny, the Younger· Rome
- Suetonius· Rome
- Florus, Lucius Annaeus· Rome
In the same tradition
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Anacletus, Bishop of Rome’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Works
No works attributed in the corpus yet.