The fact, then, of St. Peter's Roman episcopate is
assured by ample evidence; the details of his
residence at Rome are less clear. Here documents,
archeological records, traditions and legends blend;
the following cannot pretend to being more than a
reconstruction of places and an estimate of dates. But
the basic facts, the residence, the administration of the
sacraments, the letters, the episcopal chair of Peter,
his martyrdom, and his grave all these are historical.
If St. Peter was the organizer of the Church at Rome,
he was not the first Christian in the imperial capital.
Roman Jews or proselytes had been present at St.
Peter's Pentecostal sermons (Acts 2:10), and it is
reasonable to suppose that the first news of Christ
reached Rome through them. The Jewish community
at Rome was ancient and numerous. Jews were first
mentioned in 160 B.C., when envoys of Judas
Macchabeus arrived to solicit an alliance from the
Roman Senate (1 Mach. 8:12-14). Julius Caesar had
given them many privileges (Josephus, Antiquities,
XIV, 10), and Augustus added others (Suetonius, Lives
of Caesars, 84). Jewish privileges provoked bitter anti-
Semitism among Latin writers. Aside from a few
wealthy financiers or courtiers enjoying imperial favor,
the ordinary Jews dwelt in ghettos. One of these was in
Trastevere in the fourteenth district, and another in
Porta Campena near the Aventine in the first district.
Seven of their synagogues are known by name, and
doubtless they had others.
St. Peter, we know (1 Pet. 1:1) evangelized various
regions of Asia Minor: Pontus, Galatia, and
Cappadocia. It is not improbable that on an early
mission St. Peter met that Aquila, "a Jew of Pontus,"
who with his wife Prisca seem to have been great
travelers, for they turn up at Rome, Corinth, Ephesus,
and Rome again (Acts 18:2, 26; Rom. 16:3). They
were friends of St. Paul; possibly Aquila was a convert
of St. Peter either at Jerusalem or Pontus, and this
explains the tradition that St. Peter resided for a time in
their house on the Aventine.
FIRST CONVERTS
For it is probable that St. Peter on coming to Rome
took up residence in one of the larger Jewish colonies.
Christ had directed the Apostles to "go rather to the
lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Matt. 10:6), and we
know that this was St. Paul's usual practice on his
missions (Acts 13:46). St. Peter, however, had none of
St. Paul's educational advantages: he was no scribe
who would be invited to address the synagogues. The
first Bishop of Rome, Christ's own appointed Vicar,
therefore, probably had to make his first converts
among poorer Jews in the forum or streets by private
conversation or street preaching.
But just as St. Paul subsequently turned to the
Gentiles, St. Peter would have been obliged to do so
even earlier in Rome. Certainly there were many
Gentile converts by 57-58 A.D., when St. Paul wrote
his Letter to the Romans, for he is preoccupied
throughout with Gentile problems. Indeed, the Gentiles
may already have been in a majority in the Christian
community; St. Paul seems to urge tolerance to
converts from the synagogues (Rom. 14).
SAFETY OF PETER
And if the Jews pursued St. Paul from town to town,
they would raise up trouble for St. Peter. Eventually it
became advisable for St. Peter to retire to a safer and
more retired spot. Tradition indicates the Ostrian
Cemetery between the Via Nomentana and the Via
Salaria as his refuge. How did St. Peter come to go
there? Apparently this was the country estate of the
Acilian Gens, members of which were converts
(Maruchhi, Archeology, II, 385). One of these families,
Priscilla, may have been introduced to St. Peter
through Prisca. In any event, St. Peter would be safe
among these wealthy Christians at their Ostrian Villa,
just across the Via Nomentana from the Praetorian
Camp. At this time the Roman authorities did not
distinguish between Jews and Christians, so that the
latter had more fear of the Jewish riots than from
Roman police, who rather served as a protection. In
the year 49, we know, Emperor Claudius went so far
as to "expel the Jews who were constantly rioting at
the instigation of Christus" (Suetonius, Life of Claudius,
XXV, 4). The imperial authorities had not obtained all
of the facts: the riots were about Christ, not led by Him.
But this pagan source certainly attests that vigorous
Christian evangelization was in progress in Rome
before 49 A.D.