CIESAR'S HOUSEHOLD (Lat. familia C•saris, Gk. Kalcapoc °Isla, ftf": Kaisaros A phrase used in the Epistle to the Philippians (iv. 22, "All the saints salute you, especially they that are of Caesar's household"). In its later and more developed usage, it referred to the Imperial household as embracing, not merely the immediate servants of the palace, but the whole list of the Emperor's attendants, amount ing to a considerable portion of the city's popula tion, and including in its number persons of rank, as well as freedmen and slaves. At the time when Philippians was written, however, the usage of the phrase was restricted, and denoted merely the direct servants and dependents of the Imperial establishment, who were exclusively slaves or freedmen.
The purely incidental character of the refer ence in the Epistle indicates that these members of the Emperor's household were known to par ties in the Church at Philippi, being perhaps originally from that neighborhood in the East.
If, therefore, as there is every reason to suppose, this Epistle, as the first of Paul's captivity let ters, was written early in his imprisonment, these tmperial servants were in all probability brought into the Church before Paul's arrival in Rome, having possibly learned the Gospel in Philippi itself. At all events, they were more likely of Grecian than of Latin origin, Greeks and Orientals being especially numerous in Nero's household. The names of some of the Imperial attendants of this period, as recovered from the eolumbaria, occur in the list of saluta tions in Rom. xvi. Consult: J. B. Lightfoot, Commentary on. Philippians, 7th ed. (London, l8S3) ; Th. Zahn, Einteitung in dos ncuc Testa ment, Vol. I., 2d ed. (Leipzig. 1900).