[3] His paternal grandfather was Quintus Aurelius Pactumeius Clemens, suffect consul around the year 80.
[4] His cursus honorum as far as his consulship has been preserved in an inscription found in Cirta, honoring his agreement to become patron of that city.
This inscription then records that Clemens was legatus or assistant to his father-in-law Titus Prifernius Geminus during the latter's year governing the public province of Achaea (122/123);[6] after his consulate, he was legatus for his father-in-law a second time, this time when Geminus was governor of Asia.
The finances of many cities during this period had fallen into disarray, and the emperors Trajan and Hadrian were forced to appoint special magistrates to reorganize them.
These responsibilities had accrued to Clemens a degree of prominence in the "Cirtan community at Rome" Edward Champlin infers existed there; other members of this community included Quintus Lollius Urbicus, consul in either 135 or 136; Gaius Arrius Antoninus, consul around the year 170; and the rhetorician Fronto.