Originally posted by jjjg
The link I supplied covered all this plus other pagan and Jewish writers.
"Another Roman writer who shows his acquaintance with Christ and the Christians is Suetonius (A.D. 75-160). It has been noted that Suetonius considered Christ (Chrestus) as a Roman insurgent who stirred up seditions under the reign of Claudius (A.D. 41-54): 'Judaeos, impulsore Chresto, assidue tumultuantes (Claudius) Roma expulit' (Clau., xxv)."
Okay. So strike Suetonius; he wasn't referring to Jesus.
"Of greater importance is the letter of Pliny the Younger to the Emperor Trajan (about A.D. 61-115), in which the Governor of Bithynia consults his imperial majesty as to how to deal with the Christians living within his jurisdiction. On the one hand, their lives were confessedly innocent; no crime could be proved against them excepting their Christian belief, which appeared to the Roman as an extravagant and perverse superstition."
Pliny proves Rome disliked Christians. No revelation there.
As for Tacitus: The word "Christian" would have been inaccurate, as the phrase wasn't coined yet. In addition, Christian scholars did not even cite Tacitus until four centuries later.
Last edited: