Publius cornelius tacitus description of jesus

References by Roman historian and senator Tacitus to Christ

The Roman historian and senatorTacitus referred to Jesus, his execution by Pontius Pilate, and the existence of early Christians in Rome in his final work, Annals (written c.

Publius cornelius tacitus description of jesus

AD 116), book 15, chapter 44.^[1]

The context of the passage is the six-day Great Fire of Rome that burned much of the city in AD 64 during the reign of Roman Emperor Nero.^[2] The passage is one of the earliest non-Christian references to the origins of Christianity^{[broken anchor]}, the execution of Christ described in the canonical gospels, and the presence and persecution of Christians in 1st-century Rome.

There are two points of vocabulary in the passage.

First, Tacitus may have used the word "Chrestians" (Chrestianos) for Christians, but then speaks of "Christ" (Christus) as the origin of that name. Second, he calls Pilate a "procurator", even though other sources indicate that he had the