The next historian who is claimed as a witness to Christianity is
Tacitus (born A.D. 54 or 55, died A.D. 134 or 135), who writes, dealing
with the reign of Nero, that this Emperor "inflicted the most cruel
punishments upon a set of people, who were holden in abhorrence for
their crimes, and were commonly called Christians. The founder of that
name was Christus, who, in the reign of Tiberius, was punished as a
criminal by the procurator, Pontius Pilate. This pernicious
superstition, thus checked for awhile, broke out again; and spread not
only over Judæa the source of this evil, but reached the city also:
whither flow from all quarters all things vile and shameful, and where
they find shelter and encouragement. At first, only those were
apprehended who confessed themselves of that sect; afterwards, a vast
multitude discovered by them; all which were condemned, not so much for
the crime of burning the city, as for their hatred of mankind. Their
executions were so contrived as to expose them to derision and contempt.
Some were covered over with the skins of wild beasts, and torn to pieces
by dogs; some were crucified. Others, having been daubed over with
combustible materials, were set up as lights in the night-time, and thus
burned to death. Nero made use of his own gardens as a theatre on this
occasion, and also exhibited the diversions of the circus, sometimes
standing in the crowd as a spectator, in the habit of a charioteer; at
other times driving a chariot himself; till at length these men, though
really criminal, and deserving exemplary punishment, began to be
commiserated as people who were destroyed, not out of regard to the
public welfare, but only to gratify the cruelty of one man" ("Annals,"
book xv., sect. 44).

This was probably written, if authentic, about A.D. 107. The reasons
against the authenticity of this passage are thus given by Robert