Abstract
Tacitus' description of Nero's punishment of Christians for the Great Fire of Rome in AD 64 has made a great impact on later understandings of Christian history. However, several questions have been raised concerning the accuracy of this account, and recently the historicity of a persecution of Christians under Nero has been denied altogether by Brent Shaw. This article discusses the most important objections and tries to achieve a better understanding of the events by combining an analysis of the narrative functions of this persecution in Tacitus with a new consideration of the earliest Christian reports. The article ends with an Appendix containing an updated analysis of the emergence of the name "Christian".
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 299-321 |
| Number of pages | 23 |
| Journal | Eirene-Studia graeca et latina |
| Volume | 53 |
| Issue number | 1-2 |
| Publication status | Published - 2017 |
Keywords
- Nero
- persecution
- Christians
- Tacitus
- Great Fire
- narrative
- NERONIAN PERSECUTION
- HISTORY