TACITUS AND THE PERSECUTION OF THE CHRISTIANS: AN INVENTION OF TRADITION?

Birgit Van der Lans*, Jan N. Bremmer

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

    22 Citations (Scopus)

    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 languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)299-321
    Number of pages23
    JournalEirene-Studia graeca et latina
    Volume53
    Issue number1-2
    Publication statusPublished - 2017

    Keywords

    • Nero
    • persecution
    • Christians
    • Tacitus
    • Great Fire
    • narrative
    • NERONIAN PERSECUTION
    • HISTORY

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