History
Books
 |
Cornelius
Tacitus, Annals 15.44.2-4
On July 19-27, 64, Rome was destroyed by a great fire: only
four of its fourteen quarters remained intact. The emperor Nero
was blamed by the Roman populace; there were false rumors that
he had been singing songs about the burning of Troy. To get
rid of these stories, Nero blamed the Christians. The Roman
historian Tacitus explains what happened.
But all human efforts, all the lavish gifts of the emperor,
and the propitiations of the gods, did not banish the sinister
belief that the conflagration was the result of an order. Consequently,
to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted
the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations,
called 'Chrestians' by the populace. Christus, from whom the
name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the
reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius
Pilate, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for
the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source
of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and
shameful from every part of the world find their center and
become popular. Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all
who pleaded guilty; then, upon their information, an immense
multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing
the city, as of hatred against mankind. Mockery of every sort
was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts,
they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses,
or were doomed to the flames and burnt, to serve as a nightly
illumination, when daylight had expired.
unknown
translator
