Chrestiani, Christiani, Χριστιανοί [Christians]: a Second Century Anachronism?

What is it about?

The Roman historians Tacitus (writing before 123 CE) and Suetonius (writing ca 119–122 CE) are the oldest extant authors who mention the persecution of the Christians in Rome after the fire in 64 CE. Tacitus uses the word Chrestiani to describe the Christians, although he notes that Pilate executed Christus. In his fairly detailed account of the event Tacitus states that the Christians were accused of arson. People in Rome had suspected that Nero himself was responsible for the fire, and the Christians were convenient scapegoats. They were executed by being covered in the skins of animals and mutilated by dogs, or by crucifixion, or by being made flammable and burned at night as torches. Suetonius merely states that among Nero’s praiseworthy deeds “many things were severely punished” including “the Christians, a class of people of a new and maleficent superstition.” In a text in his section on Nero’s blameworthy deeds he accuses Nero of having his agents set the fire. My paper defends the historicity of the persecution which has recently been questioned.

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Why is it important?

The paper shows the importance of defending authenticity of the primary sources for the first persecution of the Christians. Brent D. Shaw has questioned the historicity of the event by using two arguments from silence: Tacitus’s use of the term “Christians” is an anachronism, because no extant Roman historian of the first century uses the word; and Suetonius knows of no connection between the fire in Rome and Nero’s police actions against the Christians. Both of these untestable arguments from silence are inherently weak logically. No extant Roman author of the first century survives who describes the fire and who refers to the Christians by any name, so it is simply impossible to demonstrate that Tacitus’s use of the word Chrestianus is an anachronism. And no extant Roman author of the first century survives who combines an account of the fire with a persecution of the Christians or who separates an account of the fire from a persecution of the Christians during Nero’s reign. One can make a good case for the claim that the words in Latin and Greek for “Christian” – Chrestianus, Christianus, and Christianos – are not creations of the second century and that Roman officials were probably aware of the Christians in the 60s. Tacitus’s and Suetonius’s accounts of the persecution are fundamentally reliable.

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