Tacitus
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Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus, was a Roman historian and politician. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historians by modern scholars.
Statue of Tacitus outside the Austrian Parliament Building
The title page of Justus Lipsius's 1598 edition of the complete works of Tacitus, bearing the stamps of the Bibliotheca Comunale in Empoli, Italy
Annals 15.44, in the second Medicean manuscript
Tacitus on Jesus
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Roman historian and politician Tacitus referred to Jesus, his execution by Pontius Pilate, and the existence of early Christians in Rome in his final work, Annals, book 15, chapter 44. The context of
Tacitus
…beginnings of the Roman Empire, with which he had planned to finish his work. The Annals is one of the earliest secular historical writings to mention Jesus of Nazareth, which Tacitus does in connection with Nero's persecution of the Christians. Tacitus wrote three works with a more limited scope: Agricola, a biography…
The Fire of Rome, 1861 work by Karl von Piloty. According to Tacitus, Nero targeted Christians as those responsible for the fire.
Nero's Torches, by Henryk Siemiradzki (1876)
The Pilate Stone, now at the Israel Museum