Tacitus on Jesus

Tacitus Roman general? and historian, in his writings from 116 AD.

From Annales 15:44,

15.44.2. Sed non ope humana, non largitionibus principis aut deum placamentis decedebat infamia, quin iussum incendium crederetur. Ergo abolendo rumori Nero subdidit reos et quaesitissimis poenis adfecit, quos per flagitia invisos vulgus Christianos appellabat.

15.44.3. Auctor nominis eius Christus Tibero imperitante per procuratorem Pontium Pilatum supplicio adfectus erat; repressaque in praesens exitiabilis superstitio rursum erumpebat, non modo per Iudaeam, originem eius mali, sed per urbem etiam, quo cuncta mundique atrocia aut pudenda confluunt celebranturque.

The following purports to being a translation: Therefore, to scotch the rumor (that Nero had burned Rome) Nero substituted as culprits, and punished with the utmost refinements of cruelty, a class of men, loathed for their vices, whom the crowd styled Christians. Christus, the founder of the name, had undergone the death penalty in the reign of Tiberius, by sentence of the procurator Pontius Pilatus, and the pernicious superstition was checked for a moment, only to break out once more, not merely in Judea, the home of the disease, but in the capital itself, where all things horrible or shameful in the world collect and find a vogue…..They [the Christians] were covered with wild beasts’ skins and torn to death by dogs; or they were fastened on crosses, and, when daylight failed were burned to serve as lamps by night. Nero had offered his Gardens for the spectacle, and gave an exhibition in his Circus, mixing with the crowd in the habit of a charioteer, or mounted on his car. Hence, in spite of a guilt which had earned the most exemplary punishment, there arose a sentiment of pity, due to the impression that they were being sacrificed not for the welfare of the state but to the ferocity of a single man.

(This translation is not in synch with the quoted Latin text. It begins halfway through 15.44.2 and carries on after 15.44.3.)

---

A translation which is in sync with the quoted text, and is definitely public domain since I just made it, is below. It suffers from not being very good, but can pass until somebody finds a free version that corresponds closer to the Latin than the above.

15.44.2. But not by human efforts, not by lavish generosity or by the appeasements of the gods did the belief that orders were given for the fire depart. Thus to abolish the rumor Nero pinned it, and applied the cruelest punishments, to those hated for their vices, called Christians by the multitude.

15.44.3. Christ the originator of the name by commanding Tiberius through the procurator Pontius Pilate was supplicated; and the fatal superstition repressed for a moment broke forth again, not only amidst Judea, the source of this evil, but even through the city, where the all the atrocities and shameful things of the world run together and team.