Tacitus: Christians in Rome, 64 CE

Cornelius Tacitus (b. ~55 CE), one of the most highly regarded of ancient historians, became a Roman Senator during the reign of Vespasian (69-79 CE), and was the Governor (Proconsul) of Asia, 112-113 CE.  He was a close friend of Pliny the Younger who had governed the neighbouring province of Bithynia.

He wrote The Annals of Imperial Rome in 116 CE.  In part, he described the events of 64 CE, when it was widely rumoured that the Roman Emperor Nero had burned down a significant part of Rome itself.  Nero's efforts to dispel the rumour are related below.  As will be evident, Tacitus was not a Christian sympathiser.

1. MIT Classics
2. Marquete University: Ancient History Texts

Tacitus on the Persecution of the Christians under Nero.

So far, the precautions taken were suggested by human prudence:  now means were sought for appeasing deity, and application was made to the Sibylline books;  at the injunction of which public prayers were offered to Vulcan, Ceres, Prosperine, while Juno was propitiated by the Matrons, first in the Capitol, then at the nearest point of the sea shore, where water was drawn for sprinkling the temple and image of the goddess...

But neither human help, nor imperial munificence, nor all the modes of placating Heaven could stifle scandal or dispel the belief that the fire had taken place by order.  Therefore to scotch the rumor, 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 Pilate, 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.

First, then, the confessed members of the sect were arrested; next, on their disclosures, vast numbers were convicted, not so much on the count of arson, as for hatred of the human race.  And derision accompanied their end:  they 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 crowds 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.

Paragraph breaks have been inserted for easier reading, they do not occur in the original.