You say that
Tacitus was around 10 under the
regn of
Nero? The persecution of Christians would not be a 10-year-old's main concerns. In fact, he probably didn't even care unil he began
writing his books.
Nero had no reason to persecute Christians - as he was not insane
nor were the Christians any threat to
Romans society. The
Romans were an incredibly tolerant race; which is one of the main reasons that they survived for so long. Adopting the traditions and assimilating other peoples was a great skill that the
Romans had. They did not single out peoples for their religion,
nor the colour of their skin. I am not saying that the
Romans agreed with Christianity, but I am saying that they did not loathe it.
Tacitus claims many inaccuracies against almost every emperor he writes about. He could just have easily stated that
Nero persecuted the Zoroasterians. And, as you claim,
Tacitus was also not particularly fond of the Christians either - especially when calling
Christ a criminal. Thus with this short passage he was able to kill two
birds with one
stone. As most great writers,
Tacitus can invent fanciful stories or fantasies. He did so with every emperor - especially
Tiberius. Suetonius also
had a penchant for inventing things - and the mere fact that they were friends and wrote about the same things
comes as no surprise.
And why, may I ask, did not Cassius Dio write of this? And why did no other pagan historians write of this? Why did only later,
Christian propagandists write about this? These same
Christian "historians" who made it seem as though the Christians
had been the butt of
Roman jokes and atrocities, tried desperately with their rambling writings to glorify Christianity and make it saeem as though it
had been punished. I have all too many
Julio-Claudian historians who agree with this; who say that no,
Nero did not tie up Chrisitians, tar them and burn them alive.
History has a bad way wrongly incriminating people because of one line in on book written by one author who couldn't care less. To believe the later
Christian propagandists is to hold onto old, incorrect traditions and to not look at all of the facts. Look at all of the factors and biases before coming to a conclusion, for this will surely spread light on any topic.