Tacitus and Pliny the Younger on the Christians

Around 112 AD, Pliny the Younger, governor of the province of Bithynia (northern Turkey today), wrote to the emperor Trajan asking how to judge Christians (Letters, book 10, letter 96). He recounts what he discovered by interrogating them: they gathered on a fixed day before dawn, sang a hymn "to Christ, as to a god," and committed themselves not to steal, not to commit adultery, not to break their word; afterward they returned for a common and simple meal. Pliny says there were Christians of every age and class, in the cities and in the countryside. Trajan's reply (letter 97) also survived.

Around 116 AD, the historian Tacitus, recounting the great fire of Rome in 64 AD (Annals 15.44), says that Nero blamed the "Christians" and explains the name: "Christ, from whom the name comes, was executed in the reign of Tiberius by the procurator Pontius Pilate." He then describes the cruel executions of Christians in Rome.

Why it matters: these are hostile sources — neither of the two had any interest in favoring Christians. Even so, they confirm the essentials: Jesus was executed in Judea under Pilate, in the time of Tiberius; the movement reached Rome within a few decades; and, already at the beginning of the second century, Christians worshiped Christ as God and were known for their moral life.