It's probably a forgery. The problem with Tacitus....other than the fact that no one else in antiquity ever heard of that passage... is that he used an anachronistic term for Pilate's office. Pilate was a praefect. The passage in Annales 15:44 calls him a procurator which title was not used until after the death of Herod Agrippa I.
A minor problem to be sure.
The fact that no writer, xtian or pagan ever heard of the passage is far more significant.
A minor problem to be sure.
The fact that no writer, xtian or pagan ever heard of the passage is far more significant.