Quote:Am I correct then in assuming that you see this as support for discrediting the Tacitus quote I provided previously? I wonder...do you agree with all of the support the author provides or just some of it? If only some of it, which support do you agree with and which do you not agree with and why?
You would be correct.
However, part of being a skeptic means that one does not automatically trust anything that is written. Therefore, as the author was kind enough to provide citations, I made it a point to check a random sample and found him to be correct.
This site was invaluable for that.
http://www.earlychristianwritings.com
At least concerning those early xtian writers who seem to know nothing about any Neronian persecution of xtians. Nero is one of those people in history who we know about only through the writings of his enemies, (Herod the Great and Caligula come to mind as two others.)
Actual Roman records of "persecution" of xtians begins in the mid-3d century
http://www.jesusneverexisted.com/persecu...ersecution
and it appears that with xtians cheering the repeated military defeats which the Empire suffered in the East at that time at the hands of the Parthians that they went out of their way to make themselves unpopular.
I only recently found a translation of Severus' Chronica into English (I don't speak Latin) and if you'd like to read it, I'm sure I saved the link somewhere.
