Suetonius



Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, generally just Suetonius (c. 69 – after 122 CE), was a Roman historian and close friend of senator and letter-writer Pliny the Younger.

In his book The Twelve Caesars (also known as Lives of the Caesars), written ca. 112 CE, Suetonius makes two statements that are often presented as evidence for the existence of Jesus Christ.

The Jews and Chrestus
The first mentions that Claudius “banished the Jews from Rome, since they had made a commotion because of Chrestus.” "Chrestus," a common name meaning “good,” was used by both slaves and free people and occurred more than 80 times in Latin inscriptions. There is nothing other than similarity in spelling to suggest that there is any relationship between Chrestus and Christ  and it is unlikely that Christianity had spread as far as Rome during the reign of Claudius or that it was large enough to have caused a revolt.

Ironically, Irenaeus' argument for an older-than-45-but-younger-than-50 Jesus being crucified under Claudius Caesar sometime in the 42-44 CE range better fits this account but would prove that Paul's Jesus and the historical Jesus are two different people.

The punishment of Christians
The second is in the "Life of Nero" section and goes as follows:

Tertullian claimed 'We read the lives of the Cæsars: At Rome Nero was the first who stained with blood the rising faith."

But that is not what Suetonius says in this passage. Christians are just one of the "many abuses" that were "severely punished and put down", i.e. part of a general house cleaning of Rome. The passage gives no indication that any of the groups were killed. The inflicted punishment is disclosed only in the case of 'the pantomimic actors and their partisans' (banishment). The Christians could have simply been driven from Rome as had been the case with Jewish and Egyptian worshipers under Tiberius in 19 CE. Their lands and wealth could have been confiscated for the good of the state, they may have been enslaved, or subject to some other kind of non-capital punishment.

Tertullian is (surprise, surprise) claiming something that is not in the material he is citing.

The fire is not mentioned in "Life of Nero" until 38:1 or nearly 16 paragraphs latter, implying the punishments inflicted on the Christians occurred before the Great Fire.

Furthermore, Josephus and Pliny the Elder make no mention of Christians in Rome in Nero's time.

Also, 's lost On Superstition didn't even mention Christianity according to Augustine in the 4th century.

Finally, The (late 2nd century CE) claims Nero considered to "destroy all those brethren who had been made disciples by Peter" but had a dream after Peter's death (either 64 or 67 CE) which said "you cannot now persecute or destroy the servants of Christ" and a frightened Nero "kept away from the disciples…and thereafter the brethren kept together with one accord…"

So what we have, at best, is possible evidence that there were Chrestians/Christians in Rome at the time of Nero. Which on it is own doesn't support the existence of Jesus.