Ancient Sources
References to Christianity by pagan writers in the days of the early church are few and far between, which makes such references as there are a valuable commodity. Here are two, by the Roman writers Pliny the Younger and Tacitus. Pliny (61 - 113AD) was a lawyer and administrator. In the extract from his Letters, he asks the Emperor Trajan (53 - 117AD) for his advise on how to deal with members of a 'degenerate... cult': Christians. Apart from the legal question, Pliny also gives us an insight into the worship of the early church. Tacitus (c. 56 - c.117AD) was a historian of the Roman Empire. In the extract from his Annals of Imperial Rome, he describes the great fire that destroyed swathes of the capital and how the Emperor Nero sought to distract people from the rumour that the fire had been started deliberately - through the torture and murder of scapegoats: Christians.
If you would like to read more about the above writers, click on their names below to read their entries at Wikipedia, the on line encyclopaedia.
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