Response to Christopher Jones: The Historicity of the Neronian Persecution

Abstract

In theJournal of Roman Studiesof 2015, I argued that the evidence in Tacitus for a state-directed punishment of Christians in Rome in 64cewas too weak to sustain the historical interpretation of it as a persecution. In a reply in this journal last year, Christopher Jones argued that knowledge of Christians under that name could well have reached Rome by the mid-60s, that thevulgusof the city could well have accused such persons, and that the Tacitean account is therefore generally credible. While admitting the justice of some of his criticisms, I attempt in this reply to clarify some of my arguments and to restate my original claim that a persecution of Christians by the emperor Nero in connection with the Great Fire of 64 seems improbable given the context of the relations between officials of the Roman state and Christians over the first centuryce.