A Most Mischievous Superstition ...
Tacitus recorded what is probably the most important reference to Jesus outside of the New Testament, in AD 115 he explicitly states that Nero persecuted the Christians as scapegoats to divert suspicion away from himself for the great fire that had devastated Rome in AD 64 ...
Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace, Christus, from whom the name had it's origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilate, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome ... accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty: then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, as of hatred against mankind ...
it is speculated that when Tacitus says this "mischievous superstition" was "checked for the moment" but later "again broke out" he was unconsciously bearing testimony to the belief of early Christians that Jesus had been crucified but then rose from the grave, regardless of whether the passage had this specifically in mind, it does provide us with a very remarkable fact, which is this: crucifixion was the most abhorrent fate that anyone could undergo, and the fact that there was a movement based on a crucified man has to be explained, how can you explain the spread of a religion based on the worship of a man who had suffered the most ignominious death possible? of course the Christian answer is that he was resurrected, others have to come up with some alternative theory if they don't believe that, but none of the alternative views are very persuasive, characterizing the weight of Tacitus's writings concerning Jesus is very important testimony by an unsympathetic witness to the success and spread of Christianity, based on a historical figure - Jesus - who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and it's significant that Tacitus reported that an "immense multitude" held so strongly to their beliefs that they were willing to die rather than recant
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