Neronian persecution
Nero Punishes Roman Christians after the Great Fire
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Original prompt & settings (JSON) ↗Tacitus says the spectacle turned so cruel that spectators began pitying the very people he himself describes with hostility.
Blame, redirected
After the Great Fire of Rome in 64, Nero moved to suppress rumours that he had ordered it by accusing Christians and subjecting them to elaborate punishments.
Tacitus says authorities first arrested people who confessed, then used their information to convict a much larger group — more for an alleged hatred of humanity than for arson. No exact starting day survives; the punishments followed the fire of July 64.
What one source describes
Victims were reportedly wrapped in animal skins and killed by dogs, fixed to crosses, or burned as nighttime illumination. Nero opened his gardens for the spectacle and appeared among the crowd as a charioteer.
Every one of those details comes from a single surviving narrative. They belong to Tacitus's Annals 15.44 rather than to multiple corroborating sources.
Peter is not in the account
Tacitus does not name Peter. Later Christian tradition holds that Peter was crucified under Nero, but historians cannot establish that he died during these post-fire executions.
The episode was also local. The evidence establishes neither an empire-wide anti-Christian edict nor a coordinated imperial campaign in 64.
Even the episode itself is argued over: Brent Shaw has challenged its historicity, and Christopher P. Jones defended Tacitus's account against him.
Sources
Researched 23 Aug 2026 4 sources not yet audited Date disputed
How this was checked
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Date disputed. Sources disagree about when this happened.
What the sources leave uncertain
- No exact starting day survives; the punishments followed the Great Fire of July 64.
- Tacitus is the sole surviving source linking these executions specifically to the fire. Brent Shaw challenged the episode's historicity, while Christopher P. Jones defended Tacitus's account.
- The execution of Peter under Nero is an early Christian tradition, but attaching it specifically to the post-fire punishments of 64 conflates two claims with different evidence.
- The episode was local to Rome; the evidence does not establish an empire-wide anti-Christian edict or coordinated imperial campaign in 64.