Before Jerusalem Fell - EntreWave

Th Persecution of Christianip 295
gem) of Christians who were hurried to trial under Nero.39 The
reliability of Tacitus on this matter has been rigorously defended by
Ramsay, who was a late date advocate in regard to Revelation. a Of
Tacitus’s further observation that the spectacle ultimately sickened
the populace, Ramsay notes that “it can have been no inconsiderable
number and no short period which brought satiety to a populace
accustomed to find their greatest amusement in public butcheries,
frequently recurring on a colossal scale.”41 Henderson is convinced
that Tacitus’s statement “is a plain statement. I see no reason for
holding it an anachronism or denying it.”4 2 To Tacitus’s testimony
can be added the Christian testimony of Clement of Rome. As one
intimately concerned (and most probably even personally involved),
Clement noted that a “vast multitude of the elect” suffered “many
indignities and tortures. “4 3
When this material regarding the Neronic persecution is contrasted
to that of the Domitianic persecution, the picture becomes
even more convincing. Scholars of historical learning see remarkable
differences between the two. Henderson refers to the Domitianic
persecution (which he accepts as involving Christians) as a “squall
of persecution. ”~ He goes on to state that “there is at least even
among the credulous no disputing the fact that such a persecution, if
it did occur, was both very shortlived and of no lasting consequence.”4
5
Earlier in the ,present work we noted that the Neronic persecution
lasted over three years, until the death of Nero.% In comparing the
two persecutions, Lightfoot speaks of “the earlier and more severe
assault on the Christians in the latter years of the reign of Nero.”4 7
39. Annals 15:44.
40. Ramsay, Church in Roman Empire, pp. 228-229.
41. Ibid., p. 241.
42 Henderson, Nero, p. 436.
43. 1 Clement 6. Clement’s phrase rro~d ml~f%q is identical in import with Tacitus’s
ingens multitudo (Annals 15:44) as well as with John’s 6~Aog rroafig in Revelation 7:9 and
19:1, 6.
44. B. W. Henderson, Five Roman Emperors (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1927), p. 45.
45. Ibid.
46. See Chapter 14.
47. Joseph B. Llghtfoot and J. R. Harmer, The Apostolic Fathrs (Grand Rapids: Baker,
[1891] 1984), p. 3.