Reply #7: Christians just continued an old tradition

[happyslug]

Remember Nero was OVERTHROWN by Galba (Who subsequent died and whose killers were overthrown by Vespasian). Titus Flavius Vespasianus (A.D. 69-79) had to justify his reign by demonizing Nero's.

In the only non-Christian or non-Jewish reference to the Early Christians, Tacitus' Annales 15.38-44,http://artemis.austincollege.edu/acad/HWC22/Rome/Pagans_v_Christians/Tacitus.html, Tacitus mentions two reasons for the fire (Tacitus tends to ALWAYS write two reasons, like one is the GIVEN Reason at the time of the incident, the other is the REAL Reason). The second causation for the fire one being that the Nero blamed the Christians (after mentioning that most people blamed Nero who wanted the area for a new Palace for himself). A clear reading of Tacitus indicates a clear dislike of Christians, but also that it was clear that the Christians did NOT start the fire, but they were a easy target for Nero to blame for the Fire. Furthermore as Emperor, Nero was SUPPOSE to help people in distressed, thus his opening up of temple and public buildings to the homeless was what was EXPECTED of the Emperor. That fact he provided NO new Housing and instead built his new Palace on the spot of the fire just reinforced two things, First Nero started the fire to build his Palace, and two, Nero did NOTHING to help the people of Rome to recover from the Fire. When Nero lost the support of the People of Rome do to his handing of the Fire, his lack of support in the Senate and in the Army meant he was do to be overthrown and he was.

My point is Nero had been attacked by NON-Christians during the reign of Vespasian, and the Christians continued this tradition. A secondary factor was Vespasian started the "Flavian" dynasty. Constantine started the "Neo-Flavian" dynasty. These two Dynasty ere over 200 years apart but Constantine seems to have traced his family back to the first Fl avian Dynasty. This just reinforced the existing anti-Nero view among Christians.



http://www.roman-emperors.org/nero.htm