Primary source · Latin
The Annals
Cornelius Tacitus · c. AD 115–120
What this text is
The Roman historian's account of the Julio-Claudian age, with the famous notice of Nero's persecution — 'a vast multitude of Christians' — and of the emperor's instruments, Tigellinus among them. The mention of Christ under Pontius Pilate survives in one eleventh-century book.
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Public-domain translations
Church & Brodribb translation (1876, public domain)
Consequently, to get rid of the report, 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 its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus. (Annals XV.44)
Manuscript witnesses
Codex Mediceus I (Florence, Plut. 68.1)
c. 850Written at Fulda; the single carrier of the first hexad.
Codex Mediceus II (Florence, Plut. 68.2), fol. 38r
c. 1040Written at Monte Cassino in Beneventan script — the very folio shown carries Annals XV.44, the mention of the Christians.
Editio princeps of Annals 11–16 (Beroaldus, Rome)
1515First printing, made directly from Mediceus II after Leo X acquired it.
Provenance
Rome; each half surviving in a single medieval manuscript
Editions & scholarship
Critical editions and standard translations behind the text above.
- Tacitus: The Annals (Loeb Classical Library)John Jackson, 1931–1937Latin text with facing English translation.
- Tacitus: The AnnalsA. J. Woodman, 2004Precise modern English translation with historical notes.