Neronian persecution of Christians

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Henryk Siemiradzki : The torches of Nero (1877). This is how a history painter of the 19th century imagined the Christians burned alive by Nero.

The Neronian persecution of Christians was one of the earliest persecutions of supporters of the then still young Christianity in the Roman Empire . It was ordered by Emperor Nero in 64 or 65 AD because, according to the Roman historian Tacitus , he shifted the suspicion that he had ordered the great fire of Rome to ignite in July 64 AD on the socially marginalized group of Christians wanted to. The apostles Paul and Peter are said to have been among the victims of persecution .

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Tacitus, Annales 15.44 (remarks on the Neronian persecution of Christians) in the manuscript Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana , Plut. 68.2, fol. 38r (2nd half of the 11th century)

The main source for the Neronian persecution of Christians is the report of Tacitus († around 120) in his annals , which, however, shows some uncertainties in the tradition. The Roman biographer Suetonius († after 122) also briefly mentions the event in his vita of Emperor Nero. Both writers followed traditional Roman cults and were very hostile to Christianity. So Tacitus speaks of this as "fateful superstition"; and Suetonius ranked his suppression among the most welcome deeds of Nero. Apart from Tacitus, the persecution is only rarely associated with the devastating fire in Rome, including Suetonius, who, however, arranged his Vita Nero more according to thematic than chronological aspects. The Roman senator and historian Cassius Dio († after 229) goes into detail about the fire of Rome in AD 64 in the extant excerpt of the 62nd book of his Roman history , but does not report anything about the violent measures taken against the Christians.

Most early Christian authors make no mention of the Neronian persecution. However, the statements in the first letter of Peter about the affliction of Christians refer to this . The first Epistle of Peter was probably written in the 1990s and not in the Neronian era. The im not the New Testament belonging first Epistle of Clement , which was probably written around 95 n. Chr., Mentioned Christian suffering should probably also hint at the Neronian persecution. The apocryphal Acts of Paul , written around 180 AD, report that numerous Christians were cremated on Nero's orders; The apostle Paul also suffered a martyr's death. Like other apocryphal Acts of the Apostles, they paint the persecution with unhistorical details. The church writer Tertullian explains in his Apologeticum , written in 197 , that Nero was the first to take massive action against the Christians of Rome. The church father Eusebius († around 340) reports in his church history of Nero's rage against the Christians, whereby the apostles Peter and Paul also perished. Eusebius, like the earlier Christian sources, does not establish any connection between the persecution and the great fire of Rome, which he does not mention in church history and dates in his chronicle to the year 64, while he only talks about the persecution of Christians during the year 68 reports.

Prehistory: The great fire of Rome

On the night of July 18-19, 64, a fire broke out in Rome at the booths at the southeast end of the Circus Maximus , which spread rapidly and raged for nine days. All in all, of the 14 districts into which Rome had been divided since Augustus , he completely destroyed three, badly affected seven and spared only four. It was one of the worst fire disasters in the history of the cosmopolitan city. Although Nero, who was in Antium at the time of the outbreak of the conflagration , rushed - albeit a little late - and initiated extensive relief measures to alleviate the plight of the numerous victims, the rumor quickly spread that the Princeps himself had given the order to set Rome on fire . Since the emperor was unable to get rid of this rumor by any auxiliary activities or ceremonies to appease the Roman gods, he tried, according to Tacitus, to shift the guilt of the arson on the Christians living in the city and thus divert popular anger onto them.

Possible motives for choosing Christians as alleged arsonists

The historian Jürgen Malitz assumes that Nero, through knowledgeable advisers, perhaps his Praetorian prefect Tigellinus , had the idea to blame the Christian community in Rome, which is regarded as a Jewish splinter group, for the fire in the cosmopolitan city. The details of the decision-making process are unknown. Likewise, one can only speculate about the reason why the Christians were chosen as the scapegoats. One possible explanation is that with the overwhelming majority of the urban Roman people, Nero could obviously assume that the numerically small fraction of Christians were very unpopular and that this minority was also considered capable of any outrage, so that the Christians appeared to be suitable victims on which the Suspicions of arson could be passed on. The fact that this suspicion was not directed towards the Jews of Rome is perhaps due to the fact that the latter enjoyed certain sympathy among parts of the imperial court and Nero did not want to mess with the Jews.

The reasons for the unpopularity of Christians may be to be found in the fact that they took little part in everyday life as the Romans and Greeks understood it, rejected the imperial cult , negated Roman norms and isolated themselves from society of other faiths. Perhaps this restraint and otherness is the core of the accusation reported by Tacitus of "hatred of the human race" (odium humani generis) , of which Christians were convicted rather than arson. Misanthropy was also imputed to the Jews . There were also deeply entrenched Roman fears of secret associations like that of 186 BC. Who had aligned the Bacchanalia . Little is known for certain about the demeanor and mentality of the early Christians in Rome. Thus, not all of its members are likely to have withdrawn to the same extent from the majority society of a different faith.

In the scientific discussion it was also considered that the Christian community of Rome, which in the years before the Neronian persecution had been under the influence of Paul and probably also of Peter, perhaps joyfully welcomed the fire of Rome and in anticipation of the approaching end of the world would have announced an early judgment over the "heathen world", but such an assumption cannot be proven. The rejection of the imperial cult and the - in contrast to the Jews - the tendency of Christians to proselytize the whole world, might make them appear potentially dangerous to the state.

Legal foundations of the persecution of Christians

The legal foundations that justified the persecution of Christians in the Neronian era are unclear due to the lack of direct evidence; for example, whether the relevant laws already existed or have just been introduced. Presumably the indictment related to the Lex Cornelia de sicariis et veneficis . This made intentional arson a punishable offense, in addition to other publicly dangerous offenses. Accusations of practicing an illegal religion are unlikely because then time-consuming individual trials would have been necessary, while according to the testimonies it appears that the Christians were tried in mass trials carried out quickly before the Praetorian Prefect Tigellinus. Perhaps it was also about the executive execution of the police jurisdiction by the tresviri capitales before the city ​​prefect , but more about the exercise of the delegated imperial law within the framework of extraordinary jurisdiction ( cognitio extra ordinem ). It is possible that the persecution was carried out on the basis of an imperial decree. In more recent research it is also considered plausible that Nero, in exercising his extraordinary administration of justice, conducted the proceedings because of the enormous public interest himself, together with his legal advisers ( consilium ), whose legal opinion he otherwise generally ignored, and the death sentences with the execution variants also expressed personally. Otherwise there is no evidence for the assertion to be found in Tertullian's case that an edict of Nero specifically justifying the persecution , the so-called Institutum Neronianum , was the only ordinance that was not revoked after the death of the ruler; For example, it is not known that a later Princeps would have invoked such an institute as the legal basis for persecution. Rather, the spectacular arson trials probably had the effect that a preliminary decision, in the form of a prejudice with regard to Christians, was manifested in the Roman legal system. In the following years, the open confession of Christianity was prosecuted as a crime.

According to Tacitus' report, some people were arrested first, "the well-known"; however, it remains unclear what they known. They probably professed Christianity, but not arson. However, the torture used will almost certainly have forced more than just an appropriate confession, which, in addition to the confession of Christianity and the naming of other sect members, also admitted personal involvement in an intentional arson. In response to the statements of those arrested, a "huge crowd" was seized, an expression that the Roman historian is probably exaggerating with. Apparently it could not be proven that they had caused the fire in Rome, but they had been convicted of hating the rest of humanity. Nevertheless, they were evidently not convicted of professing their beliefs, but as arsonists, because they were placed under general suspicion without further evidence on the basis of the previously extorted confessions. The offense they are charged with is also indicated by the type of death penalty used in part, which was intended to mirror the underlying crime : they were burned as living torches.

Course of the execution of Christians

Henryk Siemiradzki: A Christian dirke . Clement of Rome reports that Christian women were martyred tied to the horns of bulls.

According to Tacitus, Nero made his own park, located near today's St. Peter's Church, available for the gruesome spectacle when the execution of Christians was to be staged in front of the people. They were sewn into animal skins, torn by dogs or nailed to the cross, and when night came they were burned down as human torches (funeral pyre) - hence the nickname Sarmentitii for Christians. Christian women were allegedly punished as dirks and Danaids according to examples from Greek mythology , if the relevant information in the first letter of Clement relates to the Neronian persecution. The emperor combined a circus game with this execution scene, in which he mingled with the people dressed as a charioteer to observe the effect of his staging on the people, or drove in a racing car. Surprisingly, Tacitus then remarks that some of the Christians were also pitied for their fate. Although they deserved the heaviest punishments, they did not fall victim to the welfare of the people, but only to the barbarism of an individual.

Overall, the Neronian persecution of Christians, which according to the later scheme was the first of a total of ten, was limited to the city of Rome. According to the Martyrologium Hieronymianum of late antiquity , 977 or 979 Christians are said to have been executed. Recent research suggests a likely number of 200 Christians. It is uncertain whether Paul and Peter were also among the victims; the details of the martyrdoms of the two apostles in Rome are disputed. There is the theory that although Peter was a victim of the Neronian persecution of Christians, Paul was executed in 63, even before the great fire, on charges of revolt in Jerusalem in 58.

literature

Remarks

  1. ^ Tacitus, Annalen 15, 44.
  2. ^ Suetonius, Nero 16, 2.
  3. ^ First letter to Clement 5f.
  4. ↑ Marco Frenschkowski, RAC, Vol. 25, Col. 866.
  5. ^ Tertullian, Apologeticum 5, 3.
  6. ↑ Eusebius, Church History 2, 25.
  7. ↑ Main sources on the great fire of Rome: Tacitus, Annalen 15, 38-44; Suetonius, Nero 38; Cassius Dio, Roman History 62, 16-18; on this Julian Krüger, Nero , pp. 219–226; Jürgen Malitz, Nero , p. 70ff.
  8. ↑ Jürgen Malitz, Nero , p. 72.
  9. ^ So Jürgen Malitz, Nero , p. 74.
  10. ↑ Tacitus, Annalen 15, 44, 4.
  11. ↑ Jürgen Malitz, Nero , p. 72f .; Karl Christ , History of the Roman Empire , 3rd edition, Munich 1995, p. 233.
  12. ^ Tacitus, Histories 5, 5, 1.
  13. ↑ Julian Krüger, Nero , pp. 249f.
  14. ↑ Marco Frenschkowski, RAC, Vol. 25, Col. 865.
  15. ↑ Detlef Liebs: Before the judges of Rome, Nero persecutes the Christians, Die Strafen , p. 110.
  16. ^ Max Kaser : Roman legal history. § 29 Criminal jurisdiction and criminal law 2nd, revised edition. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1976, ISBN 3-525-18102-7 , pp. 121-128.
  17. ^ Julian Krüger, Nero , p. 252.
  18. ↑ Detlef Liebs: Court lawyers from the Roman emperors to Justinian , Bavarian Academy of Sciences, Philosophical-Historical Class, Munich 2010, CH Beck, Caligula, Claudius a. Nero p. 24.
  19. ↑ Detlef Liebs: Before the judges of Rome, Nero pursues the Christians, The proceedings , pp. 108-109.
  20. ^ Tertullian, Ad nationes 1, 7, 8f.
  21. ↑ Marco Frenschkowski, RAC, Vol. 25, Col. 866.
  22. ↑ Detlef Liebs: Before the judges of Rome, Nero pursues the Christians, effect , p. 112.
  23. ↑ Julian Krüger, Nero , p. 253.
  24. ↑ Detlef Liebs: Before the judges of Rome, Nero pursues the Christians, The accusation and the confessions , pp. 109–110.
  25. ↑ Detlef Liebs: Before the judges of Rome, Nero persecutes the Christians, The accusation and the confessions , p. 110.
  26. ^ So Jürgen Malitz, Nero , p. 74f. and Marco Frenschkowski, RAC, vol. 25, col. 867.
  27. ^ First Letter to Clement 6, 2.
  28. ↑ Tacitus, Annalen 15, 44, 5f.
  29. ↑ Hieronymus , Chronik zum Jahr 68 as well as De viris illustribus 9, 6; Orosius , Historiae adversus paganos 7, 7, 26f. and 7, 10, 5; Augustine , De civitate Dei 18, 52.
  30. ↑ Detlef Liebs: Before the judges of Rome, Nero pursues the Christians, Das Geschehen , p. 106.
  31. ^ Karl Christ: History of the Roman Empire , 3rd edition, Munich 1995, p. 589.
  32. ↑ Detlef Liebs: Before the judges of Rome, Nero pursues the Christians, The happening, the fate of Peter and Paul , pp. 106, 113.