Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus served Trajan and Hadrian as a secretary in charge of libraries and correspondence. His Lives of the Caesars, published around 120, gives lively biographies, rich in anecdote, of Julius Caesar and the first eleven emperors.
Two passages bear on early Christianity. In the Life of Nero he lists punishments inflicted on the Christians, ‘a class of men given to a new and mischievous superstition’. In the Life of Claudius he reports the expulsion of Jews from Rome over disturbances ‘at the instigation of Chrestus’, a reference still debated, which many historians connect with Christ.
Every mention
5 writings- AD 52The Gallio inscription (Delphi)Stones and Scrolls1×
- AD 120Suetonius, Life of Claudius 25: the expulsion over “Chrestus”Witnesses Outside the Church4×
- 2026Guide to the research and the world before JesusThe Dossier1×
- 2026The documentary record of Jesus and the movements that interpreted himThe Dossier3×
- 2026Sources and further readingThe Dossier2×