How did Nero kill the Christians?

Answer 1

A:Nero almost certainly killed some Christians. He blamed the Christians of Rome, probably unfairly, for starting the Great Fire of Rome. If he said they were At Fault for this disaster, the Romans would have expected him to inflict severe punishment for their wrongdoing. The later traditions that he did so in a particularly abhorrent manner for the times are unlikely to be true.

Also in spite of later Christian traditions, there is no evidence that he otherwise took any heed of the Christians or persecuted them systematically. Some scholars point out that Christian writings from the decades immediately following Nero's reign never mention any persecution carried out by Nero.

Nero is also credited by Christian tradition with having both Peter and Paul executed in Rome. However, this tradition appears to have originated with the second-century Pope Anicetus, who wished to demonstrate that he spoke with the authority of the greatest apostles, especially Peter. When we look at 1 Clement, written around 95 CE, we see that Clement of Rome knew nothing of the deaths of either Pater or Paul, although the deaths in Rome of such important Christians would certainly have been known to him.

Answer 2

It seems that Nero blamed the Christians of Rome for starting the Great Fire. Although he did not start the fire, and it seems that his actions during the emergency were exemplary, he could not avoid rumours that he was involved, or at least that the gods sent the fire to punish him. Tacitus (Annals 15.44), writing almost a hundred years after the event, says: To quash the rumour, therefore, Nero substituted other culprits, those commonly known as Christians, who were hated for their disgraceful activities - and he inflicted excruciating punishments on them. Christus, the originator of this name [of Christians], had been executed by the procurator Pontius Pilate during the reign of Tiberius. This deadly superstition, though repressed for a while, was breaking out again, not only in Judaea where the evil originated, but even in the city [Rome], where all atrocious or shameful things flow in from all sides and flourish. So, at first, those who acknowledged it were arrested, and then by their evidence a great multitude were convicted, not so much for the crime of arson as for their hatred of the human race.

All we have from this is a statement that excruciating punishments were inflicted on the Christians, although this would not necessarily involve execution. Suetonius lends some support to Tacitus, "Punishment was meted out to the Christians, a class of men professing a new and wicked superstition."

On the other hand, the French scholar G. Walter discusses the possibility that part of the Tacitus reference is a later 'pious interpolation' by Christian apologists. Warnington (Nero Reality and Legend) says, "No other writer, Christian or pagan, in the following centuries refers to Nero using the Christians as scapegoats, although Christian tradition knew of Nero as a persecutor ..." Richard Holland (Nero: The Man Behind the Myth) says, "The Neronian persecution of Christians was an isolated phenomenon, not repeated elsewhere in the Empire at that time."

Thus we have a disputed statement that Nero persecuted the Christians of Rome, but no reliable information as to what form that persecution took. We do not know how the Christians were killed.