Cicero’s Prosecution of Murder By Crucifixion

Posted on by K.B. Vogelman

Crucifixion is as closely associated with the image of Jesus of Nazareth as any other save perhaps the Nativity manger scene. Still, some dispute Rome’s execution of Jesus by nailing him to a cross.^[1]

All four Gospels record that Jesus of Nazareth was scourged, nailed to a cross and killed by crucifixion. Golgatha was the location just outside and overlooking the city of Jerusalem where passersby could see and mock him.

Aside from this, the Gospels describe in limited detail the gory specifics of a crucifixion for one very simple reason – it was not necessary.

“Tacitus (“Annales,” 54, 59) reports therefore without comment the fact that Jesus was crucified. For Romans no amplification was necessary.” – Jewish Encyclopedia

Just about everyone living in the Roman Empire knew about crucifixion – and most likely from firsthand experience.^[2] Shouting out “crucify him!” the Jewish crowd at Pilate’s judgement of Jesus certainly knew about it.

Not even Roman historians Josephus, Tacitus or Suetonius found it necessary to explain crucifixion.^[3] But, there are a few exceptions…

Cicero, commonly regarded as the greatest orator in Roman history, was a Senator and Consul who lived about 100 years before Pontius Pilate was Procurator of Judea.^[4] A lesser known fact is that Cicero was a prosecutor, a Roman lawyer.

Secondary Orations Against Verres is a work of Cicero who wrote about his prosecution of Verres charged with premeditated murder by crucifixion of a noble Roman citizen, Publius Gavius.^[5] Motive of the murder – punishment for the public crusade by Gavius for freedom and citizenship.

Directed squarely at Verres, the prosecutorial words of Cicero describes in detail to the trial court the crucifixion process Verres used to kill Gavius:^[6]

“…according to their regular custom and usage, they had erected the cross behind the city in the Pompeian road…you chose that place in order that the man who said that he was a Roman citizen, might be able from his cross to behold Italy and to look towards his own home?… for the express purpose that the wretched man who was dying in agony and torture might see that the rights of liberty and of slavery were only separated by a very narrow strait, and that Italy might behold her son murdered by the most miserable and most painful punishment appropriate to slaves alone.

It is a crime to bind a Roman citizen; to scourge him is a wickedness; to put him to death is almost parricide. What shall I say of crucifying him? So guilty an action cannot by any possibility be adequately expressed by any name bad enough for it…that you exposed to that torture and nailed on that cross…He chose that monument of his wickedness and audacity to be in the sight of Italy, in the very vestibule of Sicily, within sight of all passersby as they sailed to and fro.”

“…it was the common cause of freedom and citizenship that you exposed to that torture and nailed on that cross.^“^[7]

Scourging whips and a cross were the murder weapons – death by crucifixion. Cicero’s prosecution case described how humiliation, psychological and mental anguish were part of the excruciating, long lasting torment and death of the scourged victim being nailed to the cross.

As a manner of execution, crucifixion was reserved only for slaves at that time in Roman history. Verres was allowed to self-exile to Massalia in southern France, then sentenced in abstentia to an undisclosed fine.

Seneca the Younger was born in Spain about a century later, virtually the same year as Jesus of Nazareth, and educated in Rome. He became a stoic philosopher, statesman and dramatist gaining acclaim as a writer of tragedies and essays.^[8]

“Dialogue” is another name for a letter written by Seneca for which he is known to have written several. Seneca had a penchant for including horror scenes in his tragedies.

Using a metaphor of crucifixion, he included it in a Dialogue written to his embittered friend, Marcia. She had been grieving three years over her son’s death.

Obviously familiar with the gruesome realities of crucifixion, the letter suggests he expected Marcia to be familiar it, too. Describing the mental anguish of people of virtue striving to overcome their own self-imposed tribulations, he wrote:

“Though they strive to release themselves from their crosses those crosses to which each one of you nails himself with his own hand – yet they, when brought to punishment, hang each upon a single gibbets [sic]; but these others who bring upon themselves their own punishment are stretched upon as many crosses as they had desires….”^[9]

Generally, a “gibbet” is believed to be a gallows-like structure or an upright pole typically used to hang executed victims’ bodies by chains or ropes for public display as a method of scorn. By comparison, crucifixion involved living victims who were “stretched” out and nailed to crosses.^[10]

Jewish historian Josephus personally witnessed crucifixions commonly used by Rome to punish such crimes as robbery and insurrection. Eventually crucifixions, he wrote, devolved to the point they became Roman sport.^[11]

Josephus made nine references to Roman crucifixions. In one, he wrote of crucifixions by Procurator Florus and in another from his own Roman eyewitness perspective during the siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD:^[12]

“…they also caught many of the quiet people, and brought them before Florus, whom he first chastised with stripes, and then crucified…for Florus ventured then to do what no one had done before, that is, to have men of the equestrian order whipped and nailed to the cross before his tribunal…”^[13]

“So the soldiers, out of the wrath and hatred they bore the Jews, nailed those they caught, one after one way, and another after another, to the crosses, by way of jest, when their multitude was so great, that room was wanting for the crosses, and crosses wanting for the bodies.”^[14]

Common knowledge, the Roman Empire had victims nailed to the cross as an extreme, tortuously slow physical and psychological means to kill them. Cicero’s description of a crucifixion is a very similar to crucifixion accounts in the Gospels and consistent with medical science findings.

Are the Gospels credible in saying that Roman crucifixion by being nailed to a cross was the means used to kill Jesus?

Updated May 5, 2024.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

REFERENCES

[1] “Jesus did not die on cross, says scholar.” The Telegraph. n.d. <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/7849852/Jesus-did-not-die-on-cross-says-scholar.html rel=”nofollow” rel=”nofollow”> Warren, Meredith J.C. “Was Jesus Really Nailed to the Cross?” The Conversation. 2016. <https://theconversation.com/was-jesus-really-nailed-to-the-cross-56321 rel=”nofollow”>   Perales, Ginger. “Was Jesus Nailed or Tied to the Cross?” 2016. <http://www.newhistorian.com/jesus-nailed-tied-cross/6161 rel=”nofollow”>
[2] Josephus, Flavius. Wars of the Jews. Book IV, Chapter V. <http://books.google.com/books?id=e0dAAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false>
[3] Tacitus, Gaius Cornelius. The Annals. Ed. Church, Alfred John and Brodribb, William Jackson. <http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0078> Perseus Digital Library. Ed. Crane, Gregory R. Tufts University. n.d. Word search “crucified” <http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/searchresults?page=4&q=crucified> Suetonious. The Lives of the Twelve Caesars. “The Life of Augustus.” #57, Footnote “e.” <https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Augustus*.html#ref:no_crucifixions_when_Augustus_entered_a_city>
[4] Linder, Douglas O. Imperium Romanun. “The Trial of Gaius (or Caius) Verres.” 2008. <http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/Verres/verresaccount.html> Bunson, Matthew. Encyclopedia of the Roman Empire. “Cicero; Cicero, Marcus Tillius.” <https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780816045624>
[5] Cicero, Marcus Tullius. “The Fifth Book of the Second Pleading in the Prosecution against Verres.” Ed. Crane, Gregory R. <http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0018%3Atext%3DVer.%3Aactio%3D2%3Abook%3D5>
[6] Greenough, James. B.; Kittredge, George; eds.   Select Orations and Letters of Cicero. 1902. Introduction I. Life of Cicero. VII. “From the Murder of Caesar to the Death of Cicero.” <http://books.google.com/books?id=ANoNAAAAYAAJ&pg=PR1#v=onepage&q&f=false>   Quintilian, Marcus Fabius. Quintilian’s Institutes of Oratory. 1856. Book 8, Chapter 4. Rhetoric and Composition. 2011. <http://rhetoric.eserver.org/quintilian/index.html> “Crucifixion.” JewishEncyclopedia.com < http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/4782-crucifixion > “Trial of Gaius Verres – governor of Sicily.” Imperium Romanun. 2021. <https://imperiumromanum.pl/en/article/trial-of-gaius-verres-governor-of-sicily/> Linder. “The Trial of Gaius (or Caius) Verres.” Sack, Harald. SciHi Blog. “Marcus Tullius Cicero – Truly a Homo Novus.” image. 2020. <https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fscihi.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2014%2F12%2FCicero-619×1024.png&tbnid=7Et1cliwXqmeIM&vet=10CAQQxiAoAmoXChMIwI731KCFgwMVAAAAAB0AAAAAEA0..i&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fscihi.org%2Fmarcus-tullius-cicero-homo-novus%2F&docid=iBCg84NfCo2gMM&w=619&h=1024&itg=1&q=images%20of%20Cicero&client=firefox-b-1-d&ved=0CAQQxiAoAmoXChMIwI731KCFgwMVAAAAAB0AAAAAEA0>
[7] Cicero. “The Fifth Book of the Second Pleading in the Prosecution against Verres.”
[8] “Seneca.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Ed. Zalta, Edward N. 2015. <https://plato.stanford.edu> Mastin, Luke. “Ancient Rome – Seneca the Younger.” 2009. Classical Literature. <http://www.ancient-literature.com/rome_seneca.html>
[9] Seneca, Lucius Annaeus. “De Consolatione Ad Marciam+.” “To Marcia on Consolation.” Moral Essays. Trans. John W. Basore. 1928-1935.   “Seneca’s Essays Volume II.” Book VI. Pages xx 1-3. The Stoic Legacy to the Renaissance. 2004. <http://www.stoics.com/seneca_essays_book_2.html#%E2%80%98MARCIAM1>   Seneca, Lucius Annaeus. “De Vita Beata+.” “To Gallio On The Happy Life.” Moral Essays. Trans. John W. Basore. 1928-1935. “Seneca’s Essays Volume II.” Book VII. The Stoic Legacy to the Renaissance. 2004. <http://www.stoics.com/seneca_essays_book_2.html#%E2%80%98BEATA1>
[10] “gibbet.” The Free Dictionary by Farlex. 2022. <https://www.thefreedictionary.com/gibbet>“gibbet.” Merriam-Webster.com. 2022. <https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gibbet>
[11] “Crucifixion.” JewishEncyclopedia.com. Ciantar, Joe Zammit. Times Malta. “Recollections on Crucifixion – Part one.” image. 2022. <https://timesofmalta.com/articles/view/recollections-on-crucifixion-part-one.861097> Champlain, Edward. Nero. Harvard University Press. 2009. <https://books.google.com/books?id=30Wa-l9B5IoC&lpg=PA122&ots=nw4edgV_xw&dq=crucifixion%2C%20tacitus&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false>
[12] “FLORUS, GESSIUS (or, incorrectly, Cestius).” JewishEncyclopedia.com. <http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/6200-florus-gessius>
[13] Josephus, Flavius. Wars of the Jews. Book II, Chapter XIV. <http://books.google.com/books?id=e0dAAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false>
[14] Josephus. Wars. Book V, Chapter XI.

Jews, Muslims & Atheists Have One Thing In Common

Posted on by K.B. Vogelman

Jews, Muslims & Atheists Have One Thing In Common

What if two of the world’s major religions and at least some atheists, all strong adversaries of Christianity, all agreed on a common fact about Jesus of Nazareth? One fact is common to Christianity, Judaism, Islam and at least some atheists – the historical existence of Jesus of Nazareth.

Agreement by avowed antagonists towards Christianity can provide a completely different validation perspective. If any adversary could prove that Jesus never existed, rest assured they would certainly do it. When opposing forces agree on a fact, it becomes the strongest form of evidence.

Writing of the Quran was completed in 632 AD and became the scriptural foundation for Muslims over the 1500 years since. It may come as a surprise to many that the Quran recognizes Jesus as a historical figure. The Quran makes reference to him in 28 separate verses including 22 that reference “Jesus, Son of Mary,” such as this verse: ^[1]

“Behold! the angels said: “O Mary! Allah giveth thee glad tidings of a Word from Him: his name will be Christ Jesus, the son of Mary, held in honour in this world and the Hereafter and of (the company of) those nearest to Allah.”^[2]

To be clear, the Quran does not say that Jesus is the Son of God, only that he is the “son of Mary.” However, the Quran does teach that Jesus was a prophet mentioned in the same company with Noah, Abraham, Ismael, Isaac, Jacob and Moses.^[3] To be born of Mary and to be named with the greatest prophets, Jesus had to have lived just as did these other great religious figures.

Connections between Judaism and Jesus or Yeshua are like a U-shaped magnet – inseparable yet with polar opposites that forever repel each other. The existence of Jesus of Nazareth, who was himself a Jew, cannot be denied by Judaism where he is treated as a very real person in its Scriptural and historical reference materials.

The Jewish Encyclopedia published in 1912, republished online as JewishisEncyclopedia.com, makes many references to the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. Its article, “Jesus of Nazareth,” not only does it acknowledge the existence of Jesus, The Jewish Encyclopedia goes further – it sets the date of his birth at “around 2 BC” and his death in the year “3789 (March or April, 29 AD).”^[4] Specifically commenting about the accuracy of the Gospel of Luke about Jesus’ existence:

“The whole picture of John the Baptist and of Jesus as bearers of good tidings to the poor has the stamp of greater truthfulness.”^[5]

In its biography of “Jesus of Nazareth,”The Jewish Virtual Library estimates the date for the death of Jesus by crucifixion between 27 and 36 AD.^[6] Encyclopedia Judaica states matter-of-factly that the four New Testament Gospels themselves are reliable, historical records of an actual historical Jesus:^[7]

“The Gospels are records about the life of Jesus. John’s Gospel is more a treatise reflecting the theology of its author than a biography of Jesus, but Matthew, Mark, and Luke present a reasonably faithful picture of Jesus as a Jew of his time… The Jesus portrayed in these three Gospels is, therefore, the historical Jesus.” – Encyclopedia Judaica

Throw into the mix another group that is antagonistic towards all religions – atheists. Self-described atheist blogger, Tim O’Neill, specializes in historical reviews and atheism. With a Master of Arts degree in Medieval Literature from the University of Tasmania, he is a member of both the Australian Atheist Foundation and the Australian Skeptics.

In his 2-part webpage article “An Atheist Examines the Evidence for Jesus,” O’Neill decimates the theories of a mythic origin of Jesus. For example, O’Neill says that a false idea of a mythical crucified Messiah creates so many problems needed to support the myth, the idea becomes so unrealistic that it could only mean the Bible account is true:^[8]

“It’s hard to see why anyone would invent the idea of a crucified Messiah and create these problems. And given that there was no precedent for a crucified Messiah, it’s almost impossible to see this idea evolving out of earlier Jewish traditions. The most logical explanation is that it’s in the story, despite its vast awkwardness, because it happened.”

Islam, Judaism and at least some atheists have one thing in common with Christianity – they affirm that Jesus of Nazareth was a true historical figure. At the center of the open debate, the question percolates instead on who exactly was Jesus of Nazareth…just a trouble-making Jewish preacher; or a prophet of God; or actually the Son of God? The starting point is accepting that Jesus did, in fact, walk this Earth – did he?

Updated June 28, 2023.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

REFERENCES:

[1] Quran. Trans. Abdullah Yusuf Ali. n.d. <http://search-the-quran.com> “The Descriptive Titles of Jesus in the Quran (part 1 of 2): “The Messiah” and “a Miracle.”’ IslamReligion.com. 2014. <http://www.islamreligion.com/articles/230> Basic Facts. Best of Amsterdam. image. 2015. <https://www.bestofamsterdam.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Basic-Facts.jpg>
[2] Quran. Ale-‘Imran 3:45-51. Trans. Abdullah Yusuf Ali.
[3] Al-Ahzab: 33:7. Al-Baqara 2:136. An-Nisa 4:163, 171. Aal-e-Imran 3:84. Al-Maeda 5:75.
[4] “The New Testament.” Jewish Encyclopedia. 2011. <http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com>
[5] “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jewish Encyclopedia. 2011. “Flavius Josephus.” Encyclopædia Britannica. 2014.
[6] “Crucifixion.” Jewish Virtual Library. 2014. American-Israel Cooperative Enterprise. <https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org>
[7] “Jesus.” Encyclopaedia Judaica. p 246.
[8] O’Neill, Tim. “An Atheist Historian Examines the Evidence for Jesus (Part 2 of 2). StrangeNotions.com. <http://www.strangenotions.com/an-atheist-historian-examines-the-evidence-for-jesus-part-2-of-2>

Roman Elites Who Acknowledged Reality of Christ

Posted on by K.B. Vogelman

Roman Elites Who Acknowledged Reality of Christ

Three Roman society elites – a Roman Senator and Consul; an imperial archive custodian turned Roman historian; a famous comedian – all have one thing in common. Each ridiculed the crucified Jewish Christ and in doing so confirmed his historical existence.

A prominent Roman political figure, Gaius Cornelius Tacitus (56-120 AD), served as a Roman Senator, a Consul, and a provincial governor.^[1] Highly esteemed in Roman society was his position as a Senator; moreover, he was voted as a Consul, a dual leader of the Roman Senate.^[2]

As a Consul, he was eligible and believed to have served as a provincial governor though he gained more fame for his historical work, Annales. In it, he inadvertently made a defense of Christians.

Tacitus called out Nero for falsely blaming the Christians for burning Rome as a means to cover up his own duplicity. Though far from a sympathetic manner, Tacitus was obligated to explain the identity of the Christians:

“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, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular.”^[3]

Christus is Latin for Christ as well as the Greek word Christos, both meaning “Messiah.”^[4] Some skeptics suggest that since the name of Jesus was not actually mentioned, there is no proof Christus refers to Jesus.^[5]

Skeptic’s claim of omission presents a dilemma that can be answered with simple logic. What are the chances this Christus could be anyone else in Judea called the Messiah who suffered the extreme penalty at the hands of Procurator “Pontius Pilatus” spawning a new belief by Christians?

Suetonius (circa 71-135 AD), another Roman historian, was a close friend with Roman Consul Pliny the Younger, who was also a lawyer and author. Pliny considered Suetonius as a scholar of the highest integrity.

Friendship with Pliny the Younger opened the door to Suetonius for extraordinary opportunities. Suetonius had full access to all of Rome’s libraries; was custodian of the archives of imperial letters written by previous Emperors; and had the responsibility for all imperial correspondence for Emperor Hadrian.^[6]

Known for his historical work, The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, written less than 100 years after the crucifixion, it covered he reigns of the first twelve Roman Emperors from Julius Caesar to Domitian. Attention is drawn to a quote from The Life of Claudius placing blame on “Chrestus” as the source of the Jews causing trouble in Rome:

“Since the Jews constantly made disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus, he expelled them from Rome.”^[7]

New Testament Book of Acts 18:2 corroborates the statement in The Life of Claudius. The reference says, “… Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome.”^[8]

Critics again do not dispute the slightly different spelling of “Christus.” Instead, the same argument used against the comment by Tacitus saying that since “Jesus” is not mentioned specifically by name, there is no proof that Chrestus is a historical reference to Jesus of Nazareth.

Suetonius made a similar reference to The Life of Claudius when he wrote The Life of Nero. In it, he defined Christians as a class of men motivated by their new Christian teachings deemed to be a “mischievous superstition,” the same words used by Tacitus to describe Christian beliefs.

“Punishment was inflicted on the Christians, a class of men given to a new and mischievous superstition.”^[9]

New Christian beliefs were indeed causing problems for Roman rulers. Among them, the Sanhedrin had filed formal charges with Roman Procurator Festus against the Apostle Paul whereupon Paul was discovered to be a Roman citizen who appealed to Caesar and was then imprisonment in Rome.

Another incident dragged in Rome when an illegal execution was reported to Roman Procurator Albinus. According to Josephus, the provocative stoning deaths of Jesus’ brother James and his companions were ordered by the Sanhedrin Chief Priest.

On a much lighter note, newsworthy personalities of today – gladly or not – know they are in the national discourse when they become the subject of a Saturday Night Live satirical skit. The humor of SNL is based on satire of real high-profile current events with the assumption that their public TV audience is aware of the subject matter.

Lucian, a Greek satirist (circa 115-200 AD), who authored more than 70 works, is considered to be among the greatest of Roman era satirists. As a celebrity, he toured and presented his shows throughout the regions of Greece, Italy and Gaul (France and surrounding areas).^[10]

Among Lucian’s works is The Death of Peregrine, a satire about the factual events of a man, Peregrinus Proteus, who cremated himself at the Greek Olympics in 165 AD. Peregrine, at one point in the satire, encountered some Christians of Palestine:

“It was now that he came across the priests and scribes of the 11 Christians, in Palestine, and picked up their queer creed…. The Christians, you know, worship a man to this day, — the distinguished personage who introduced their novel rites, and was crucified on that account.”

“You see, these misguided creatures start with the general conviction that they are immortal for all time, which explains the contempt of death and voluntary self-devotion which are so common among them; and then it was impressed on them by their original lawgiver that they are all brothers, from the moment that they are converted, and deny the gods of Greece, and worship the crucified sage, and live after his laws.”^[11]

Lucian’s satire literally played off the actual Gospel’s message little more than a century after the crucifixion of Jesus. At the risk of his reputation as a famous satirist, he assumed his audiences in the late 100s were aware of the fact that Jesus lived; was a Jewish lawgiver who taught the gift of eternal life; and was crucified for his new teachings.

Strength of the evidence from these three sources of antiquity that Jesus is a real historical figure comes in part from their close proximity in history to Judea governed by Procurator Pilate. None of them had favorable views of the teachings of the founder of Christianity – Tacitus and Suetonius viewed it as a “mischievous superstition” and Lucian made fun of its “queer creed.”

Are the historical references by Tacitus, Suetonius and Lucian to the historic existence of Jesus of Nazareth fact or baseless?

Updated October 18, 2023.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

REFERENCES:

[1] “Tacitus.” Encyclopædia Britannica. 2014. “Gaius Cornelius Tacitus.” UNRV History |The Roman Empire. <http://www.unrv.com/bio/tacitus.php> “Tacitus.” Livius.org. Ed. Jona Lendering. 2019. <https://www.livius.org/sources/content/tacitus> “Tacitus.” Encyclopædia Britannica. 2023.<https://www.britannica.com/biography/Tacitus-Roman-historian>
[2] Livius.org. Ed. Jona Lendering. 2019. <http://www.livius.org/cn-cs/consul/consul.html> Roman Consuls.” UNRV History |The Roman Empire. <http://www.unrv.com/government/consuls.php>
[3] Tacitus, Gaius Cornelius. The Annals. 109 AD. Trans. Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb. Internet Classic Archive. 2009. Book XV. <http://classics.mit.edu/Tacitus/annals.html>
[4] “Christus.” Latin Dictionary. 2008. Latin-Dictionary.org. <http://www.latin-dictionary.net> Strong, James, LL.D., S.T.D. “christos <5547>” (Greek). Lexicon-Concordance Online Bible. <http://lexiconcordance.com>
[5] Murdock, D.M. aka S., Acharya. “Pliny, Tacitus and Suetonius: No Proof of Jesus.” Truth Be Known. 2017. <http://www.truthbeknown.com/suetoniuschresto.htmlrel=”nofollow”>
[6] “Suetonius.” Livius.org. Ed. Jona Lendering. 2019. <http://www.livius.org/su-sz/suetonius/suetonius.html> “Pliny the Younger.” TheFamousPeople. n.d. <https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/pliny-the-younger-6380.php>
[7] Suetonius (C. Suetonius Tranquillus or C. Tranquillus Suetonius). The Lives of the Twelve Caesars. Book VI “Nero.” #16. University of Chicago|Bill Thayer. <http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/home.html>
[8] New American Standard Bible translation
[9] Suetonius.The Lives of the Twelve Caesars. Book V “Claudius.”
[10] Pearse, Roger, ed. “Lucian of Samosata : Introduction and Manuscripts.” The Tertullian Project. <http://www.tertullian.org/rpearse/lucian/lucian_intro.htm> “Lucian” and “Peregrinus Proteus.” Encyclopædia Britannica. 2017.<https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lucian>. “The Lucian of Samosata Project.” LucianOfSamosata.info. <http://lucianofsamosata.info/#sthash.lMVtk483.dpbs>
[11] Lucian of Samosata. “The Death of Peregrine.” The Works of Lucian of Samosata. Volume IV. Internet Sacred Text Archive. <http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/luc/wl4/wAXl420.htm>