Nero vs. Christians
Was Nero correct in assuming that the Christians of the day caused the great fire of Rome?
Actually, there is not contemporary evidence that Nero blamed the christians or even persecuted the christians. Now it has been said over and over so it must be true right? Not so. Evidence for this happening is a christian writer in 4th century CE named Aeneas Tacticus. Tacticus was citing legend and common believe nearly three hundred years after it happened. No where in any writing either roman, jewish, or christian mentions it before tacticus does. So the probability is that Nero did not blame the christians and most likely didn't persecute them either. In fact, by any standards, Nero probably didn't even know they existed at that point in history.