How Jews (and not Christians) Started the Great Fire of Rome

Post Reply
Jim Pennington

How Jews (and not Christians) Started the Great Fire of Rome

Post by Jim Pennington » Fri Jan 09, 2015 12:37 am


Karl Radl


I have previously written, albeit tangentially, about the fact that the evidence indicates that the famous Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD was started by jews and not Christians. (1) In this article I would like to revist that thesis: both in order to update my original article and also to illustrate the simple point that allowing for the possibility that jews can do bad things enables one to (potentially) solve a great many otherwise incomprehensible historical riddles.

Now most people have heard of the Great Fire of Rome of 64 AD and if they have not: then they will certainly have heard of the famous phrase 'Fiddling while Rome burns', which derives from Suetonius' allegation about how the Emperor Nero behaved during the fire.

In effect the Great Fire of Rome of 64 AD destroyed most of the old city of Rome as well as most of the public buildings (including all the major temples). (2) According to Tacitus: the fire began in the Circus and broke out among shops selling inflammable goods with the net result that the Emperor Nero lost a palace and Rome its places of worship. (3)

Things start to get fishy when we note that the principle jewish quarter in Rome was completely untouched by the huge conflagration, (4) which is somewhat miraculous considering that fire is completely indiscriminate and doesn't deliberately avoid parts of a city.

However it was Christians that were persecuted and used as human torches by the (evidently rather peeved) Emperor Nero I hear you cry.

Well there you are treading onto one of the longest running, and also one of the bitterest, debates in classical scholarship, because the earliest manuscripts of both Tacitus and Suetonius both label the malefactors who Nero used as living torches as 'Chrestians' not 'Christians'. (5)

Recent research on the all important Greek character in early Christian documents by Lincoln Blummel suggests, in my view, that what occurred was that early Christians adopted the 'Chrestians' as being 'Christians' (and began spelling Christianity as 'Chrestianity' in some cases) (6) in order to prove they were far more numerous and important in Rome than they, in fact, were at the time.

This seems all the more likely when we consider, as Freeman observes, (7) that 62-70 AD were the formative years of Christianity's self-identity and we also recognize the minuscule number of members that early Christianity had (since, as Hopkins points out, even by 100 AD Christianity counted significantly fewer than 10,000 believers in the Roman Empire and as late as 200 AD only accounted for 0.3 percent of the Roman population): (8) it suggests that Christians are rather unlikely and implausible candidates for a mass persecution by the Emperor Nero.

While Goodman, who is himself jewish, asserts that it was Christians who were persecuted by Nero: (9) he also admits that his reason for doing so is because he views Christians at the time as being blamable for such an act. (10)

This is presumably based on the fact, as Hopkins informs us, that the weak (almost wishy-washy) nature of much of Christianity today is absolutely nothing like the first/second century version: the latter were out and out zealots concerned with ruthlessly propagating the word of God unto non-Christians and combating what they viewed as evil where-ever they found it. (11)

I would argue, as I stated above, that Goodman here is guilty of reading of the evidence in a preconceived way (based on the common assumption it was Christians): as we have little actual evidence those that Nero persecuted and so viscerally executed were Christians other than the unfortunate conflation of 'Chrestian' with 'Christian' by later writers.

After all: with few adherents in the world is it likely, in all honesty, that Nero would go after a tiny little sect as being scapegoats of the most destructive fire in Rome's long history?

I don't think so.

I think a far more plausible culprit can be uncovered, which fits the known facts far better than the image of a delusional Nero scapegoating a tiny cult's members in Rome for no apparent reason.

To locate this culprit we need to understand that what is truly interesting about the use of 'Chrestians' rather than 'Christians' is that we meet 'Chrestus' earlier in Roman history. A certain 'Chrestus' is mentioned by Suetonius in relation to the reign of the Emperor Claudius as having lead the jews of Rome in causing public disturbances against the Roman authorities. (12)

As Gruen relates the 'Chrestus' mentioned by Suetonius cannot but have been jewish rabble-rouser leading jewish rioters (probably against their pagan neighbours [as occurred frequently in other cities like Alexandria and Cyrene]) with nothing what-so-ever to do with Christianity. (13)

The reference by Suetonius to 'Chrestians' as being a 'new subversive religious sect' should, in my view, not be read as a reference to Christianity. Holding that it should be read as such is to assume that Christianity was the only new religious sect that the Romans could have viewed as subversive and as such is patently absurd considering that, for example, the worship of Isis was expunged with fire and sword every few decades or so in Roman history for being subversive (for example see Suetonius' 'Tiberius').

It also rather importantly ignores the well-documented sectarian nature of Judaism at the time just before the First Jewish Revolt: (14) it is worth noting that jews also had a strong culture of martyrdom for the sake of Judaism at the time (which in Rabbinic Judaism is referred to as 'Kiddush Hashem' ['Sanctifying the Name']). (15)

One example of such fanaticism can be found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, which, they are off Essene origin, demonstrate the fervent hatred of non-jews of that popular jewish cult (16) and if the library of the Second Temple (which is the alternative argument) (17) then it suggests that this despicable hatred was an accepted part of the official belief system of Second Temple Judaism.

Evidence of such religious fanaticism among the jews adds fuel to the fire of suspicion when we factor in the information that 'Chrestus' of several years earlier was without a question a jewish rabble-rouser in Rome who led the jews against the Roman citizenry.

In addition to the fact, as previously mentioned, that the principle target of the Great Fire (if one there was one) was the very district where the major (and most important) temples to the gods (and Emperor) were located and that the primary jewish quarter was untouched by the flames (i.e. the district of idolatry and the worship of evil spirits to observant jews).

That is pretty suggestive circumstantial evidence, but there is more.

Nero's second wife, Poppaea, is known to have been extremely partial to jews and Judaism (as was her mother). Indeed Poppaea interceded with Nero on behalf of several jews (including, most famously, Josephus) and was instrumental in introducing her imperial husband to a jewish actor, Alityrus, who became one of his favourites. (18)

Poppaea was Nero's wife at the time of the Great Fire of Rome and while he famously kicked her to death the year after the fire: it is her we have to look to in my view to find the true culprits.

The important thing to understand about Nero however is that contrary to the popular impression of him as a strong, if extremely egoistical ruler, Nero was nothing of the kind. He was in fact extremely gullible and incompetent as, for example, he was easily fooled by a con-artist into believing a forged history (presented on pristine wooden tablets) of the Trojan war was in fact 1,500 years old! (19)

He also refused to remove jewish special privileges in cities such as Antioch and Alexandria in spite of numerous proven violations by the jews of the charter on which these privileges were based. (20)

Why would Nero not remove these jewish privileges considering the violations and the palpable anger of the non-jewish inhabitants of these cities?

The answer is probably Poppaea's influence over her gullible, but all-powerful, husband.

Indeed there is even a rabbinic tradition that finds an echo in the Talmud that Nero actually converted to Judaism. (21)

Now while Nero formally converting to Judaism is rather unlikely: it is infinitely possible that Emperor was either interested in, or sympathetic to, Judaism as his wife and mother-in-law were both, what we call, 'God-Fearers'.

'God-Fearers' were Second Temple Judaism's equivalent to the Noahides in Judaism today: in other words they were non-jews who (because they were born such) could not fully convert to Judaism and who in lieu of full conversion pledged themselves body and soul to carrying out the instructions of the jewish priests without question or protest.

It takes relatively little imagination to see a jewish mystery cult based on the teachings of Chrestus of Claudius' reign (and remember we have several early Roman accounts of jews attempting to form such a cult) (22) taking holding of Nero's mind through Poppaea.

Perhaps the most damning suggestion is that of Seneca the Younger, Nero's long-time tutor and adviser, specifically blamed the jews for having started the fire. (23) The thing with Seneca is that he wrote this a year after the fire (65 AD in 'On Superstition') which is the same year that Nero famously kicked Poppaea to death: so he was in a prime position to know the truth of the matter.

Nero's manner of killing Poppaea has always struck me as odd precisely because as Emperor he had innumerable ways to be rid of those who he disagreed with (even his relatives) and he exercised this with his attempts to kill his mother: Agrippina the Younger.

Kicking your wife to death is suggestive of personal betrayal (as it is a very personal way to kill someone you love) and it seems to be suggestive that Poppaea's death occurred the year after the fire when she was closely-aligned to the jews of Rome and Nero's long-time tutor and adviser explicitly stated that the jews were the ones responsible in that same year (while the jews then revolted against Rome in Judea the next year: 66 AD).

Such an explanation is also suggested by the fact that Nero's ferocious reprisals against the Chrestians were without precedent in Roman law, (24) but yet it was only the Roman elite (who would have been the primary target of the conversion attempts of a jewish mystery cult) who protested against this vengeance. (25) The Roman populace by contrast applauded and warmly supported this move by Nero (26) to deal with a part of the population who had they apparently long considered odious.

More evidence that the jews were responsible for the Great Fire is also found in Nero's orders to Vespasian to show absolutely no mercy to the jews, which resulted in Vespasian copying Nero's innovative new punishment for rebellious jews during his campaign in Judea and making a bonfire of jewish fanatics. (27)

All this evidence informs us that it wasn't Christians who set started the Great Fire of Rome, but rather it was the responsibility of a group of religious jews whose influential friends and supporters were decimated by the agents of imperial authority following it.


References

(1) http://semiticcontroversies.blogspot.co ... nd_08.html
(2) Suet. Nero 38
(3) Tac. An. 15:32-47
(4) Harry Leon, 1960, 'The Jews of Ancient Rome', 1st Edition, The Jewish Publication Society of America: Philadelphia, p. 28
(5) Gerd Theißen, Annette Merz, 2011, 'Der Historische Jesus: Ein Lehrbuch', 4th Edition, Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht: Gottingen, pp. 88-90
(6) Lincoln Blumell, 2012, 'Lettered Christians: Christians, Letters, and Late Antique Oxyrhynchus', 1st Edition, Brill: Leiden, esp. pp. 37-38
(7) Charles Freeman, 2009, 'A New History of Early Christianity', 1st Edition, Yale University Press: New Haven, pp. 72-73
(8) Keith Hopkins, 2000, 'A World Full of Gods: Pagans, Jews and Christians in the Roman Empire', 1st Edition, Phoenix: London, p. 84
(9) Martin Goodman, 2008, 'Rome & Jerusalem: The Clash of Ancient Civilizations', 1st Edition, Penguin: New York, p. 43
(10) Ibid, p. 535
(11) Hopkins, Op. Cit., p. 84
(12) Suet. Claud. 25
(13) Erich Gruen, 2002, 'Diaspora: Jews against Greeks and Romans', 1st Edition, Harvard University Press: Cambridge, p. 41
(14) Hopkins, Op. Cit., p. 3
(15) Ibid, p. 112
(16) Ibid, pp. 49-50; Jonathan Campbell, 1996, 'Deciphering the Dead Sea Scrolls', 1st Edition, Fontana: London, pp. 80-96
(17) Yizhar Hirschfeld, 2004, 'Qumran in Context: Reassessing the Archaeological Evidence', 1st Edition, Hendrickson: Peabody, pp. 29-48
(18) Leon, Op. Cit., p. 28; Oliver Coburn, 1972, 'Flavius Josephus', 1st Edition, Dennis Dobson: London, pp. 73; 84; Louis Feldman, 1993, 'Jew and Gentile in the Ancient World: Interactions from Alexander to Justinian', 1st Edition, Princeton University Press: Princeton, pp. 351-352
(19) Elizabeth Meyer, 2004, 'Legitimacy and Law in the Roman World: Tabulae in Roman Belief and Practice', 1st Edition, Cambridge University Press: New York, p. 35
(20) Feldman, Op. Cit., p. 424
(21) Ibid, p. 331
(22) See http://semiticcontroversies.blogspot.co ... -jews.html and http://www.semiticcontroversies.blogspo ... -jews.html
(23) Goodman, Op. Cit., p. 391
(24) Richard Bauman, 1996, 'Crime and Punishment in Ancient Rome', 1st Edition, Routledge: New York, p. 67; Richard Bauman, 2000, 'Human Rights in Ancient Rome', 1st Edition, Routledge: New York, p. 71
(25) Bauman, 'Crime and Punishment in Ancient Rome', Op. Cit., p. 144
(26) Ibid, p. 162; Richard Bauman, 'Human Rights in Ancient Rome', Op. Cit., p. 71
(27) Sarolta Takacs, 2009, 'The Construction of Authority in Ancient Rome and Byzantium', 1st Edition, Cambridge University Press: New York, p. 59

User avatar
C.E. Whiteoak
Posts: 377
Joined: Sun Jan 26, 2014 7:45 pm

Re: How Jews (and not Christians) Started the Great Fire of

Post by C.E. Whiteoak » Fri Jan 09, 2015 1:16 am

Thanks for posting that article, Jim. Most interesting and thought-provoking. Ancient history or modern, Hebrews seem to follow a pattern and leave a trail. ;)

Post Reply