Stringbean

This may have already been brought up before and I am sure it has but I have a two fold question. (1). Are there any sources that Tacitus could have drew from other than obviously Pliny. (2). Are there any scholarly resources on this? I have searched the web and find nothing.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Toto

See this thread on Tacitus:

http://www.freeratio.org/showthread.php?t=300060

This is an archived set of class notes from the late Darrel Doughty of Drew University:

http://web.archive.org/web/200905242...s/tacitus.html

Stringbean

Thanks Toto appreciate it.

aa5874

It is extremely easy to detect forgeries in Apologetic writings.

Typically, a forgery will usually tend to be a very significant "detail" that is unknown or never used by Church writers when it would have helped their argument or even helped the Heretics.

For example, when Tertullian argued that Jesus did exist and was born of a Ghost and a Virgin in "On the Flesh of Christ" then we would expect that so-called Heretics who knew of Tacitus Annals to have argued that Jesus could NOT have been fathered by the Holy Ghost or that Tertullian would have shown that Roman writers attested to the existence of Christus.
Neither the Heretics or Tertullian made use of Tacitus Annals with Christus.

Tertullian appear to have been aware of the writings of Tacitus but Not Annals with Christus.

The same applies to Justin Martyr when he argued against Trypho in "Dialogue with Trypho". There is no indication that Justin or Trypho knew that Tacitus supposedly attested the existence of Christus

According to Justin the Jews claimed or implied that Christus had NOT yet come up to c 150 CE so neither Justin, Trypho, the Roman Emperor, the Senate and the people of Rome and Jews knew that Tacitus had claimed Christus had already come since the time of Pilate in Annals 15.

Justin's Dialogue with Trypho When "Church History" was composed again we have the same scenario.

Eusebius did not know that Tacitus had attested the Advent of Christus in Annals.

Tacitus Annals with Chrsitus is a most blatant forgery-- it was not used at all by Heretics or Apologetics for hundreds of years after it was supposedly written.

Amazingly, up to the 5th century or later every Church writer and Apologetic forgot that Tacitus attested the Advent of Christus.

Stringbean

Thanks AA...got to remember that part about forgery...I learned something.