FIRST those who acknowledged themselves of this persuasion were arrested; and upon their testimony a vast number were condemned, not so much on the charge of incendiarism as for their hatred of the human race.* Their death was turned into a diversion. They were clothed in the skins of wild beasts, and torn to pieces by dogs; they were fastened to crosses, or set up to be burned, so as to serve the purpose of lamps when daylight failed. Nero gave up his own gardens for this spectacle; he provided also Circensian games, during which he mingled with the populace, or took his stand upon a chariot, in the garb of a charioteer. But guilty as these men were and worthy of direst punishment, the fact that they were being sacrificed for no public good, but only to glut the cruelty of one man, aroused a feeling of pity on their behalf.*
* The Christians were decried as ‘haters’ because they refused to soothe their fellow citizens’ outraged sensitivities, and say that the Christian god was one of a number of equally good gods, along with e.g. Jupiter, Juno and Minerva. By insisting that other deities were at best imaginary and at worst demons, they put themselves in the same doghouse as the Jews, whom Tacitus whipped with the ‘abominations’ and ‘haters’ tags in his Histories V. 5:
“Their other customs are impious and abominable, and owe their prevalence to their depravity. For all the most worthless rascals, renouncing their national cults, were always sending money to swell the sum of offerings and tribute. This is one cause of Jewish prosperity. Another is that they are obstinately loyal to each other, and always ready to show compassion, whereas they feel nothing but hatred and enmity for the rest of the world.”
* On the ‘public good’ served by persecuting Christians, see Jacobus de Voragine on Why Rome Persecuted the Christians in The Golden Legend. As we say today, Romans could tolerate anything except intolerance: putting the ‘haters’ to death was a solemn act of collective virtue so long as it was done as a ‘teachable moment’ for society and not just for the fun of it.