the arsonists arrest was branded religious persecution at the end of the second century by the christian theologian ted too early on. in the fifth century christian monks produced copies of ancient texts and may well have intentionally falsified their accounts in the process. it's likely that tacitus is original works delivered a far less damning indictment of nero than the versions we know today. see how. if they created the impression we have today that ever since the dawn of christianity there were violent waves of persecution in which christians was systematically and indiscriminately lined up for execution if that is true of russia's persecution of christians in the twentieth century that the current situation in the middle east but not in antiquity but that's just me and. on a late summer day in the year sixty four crowns head towards the palatine hill.