Tacitus, Annals 15.44 (Cornelius Tacitus, c. AD 116). Rome's greatest historian, explaining who the Christians were whom Nero blamed for the fire of AD 64. It is hostile testimony — Tacitus calls the movement a pernicious superstition — which is precisely what makes it useful: an execution under Pilate in Tiberius' reign is stated as a matter of record by a writer with no interest in commending it. Note that Tacitus gives Pilate the title procurator; the Pilate Stone from Caesarea, cut in Pilate's own lifetime, calls him prefect. The historian is the one who is imprecise.