But not all the relief that could come from man, not all the bounties that the prince could bestow, nor all the atonements which could be presented to the gods, availed to relieve Nero from the infamy of being believed to have ordered the conflagration, the fire of Rome. Hence to suppress the rumor, he falsely charged with the guilt, and punished Christians, who were hated for their enormities. Christus, the founder of the name, was put to death by Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea in the reign of Tiberius: but the pernicious superstition, repressed for a time broke out again, not only through Judea, where the mischief originated, but through the city of Rome also, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their center and become popular. Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty; then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, as of hatred against mankind.
Soliton, does that mean you allow that Tacitus existed? How about Nero, Pontius Pilate, or Tiberias? All of them were historical figures, and yet the physical evidence for any particular one’s existence is much less than for Jesus Christ. Using your standard of historicity, you cannot prove that Tacitus, Nero, Pontius Pilate, nor Tiberias ever existed. As Historian Will Durant says, “the Higher Criticism has applied to the New Testament tests of authenticity so severe that by them a hundred ancient worthies- e.g., Hammurabi, David, Socrates- would fade into legend.”
Tacitus was born 50 years after Jesus was crucified. Not contemporaneus.