Nero, Tacitus, & 'Burning Christians' – Part Two

Nero, better than most; Nero as monster, the multi-layered caricature; How the Christians created a myth.

[bozhidarbalkas]

Of all addictions, addiction to a god is by far more dangerous, brutal, hateful, harmful, selfish, careless, etc., that any other other addiction.

[russg]

So, the early Christians needed a bogeyman and Nero had the misfortune to be the emperor at the time so he's been pegged as a monster ever since? Good to know!

[Norman]

Very informative. Thanks for enlightening me on the misinformation and character assassination perpetrated over the centuries. As you ably demonstrate, Nero was an artistic and creative soul that ran afoul of the blood lust and militarism of the Roman elite class. Later the early christian church used him as an historical foil to embellish their misinformation and lies with lurid tales of persecution and subsequent "martyrdom" allegedly perpetrated under his reign. Thanks for the video. I have now a much more objective, balanced and accurate historical assessment of this misunderstood emperor.

[kmt]

Bloody hell Ken! Not only are you a genius of historical study and truth, but an absolute marketing guru as well. I had to watch this episode six times, As much as your narrative and visual literacy is always compelling, I found myself drifting off to the accompanying wonderful musical composition. Bravo! On all accounts.

[jilliansmith]

History always seems to be a whole lot more complicated and deep than the usual stories we learn.

[thegreatdivide]

Great video. Wonderful presentation that's both cogent and compelling. You should write a book about it called "Nero and the People's History of Ancient Roman." Nero was despised by the Roman plutocrats and the senatorial oligarchs, but was loved by the plebeians, proletariat and the lower classes (common folk).

[warrensmith]

It seems rather odd that two key chroniclers of 1st Century history had names that suggested "silence"-the tacit Tacitus and the tranquil Tranquillus. In Plato's Cratylus there is a discussion about the "correctness" of names so it does not seem unreasonable to be suspicious about this "coincidence". Also, in the Gnostic text The Tripartite Tractate there is this insight into the nature of "silence":

“(Baptism) is called "silence" because of the quiet and the tranquility.”

What better way is there to "wash away sins" than censorship? What I am suggesting is that the assignment of names (and occupations) of the authors of even "secular" texts was influenced by the content of the text. This also explains why the Church was willing to accept various "forgeries" into the Biblical canon, because the name of the author was intended primarily to identify the nature of the text.

[MRuth-bfxq]

The Catholic pagan church will stop at nothing to promote their lies! Great job, love your vids!

[jackhughesbooks]

Excellent Analysis Ken. It is not for nothing that they say history is written by the winners!

[clemstevenson]

Being emotionally, geographically, & chronologically, detached from the purported history of ancient Rome, I have no problem whatsoever with the notion of Rome’s history being deliberately distorted.  I also have no problem with the notion of inveterate
religious liars.  Of course they would lie, given the obvious fact that the Jesus Christ story, itself, presented an irrational argument.  In the Christian fairy story, god sent himself as a sacrifice to himself, in order to prevent himself from damning mankind.  But it seems even that wasn’t good enough for god, as he demanded that people who didn’t believe that god sent himself as a sacrifice to himself to prevent himself from damning mankind would be damned anyway.  And, of course, there isn’t, and cannot be, any supporting evidence for the claimed words, or even the deeds, of Jesus Christ.  Thus, the story of Jesus Christ is, by default, indistinguishable from fiction.

[johnsonhunglo]

Sounds like Nero had a viable,
sustainable public works program!!!!
Somewhere along the way,
Nero's supporters lost control of the narrative!!!
Tacitus was the pilot of the new narrative.
What was his reward?

[raulciska]

I really liked the additional text on screen accompanying the voice-over. Really help to fill-out, and give context to what Ken was saying.

[TruthSurge]

the ending... HEHEHEHEE it isn't true, it isn't history, it's just more astoundin' rubbish from the NEW TESTAMENT! I like the unabridged version. :)

Nice vids. Yep, those "historians" were often liars and then imagine how much editing went on after that and funny thing is that a lot of it is traceable if you study it. Nero couldn't have blamed it on Christians because in 64 CE, there were no large numbers of them in Rome. There's huge evidences that say there probably were NONE in Rome. Mainly that it's what, 1500 miles away by water and probably 99% of the New Testament was written in the 2nd century, not the first. Christianity is a 2nd century movement.

[TruthSurge]

1:15 "turned away from bloodshed" but... I thought in part 1, he killed his step mom. ? Did I confuse myself?

[nursingthetruth]

You are awesome Ken! Please more truth videos!

[marymcreynolds]

Thank you for a professional presentation that takes its time and is thorough with historical fact. You are to be commended.

[edwardmiessner]

Very revealing. Thank you for exposing and putting paid the lies that were promulgated by the church and that we have inherited. There are so many people now, including a new crop of New Testament scholars, who are saying that legacy NT scholarship is simply an erroneous explanation of how the letters of Paul and the gospels came about. It really does look like we are in Christianity’s last days, but not their End Times.

[DBCisco]

Good to see you back !!! You were missed.

[oker]

So did Seneca write a gospel? Or, maybe he started the church of Rome?

[Hesiod]

#Kenneth Humphreys: Considering that Richard Carrier's case against the historical Jesus is that it was derived from St. Paul's celestial Jesus, the refutation of St. Paul's historicity should complete the case.