Based on statements that he was a young man 20 years after Nero died, it’s believed Roman historian Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, was born around 69 AD and died in 122 AD.

A close friend of Pliny the Younger, Suetonius eventually became the personal secretary of Emperor Hadrian. According to one source, he was dismissed after having an affair with the emperor’s wife.

Suetonius wrote several books before his death, but only one De Vita Caesarum, The Life of the Twelve Caesars, remains with us today. Though the first few pages are missing it provides a breakdown of the lives of Rome’s first 12 Caesars from Julius Caesar to Domitian.

While discussing the reign of Rome’s fifth emperor Claudius, who ruled between 41 AD and 54 AD, Suetonius briefly references Christ:

“Since the Jews constantly made disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus [Christ],​ he expelled them from Rome.”

Many believe that Chrestus is none other than a phonetic misspelling of the Latin word “Christus” (Christ). Though it was incorrect, the Chrestus spelling was widely used by others including Christian writers.

According to Suetonius, Emperor Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome because of disturbances caused by the spread of Christianity in Rome.

Suetonius seems to lay the blame on the Christians who were converting many Jews to the faith. But that wasn’t the problem, it was the Jewish leaders’ reaction to these conversions that was the source of the disturbances.

Curiously the Bible also records this same expulsion.

In his history of the early church in the book of Acts, Luke writes:

After these events Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. ² And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus having recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. He came to them, (Acts 18:-1-2 NASV)

Though both Aquilla and Priscilla were Jews, they had both converted to Christianity. The fact that they chose to leave reveals that the Romans treated Christianity as part of Judaism.

Peter may also be referring to this expulsion in his first letter, writing:

From Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those temporarily residing abroad (in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, the province of Asia, and Bithynia) who are chosen (1 Peter 1:1 NET)

The Greek word translated as ‘abroad’ is ‘diaspora,’ which may be a reference to the expulsion of Christians from Rome.

It wasn’t until the start of the second century that Rome finally recognized that Christianity and Judaism were two separate religions.

Since, they were no longer lumped together, this resulted in Rome persecuting Christians, while not targeting the Jews at the same time, or visa versa.