   Thursday, 10 October 2013  Who Made Up The Jesus Myths?
Titus Flavius Causing something of a buzz of excitement in
atheist circles, and another shriek of hysteria in
fundamentalist Christian circles at the moment is a claim by
Joseph Atwill to have found 'incontrovertible proof' that Jesus
was made up by Roman aristocrats in an attempt to subdue and
control troublesome Jews after the Jewish Revolt. The alleged
main conspirators were Titus Flavius and Christianity's
favourite ancient historian, Flavius Josephus (known simply as
Josephus).  The first thing to say is that I haven't yet read
Atwill's book, Caesar's Messiah: The Roman Conspiracy to Invent
Jesus, only claims about it by others, some of which are clearly
copied or based on press handouts prior to the symposium Covert
Messiah at Conway Hall in Holborn, London, on October 19.  As I
understand it, Atwill's 'proof' is a series of close parallels
between the military campaigns of Titus Flavius (a military
general under his father, the Emperor Vespasi