Book 2 — Chapter 2 — Tiberius Hears Pilate's Report concerning Yahushua
Eusebius transmits a tradition, associated especially with Tertullian, that Pilate reported the events concerning Yahushua to the emperor Tiberius. According to this Christian apologetic tradition, Tiberius was favorably disposed and proposed that Yahushua be recognized among Roman divine honors, but the Senate refused because the proposal had not originated through its own procedures. Tiberius, the account says, nevertheless threatened accusers of the followers of Yahushua. Eusebius uses the story to argue that imperial hostility was not inevitable from the first moment and that the movement's later persecutions cannot simply be projected backward into Tiberius's reign. HaSefarim preserves the report as Eusebius's received apologetic tradition; it is not treated as an independently verified Senate record.