Not when they're biased AGAINST something, just as Jesus and Christianity.
WIkis source says Tacitus is reliable while others say its not. Here ar ethe words of Tacitus that Christians claim as proof. He is speaking of the punishment torture of Christians found by Pontius Piltae names Christ as the leader who was crucified .
Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judæa, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre 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.
There is a huge problem Im having with this. It does not prove Jesus was raised from the dead or even that his name was Jesus , it says Christ, Christ which is a name that could be used for any jewish Mesiah.
There is no doubt in my mind that there was a Messiah movement in Jesus times, and that Christians could have been a group started out of that, this writing could have just been about one of the Messiahs. Even if it pointed specifically to Jesus,and it does not say Jesus name it says Christ, as I said , but it does not prove that Jesus was raised from the dead.
I don't deny a guy named Jesus existed. There was a Messiah movement back then and I think Jesus could have been one of them or the whole group........but the Christians were one of the groups out of the Messiah movement.