Historical Jesus, Biblical Jesus

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Can you give a good argument as to why any ancient apologist would want to reference the part in Tacitus' Annals which shows a very unflattering view of Christians?

Because xtians developed an astonishing martyr complex about their alleged persecution in later years and if the Tacitus reference was true it would have played right into their hands.

But, you know,  crickets!

And where are those texts and quotes from those Christian apologists in which, as you suggest, there was opportunity and reason to refer to Tacitus within the context of their apologies?

Also, writing within a decade of Tacitus' Annals, we have Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, who wrote the Lives of the Twelve Caesars around 122 AD.  Suetonius described why Jewish Christians were expelled from Rome by emperor Claudius, and also confirms the persecution of Christians by Nero.

So now we have two Roman historians, contemporary of each other, chronicling the persecution of Christians under Nero, and your best argument is that some apologist somewhere didn't quote these authors? An argument from silence ... when the obvious and more reasonable view of what those apologists are actually saying is that their apologies and other works actually confirm what Tacitus and Suetonius say?

EUSEBIUS OF CÆSAREA - CHURCH HISTORY

XXV.—The Persecution under Nero in which Paul and Peter were honored at Rome with

Martyrdom in Behalf of Religion.

1. When the government of Nero was now firmly established, he began to plunge into unholy
pursuits, and armed himself even against the religion of the God of the universe.

Crickets? Not from me.

It is established historical fact that the Christians were persecuted under Nero. Get over it.