rofess ἘΣ allesiance to the emperor (Jn 19"),
hen he finally delivered Jesus to crucifixion ; but it was quite in keeping with Pilate’s character and with the violence which he had done to his own convictions, that he obstinately refused to change the title on the cross, its very offensiveness to the Jews being a merit in his eyes (Jn 19”),
Thus Pilate appears a typical specimen of a worldly man. The good in him was unsupported by moral principle, and overborne by personal and
olitical considerations. Compelled to take the eading part in a transaction where high moral
ualities were supremely demanded, he proved
imself to be without them, and made a great crime possible by his feebleness of character. This is quite consistent with his bravado and reckless- ness on other occasions. Christ’s judgment upon Pilate (Jn 19") is also the verdict of history.
Pilate’s rule was brought to its close by an ill-
jed ed attempt to suppress a harmless movement
amaria (Jos. Ant. ΧΥΠΙ. iv. 1). A certain impostor summoned the Samaritans to Mount Gerizim by promising to show them the sacred vessels which Moses was alleged to have hidden there. They came armed, and collected in a village called Tirabatha. But Pilate fell upon them, and caused many, both then and ἘΠ σα πξ ΤΈΣ to be slain. Thereupon the Samaritans appealed for redress to Vitellius, the legate in Syria, pleading that no political sedition had been intended. Vit- ellius ordered Pilate to repair to Rome to answer the complaints against him; but before the pro- curator reached the capital, Tiberius had died. Thereafter Pilate disappears from authentic history. Traditions, however, concerning him existed in the Church, and finally took the shape of fantastic legends. Eusebius (HZ ii. 7 and Chron.) relates, on the authority of certain unnamed earlier writers, that Pilate fell into such misfortunes under Calig-
PILATE
ula that he committed suicide; and later authori- ties repeat the statement. The Apocr. literature elaborated the story (see Tischendorf, Evang. Apoc., Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. viii.). Accord- ing to one version (‘Iapddoors Πιλάτου ἢ, Tiberius summoned Pilate to Rome to answer the charge of crucifying Christ. When, at the examination before the Senate, Tiberius uttered Christ’s name, the statues of the gods fell to the ground ; where- upon Tiberius ordered war to be made against the Jews, and Pilate to be beheaded. The latter, how- ever, with his wife, died a penitent, and was assured by a voice from heaven of his forgiveness. According to another and probably later account (Mors Pilati), Pilate appeared before Tiberius in the Saviour’s tunic, which protected him from the emperors fury. When he was stripped of it, Tiberius condemned him to death, but Pilate killed himself. His body was cast into the Tiber, but the evil spirits so disturbed the waters that the Romans carried the body to Vienne and sank it in the Rhone.* Thence, for the same reason, it was removed to the territory of Losania (Lausanne), but was finally sunk in a pit surrounded by moun- tains. Thus the legend connected itself with the mountain opposite Lucerne (supposed to have been named originally Pileatus, because surmounted often by a hat-shaped cloud, but corrupted by connexion with the legend into Pilatus; see Ruskin, Mod. Painters, v. 128; Miller, Pont. Pil. pp. 52, 53) where the body of Pilate is said to lie in a lake on the mountain, and at times emerge and go through the motion of washing the hands. The legend exists in various forms, however (see Miiller, id.), and attached itself to several localities. In one of the later accounts Pilate is said to have been executed by Nero (see Schiirer, ΠΡ 1. ii. 88 n.). The ‘tendency’ of the earlier legends was to represent the Roman Govern- ment in its treatment of Pilate as vindicating the Christians and Christ; while the disposition to represent Pilate as becoming himself a Christian + explains, perhaps, the belief of the Coptic Church that he died a saint and martyr.t
Pilate’s wife is said to have been named Claudia Procula or Procla. Christian tradition made her a
prmelyte to Judaism (Gosp. of Nic. 2). That she ecame a Christian is also a very old tradition (Orig. Hom. on Mt. 35). In the Gr. Church she
became a saint, honoured on Oct. 27th. Some
have even identified her with the Claudia of 2 Ti
4, Her dream may be assumed to indicate that
she had heard of Jesus and His beneficent life and eeds.
That Pilate made a report to Tiberius concerning Jesus is affirmed by Justin (1 Ap. 35) and Ter- tullian (Ap. 21), as well as by later writers (e.g. Eus. HE ii. 2), and Apocr. literature. Some re- port from the governor to the emperor is prob- able; but it is doubtful if the earl Fathers rested their appeal to it on any certain knowledge of its existence, or of its preservation in the archives. Certainly the extant Acta Pilati are spurious. Eusebius relates (HZ ix. 5) that in the great persecution under Maximin, Acts of Pilate dero- gatory to Christ were forged and circulated by the pagans; but none of these have survived.
LITERATURE.—G, A. Miiller, Pontius Pilatus der fiinfte Pro-
kurator von Judda (Stuttgart, 1888), gives a table of earlier literature, enumerating 110 treatises and articles. The 17th
* *Pilate’s tomb,’ a curious monument, 62 ft. high, is still shown at Vienne.