The proceedings of Pilate in our Lord's trial supply many interesting illustrations of the accuracy of the evangelists, from the accordance of their narrative with the known customs of the time. Thus Pilate, being only a procurator, had no quaestor to conduct the trial, and therefore examined the prisoner himself. Again, in early times Roman magistrates had not been allowed to take their wives with them into the provinces, but this prohibition had fallen into neglect, and latterly a proposal made by Caecina to enforce it had been rejected (Tacit. Ann. iii, 33, 31). Grotius points out that the word are7ri^\pii', used when Pilate sends our Lord to Herod (Luke xxiii, 7), is "propria Romani juris vox: nam remittitur reus qui alicubi comprehensus mittitur ad judieem aut originis aut habitationis" (see Alford, ad loc). The tessellated pavement (Xi^uarpoiTov) was so necessary to the forms of justice, as well as the fii'i/.ia, that Julius Ca?sar carried one about with him on his expeditions (Sueton. Jul. c. 40). The power of life and death was taken from the Jews when Judrea became a province (Josephus, Ant. xx, 9, 1). Scourging before execution was a well-known Roman practice.
So ended Pilate's share in the greatest crime which has been committed since the world began. That he did not immediately lose his feelings of anger against the Jews who had thus compelled his acquiescence, and of compassion and awe for the Sufferer whom he had unrighteously sentenced, is plain from his curt and an- gry refusal to alter the inscription which he had pre- pared for the cross (o yiypa(pa, ytypatya), his ready ac- quiescence in the request made by Joseph of Arimathoea that the Lord's body might be given up to him rather than consigned to the common sepulchre reserved for those who had suffered capital punishment, and his sul- len answer to the demand of the Sanhedrim that the sepulchre should be guarded. (Matt, xxvii, 65, t'x;ers icovo-iociav • i'Trayert, aufaXitraa^E we oidarf. Elli- eott would translate this, ■•Take a guard," on the ground ! that the watchers were Roman soldiers, who were not under the command of the priests. But some might have been placed at their disposal during the feast, and we should rather expect Xa/Stri if the sentence were imperative.)
(3.) His Eventual Fate. — Here, as far as Scripture is concerned, our knowledge of Pilate's life ends. But we learn from Josephus (Ant. xviii, 4, 1) that his anxiety to avoid giving offence to Caesar did not save him from political disaster. The Samaritans were unquiet and rebellious. A leader of their own race had promised to
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to thorn the sacred treasures which Hoses was reported to have concealed in Mbnnl Gerizim. Pilate led his troops against them, and defeated them easily enough. The Samaritans complained to Vitellius, now president of Syria, and he sent Pilate to Rome to answer their accusations bi Fore the emperor i ibid.1 I. When he reached Rome he found Tiberius dead and Cains (( lalig- ula) "ii the throne, A.I>. 36. Eusebius adds i Hist. Eccl. ii. 7 i that soon afterwards, "wearied with misfortunes," he killed himself. As to the scene of his death there arc various t radii inns. One is that he was banished to Vienna Allobrogum (Vienne on the Rhone), where a singular monument, a pyramid on a quadrangular base, fifty-two feel high, is called Pontius Pilate's tomb (Smith, Diet, of Class. Geog. art. Vienna). Another is thai he sought to hide his sorrows on the mountain by the lake of Lucerne, now called Mount Pilatus; and there after spending years in its recesses, in remorse and despair rather than penitence, plunged into the dismal lake which occupies its summit According to the popular belief, "a form is often seen to emerge from the gloomy waters, and go through the anion of one washing his hands; and when he dues so .dark clouds of mist gather first round the bosom of the infernal Lake I such it has been stj led of old |, and then, wrap- ping the w hole upper pari of the mountain in darkness.
i tempest or hurricane, which is sure to follow inashorl space" (Scott, A mu qfGeu rsU in, ch, i i. (See below, i
Pilate's wife is also, as might be expected, prominent in these traditions. Her name is given as Claudia Pro- cula (Niceph. Hist. Eccl. i. 30). She had been a prose- lyte i" Judaism before the crucifixion {Evang. Nicod. e. 2). Nothing certain is known as to her history, bul the tradition that she became a Christian is as old as the time of i trigen i Horn, in Matt, xxxv ). The < treek Church has canonized her. The dream has been inter- preted by some as a divine interposition; by others as
tion of the devil, who wished to prevent the Saviour's death ; by others as the unconscious reflection of her interest in the reports which had readied her re- garding Jesus. The description of Jesus as "that jusl man" (r<p ducaiy iictivtp), it is remarked by Schaff, re- calls the celebrated unconscious prophecy of Plato, in his Republic, as to the Siicaioc who was. alter enduring all possible sufferings, to restore righteousness. In the earlier periods, and indeed bo long as the commonwealth subsisted, it was very unusual for the governors of provinces to take their wives with them (Senec. Dt Controv. 25), and in the strict regulations which Au- gustus introduced he did not allow the favor, except in peculiar and specified circumstances (Seuton. Aug. 24). Tie practice, however, grew to be more and more prev- alent, and was customary in Pilate's time. It is e\ idem from Tacitus thai at the time of the death of Augustus, Germanicus had his wife Agrippina with him in Ger- many i I nnal. i. 10, 11; comp. iii. 33 59; Josephus, An/, w. 10, I; I'lpian. iv, 2). Indeed, in the begin- ning of the reign of Tiberius, Germanicus took hi- wife