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when the despotic authority of the Roman officers might be exercised ^^ 1 1 1 1 moderation. Rut Buch a Btate <it things also afforded constant opportunities to an un- principled Boldiei i" extort money under the pretence of a loan, as the price of exemption from pers vici- which be was competent to insist upon, <>r as a bribe to bu) off the prosecution of Bome vexatious charge before a military tribunal I Man. v. 42; Luke iii. \i:mn. Iii. lations "I' the military t<> the civil authorities in Jerusalem come out verj clearly from the lii^t < >r\- of ifixion. When .hi. las first makes Iii- proposi- tion i" betray Jesus to the chief-priests, a i onfereuce is held between them and the trrparqyoi as to the mode of effecting the objeel I Luke xxii. I). The plan involved the ass( mblage oi a large number of the Jews by night, and Roman jealousy forbade Buch a i lung, < iccepl under the Burveillance of a military officer. An arrangement was accordingly made for a military force, which would naturally be drawn from the Antonia. At the appointed hour Judas comes and takes with him "the troops" (calli 'l rip' avelpav, although of course only a detach-
i i from i be cohort I, together with a number of police
{virqpirac) under the orders of the high-priests and Pharisees (John xviii, 3). When the apprehension of Jesus takes place, however, there is scarcely any refer- ence to the presence of the military. Matthew and Mark altogether ignore their taking any psM in the proceeding. From Luke's account one isled to suppose that tlif military commander posted his men outside the garden, and entered himself with the Jewish author- ities (xxii, 52). This i- exactly what might be ex- pected under the circumstances. It was the business of the Jewish authorities t<> apprehend a Jewish offender, and of the Roman officer to take care that the proceed- ing led to no breach of the public peace. Hut when apprehended, the Roman officer became responsible foT the custody of the offender, and accordingly he would at once chain him by the wrists to two soldiers ( Acts \\i. 88) and rarry him off. Here John accordingly gave another glimpse of the presence of the military : •• the troops then, andtfo chiliarch and the officers of the Jews, apprehended Jesus, and put him in bonds, and led him away, iir>t of all to Annas" (xviii, 12). The insults which Luke mentions I xxii. 63 i are apparently the bar- barous sport of the ruffianly soldiers and police while waiting with their prisoner for the assembling of the Sanhedrim in the hall ofCaiaphas; but the blows in- flicted are those with the vine-stick, which the een- turions carried, and with which they struck the soldiers cm the head and Tare (Juvenal, Sat, \iii. 247), not a flagellation by the hands of lictors. When Jesus was condemned by the Sanhedrim, and accordingly sent to Pilate, the Jewish officials certainly expected that no inquiry would be made into the merits of the case, but that Jesus would be simply recen ed as a com ict on the authority of bis own countrymen's tribunal, thrown into a dungeon, and on the first convenient opportunity exe- cuted. The} are obvioush Burprised at the question, '•What accusation bring ye against this man?" and at the apparition of the governor himself outside the pre- eincl of the prsBtorium. The cheapness in wbieh he had held the life of the native population <>n a former occasion i Luke xiii. I > must have led them to • totally different course from him. His scrupulousness, moat extraordinary in any Roman, Btands in Btriking contrast with the recklessness of the commander who I at once t" put St. Paul CO torture, simply to ascertain why it was that so violent an attack "a- made mi him by the crowd I Acts xxii, 24 I. \ . t this latter is undoubtedly a typical specimen ol the feeling which pre- vail) ■ ! among the conquerors oi Judroa in n • the conquered. The order for the execution of a native criminal would in ninety-nine instances out "t a hun- dred lia\ e been regard) .1 by a Roman magnate as a -im- ply ministerial act one which indeed only h<' was com- petent to perform, but of which the performance was
unworthy of a second thought [I is probable that the hesitation ofPilatewasdue rather to a superstitious fear nt his wife's dream than to a sense of justice or a feeling of humanity towards an individual of a despised race; at any rate, such an explanation is more in accordance with what we know of the feeling prevalent among his class in that age. Winn at last Pilate's effort to save .ii -ii- was defeated by the determination of the Jews to claim Barabbas, and be had testified, by washing his hands in the presence ol the people, that he did not consent to the judgment passed on the prisoner by the Sanhedrim, but must 1"' regard) d as p< rforroing a mere- ly ministerial act, be proct eded at once to the formal im- position of the appropriate penalty. His lictors took Je- sus and inflicted the punishmi nl of scourging upon him in the presence of all (Matt, xxvii, 26). This, in the Roman idea, was the necessary preliminary to capital punishment, and bad Jesus not been an alien his head would have been struck off by the lictors immediately afterwards, But crucifixion being the customary pun- ishment in that case, a different course becomes neces- sary. The execution must take place by the bands of the military, and Jesus is handed over from the lictors to these. They take him into the pnetorium, and mus- ter tki whoh rnh"ii not iiunh that portion which is on duty at the time (Matt xxvii. 27; Mark xv. li'O. While a centurion's guard is told off for the purpose of executing .Ions and the two criminals, the rest of the soldiers divert themselves by mocking the reputed king of the Jews (Matt xxvii, 28 30; Mark xv. 17 19; John xix. _'. :;>. Pilate, who in the meantime I in, being probably a witness of tbe pitiable spectacle. His wife's dream still haunts him. and although he has already delivered Jesus over to execution, and what is taking place i< merely the ordinary course, he i again to the people to protest that h is passive in the matter, and that they must take the prisoner, there be- fore their eyes in the garb of mockery, and crucify him (John xix, 1 6). < >n their reply that Jesus had as- serted himself to be the Son of Cod. Pilate's fears are