Still more roused, and at last he i- .nily induced in g 1
with the ^/(////'(///execution, for which lie is himself re- sponsible, by the threat of a charge of treason against CiESar in the event of his not doing so 1. 1, din xix. 7 13). Silting, then, solemnly on the bema, and producing Jesus, who in the meantime lias had his own clothes
put upon him. he formally delivers him up to he cruci- fied in such a manner as to make it appear that lie is acting solely in the discharge of his duty to the emperor i.l. dm xix. 13 16). The centurion's guard now proceed with the prisoners to Golgotha, Jesus bimscll carrying the cross-piece of wood t.. which his hands were to he
nailed. Weak from loss of bl 1. the result of the
scourging, he is unable to proceed; hut jus! as they are leaving the gate they meet Simon the ( \ reman, and at ..nee use the military right of pressing him for the public service. Arrived at the .-pot. four soldier- are told oil' for the business of the ex( cuiioiier, the remainder keeping the ground. Two would he re- quired to hold the hands, and a third the feet, v bile the
fourth drove in the nail-. Hence the distribution of the garments into four parts. The centurion in command, the principal Jewish officials and tlnir acquaintances i hence probably John [ John xviii. 15 i, and the ni an -t relatives of Jesus ixix. 26, 27), might naturally be ad- mitted within the cordon a square of perhaps one hundred yards. The people would he kept outside of this, hut the distance would not be too great to read the title, "Jesus the Nazan ne, the Kin-, of the Jews," or at. any rate t.> gather its general meaning, The whole acquaintance of Jesus, and the women who had followed him from Galilee too much afflicted to mix with the croud in the immediate vicinity, and too numerous to
obtain admission inside the cordon— looked on from a distance (djro ftatcpoSev). 'the \e— d containing vin- egar i. h dm xix. 29) was set within 'he crdon for the benefit of the Boldiers, whose duty it was to remain tin-
PRAGALADEN
469'
PRAISE
dor arms (Matt, xxvii, 36) until the death of the prison- ers, the centurion in command being responsible for their not being taken down alive. Had the Jews not been anxious for the removal of the bodies, in order not to shock the eyes of the people coming in from the country on the following day, the troops would have been relieved at the end of their watch, and their place supplied by others until death took place. The jealousy with which any interference with the regular course of a military execution was regarded appears from the ap- plication of the Jews to Pilate — not to the centurion — to have the prisoners despatched by breaking their legs. For the performance of this duty other soldiers were de- tailed (John xix, 32), not merely permission given to the Jews to have the operation performed. Even for the watching of the sepulchre recourse is had to Pilate, who bids the applicants "take a guard" (Matt. xxvii, 65), which they do, and put a seal on the stone in the presence of the soldiers, in a way exactly analo- gous to that practiced in the custody of the sacred robes of the high-priest in the Antonia (Josephus, Ant. xv, 11, 4). See Crucifixion.
2. The prsetorium in Rome, mentioned in Phil, i, 13. where Paul lay imprisoned, has occasioned much dis- cussion among the interpreters, and formed the theme of a learned dispute between Jac. Perizonius and Ulrich Huber (see Perizonii Cum U. Hubero Disquisitio de Prce- torio [Lugd. Bat. 1696]). It was not the imperial pal- ace (r) olicia Kaiaapoc,, Phil, iv, 22), for this was never called pra>torittm in Kome; nor was it the judgment- hall, for no such building stood in Kome, and the name pratoria was not until much later applied to the courts of justice (see Perizonius, /. c. p. 63 sq.). It was probably (as Camerarius perceived) the quarters of the imperial body-guard, the praetorian cohort, which had been built for it by Tiberius, under the advice of Sejanus (Sueton. Tib. 37). Before that time the guards were billeted in different parts of the city. It stood outside the walls, at some distance short of the fourth milestone, and so near either to the Salarian or the Nomentane road that Nero, in his flight by one or the other of them to the house of his freedman Phaon, which was situated be- tween the two, heard the cheers of the soldiers within for Galba. In the time of Vespasian the houses seem to have extended so far as to reach it (Tacitus, Annul. iv, 2; Sueton. Ner. 48; Pliny, H. N. iii, 5). From the first, buildings must have sprung up near it for sutlers and others. An opinion well deserving consideration has been advocated by Wieseler, and by Conybeare and Howson {Life of St. Paul, ch. xxvi), to the effect that the praetorium here mentioned was the quarter of that detachment of the Praetorian Guards which was in im- mediate attendance upon the emperor, and had barracks in Mount Palatine. Thither, wherever the place was, Paul was brought as a prisoner of the emperor, and de- livered to the pra?fect of the guard, according to the custom (Acts xxviii, 16; see Pliny, Ep. x, 65; Philostr. Soph. ii. 32), as the younger Agrippa was once impris- oned by this officer at the express command of the em- peror Tiberius (Josephus, Ant. xviii, 6, 6). This office was then tilled by Burrhus Afranius (Tacitus. Anna/. xii, 42; see Anger, Temp. Act. Ap. p. 100 sq.). Paul appears to have been permitted for the space of two years to lodge, so to speak, " within the rules" of the pranorium (Acts xxviii, 30), although still under the custody of a soldier. See Olshausen, Topogr. des alten Jerusalem, § iii, p. 9 ; Perizonius, Be Oriyine et Signi- ficatione et Usu Vocum Prcetoris et Prcetorii (Frank. 1690); Shorzius, Be Pratorio Pilati in Exereit. Phil. (Hag. Com. 1774); Zorn, Opuscula Sacra, ii, 699.— Winer; Kitto; Smith. See Paul.