The Redemption of Pontius Pilate (58 page)

He closed his eyes for a moment, and said a prayer for the souls of the men he had killed. He asked Jesus to forgive him this final foray into violence, and to his great satisfaction, he found that the beast that had once lived within him, which would have rejoiced in this carnage, was still gone. Die he might, but he would die as a follower of Jesus, not a bloodthirsty madman.

Pilate felt a hand on his shoulder, rolling him over. Opening his eyes, he saw that the centurion who had been knocked senseless was sitting up, glaring at Pilate and the three men lying on the ground, one dead, one mortally injured, and the other most likely crippled for life.

The centurion stood and looked at the remaining two men. “Is he alive?” he asked.

“I . . . live,” Pilate said.

The man walked over and looked down at him. “Not for long, from the look of that wound,” he said. “A pox on you, old fool! Our orders were to bring you alive to Rome.”

“What do you want us to do?” asked one of the remaining Praetorians.

“Get me some timbers from that old barn on the hill,” the centurion said. “We'll nail him up, like he killed that Galilean everyone talks about.”

“Isn't he still a citizen?” asked one of them.

“Do you think the laws of the old Republic still matter?” asked the centurion. “Caesar wants him killed as painfully as possible, and crucifixion will fill the bill nicely.”

“He won't last an hour on the cross,” said the man Pilate had hamstrung. “That gut wound will bleed out in no time.”

He crawled over to Pilate and looked at him. “You could have killed me easily, old man. Why didn't you?”

Pilate tried to focus his eyes on the young soldier. His mouth was dry, but he could still form words. “I didn't want to kill any of you,” he said. “It is not our way. The others . . . I had to. You were out of the fight, so I spared you.”

The man angrily punched Pilate in the face. “Not before crippling me!” he snapped. “I'd rather be dead than useless.”

Pilate nearly lost consciousness from the force of the blow, but he looked the man steadily in the eye. “No life is useless to God,” he said. Then he blacked out for a few moments.

He came to as the spikes were driven into his wrists, and vaguely wondered who was screaming for a full minute before he realized it was himself. When the crossbeam was hoisted up and tied to the upright, he felt as if he was being torn in half. He looked down and saw the blood sluicing from his wound, and could feel the life ebbing out of him. At the foot of his cross, three men stood looking up at him, while the other was sitting up, his leg wrapped in a bloody bandage.

“I forgive you,” said Pilate, “as Christ forgave me.”

He raised his eyes and looked southward, at the bright blue waters of the Mediterranean stretching away from Miletus. He could see the sails of the vessel carrying his wife and son to safety pulling away from the port, heading westward to freedom. A spasm of pain gripped his body, and he prayed to Jesus one last time for strength before his spirit left his body.

Pontius Pilate died trusting his soul to the Christ, but also with the knowledge that, in his own eyes, at least, he had redeemed himself.

 

EPILOGUE

Gaius Caligula ruled Rome for nearly four years, and his name has become a synonym for madness and debauchery. Of his end, the historian Suetonius recorded:

In the covered passage through which he had to pass, some boys of good birth, who had been summoned from Asia to appear on the stage, were rehearsing their parts, and he stopped to watch and to encourage them; and had not the leader of the troop complained that he had a chill, he would have returned and had the performance given at once. From this point there are two versions of the story: some say that as he was talking with the boys, Chaerea came up behind and gave him a deep cut in the neck, having first cried, “Take that,” and then the tribune Cornelius Sabinus, who was the other conspirator and faced Gaius, stabbed him in the breast. Others say that Sabinus, after getting rid of the crowd through centurions who were in the plot, asked for the watchword, as soldiers do, and that when Gaius gave him “Jupiter,” he cried, “So be it,” and as Gaius looked around, he split his jawbone with a blow of his sword. As he lay upon the ground and with writhing limbs called out that he still lived, the others dispatched him with thirty wounds; for the general signal was “Strike again.” Some even thrust their swords through his privates. At the beginning of the disturbance his bearers ran to his aid with their poles, and presently the Germans of his bodyguard, and they slew several of his assassins, as well as some inoffensive senators.

He lived twenty-nine years and ruled three years, ten months and eight days. His body was conveyed secretly to
the gardens of the Lamian family
, where it was partly consumed on a hastily erected pyre and buried beneath a light covering of turf; later his sisters on their return from exile dug it up, cremated it, and consigned it to the tomb. Before this was done, it is well known that the caretakers of the gardens were disturbed by ghosts, and that in the house where he was slain not a night passed without some fearsome apparition, until at last the house itself was destroyed by fire. With him died his wife Caesonia, stabbed with a sword by a centurion, while his daughter's brains were dashed out against a wall.

As for Pilate's wife and child, the only clue to their later life is found in the text of the Third Epistle of Saint John:

The Elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth. Beloved, I pray in all respects that you might prosper and be in good health, as your soul prospers. For I was very glad when brethren came and testified to your truth, that is, that you were walking in the truth. I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in truth.

CAST OF CHARACTERS

HISTORICAL CHARACTERS

LUCIUS PONTIUS PILATE—
Roman soldier and statesman, protagonist

JULIUS TIBERIUS CAESAR—
Roman general and second Emperor of Rome

GAIUS OCTAVIUS JULIUS CAESAR AUGUSTUS—
First True Emperor of Rome

ARMINIUS—
Tribal leader from Germania; defeated Roman General Varus and took his Legions' eagle standards

CAIAPHAS—
Jewish high priest, ordered the arrest of Jesus of Nazareth

ANNAS—
Father-in-law of Caiaphas, former High Priest, powerful Jewish political leader

HEROD ANTIPAS—
Son of Herod the Great, tetrarch of Galilee, honorary “King of the Jews”

PROCULA PORCIA—
Wife of Pontius Pilate

GNAEUS POMPEIIUS MAGNUS—
AKA “Pompey the Great,” Roman general, consul, and statesman; political enemy of Julius Caesar

MARCUS ANTONIUS—
also “Marc Antony,” cousin and would-be successor of Julius Caesar, defeated by Octavian in 31 BC; committed suicide

GAIUS JULIUS CAESAR—
aka “Divus Julius”; Roman general, statesman, and dictator, adoptive father of Augustus, “the greatest Roman of them all”

CLEOPATRA—
Last of the Ptolemies to rule Egypt; lover of Julius Caesar and Marc Antony; committed suicide following their defeat in 31 BC

MARCUS AGRIPPA—
Roman General and statesman; right-hand man and closest friend of Caesar Augustus; married to Julia, the daughter of Augustus

QUINCTILIUS VARUS—
Roman general, defeated and killed by the Cheruscii in Germania; lost all three of his legions

GAIUS MARIUS—
Seven-time Consul of Rome, uncle of Julius Caesar, famous reformer and leader of the Roman army

GAIUS JULIUS CAESAR GERMANICUS—
Nephew of Tiberius, brilliant general, potential rival for the Imperial throne

LIVIA DRUSILLA JULIA AUGUSTA—
Mother of Tiberius and wife of Caesar Augustus

JULIA CAESARUS FILIA—
Daughter of Caesar Augustus and widow of Marcus Agrippa; married to Tiberius after her husband's death

AELIUS LAMIA—
Roman legate and Proconsul of Syria; Pilate's nominal superior

CLAUDIUS CAESAR GERMANICUS—
Stuttering younger brother of Germanicus, later Emperor of Rome

GNAEUS CALPURNIUS PISO—
Governor of Syria, accused murderer of Germanicus

GAIUS CAESAR GERMANICUS—
Germanicus' son, Tiberius' successor as Emperor of Rome

LUCIUS AELIUS SEJANUS—
Commander of the Praetorian Guard and confidant of Tiberius; ruled Rome while the Emperor was on Capri

DRUSUS JULIUS CAESAR—
Natural son of Tiberius and his first wife Vipsania, poisoned by his own wife Livilla in 23 AD

LIVILLA JULIA—
Sister of Claudius and Germanicus, wife of Tiberius' son Drusus, and his alleged murderess

QUINTUS SUTORIUS MACRO—
Second in command of the Praetorians under Sejanus, later commanded the Praetorians after supplanting him

VALERIUS GRATUS—
Governor of Judea before Pilate

JAMES OF GALILEE—
Carpenter, half-brother of Jesus, later emerges as church leader

JOSEPH CAIAPHAS—
Jewish priest who led protests against Pilate; later emerges as High Priest and leads the conspiracy against Jesus

LUCIUS VITELLIUS—
Governor of Syria in 36-40 AD, Pilate's superior

 

FICTIONAL CHARACTERS

DEMOCLES
—Pilate's Greek slave during his time as governor of Judea

DECIMUS PONTIUS PILATE
—Roman senator and businessman, father of Lucius Pontius Pilate

FLAVIUS SIXTUS
—Veteran Roman general, Pilate's commander

SEXTUS DIVIDICUS
—First Spear Centurion of Pilate's Legion in Germany

SOSTHENES
—Greek slave badly beaten by Pilate in Germania

DECIMUS TULLIUS
—Roman legate who succeeded Pilate in command of his legion

GAIUS PROCULUS PORCIUS
—Pilate's longtime friend and father-in-law

MARCIA PROCULUS SCRIBONIA
—Wife of Proculus, Pilate's mother-in-law

CORNELIUS SEPTIMUS PILATE
—Brother of Pontius Pilate, military officer

CORNELIA CLAUDIA PILATE
—Pilate's sister, died in childbirth

PONTIA PILATE APPIUS
—Pilate's sister, married to Appius Claudius Sempronius

MENCIUS MARCELLUS
—Chief steward of the Villa Jovis, Tiberius' palace on Capri

QUINTUS SULLEMIUS
—Smuggler, ship's captain, and Pilate's lackey

PORCIA MINOR
—Pilate's daughter

LINTUS ANTONINUS
—Roman proconsul, Pilate's successor as Governor of Spain

ARISTION
—Pilate's household steward

DIOMYRUS
—Captain of the ship that took Pilate to Judea

BRUTUS APPIUS
—Roman legionary known for his strength; promoted to centurion by Pilate

CASSIUS LONGINUS
—Senior centurion of Rome's Judean Legion, later known as Brother Gideon

TITUS AMBROSIUS
—Centurion of the Judean Legion

MARCUS QUIRINIUS
—Centurion of the Judean Legion

LUCIUS ANDRONICUS, MARCUS PULLO, and METELLIUS MACRO
—more Centurions of the Judean Legion (Pullo later killed by Zealots)

SIMON BIN-YOSEF
—Galilean peasant, led the protest against the Jerusalem aqueduct

BRUTUS VALENTIUS
—Legionary promoted to Centurion after the death of Pullo

CORNELIUS
—Legionary who went to hear John the Baptist, later converted by Peter's preaching

STYCHIUS
—Longinus' chief slave, later healed by Jesus

SCARSUS
—Numidian scout employed by the Romans to track Zealots

SILAS HIRTIUS
—Gallic cavalryman in the Judean legion

ARISTARCHUS
—Physician of the Judean legion

MILO LAMMIUS
—retired Roman legionary murdered by Bar Abbas

LUCIUS SCRIBONIUS
—Roman legionary of the Judean legion

MARCUS BALBUS PHILLIPUS
—Pilate's junior legate after 33 AD

TIMELINE OF EVENTS

42 BC—
Future Emperor Tiberius Caesar is born

31 BC—
Caesar Octavian Augustus becomes Emperor of Rome

16 BC -
Lucius Pontius Pilate is

1 BC—
Young Pilate is assigned to Tiberius as junior lieutenant

9 AD—
Quintcilius Varus and three Roman legions killed by the Cherusci

10 AD—
Pilate joins Tiberius on punitive expedition to Germania

11 AD—
Pilate wins the Civic Crown for valor defending his camp

12 AD—
Pilate returns to Rome with Tiberius, becomes Tribune of the Plebs, and marries 18-year-old Procula Porcia

14 AD—
Death of Augustus, Tiberius becomes Emperor

19 AD—
Death of Germanicus, Pilate deals with Calpurnius Piso

20 AD—
Pilate elected as Consul of Rome

21-24 AD—
Pilate serves as Governor of Further Spain

23 AD—
Death of Drusus Julius Caesar

24 AD—
Pilate returns to Rome; Tiberius proposes a marriage alliance

26 AD—
Tiberius takes up permanent residence on Capri; Pilate sent to Judea as governor; death of Porcia

27 AD—
Pilate serves as governor; stirs controversy over funding for a new aqueduct; Sejanus' reign of terror in Rome continues

28 AD—
Pilate's son Decimus is born; Pilate begins constructing Jerusalem aqueduct

29 AD—
Pilate orders dispersal of aqueduct protestors; John the Baptist begins preaching

30 AD—
John's ministry at its height; Jesus begins preaching in Galilee

31 AD—
Bar Abbas becomes a nuisance to Rome; John the Baptist killed by Herod, Jesus' public ministry gains a huge following