Pontius Pilate [suicide (?) ca. 38 CE]
The best known Roman governor of Judea to later history because of his role in the accounts of Jesus' execution. Pilate probably came from the ranks of cavalry officers [equites] from which Rome regularly drew the prefects of smaller occupied provinces like Judea. His appointment as prefect of Judea in the latter half of the reign of Tiberius---when the brutal Praetorian captain Sejanus was de facto ruler of Rome---is confirmed by reports in Josephus & a stone found in 1962 at Caesarea Maritima [the capitol of the Roman province of Palestine], inscribed: "[Thi]s Tiberieum [Pon]tius Pilatus, Prefect of Judea, [mad]e." |
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Perspective on the World of Jesus
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by Mahlon
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an American Theological
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