Pontius Pilate: A Novel
Page 42
EVENTS AT ROME IN 34–37 A.D.: Tacitus, Annals, vi, 28–49.
POMPONIUS LABEO: Annals, vi, 29.
THE “THREE-MONTH RULE”: Dio Cassius, liii, 15, 6.
DEATH OF TIBERIUS: Tacitus, Annals, vi, 50; Suetonius, Tiberius, lxxiii; Dio Cassius, lviii, 28. That Tiberius died before Pilate reached Rome is stated by Josephus, Antiq., xviii, 4, 2. Tacitus and Suetonius suggest that Macro and/or Caligula may have accelerated the death of Tiberius by smothering him under pillows, or administering a slow poison.
CHAPTER 23 (PAGES 300–314)
REACTION TO TIBERIUS’S DEATH: Suetonius, Tiberius, lxxv. However, some later historians, notably Theodor Mommsen, would rank Tiberius among Rome’s finest emperors.
CALIGULA’S EARLY PRINCIPATE: Tacitus, Annals, vi, 45–51; Suetonius, Gaius Caligula, i–xvi; Dio Cassius, lix, 1–9.
GAIUS PONTIUS NIGRINUS: Suetonius, Tiberius, lxxiii; Dio Cassius, lviii, 27. Some relationship between Pilate and the consul Nigrinus—if not specifically “second cousin”—is assumed from their common gens name.
THALLUS: “Thallus” is the emendation made by most scholars at the difficult passage of Josephus, Antiq., xviii, 6, 4, where the Greek would read “another” rather than “Thallus.”
PILATE’S DEFENSE: Subsequent events within Samaria itself make Pilate’s apparently harsh conduct in this episode seem almost lenient by comparison. Some years later, Vespasian’s commander Cerealis slaughtered 11,600 Samaritans on Mount Gerizim, according to Josephus, Wars, iii, 7, 32.
MOUNT GERIZIM: The story of Agrippa forms its own novelette in the pages of Josephus. Cp, Antiq., xviii, 6, and Wars, ii, 9, 5–6.
CHAPTER 24 (PAGES 315–333)
THE FATE OF ANTIPAS AND HERODIAS: Josephus, Antiq., xviii, 7. In his Wars, ii, 9, 6, Josephus cites Spain rather than Gaul as the place of exile, which is not a large discrepancy since this Lugdunum was not the modem Lyons in France, but Lugdunum Convenarum near the Pyrenees and the Spanish border.
VITELLIUS’S SYCOPHANCY: Dio Cassius, lix, 27, 4–6.
THE LATER CALIGULA: Suetonius, Gaius Caligula, i–xlii; Dio Cassius, lix. While the anti-imperial bias of Suetonius must be taken into account, his negative portrait of Gaius is supported by the version of Dio Cassius. Caligula was apparently a victim of megalomania and other mental disorders. Unfortunately, the record of Tacitus is lost for the entire reign of Gaius.
CALIGULA’S MILITARY EXPLOITS: Suetonius, Gaius Caligula, xlvi–xlvii; Dio Cassius, lix, 25, 2 ff. Some scholars question the truth of the seashell and false-prisoner stories.
AGRIPPA’S LETTER TO CALIGULA: Philo, De Legatione ad Gaium, xxxviii.
AGRIPPA’S BANQUET: Josephus, Antiq., xviii, 8. Josephus makes no mention of the letter cited by Philo.
SOURCES FOR THE REIGN OF CALIGULA: Suetonius, Gaius Caligula; Dio Cassius, lix; Josephus, Antiq., xviii, 6–8 to xix, 1; Wars, ii, 9–10; Philo, In Flaccum; De Legatione ad Gaium.
CHAPTER 25 (PAGES 334–342)
AGRIPPA AND CLAUDIUS: Josephus, Antiq., xix, 2–5; Wars, ii, 11, 1–6.
THE EARLY REIGN OF CLAUDIUS: Josephus, loc. cit.; Suetonius, Divus Claudius, x–xii; xlii; Dio Cassius, lx, 1–8.
AGRIPPA AND THE NORTH WALL OF JERUSALEM: Josephus, Antiq., xix, 7, 2.
CHAPTER 26 (PAGES 343–354)
PILATE CHILDLESS?: Whether he and Procula did or did not have children is not known. No mention of any is made in the sources.
NAUSIPHANES: cited by Seneca, Epistulae Morales, 1xxxviii, 45: “Hoc unum certum est nikil esse certi.”
DEATH OF AGRIPPA: Josephus, Antiq., xix. 8, 2; Acts 12:20–23.
AGRIPPA’S COINAGE AND STATUES: Josephus, Antiq., xix, 9.
AGRIPPA, JAMES, AND PETER: Acts 12:1 ff.
PETER’S VISIT TO CORNELIUS: Acts 10:1–11:18.
PENTHEUS AND DIONYSUS: Euripides, The Bacchae.
PROCULA, AQUILA, AND PRISCILLA: According to a very early tradition, Pilate’s wife became a Christian, see Origen, Commentarii in Matthaeum, 121–22 (ed. Migne, XIII, 918). Probably the earliest Christian congregation at Rome met in the home of Aquila and Priscilla, presumably on the Aventine Hill. See Acts 18:1 ff.; 1 Corinthians 16:19 ff.; Romans 16:3 ff.
EPILOGUE (PAGES 355–356)
THE PILATE LEGENDS: For a summary of these, see Morison, op. cit., pp. 231–41.
“A CHRISTIAN IN HIS CONSCIENCE”: Tertullian, Apologeticus, xxi, 24: “ipse iam pro sua conscientia Christianus.”
The Mediterranean World in the First Century
Palestine in the First Century