Slowly Pilate reacted. “And now, of course, he’ll make his move against all supporters of Sejanus.”
“You can’t blame him for that.”
“I…I must have time to think, Procula. It was good of you to get me…the facts.”
* The Roman date for 31 A.D. “A.U.C.” signifies Ab Urbe Condita, “from the founding of the city,” i.e., Rome.
Chapter 14
Pilate knew that the next months would determine his future career, even his life itself. That he could share in the fall of Sejanus was easily possible, since he heard that friends, supporters, and appointees of the fallen prefect were being imprisoned to await trial by the Senate on charges of maiestas, treason in “diminishing the majesty of the Roman People.” The end might come in the form of a letter of recall, delivered by a praetorian courier fresh from Rome. More likely, a newly commissioned prefect of Judea would land in Caesarea with orders for him to return to Rome for trial. Each large ship arriving at the harbor struck a twinge of uncertainty in him.
Or might the fates be kind and allow Tiberius to forget his close association with Sejanus? It was nearly six years since his last visit with the princeps under Sejanus’s patronage, and the only thing Tiberius might likely recall from that occasion would be the collapse of the grotto. No, that was wishful thinking. The rockfall would only anchor the entire visit, and what had preceded it, more securely in the emperor’s mind.
But the Tiberiéum. Pilate’s last direct word from the princeps before the fall of Sejanus had been favorable, a message of appreciation for the now-completed basilica and an accolade for Jerusalem’s new water system. The fact that the aqueduct cost Rome hardly a sesterce had been especially appealing to Tiberius, who made an act of worship out of balancing the imperial budget. Yet if he did remain in the emperor’s good graces, Pilate’s acta for 31, an end-of-the-year report, should have received some acknowledgment, some indication that it would be “business as usual” in Judea despite the upheavals in Rome. But no word from Tiberius had arrived.
In making policy, the princeps would probably lean heavily now on Sertorius Macro, the new praetorian prefect. Pilate reviewed his relationship with Macro, whom he had known casually as a fellow tribune at the Castra Praetoria, but there was little from this earlier acquaintance to indicate how he would advise Tiberius concerning Judea. A good hater, Macro was already happily at work, bringing Sejanians to trial.
New policies and changes of officials in the Near East now seemed the order of the day. Aelius Lamia, the absentee governor of Syria, was graduated from that phantom post to become urban prefect of Rome, while Pomponius Flaccus succeeded him in Syria. And Flaccus actually sailed east to assume his governorship. For the first time, then, Pilate would have a higher-ranking colleague overlooking his shoulders from the north, a possible hamper on his freedom.
Down in Egypt, Vitrasius Pollio had been in office only a matter of months when he died, and, after an interim appointment, Tiberius sent another man named Flaccus, A. Avillius Flaccus, to succeed him. So change was in the air, and Pilate could only wonder when it would be his turn, especially after the execution of his patron. But still no letter from Capri or Rome.
He made his usual trip to Jerusalem for the Passover festival in 32, but this time his retinue carried along some well-wrapped and crated pieces of freight. During the journey he kept an anxious eye on the joggling bundles, for they represented his latest proof of loyalty to Tiberius, something of which he had maximum need at the time.
Ideally, there should have been something like the Tiberiéum for the other capital of his province, Jerusalem, a public edifice in honor of the emperor. Pilate now cursed himself for not having thought to name the new water system there the “Tiberian Aqueduct.” Herod Antipas, with his perennial courting of the princeps, his “Tiberianizing” of every place name in Galilee, might now rank higher in the emperor’s favor than in the days of Sejanus. Pilate had to find some way of honoring the princeps in the heart of the Holy City itself, but without offending the Jews in the process. The solution lay in the packages.
This time he had to be especially careful not to antagonize the Jews, for rumors poured out of Rome that since Sejanus had been anti-Semitic, Tiberius was now veering toward a pro-Jewish policy. As a first step, exiled Jews were being encouraged to return to Rome. Jerusalem, of course, had hailed the fall of Sejanus with rejoicing, and in view of the restored status of Jews in the Empire, Pilate had cautiously ordered his provincial mint to stop producing coins with a lituus symbol, the Roman augur’s spiral-headed staff which Pilate, under pressure from Sejanus, had intended as a Romanizing gesture in Judea. But now was no time to offend his subjects with the pagan crosier motif, and the pressure behind such coinage was dead anyway.
After arriving at Herod’s palace in Jerusalem, Pilate carefully unwrapped his bundles and had servants polish the contents. They were large heraldic shields, heavily coated with gold, which bore the simple inscription:
In Honor of
TIBERIVS CAESAR
Dedicated by
PONTIUS
PILATVS
His goldsmiths in Caesarea had worked the shields handsomely, and Pilate carefully hung them in the great reception hall of the Herodian palace.
He thought the gesture well-suited to his purposes. The gleaming escutcheons were a public demonstration of his loyalty to the emperor, in the very city which had once demanded the removal of medallions with his image. A sample of the shields was already en route to Capri, along with a notice of their forthcoming dedication in the Jerusalem palace. Tiberius was known to like that kind of thing: trophies, citations, plaques, and other tokens of recognition fairly cluttered his personal offices both on the Palatine and at Capri.
And the shields could hardly offend the Jews. They contained no tracings or engravings to represent anything animate or inanimate. No images. Only lettering. Nothing on the shields, then, was contrary to Hebrew law, for the law did not condemn written inscriptions.
The next morning, Pilate was doubly glad that he had been careful regarding Jewish sensitivities. A courier arrived from Caesarea, bringing a long-awaited—and long-dreaded—message from Tiberius. Pilate had just missed receiving it when he set out for Jerusalem. With throbbing pulse he nervously slit the seals with his dagger and read the following, written before the sample shield had arrived:
Tiberius Caesar Augustus, pontifex maximus, consul five times, acclaimed imperator, holding the tribunician power for the thirty-third year, to Pontius Pilatus, praefectus Iudaeae, greeting. If you are in health, it is well. I also and the army are well.
Following the death of the traitor, murderer, and enemy of Rome, Sejanus, I have learned that the accusations he made against the Jews of Rome are false slanders, invented by him to do away with the Jewish nation. From henceforth, penal measures will extend only to Jews guilty of actual crimes, and not to their entire people as such.