CHAPTER 3 (PAGES 43–56)
GAIUS PONTIUS: Livy, Ab Urbe Condita Libri, ix, 1 ff.
PONTIUS TELESINUS: Velleius Paterculus, Historia Romana, ii, 27, 2.
AEMILIUS RECTUS: Dio Cassius, lvii, 10, 5.
THRASYLLUS: Tacitus, Annals, vi, 20–21; Suetonius, Tiberius, xiv. Thrasyllus was referring to the Great Conjunction of planets in 7 B.C., which appears only once in eight centuries.
PONTIUS AQUILA: Suetonius, Divus Iulius, lxxviii; Appian, Roman History—The Civil Wars, xi, 16 (113); and Dio Cassius, xlvi, 38, 40.
TIBERIUS’S ENTOURAGE AND THE COLLAPSE OF THE GROTTO: Tacitus, Annals, iv, 57–59; Suetonius, Tiberius, xxxix–xl. A description of the modern excavation of the grotto at Sperlonga is given in Paul MacKendrick, The Mute Stones Speak (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1960), pp. 173–78. Later emperors tried to reclaim the grotto, but it was not really used again until World War II, when it served as an ammunition cache. The great cavern was first excavated in the summer of 1957, in connection with road improvements along the Italian west coast, when ruins of the pool and much statuary were discovered.
CHAPTER 4 (PAGES 57–65)
“CAESAR’S FRIENDS”: Suetonius, Tiberius, xlvi. It was Pilate’s status as amicus Caesaris which was threatened during Jesus’ trial. Cp. John 19:12 and Ernst Bammel, “Philos tou Kaisaros,” Theologische Literaturzeitung, 77 (April, 1952), 206–10.
PROCULEIUS AND CLEOPATRA: see the first note under Chapter 2, above.
ANTIPATER AND CAESAR: Josephus. Antiq., xiv, 8.
CHAPTER 5 (PAGES 66–75)
CAESAREA: This description of the harbor and the city is based on Josephus, Antiq., xv, 9, 6; and Jewish Wars (hereafter Wars), i, 21, 5–8.
VALERIUS GRATUS: Josephus, Antiq., xviii, 2, 2.
“HEROD’S PIG”: Macrobius, Saturnalia, ii, 4.
HEROD AND ROME: Josephus, Antiq., xiv, 14 and xv, 6; Wars, i, 14 and 20.
HEROD’S DEATH: Josephus, Antiq., xvii, 6–8.
HEROD AND THE MAGI: Matthew 2:1–12.
“YOU MUST NOT PUT A FOREIGNER…” Deuteronomy 17:15.
MEMBERS OF THE SANHEDRIN: Besides the New Testament, reference to CAIAPHAS, ELEAZAR, JONATHAN, and BEN-PHABI is found in Josephus, Antiq., xviii, 2, 2, and 4, 3. Additional information on Ishmael ben-Phabi comes from Pesahim 57a (Babylonian Talmud) and Yoma 35b. ALEXANDER: Acts 4:6; Josephus, Antiq., xviii, 6, 3. ANANIAS BEN-NEBEDEUS: Acts 24:1; Josephus, Antiq., xx, 5, 2. The Babylonian Talmud also calls him Johanan ben Narbai or Nidbai, and charges him with gluttony in Pesahim 57a. Cp. also Kerithoth 28b. HELCIAS (or Helkias): Josephus, Antiq., xx, 8, 11. GAMALIEL: Acts 5:34–39; 22:3 and passim in the Mishnah and Talmud. JOCHANAN BEN-ZAKKAI: Sotah 27b ff.; 40a; 49b; Gittin 56a; and passim in Mishnah and Talmud.
CHAPTER 6 (PAGES 76–92)
COHORS AUGUSTA SEBASTENORUM: presumed from Acts 27:1, and named in Corpus inscriptionum Latinarum, vi, No. 3508.
“…NOT MAKE YOURSELVES A GRAVEN IMAGE”: Exodus 20:4–5, the classic restriction against idolatry.
RELIGIOUS SIGNIFICANCE OF ENSIGNS: see Josephus, Wars, vi, 6, 1 for an instance of Roman soldiers sacrificing to their standards in Jerusalem after the fall of the city.
“GOD IS OUR REFUGE…”: Psalm 46:1–2, 6, 9–11.
JEWISH PAINTING AND SCULPTURE: Vogelstein, op. cit., pp. 35 ff., cites instances in Mesopotamia and Rome.
HEROD AND THE GOLDEN EAGLE: Josephus, Antiq., xvii. 6, 3.
THE AFFAIR OF THE STANDARDS: Josephus, Antiq., xviii, 3, 1; Wars, ii, 9, 2–3. Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, ii, 5, 7 ff., is just a reflection of Josephus. A modern scholarly interpretation of this incident is provided by Carl H. Kraeling, “The Episode of the Roman Standards at Jerusalem,” Harvard Theological Review 35 (October, 1942), 263–89.
CHAPTER 7 (PAGES 93–105)
CAESAREA: Josephus, Antiq., xv, 9, 6; Wars, i, 21, 7.
PILATE’S TIBERIÉUM INSCRIPTION: Probably in tribute to Tiberius, Pilate used Latin at a time and place where Greek would ordinarily have been used. Originally embedded in the Tiberiéum, the inscribed stone was reused—long after Pilate’s time—in constructing a theater, among whose ruins it was found by the Italian archaeologists. Unfortunately, some of the facing of the inscription had been chipped away, leaving only the lettering shown to the left. To the right is the suggested reconstruction:
–STIBERIÉVM [CAESARIENS]S. (IBVS)TIBERIÉVM –TIVSPILATVS [PON]TIVSPILATVS –ECTVSIVDAE [PRAEF]ECTVSIVDA[EA]E –È [D]È[DIT]
See Antonio Frova, “L’Iscrizione di Ponzio Pilato a Cesarea,” Rendiconti Istituto Lombardo (Accademia di Scienze e Lettere), 95 (1961), 419–34.
Of great importance is the inscription’s reference to Pilate as “prefect,” which corrects the title of “procurator” usually ascribed to him, based on anachronisms in Josephus (Wars, ii, 9, 2) and Tacitus (Annals, xv, 44). During the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius, governors of Judea were called prefects. Claudius first changed their title to procurator. The New Testament very accurately refrains from calling Pilate procurator, using the Greek for governor instead.
Frova conjectures that the Tiberiéum might have been a “piazza porticata” near the theater of Herod, possibly a kind of “porticus post scaenam.” The Pilate inscription at Caesarea is also discussed by B. Lifshitz, “Inscriptions latines de Césarée,” Latomus, XXII (1963), 783; and by Attilio Degrassi, “Sull’Iscrizione di Ponzio Pilato,” Rendiconti dell’Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Classe di Scienze morali, storiche e filologiche, XIX (Marzo–Aprile, 1964), 59–65, who suggests “[Dis Augusti]s” instead of Frova’s “[Caesarien s.” in the first line. While it is possible that Pilate might have dedicated the Tiberiéum to the “divine Augustans” (i.e., Augustus and Livia), as Degrassi admits, Livia was not officially consecrated until 42 A.D., and even allowing for such an eastern-style anticipatory gesture as this, it would seem unlikely that Pilate, knowing Tiberius’s attitude toward his mother and step-father, would have made such a dedication. Frova’s original suggestion, then, seems most appropriate.
ARCHELAUS: Josephus, Antiq., xvii, 13, 1–5; Matthew 2:22.