GRANDDAUGHTER OF THRASYLLUS: Ennia Thrasylla married Sertorius Macro, Dio Cassius, lviii, 28.
THE ACTA: Pilate’s official acta have never been found, and these “excerpts” are merely a fractional attempt at reconstruction. The so-called Acta Pilati from the Gospel of Nicodemus is an early apocryphal writing with gross historical inaccuracies and fantasy, and therefore not a reliable source, though a little of its evidence is valuable. Eusebius stated that the “Acts of Pilate” which circulated under the pagan emperor Maximian in his campaign to subvert Christianity were forgeries which foundered on the impossible date assigned the crucifixion: 21 A.D. (Ecclesiastical History, i, 9). They have never been found. Counterforgeries of “Acts of Pilate” by Christians in the fourth century A.D. are of no greater value, and they have not been found. Noteworthy support for possible Acts of Pilate is provided by Justin Martyr, Apology, xxxv and xlviii (“…that these things did happen you can ascertain from the Acts of Pontius Pilate…”) and the early Latin church father Tertullian, who, in two famous passages from his Apology, stated:
It was in the age of Tiberius, then, that the Christian name went out into the world, and he referred to the Senate the news which he had received from Syria Palestine, which had revealed the truth of Christ’s divinity; he did this exercising his prerogative in giving it his endorsement. The Senate had not approved beforehand and so rejected it. Caesar held to his opinion and threatened danger to accusers of the Christians (Apologeticus, v, 2).
This whole story of Christ was reported to Caesar (at the time it was Tiberius) by Pilate, himself in his secret heart already a Christian. (Apologeticus, xxi, 24, both T. R. Glover’s translations in Loeb Classical Library.)
While this may be succulent source material for a historical novelist, it cannot, in honesty, be used in a documented historical novel. Although so early an authority as Tertullian (born ca. 150 A.D.) must be heard with respect, his account of Pilate’s report to Tiberius would seem an inaccurate presumption on his part, or a less than critical use of interpolated documents. The cited passages do not ring true for several reasons. If Pilate did write his emperor about “the truth of Christ’s divinity,” he would also have had to admit to the colossal blunder of crucifying him. In his present probationary position, Pilate could not have afforded such an advertising of error. Even less likely would have been Tiberius’s favorable attitude toward the divinity of Christ, since he detested deification of himself or anyone else. Nor would the Senate have rejected something which the emperor favored.
THE SYRIAN LEGIONS: In Rome’s military, only the Syrian legions had not displayed Sejanus’s image in their standards, according to Suetonius, Tiberius, xlviii.
POMPONIUS FLACCUS: Tacitus, Annals, vi, 27. Although Tacitus cites Flaccus’s death among the events of 33 A.D., he does not follow a strict chronological order in every case, and other evidence indicates that Flaccus did not die until 35 A.D., see Schürer, op. cit., I, 1, pp. 363 ff.
THE PHOENIX: Tacitus, Annals, vi, 28. AVILLIUS FLACCUS: Philo, In Flaccum, xi, 92.
STEPHEN AND THE PERSECUTION: Acts 6–8.
VITELLIUS: Tacitus, Annals, vi, 32. Josephus, Antiq., xviii, 4, 4–5, is accurate in placing this event in the reign of Tiberius rather than of Caligula, as is erroneously done by Suetonius, Gaius Caligula, xiv, 3, and Dio Cassius, lix, 27, 3.
THE MOSAIC PHOPHECY: Deuteronomy 18:15.
THE TAHEB AND SAMARITAN ESCHATOLOGY: Cp. John MacDonald, The Theology of the Samaritans (London: SCM Press, 1964), pp. 361 ff. James A. Montgomery, The Samaritans (Philadelphia: Winston, 1907) is still of value, cp. pp. 86, 234 ff. The military responsibilities of the Taheb grew in Samaritan beliefs in the early centuries A.D.
THE SAMARITAN INSURRECTION: Josephus, Antiq., xviii, 4, 1–2.
CAIAPHAS COMMENDS PILATE: This is merely an assumption, but it is based on a preferable and logical reading of “Samaritans” instead of the variant “Jews” in the text of Josephus, Antiq., xviii, 4, 2, as those who accused Pilate, as well as on the great traditional hostility between Jews and Samaritans.
MARCELLUS AND PILATE’S DISMISSAL: Josephus, loc. cit.
VITELLIUS’S VISIT TO JERUSALEM: Josephus, Antiq., xv, 11, 4; xviii, 5, 1.
PILATE’S DEPARTURE: Josephus, Antiq., xviii, 4, 2–3. A late December, 36, departure for Pilate is plausibly suggested by E. Mary Smallwood. “The Date of the Dismissal of Pontius Pilate from Judaea,” The Journal of Jewish Studies 5 (1954), 12–21.
CHAPTER 22 (PAGES 290–299)
TRAVEL IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE: A. M. Ramsay, “The Speed of the Roman Imperial Post,” Journal of Roman Studies 15 (1925), 60–74. Also W. M. Ramsay, “Roads and Travel (in NT),” in Hastings’ A Dictionary of the Bible, V (1927), 375–402.
THE CONVERSION OF SAUL: Acts 9:1–30. Any conversation between Pilate and Saul is pure conjecture, of course, but there is a strong probability that they were both in Tarsus at the end of 36 or the beginning of 37, Pilate on his overland return trip to Rome, and Saul in his Cilician silent years after his first visit to Jerusalem in 35/36 (Galatians 1:18, 21). For the determination of Pauline chronology in this connection, see Jack Finegan, Handbook of Biblical Chronology (Princeton, 1964), p. 321.
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.