NewnewnewPhilo on Pilate: from The Embassy to Gaius, from
the
translation by C.D. Yonge, cut and pasted from the version posted
by
Peter Kirby, public domain.
XXXVIII. (299) "Moreover, I have it in my power to relate one act of
ambition on his part, though I suffered an infinite number of evils
when he was alive; but nevertheless the truth is considered dear,
and
much to be honoured by you. Pilate was one
of the emperor's lieutenants, having been appointed governor of
Judaea.
He, not more with the object of doing honour to Tiberius than with
that
of vexing the multitude, dedicated some gilt shields in the palace
of
Herod, in the holy city; which had no form nor any other forbidden
thing represented on them except some necessary inscription, which
mentioned these two facts, the name of the person who had placed
them
there, and the person in whose honour they were so placed there.
(300)
But when the multitude heard what had been done, and when the
circumstance became notorious, then the people, putting forward the
four sons of the king, who were in no respect inferior to the kings
themselves, in fortune or in rank, and his other descendants, and
those
magistrates who were among them at the time, entreated him to alter
and
to rectify the innovation which he had committed in respect of the
shields; and not to make any alteration in their national customs,
which had hitherto been preserved without any interruption, without
being in the least degree changed by any king of emperor. (301) "But
when he steadfastly refused this petition (for he was a man of a
very
inflexible disposition, and very merciless as well as very
obstinate),
they cried out: 'Do not cause a sedition; do not make war upon us;
do
not destroy the peace which exists. The honour of the emperor is not
identical with dishonour to the ancient laws; let it not be to you a
pretence for heaping insult on our nation. Tiberius is not desirous
that any of our laws or customs shall be destroyed. And if you
yourself
say that he is, show us either some command from him, or some
letter,
or something of the kind, that we, who have been sent to you as
ambassadors, may cease to trouble you, and may address our
supplications to your master.' (302) "But this last sentence
exasperated him in the greatest possible degree, as he feared least
they might in reality go on an embassy to the emperor, and might
impeach him with respect to other particulars of his government, in
respect of his corruption, and his acts of insolence, and his
rapine,
and his habit of insulting people, and his cruelty, and his
continual
murders of people untried and uncondemned, and his never ending, and
gratuitous, and most grievous inhumanity. (303) Therefore, being
exceedingly angry, and being at all times a man of most ferocious
passions, he was in great perplexity, neither venturing to take down
what he had once set up, nor wishing to do any thing which could be
acceptable to his subjects, and at the same time being sufficiently
acquainted with the firmness of Tiberius on these points. And those
who
were in power in our nation, seeing this, and perceiving that he was
inclined to change his mind as to what he had done, but that he was
not
willing to be thought to do so, wrote a most supplicatory letter to
Tiberius. (304) And he, when he had read it, what did he say of
Pilate,
and what
threats did he utter against him! But it is beside our purpose at
present to relate to you how very angry he was, although he was not
very liable to sudden anger; since the facts speak for themselves;
(305) for immediately, without putting any thing off till the next
day,
he wrote a letter, reproaching and reviling him in the most bitter
manner for his act of unprecedented audacity and wickedness, and
commanding him immediately to take down the shields and to convey
them
away from the metropolis of Judaea to Caesarea, on the sea which had
been named Caesarea Augusta, after his grandfather, in order that
they
might be set up in the temple of Augustus. And accordingly, they
were
set up in that edifice. And in this way he provided for two matters:
both for the honour due to the emperor, and for the preservation of
the
ancient customs of the city.
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