Pontius Pilate Capitulates to the Will of the People

“The gold, Pilatus, the gold; how can you use the Temple gold, Yahweh’s gold, for the aqueduct?” They were screaming louder and louder. The Sanhedrin, leaders of the Temple, were out in full force with their guards, mingling with the people, informing them of what Pilatus had done, urging them to yell louder and louder. The Sanhedrin guards would raise their clenched fists and yell to the portico, urging others to do the same. Pilatus motioned to his Roman guard and, within moments, assembled one hundred fully armed and helmeted legionnaires.

Pilatus had taken gold from the Temple without consulting the Chief Priest. In theory Rome controlled all finances within Judea and it was well within the authority of the Prefect to take any wealth he wished without need for justification. But it didn’t work that way in Judea. Rome needed the well wishes of the Jews to help in its on-going observations of Parthia. This was known to all who ruled the region, including the supervising Governor of Syria, Pilate’s overlord. Surely Pilatus knew it also and knew that the Temple priest would be sorely offended for touching his gold. It bordered on sacrilege. It was, they claimed, Yahweh’s wealth. Pilatus wished to show his power over them.

“You have stolen our gold, the gold from the Temple. You have spat upon our holy Temple, Pilatus. Yield, yield in the name of Yahweh.”

“The gold, give us back our gold,” clamored the crowd. The priests were close at hand.

Pilatus raised his two arms to the sky and spread his fingers, a sign demanding silence.

“The gold, we are the people of the one true God; give us, give Him our gold, Pilatus. We will not be silenced.”

The shocking thing was that Pilatus had used the gold to build an aqueduct that first entered and replenished the waters of the Temple and then fed the people of Jerusalem. He had thought this would put him in good with the Jews and here it was causing him grief because he had no understanding of the religious restrictions of the Jews. He would later repeat to me a saying that became almost a daily ritual for him: “It is impossible to rule these people; they are like no other in our Empire.”

Suddenly Pilatus spread his arms sideways and bowed his head, indicating a period of reconciliation. His spies had just apprised him that the Jews would never yield and would appeal this to Tiberius. Pilatus didn’t need a reprimand from Rome. On seeing his hands spread sideways and his head nodding, the crowd fell immediately silent. The shrewd Sadducees had worked long enough with Prefects in general and Pilatus in particular to know when compromise or, better still, total capitulation was in the offing.

“I have decreed that the gold taken from your Temple by Titus Galeria must be returned at once to your treasury. The denarii for the aqueduct, a system of water designed for the use of the Temple, will be drawn from Roman sources. So be it from the Palace of your Governor.” Titus Galeria, an invention of Pilatus, would never be heard from again.

The crowd cheered and bowed their heads.

“Long live the Emperor of Rome; long live his servant, Pontius Pilatus.” The Sanhedrin led the loud chorus of praise for “wise Pontius Pilatus, Prefect of Judea.”

Pilatus turned. Three female slaves, sensing his anger and frustration, rushed to fan him. He almost struck them and waved them off. His fists clenched and his eyes turned heavenward, I heard his oft-repeated curse: “May the gods ring down thunder and curses and send these people to Hades.”

I ran to his side “Pilatus, enough, enough.”

“No, my Claudia, they are a damnable and evil people.”

“But why, why my Pilatus, simply tell me why you chose to take their gold for this aqueduct?” I knew this would serve no purpose but I knew I had to get it out of my system.

“Enough Claudia,” he swung his body from me and feigned walking away.

“Tell me my Pilatus, tell me an answer to my question.”

“What, what Claudia? Why I took their gold? Enough; it is Rome’s gold; it is my gold. I am their ruler and they must know this and I must tell them this often. Don’t you see this, my love?”

“Pilatus, of course, of course it is Rome’s gold and of course you are their ruler but it is enough to know it; it need not be thrown at them each time you need to prove it to yourself.”

He slammed his fist against his chest and then slapped the column of the portico.

“No, my Claudia; you do not understand how a leader leads. I must each time force them to know who rules them. If I do not they will soon forget the ruler and do what they wish. You must understand, Claudia. I do not do this for myself but for Rome and our great and noble Emperor.”

This behavior, of course, struck the Jews as Roman arrogance and weakness in Pilatus. They had come to know how easily he could be provoked and then forced to yield when, as happened here again, they threatened to appeal to Rome. Pilatus did not see his vulnerability.

Pilatus had violent feelings about the Jews, about this inferior race. He restrained these feelings; his sense of justice prevailed. More importantly, of course, was the overriding mission of Rome: to control Judea as a buffer zone against Parthia. This required a peaceful relationship and political discretion when dealing with the Jews. It must also be said that Pilatus held back these feelings because of his fear that the Jewish authorities would report any infractions against them to Tiberius.

Nor could Pilatus possibly understand the violation of everything holy and sacred by robbing the Jewish Temple of its gold. It was donated by the people and held by the priests as a sacred trust. It was always under some control by Rome but it was, in long-standing Jewish tradition, god’s gold to be used only by the priests for holy things of god. Bad as Roman occupation was, raping their women, treating them as slaves, spitting at their god, their culture, their beliefs, even their dress and the food they ate, bad as all this was, to violate their Temple was the hardest thing the Jews could take from the occupying Romans. In their sad and lonely history these Jews saw their Temple wrecked or destroyed many times by occupying Empires.

But that was history for Pilatus and me. We were to sail in less than four hours and I pray to my goddess Minerva never to dwell or think of Judea or Parthia again.

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