Pontius Pilate: Deciphering a Memory

Pontius Pilate is well known as the Roman prefect who presided over the trial and crucifixion of Jesus Christ, but much of what we know of him is more myth than fact, so Schiavone (Spartacus: Revealing Antiquity), a professor of Roman law at the Instituto Italiano di Scienze Umane, revisits the time and place of Christ’s crucifixion to bring a more historically sound picture to light. He takes a look at who Pilate was before he became governor of Judea and examines the culture, religion, and politics that led to the arrest of the “King of the Jews.” Using the Gospels as well as secular historical texts (which he finds more reliable), Schiavone delves into Pilate’s interrogation of Jesus to discover why the dialogue switches from vague amazement to theology, and then explores the tacit understanding between the prefect and the condemned regarding the inevitability of the trial’s outcome. Schiavone compares the information available from many sources to construct a comprehensive and thought-provoking explanation of what took place between Pilate and Jesus, expanding the narrow portrait of a man about which little is known beyond this one encounter. [em](Feb.) [/em]