Book 2, lines 216-252

[Previous: lines 196-215]

In the temple Nicodemus has attempted to defend Jesus; but the assembled elders are full of anger and hatred. Now the high priest, Caiaphas, replies to Nicodemus's speech.

Tum verò Caïphas, ubi facta silentia linguis,
sic orsus, sibi quae sedeat sententia pandit.
“Haud equidem moror, ô cives, quòd versus ad hostes
iste etiam infando captus perfugerit astu,
qui toties summa pro re, pro legibus olim                   [220]
objecit patriis caput ultrò, ipsumque premebat
obnitens contrà nuper sermonibus hostem.
Tanta est artificis pellacia, vis ea fandi,
ut quoscunque velit vertat, superetque venenis.
Scilicet hunc credam cœlo divinitus actum                 [225]
nobis venisse auxilio, qui se impius ortum
patre Deo canit; ac leges abolere parentum
antiquas cupit, atque novos inducere ritus;
seque ultrò excidio templi venisse fatetur,
quod nostri, monitis olim cœlestibus acti,                   [230]
impensis tantorum operum, struxere parentes.
Quae novitas, aut relligio, qui denique mores?
Ille etiam, ne quid sceleris sibi restet inausum,
sacrilegus sontes, et quorum crimina nota,
prosequitur veniâ, haud veritus scelerata subire          [235]
limina, nec festis parcit de more diebus.
Ergo agite, atque illi insidias, letumque merenti
maturate viri : crescentem extinguite flammam,
ne mox subsiliat victrix ad tecta domorum,
degustetque trabes, perque ardua culmina regnet.        [240]
Subvertet solitis aliter totam artibus urbem
seditione potens, populos captabit, et omnem
subjiciet sibi prodigiis fallacibus oram.
Hinc quae tot nobis annos tam prospera cessit
relligio, eversis actutum desinet aris.                            [245]
Tum metuo, ne Romulidae, non talia passi,
quicquid adhuc iuris superest à gente reposcant,
et profugos patria iubeant decedere terra.
Unum pro multis detur caput, unius omnes
expiet, ac tutos mors tanto in turbine praestet.              [250]
Hoc habet, haec melior superet sententia, cives:
haec illi ob numen dona, hunc reddamus honorem.”

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So Caiaphas, once the hubbub subsided,
and the crowd again took their seats, spoke out:
“Fellow citizens: who cares that this man has
defected to our unspeakable foe?
He who’d often pressed hard in defence of               [220]
our ancient laws, attacking the enemy
fiercely in debate, has now surrendered to him.
It just goes to show how alluring, how
poisonously eloquent this enemy can be.
Are we to believe he’s come from high heaven             [225]
to help us—that, as he impiously claims,
God Himself is his father? When he declares
he’s here to abolish our ancient rites and laws?
He openly boasts he will destroy the temple
our people constructed at heaven’s command,               [230]
built with the sweat of our forefathers’ brows!
‘Novelty’? What of religion and morals?
This is the man, leaving no outrage undared,
who pardons heretics and other criminals,
who keeps company with notorious villains                 [235]
in their houses, even on sabbath days.
So: let’s get him. Lay our traps to take this
unholy man: extinguish this growing fire,
before it rages, gloating, through all our homes,
consuming the very rafters and high roofs!                   [240]
Otherwise he will subvert the whole city
with his potent treachery, enslaving all
our people with his prodigal trickery.
Through him our religion, which has prospered for
so long, will collapse, its altars derelict.                        [245]
And then I fear the Romans will lose patience,
will grab whatever is left of our homeland
and exile its inhabitants to wander the earth.
Let the death of one man expiate the sins
of us all, and win us safety from the storm.                   [250]
He's had it! let my better idea prevail, friends:
this be the tribute we pay his ‘divinity’!”

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The interesting thing about this speech, I think, is the way it displays Vida attempting (for the first time in the poem, I think) irony. Caiaphas warns that, unless Jesus is stopped, the Romans will seize Judea and the Jews will become exiles, which is, of course, exactly what transpired. The couplet towards the end is nicely ambiguous: unum pro multis detur caput, unius omnes/expiet, ac tutos mors tanto in turbine praestet. Let the death of one man expiate the sins of us all, and win us safety from the storm. Caiaphas means: by executing this heretic we will preserve the traditional religion of the Jews; but he is also, unwittingly, articulating the fundamental theological truth of Christianity. What's less obvious, perhaps, is that Vida is (again) playing Vergillian intertextual games. Line 249's ‘one will die in the place of many’ unum pro multis detur caput is a whisker away from Vergil's unum pro multis dabitur caput [Aeneid 5:815]—the one, in this case, being Palinurus, who sleepily falls from Aeneas's ship and drowns, because the gods have struck a deal: Neptune wants the sacrifice of one human life in order to grant Venus's request to save and protect her son. And line 251's Hoc habet is Aeneid 12:296, when Tuscan Aulestes trips and falls during battle and the Trojan warrior Messapus closes in for the kill. ‘He's had it!’ is how Fairclough and Goold render the phrase in their translation of Vergil, adding a helpful little note: ‘i.e., he has had his death blow: an expression used by spectators when a gladiator was fatally hit.’ Christ the Gladiator is a strange and rather compelling idea, although one worth pursuing I think.

[Next: lines 253-272]