Judas has hanged himself. Now the Jewish elders petition to have Jesus executed.
Nondum picta novo caeli plaga mane rubebat,------------
iamque sacerdotes concursu cuncta replentes
vestibulum juxta astabant, longisque fremebant
porticibus. nempe antiquo de more licebat [85]
ulli luce sacra pollutum insistere limen.
Tandem Romulides, iuveuum stipante caterva,
fascibus egreditur patriis, ostroque superbus,
et solio ante fores sedit sublimis eburno.
Consedere patres pariter iuxta ordine et ipsi, [90]
atque diu siluere. Orsus dux denique fatur:
“Dicite, quo tandem demitti crimine morti
poscitis egregium iuvenem. quaesivimus ipsi
et genus, et vitam. Nil dignum morte repertum.
sed potius factis fama illum ingentibus Eifert. [95]
Ut propius vinctum vidi, audivique loquentem
ut stupui! ut visus mihi nil mortale sonare
cuneta deo similis vultum, vocemque oculosque!
Aut certe deus ille, dei aut certissima proles.
Cedite. Ne regem vestrum ignorate volentes.” [100]
The sky had not yet painted itself dawn-red------------
as the priests gathered in a solid throng
standing outside the palace, quarrelling
in the portico. For, by ancient custom, [85]
none could cross an unsanctified threshold
on a holy day. At last the Roman came
with his youths, proud in purple, bearing fasces,
and sat at the front on an ivory throne.
The elders likewise sat down in order [90]
and were long silent. At last, the ruler spoke:
“Tell me then: what's the crime that merits death
for this outstanding young man? I myself looked
into his tribe and life: nothing worthy of death!
Rather, fame exalts him for his great deeds. [95]
And when I met the prisoner, heard him speak:
amazing! In no way a mortal, he has,
a god-like face, and voice and eyes, if not
a god himself, the offspring of a god!
Yield to him. Do not deny your true King.” [100]
Now Vida has to pay-out on the massive 2000-line investment of Books 2 and 3, in which Pilate sympathetically listens to a minute account of all Jesus's divine virtues. Common sense would suggest he simply release the prisoner, and indeed instantly convert to Christianity. Instead he hears the petition of the hostile city elders. We know what he is eventually going to decide, and it's hard to see how he comes out of it as anything other than weak and cowardly.
Vida, classically educated, is better informed about ancient Roman custom and practice than he is about ancient (or contemporary) Jewish ones. So this is indeed how a Roman magistrate or governor would hear official petitions. All the various details here convey that he holds imperium, that is potestas or legal power (as opposed to auctoritas, or reputational power/influence). He is seated on a curule chair, wears the imperial toga and carries (line 88) the fasces lictoriae—an axe bundled in with a number of thin sticks and tied together. The point of this symbol is simple enough: each individual stick is easy to snap; but tied together the bundle cannot be so easily broken. We are stronger together. It is after the fasces, pictured above, that Mussolini's later ‘fascists’ named themselves.
Pilate's official title was prefect (not the higher rank of legate, magistrate or procurator) because Judea was seen by the Romans as a low-important province, technically an annex of Syria. However he had a great deal of leeway in how he ran the territory. He was responsible for collecting tributes and taxes, and for disbursing funds, including the minting of coins, and he was head of the judicial system, with the power to inflict capital punishment.
[Next: lines 101-152]
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