the procurator of judaea

another short by anatole france.  certainly different than crainquebille in many ways.  but still ironic.  not as sad, but in a way, still kinda sad. 

even the man who                pilate, did you                                 be sure to always
presided over the sad           put down the son of god but           try to see the world from the
death of christ forgets.         didn't really want to?                       perspective of them.
 
i tagged this one as religion, and it is, i guess.  it deals, in a roundabout way, with the crucifixion of christ.  (a note to about proper nouns - gotta just get over it...) but, in its ... smallness - it's more or less just two guys who meet up on the road and chat for awhile - this is a story about seeing things from other people's points of view.  i tagged it with the word perspective.  this is a very human look at the apparatus known as crucifixion. and a slice of life in the roman empire circa 50 ad.

to my little note (forgive the indulgence), this little story might actually be a little inkblot.  i mean that the same person who offers to correct another person, say, for writing the word god sin capital G, is, i will now deduce, the same person who isn't interested in considering pilate's point of view.  or only insofar as it fits into his own philosophical scheme.  and insodoing, he becomes the pilate of this story.  i should be careful here.  this isn't a complaint.  i'm not trying to overtly rail 'gainst the true believers out there.  it's just an thought, is all.  or more like a guess. from the teachings i received it's like...pilate was a tool by which the mechanism of the lord's will was carried out.  pilate is like everybody in joseph's life, including pharaoh.' this is a christian interpretation.  you aren't advised to read these stories critically. it's true.  or, it used to be true.  and that means that it's still kind of true.  were it not for men like martin luther, william tyndale, john colet, the christian church wouldn't have even have let you hear the text in english, let alone read it.  the printing press made us all salivate so much that the church had no choice but to lose an enormous amount of power.  because words are power.  or maybe the church would've naturally gradually loosened its hold on the uber-precious raw materials of its faith.  but maybe it was more about authenticity.  one of steinbeck's finest ideas is that of lee, and the chinese scholars from east of eden.  these men doubt the translation of the cain and abel story.  they have no faith in it.  they think critically about it.  so they find a text written in hebrew and translate it themselves.  they determine that the word timshel (defined as thou mayest) is an important concept in the moral of cain and abel.  the power, always, to choose.  same for cain, same for jesus, same for pilate.  an inkblot for all of us maybe.

so in this story, set in about 50 or so ad, l. aelius lamia, a man of questionable character, if not moral character (not enough info? ours?  theirs?) who, after all, defines morals?  at any rate, this man, who'd lived more according to the logic provided by his id than with the roman mores, resulting in his expulsion from the eternal city, is out for a walk along the summit trail in baiea...to his left, livid and bare, the phlegraean plain stretched out towards the ruins of cumae.  on his right, cape misenum plunged its abrupt spur beneath the tyrrhenian sea.  this, pilate alleges, is where tiberius caesar died. lamia is there trying to recover from illness.  another traveler is there for much the same reason.  kind of funny that the story landscape features these two men on the trail, of life, as it were, both trying to recover their spirits.  as they're both advanced in age, this is unlikely.  it is evening.  even the fact that lamia gazes out on the vesuvius that won't erupt for a few decades promotes the pervasive grimness of the story. at any rate, from the adversity born of his exile, lamia became wise.  as france writes at the end of the first paragraph, adversity had taught him wisdom.   in fact, lamia's defining characteristic is the ability to coolly take somebody's perspective and gently challenge it, in a way that comes off more like a whispered suggestion to that somebody.  in this case, the former procurator of judaea, authorizer of the crucifixion, (choice maker), pontius pilate.

they meet in this lovely roman beach resort town, known for its healing waters.  they recognize each other from years before, when they shared time in syria, caesarea, and then at jerusalem.  lamia was on extended house guest status with pilate.  pilate stood up for lamia upon caesar's death, aiding with the end to his long exile.  in a noble gesture, lamia later sent pilate some money as a form of repayment.  kind of a dose of the deeds of the past coming 'round to revisit you in a story about one of the great villains in the new testament.

pilate was there acting as the roman liaison to the local ethnic contingent, which was a powerful lobby.  it is important to note that as pilate tells it, he often wanted mercy on behalf of those would be criminals that the jews brought before him for prosecution.  he represented rome's interest in the local government of a subjugated people.  rome offered the respect of the locals to allow them to effectively keep their own council and hold their own trials when their religious affairs are trifled with.  or rome feared uprising so appeased the them by sending an official to simply act as a figurehead, a rubber stamper, for their affairs.  at any rate, pilate tells lamia that intrigue and calumnies cut short my career in its prime ... though he seems to be pretty well off, pilate carries with him the bitterness that must go with such calumnies.

pilate, long retired of this post, fat and rich, is off to the phlegraean plains, where physicians assure him that the sulfurous flaming heat will help to ease his chronic gout.  christian irony, no?  but then christ would've forgiven him from his sins the moment (it was perceived) that he made them.  so, no hell in pilate's future, right?  or past, at this point?  no just dessert for putting down the son of god?  maybe it's not ironic.  or double ironic.

here is a story that transcends the supernatural details of the crucifixion by discussing the very mortal issues of the times, then and now.  the unchanging nature of the human condition.  like pilate, and perhaps unlike vitallius, i will use the word jew for anyone in empire who wasn't roman.  the jews haul somebody that they've considered has broken their sacred rules before a judge, who's decision is then brought to the procurator (governor) in the interest of roman oversight.  this is the deal that the jews have hammererd out with the romans.  the details that the procurator gives us are indicative that it was a pretty rough gig.  the jews are remembered by him has a cantankerous people, ...haughty and at the same time base, combining an invincible obstinacy with a displicably mean spirit... indeed, pilate refers to jews as ...enemies of the human race.  pilate sits with lamia on the hill, under a terebinth, and relates his version of the samaritan insurrection.

the principle details of the insurrection are these:  upon hearing reports that a man claiming to be a prophet is going to hold a meeting on the apron of mt. gerizim, where he'll reveal secrets of moses before the samaritans, pilate has sent the roman infantry to observe.  to keep the samaritans calm.  with the ever looming threat of force.  the rebellion is easily put down.  pilate determines to execute only a few of its leaders, ... in order to give a forcible example with as few victims as possible.  at this, the samaritans complain to pilate's higher up in the political heirarchy, vitellius.  they give an alternate story in which they are victims, indeed, but not rebels.  pilate is ordered to justify his decisions before the emperor.  an upsetting big deal, this bump in the professional road, same today is 2000 years ago.

continuing pilate's story, events occur.  tiberius caesar dies, leaving caius, who, receiving council from the jew agrippa, friend of the samaritan cause, sends pilate into early retirement. he adopts a life of seclusion, growing grain on his estates in sicily with his daughter.  and hating jews.

lamia, meanwhile, speaks reasonably about the jews, revealing pilate's small worldview as he recalls the more noble characteristics of the jewish people.  he describes them as members of his society, their women intoxicating.  whereas pilate describes the jews more like well-developed animals, made just housebroken by roman rule.  pilate's refusal, moreover, to hear lamia's favorable remarks about the jews, verbalized as such (although you have lived among them, i see that you ill understand those...) is the foil to the latter's open-minded worldview.  (...the jews are profoundly attached to their ancient customs. they suspected you, i admit, of a desire to abolish their laws and change their usages.) lamia, though not a jew, speaks of them as an epicurean might; that is, with an open mind.

that's the point of the story, to me, right now.  one must be tolerant. while pilate refuses to understand a race of people who might spurn roman values, that he perceives has screwed him over, lamia not only jokes that the god of these jews is just as likely to be recruited into the roman pantheon but gently scolds pilate for ruling over them with too iron a fist.  pilate is fanatical.  fanatical people suffer a skewed sense of objectivity.  i know fanatics, and i see them on television sometimes.  dangerous people to themselves and to the rest of us.  maybe no more so that the sociopoliticians.  on the other hand, maybe i'll reread this later on as some kind of born again and curse my own words. but dear god let's hope not. 

favorite line:
beware, pontius, lest the invisible jupiter of the jews disembark some day on the quay at ostia. 
to understand this line, i think, is to take substantial meaning from the story.

so that's pretty much the story.  the men discuss their lives, the revolt that disrupted pilate's career, and finally, and very much as an afterthought, brought to mind when lamia is recalling fondly his days with a jewish woman of great beauty, jesus is mentioned. she'd become a follower.  did pilate make his own choice?  was it god's will?  as a reader of the book of john, would you bother to reflect on pilate awhile? to listen to a non-believer's thoughts?  if so, you're my kind of christian.   

odds and ends:
it's a neat detail that lamias is reading the teachings of epicureanism before he meets pilate.  this is a philosophy that deals with the rejecting of the supernatural and divine intervention, in which one's purpose is to achieve pleasure, which occurs when one lives modestly and with a critical eye on the ways of the world.  a practicing epicurean would strive to know the limits of his desires.  intriguing thought. 

i think that the remark about giving up the taste of greek wine must be a metaphor for religion.  and for transition, which maybe happens even for deities.

i'm sure there's lots over my head.  this'll be a cool document, though, when i study france and/or samaritan/roman relations circa the turn of the ad dial later on.