In history, the truth often turns into a legend, and it is no longer considered true. And then some person comes, from the point of view of others, naive and gullible, and says: “What if the legend contains a healthy grain? What if you believe her?"
This happened more than a hundred years ago, when Schliemann, whom we have already spoken about, believed that Troy, described by Homer in the poem "Iliad", really existed, and went to look for it. He followed in the footsteps of the Homeric heroes and found the place where this great city stood.
Something similar happened during the search for another ancient hero, or rather, the antihero of the Bible, the Roman governor in Judea, Pontius Pilate. He did not glorify himself in any way either before or after the execution of Jesus Christ, he came from obscurity and disappeared into obscurity. But his word, his decision to wash his hands changed the history of the whole earth.
Since so many scientists today think that in fact there was no Jesus - this is, so to speak, a collective image formed in the memory of descendants from the images of several teachers and prophets who preached at the turn of our era - the existence of Pontius Pilate is in doubt … Was there such a politician and administrator in the Roman Empire?
Believe me, for two thousand years researchers have been shoveling through the Roman archives, which, unfortunately, are rather poorly preserved, so as not to miss a single word, not a single mention of Pontius Pilate. But they found a little. True, it is safe to say that Pontius Pilate certainly existed and really served in Judea.
But where he came from, only recently learned English scientists.
And if we talk about historical sensations, about solving mysteries that are many hundreds of years old, then the story of Pontius Pilate will be in the foreground.
The British turned to old chronicles, as well as to Roman inscriptions - after all, England was once a Roman colony, it was conquered by Julius Caesar, and many Roman generals served there, gained experience in wars with the Scots and Irish, the rebellious sons of Albion.
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In 13 BC, a Roman detachment arrived in the Caledonian Forest in southern Scotland. In those parts, the power of the Romans ended. The Scots, who lived to the north, did not obey anyone and attacked the Roman garrisons.
The Roman ruler of England sent the centurion Pontius to those regions in order to establish good relations with the Scottish king Metallanus. Pontius arrived in the capital of King Fortingall. And since the king was not very rich and powerful, his capital was, obviously, a simple castle surrounded by village houses.
The most famous site in Fortingell was the yew.
The yew tree is similar to the juniper. It grows very slowly and can live for thousands of years. The yew at Fortingell was one of the oldest trees in Scotland. It was believed that he was already two thousand years old.
It was under this tree that the Roman centurion met the niece of the Scottish king Elijah and fell in love with her without memory.
Meanwhile, the Romans, with the permission of Metallanus, built a small fortress nearby, and Pontius commanded its garrison. It can be seen that Pontius's relationship with the royal family was good.
At least the king did not object to the marriage of Elijah and the Roman officer.
And soon a disaster struck. Elijah gave birth to a boy and died in childbirth. This happened quite often in those days.
The boy was left an orphan. He grew up in a Roman fortress and played under an ancient tree.
The boy grew up when the time came for the centurion to leave Scotland. Pontius's relationship with the king was so good that he sent his son Mansuteus with him. He wanted the prince to learn all sciences in Rome.
Pontius is a rare name, and English historians immediately suspected that this was not the Pontius Pilate mentioned in the Gospel? Moreover, a boy born in 10 BC, the son of Pontius, would have been the same age as the governor of Judea during the events described in the Bible.
Where did the second half of the name come from?
Scientists believe that this happened due to the fact that little Pontius was finally orphaned - his father died shortly after returning to Rome. And then the boy was given a felt hat. Such a hat was called "Pilatus", and only the head of the family could wear it. If an adult had inherited this hat, no one would have paid attention to it. When a ten-year-old boy became the head of the family, this address immediately sounded both respect and some irony.
So the nickname became part of the name. There is no second such in Rome. You can almost be sure that we are talking about exactly the person who was described by Mikhail Bulgakov in the novel "The Master and Margarita".
Pontius Pilate entered the civil service and at the age of forty received the high post of governor of a Roman province. The fate of his friend, Prince Mansuteus, who turned out to be very capable and liked him so much in Rome, was also successful, that he was sent home, being approved not only as a Scottish king, but also as a Roman governor, which happened very rarely - as a rule, the Romans did not trust the nobility of the conquered provinces.
Pontius Pilate ended his career poorly in Judea, although he managed to become famous for centuries.
However, on the day it happened, no one in the world suspected that the governor was signing himself a verdict for eternal times. And the least thought about it was Pilate himself, for whom, most likely, those events were ordinary and completely insignificant.
Of course, you know what happened, but nevertheless I will remind you that it is never harmful to read again about what any cultured person should know.
The priests of Jerusalem, who exercised power in the city no less than King Herod himself, were afraid of the growing influence of Jesus Christ. They saw in him a threat to their dominance in the country. And, accusing the preacher of sacrilege and rebellion against the authorities, they seized him and brought him to Pontius Pilate. They accused Christ that he allegedly wanted to destroy the Jerusalem temple and called himself the son of God. They found witnesses, and although Christ did not make excuses, but did not confess to his crimes, his fate seemed to be decided.
And suddenly an obstacle arose before the accusers of Christ in the person of Pontius Pilate. He talked to Christ and, apparently, was convinced that he was innocent. But the Roman governor had to remain in tolerable relations with the elite of Jewish society. And then he cheated - ordered to send the prisoner to King Herod, let him figure it out and take responsibility for himself. But Herod turned out to be even more cunning than Pilate and, as the Evangelist Luke writes, having failed to achieve any miracles from Christ, under the shouts of the high priests, ordered to beat him and, disguising himself so that no traces of torture were visible, sent him back to the Roman. And he took advantage of this opportunity in order to improve his relations with the Roman Empire. The Evangelist writes: "And on that day Pilate and Herod became friends with each other, for before they were at enmity with each other." What a conspiracy happened between the two masters, we,we will obviously never know.
Whether Pilate wanted it or not, whether he had already come to an agreement with Herod or was left alone with his conscience, he continued interrogating Jesus and after interrogation told the Jewish Pharisees that he considered Christ innocent and, moreover, was going to use his right - in honor of the Jewish feast of Easter to have mercy on one of those sentenced to death. And besides the two robbers, Barabbas was also sentenced to death, who was accused of revolting against the authorities. Pilate said, "Let's set Christ free."
You should have listened to the noise made by the Pharisee priests and their henchmen who ran to the viceroy's palace!
And then Pontius Pilate made a demonstrative act, which is described only in the Gospel of Matthew: "Pilate, seeing that nothing helps, but the confusion is increasing, took water and washed his hands in front of the people, and said: I am innocent of the blood of this righteous man."
Oh, and Pilate was cunning! What a school of diplomacy in the capital of a conquered people! And the Roman Empire is clean, and the high priests got to be torn apart whoever they wanted.
Pilate's troubles began after the execution of Christ. Despite his crafty policy, an uprising against the Romans soon broke out in Jerusalem. Pilate brutally suppressed him, which caused the displeasure of Rome. An excellent diplomat - and suddenly such recklessness! And when, after that, Pilate staged a massacre among the Samaritan tribe, Rome decided to sacrifice the insufficiently flexible governor. There is an old law: "There is no bad church, but there are bad priests." And if things go wrong in the colony, then we must show the guilty person who can be put on trial so that everyone can see how we are fighting for justice!
Evidently, the cunning Pilate's reputation was so bad that he was not only called back home, but ordered to await trial.
And then Pilate was lucky. The emperor Tiberius died, who issued this strict decree. The trial did not take place, but the property of the governor, apparently acquired in an unjust way, was confiscated, he was expelled from the public service, and Pilate left Rome.
He went north to where France is now.
Further events in his life border on a legend, on a moralizing parable, so it cannot be argued that it was so.
But there are medieval French chronicles, which say that by old age, Pontius Pilate realized his sins and adopted Christianity - he became one of the first Christians among the noble Romans.
More credibly, Pontius Pilate returned to England, where his childhood friend ruled Scotland.
King Mansuteus accepted him as a brother and settled him in his castle. Legends say that Pontius Pilate preached Christianity throughout England and achieved considerable success in this. It is known from the chronicles that he died on July 5, 55, that is, he lived for sixty-four years - a lot for those times.
As an ascetic and holy man, Pontius Pilate was allegedly buried in Fortingella under an ancient yew tree.
This yew has survived to this day. Now there is a small church next to it.
The yew, which is already four thousand years old, looks rather not like a tree, but rather like an interweaving of knotty trunks, some of which died out thousands of years ago, while others give new shoots.