Ancient source · Josephus

Josephus, Jewish War 2.169–177

Pilate's standards and the aqueduct in the Jewish War

¶1 Now Pilate, who was sent as procurator into Judea by Tiberius, sent by night those images of Caesar that are called ensigns into Jerusalem. This excited a very among great tumult among the Jews when it was day; for those that were near them were astonished at the sight of them, as indications that their laws were trodden under foot; for those laws do not permit any sort of image to be brought into the city. Nay, besides the indignation which the citizens had themselves at this procedure, a vast number of people came running out of the country. These came zealously to Pilate to Cesarea, and besought him to carry those ensigns out of Jerusalem, and to preserve them their ancient laws inviolable; but upon Pilate's denial of their request, they fell down prostrate upon the ground, and continued immovable in that posture for five days and as many nights.

¶2 On the next day Pilate sat upon his tribunal, in the open market-place, and called to him the multitude, as desirous to give them an answer; and then gave a signal to the soldiers, that they should all by agreement at once encompass the Jews with their weapons; so the band of soldiers stood round about the Jews in three ranks. The Jews were under the utmost consternation at that unexpected sight. Pilate also said to them that they should be cut in pieces, unless they would admit of Caesar's images, and gave intimation to the soldiers to draw their naked swords. Hereupon the Jews, as it were at one signal, fell down in vast numbers together, and exposed their necks bare, and cried out that they were sooner ready to be slain, than that their law should be transgressed. Hereupon Pilate was greatly surprised at their prodigious superstition, and gave order that the ensigns should be presently carried out of Jerusalem.

¶3 After this he raised another disturbance, by expending that sacred treasure which is called Corban upon aqueducts, whereby he brought water from the distance of four hundred furlongs. At this the multitude had indignation; and when Pilate was come to Jerusalem, they came about his tribunal, and made a clamor at it. Now when he was apprized aforehand of this disturbance, he mixed his own soldiers in their armor with the multitude, and ordered them to conceal themselves under the habits of private men, and not indeed to use their swords, but with their staves to beat those that made the clamor. He then gave the signal from his tribunal [to do as he had bidden them]. Now the Jews were so sadly beaten, that many of them perished by the stripes they received, and many of them perished as trodden to death by themselves; by which means the multitude was astonished at the calamity of those that were slain, and held their peace.

The Greek text (Niese), sections 169–177

¹⁶⁹ Πεμφθεὶς δὲ εἰς Ἰουδαίαν ἐπίτροπος ὑπὸ Τιβερίου Πιλᾶτος νύκτωρ κεκαλυμμένας εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα εἰσκομίζει τὰς Καίσαρος εἰκόνας, αἳ σημαῖαι καλοῦνται.

¹⁷⁰ τοῦτο μεθʼ ἡμέραν μεγίστην ταραχὴν ἤγειρεν Ἰουδαίοις· οἵ τε γὰρ ἐγγὺς πρὸς τὴν ὄψιν ἐξεπλάγησαν ὡς πεπατημένων αὐτοῖς τῶν νόμων, οὐδὲν γὰρ ἀξιοῦσιν ἐν τῇ πόλει δείκηλον τίθεσθαι, καὶ πρὸς τὴν ἀγανάκτησιν τῶν κατὰ τὴν πόλιν ἄθρους ὁ ἐκ τῆς χώρας λαὸς συνέρρευσεν.

¹⁷¹ ὁρμήσαντες δὲ πρὸς Πιλᾶτον εἰς Καισάρειαν ἱκέτευον ἐξενεγκεῖν ἐξ Ἱεροσολύμων τὰς σημαίας καὶ τηρεῖν αὐτοῖς τὰ πάτρια. Πιλάτου δὲ ἀρνουμένου περὶ τὴν οἰκίαν πρηνεῖς καταπεσόντες ἐπὶ πέντε ἡμέρας καὶ νύκτας ἴσας ἀκίνητοι διεκαρτέρουν.

¹⁷² Τῇ δʼ ἑξῆς ὁ Πιλᾶτος καθίσας ἐπὶ βήματος ἐν τῷ μεγάλῳ σταδίῳ καὶ προσκαλεσάμενος τὸ πλῆθος ὡς ἀποκρίνασθαι δῆθεν αὐτοῖς θέλων, δίδωσιν τοῖς στρατιώταις σημεῖον ἐκ συντάγματος κυκλώσασθαι τοὺς Ἰουδαίους ἐν τοῖς ὅπλοις.

¹⁷³ περιστάσης δὲ τριστιχεὶ τῆς φάλαγγος Ἰουδαῖοι μὲν ἀχανεῖς ἦσαν πρὸς τὸ ἀδόκητον τῆς ὄψεως, Πιλᾶτος δὲ κατακόψειν εἰπὼν αὐτούς, εἰ μὴ προσδέξαιντο τὰς Καίσαρος εἰκόνας, γυμνοῦν τὰ ξίφη τοῖς στρατιώταις ἔνευσεν.

¹⁷⁴ οἱ δὲ Ἰουδαῖοι καθάπερ ἐκ συνθήματος ἀθρόοι καταπεσόντες καὶ τοὺς αὐχένας παρακλίναντες ἑτοίμους ἀναιρεῖν σφᾶς ἐβόων μᾶλλον ἢ τὸν νόμον παραβῆναι. ὑπερθαυμάσας δὲ ὁ Πιλᾶτος τὸ τῆς δεισιδαιμονίας ἄκρατον ἐκκομίσαι μὲν αὐτίκα τὰς σημαίας Ἱεροσολύμων κελεύει.

¹⁷⁵ Μετὰ δὲ ταῦτα ταραχὴν ἑτέραν ἐκίνει τὸν ἱερὸν θησαυρόν, καλεῖται δὲ κορβωνᾶς, εἰς καταγωγὴν ὑδάτων ἐξαναλίσκων· κατῆγεν δὲ ἀπὸ τετρακοσίων σταδίων. πρὸς τοῦτο τοῦ πλήθους ἀγανάκτησις ἦν, καὶ τοῦ Πιλάτου παρόντος εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα περιστάντες τὸ βῆμα κατεβόων.

¹⁷⁶ ὁ δέ, προῄδει γὰρ αὐτῶν τὴν ταραχήν, τῷ πλήθει τοὺς στρατιώτας ἐνόπλους ἐσθῆσιν ἰδιωτικαῖς κεκαλυμμένους ἐγκαταμίξας καὶ ξίφει μὲν χρήσασθαι κωλύσας, ξύλοις δὲ παίειν τοὺς κεκραγότας ἐγκελευσάμενος σύνθημα δίδωσιν ἀπὸ τοῦ βήματος.

¹⁷⁷ τυπτόμενοι δὲ οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι πολλοὶ μὲν ὑπὸ τῶν πληγῶν, πολλοὶ δὲ ὑπὸ σφῶν αὐτῶν ἐν τῇ φυγῇ καταπατηθέντες ἀπώλοντο. πρὸς δὲ τὴν συμφορὰν τῶν ἀνῃρημένων καταπλαγὲν τὸ πλῆθος ἐσιώπησεν.

Square brackets in the Greek mark words the editor judged not to be original.

Where this text comes from

English: William Whiston's translation (1737), as printed in 1856. Whiston translated an earlier Greek text (Sigebert Havercamp's edition, 1726), not the Niese text shown here, so the two can differ in places. Words in square brackets in the English are Whiston's own additions, not in the Greek. Whiston grouped sections, so this extract covers 2.169–177.
Greek: Benedikt Niese's critical edition (Berlin, 1885–1895), with Niese's section numbers.
Digital text: Perseus Digital Library, urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0526.tlg004.perseus-eng2:2.169, fixed at commit a6eb0cc3e6f6. Open the source file.
Rights: Niese Greek text and Whiston translation public domain; Perseus digital encoding CC BY-SA 4.0 (Trustees of Tufts University). Attribution and share-alike apply to the extracted text.
Checked: the files were verified against their SHA-256 checksums before extraction (data/ask/sources.json). Fingerprint of this English text: 11ddeb66f29a3445.
Why this passage is in the Atlas: 23 passages of Josephus that bear on people, groups and events of the New Testament are included, not his whole works.