ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the transformation, in post-Classical legend and tradition, of Pilate and Tiberius, Romans who could have had no inkling of the nature of the interest many members of later, predominantly Christian, generations would take in their actions. Pilate vanishes from the historical record, and all other traditions, including the story of his suicide, are pure legend. Historians of the first centuries of Christianity in the Roman Empire, such as Bart D. Ehrman, draw helpful conclusions from simply tracing the chronological portrayal of Pilate in the Gospels. A huge medieval literature grows out of documents: the author finds additional and often longer versions of Pilate’s confession of faith to Tiberius and also more fully developed accounts of the emperor’s reaction when he learns that his provincial administrator has killed the Son of God. The main line of the late Classical and medieval legends that spring from Tiberius is more quickly characterized.
