Tacitus and Pilate as "Procurator"

[iskander]

Herod the Procurator
Richard C. Carrier, Ph.D.
" Tacitus describes Pilate as a procurator in his account of Christianity in the context of the Neronian fire (Annals 15.44); for we know in fact (from epigraphic evidence) that Pilate was a prefect, and Tacitus (as a consular senator) would know that, but Tacitus would surely have found it more suitably embarrassing to say that Christ was executed by a procurator, which fact also played into Tacitus’ running theme throughout the Annals that procurators were being given more authority than they ought.99"
page 34
http://www.richardcarrier.info/HerodSyrianGovernor.pdf

[Giuseppe]

but Tacitus would surely have found it more suitably embarrassing to say that Christ was executed by a procurator,

Tacitus, by doing precisely that, would have captured a particolar desire of the proto-Catholic Christians by emphasizing so greatly the role of Pilate: Tacitus would have recognized the presence of a theological need behind the pathetic emphasis about Pilate given by the Christians of Rome met by him.

I suspect that that theological need was the proto-Catholic desire of make Pilate a so important historical figure (against the fact that he was only an obscure Roman official) to pose pathetically as THE ''archon of this Age'' in anti-marcionite function.

[MrMacSon]

Pilate as "Procurator", a title that did not exist in the 20s & 30s AD*, but did exist from the mid-40s* (starting with Cuspius Fadus) until 70 AD, adds some weight to the proposition that Annals 15.44 was originally about Nero and one of his procurators, and Tiberius and Pilate were substituted for them.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judea_(Ro ... 0.93135.29

[iskander]

Pilate as "Procurator", a title that did not exist in the 20s & 30s AD*, but did exist from the mid-40s* (starting with Cuspius Fadus) until 70 AD, adds some weight to the proposition that Annals 15.44 was originally about Nero and one of his procurators, and Tiberius and Pilate were substituted for them.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judea_(Ro ... 0.93135.29

Ancient history is like a gambling casino!



On the Dual Office of Procurator and Prefect
Richard Carrier, Ph.D. © 2012
http://www.richardcarrier.info/TheProvi ... pdf?973461
"This brief paper summarizes the evidence and scholarship backing my analysis in
Herod the Procurator, pp. 34-35 (in context, pp. 29-36), which shows that from
the time of Pontius Pilate to the time of Tacitus, equestrian governors of Roman
provinces were both prefects and procurators.
....
Conclusion
The abundant evidence adduced by Jones and Millar, and even Brunt, sufficiently confirms this. And not only confirms it, but confirms it had been that way in the time of Jesus (when Pilate governed Judaea, he was, and was known by his peers to be, both a prefect and a procurator, even if that fact was not always mentioned) and in the time of Tacitus (as inscriptions of his time attest), and in all years in between.
And thus nothing had changed, except at most the frequency of which title was mentioned when mentioning only one."

[spin]

Pilate as "Procurator", a title that did not exist in the 20s & 30s AD*, but did exist from the mid-40s* (starting with Cuspius Fadus) until 70 AD,

To be accurate, the title "procurator" did exist in the 20s, as a reference to Lucilius Capito in Annals 4.15 demonstrates. The problem is that procurators did not have the power to give judicial rulings, so they could not be provincial governors, at least until Claudius lent them his power.

[MrMacSon]

Pilate as "Procurator", a title that did not exist in the 20s & 30s AD*, but did exist from the mid-40s* (starting with Cuspius Fadus) until 70 AD

To be accurate, the title "procurator" did exist in the 20s, as a reference to Lucilius Capito in Annals 4.15 demonstrates. The problem is that procurators did not have the power to give judicial rulings, so they could not be provincial governors, at least until Claudius lent them his power.

Yes. It seems Carrier's 2012 paper that iskander cited -in the post between yours and mine^^- addresses that -

On the Dual Office of Procurator and Prefect

Richard Carrier, Ph.D. © 2012

• "This brief paper summarizes the evidence and scholarship backing my analysis in Herod the Procurator, pp. 34-35 (in context, pp. 29-36), which shows that, from the time of Pontius Pilate to the time of Tacitus, equestrian governors of Roman provinces were both prefects and procurators.
  
  ....
  
  " ...for procurators exercising imperium: in order to constitutionally exercise that authority ...would also have been a praefectus or praeses.16
  
  Conclusion
  The abundant evidence adduced by Jones and Millar, and even Brunt, sufficiently confirms this. And not only confirms it, but confirms it had been that way in the time of Jesus (when Pilate governed Judaea, he was, and was known by his peers to be, both a prefect and a procurator, even if that fact was not always mentioned) and in the time of Tacitus (as inscriptions of his time attest), and in all years in between. And thus nothing had changed, except at most the frequency of which title was mentioned when mentioning only one."

http://www.richardcarrier.info/TheProvi ... pdf?973461