I have found only now this interesting
post by Stephan, in particular the following passage:
One further point should also be brought forward regarding the Marcion/Romulus comparison. Livy preserves for us the context of Proculus’s account of the king of Rome an audience with the Roman Senate:
For Proculus Julius, whilst the state was still troubled with regret for the king, and felt incensed against the senators, a person of weight, as we are told, in any matter however important, comes forward to the assembly, “Romans,” he says, “Romulus, the father of this city, suddenly descending from heaven, appeared to me this day at day-break. While I stood covered with awe, and filled with a religious dread, beseeching him to allow me to see him face to face, he said, Go tell the Romans, that the gods so will, that my Rome should become the capitol of the world. Therefore let them cultivate the art of war, and let them know and hand down to posterity, that no human power shall be able to withstand the Roman arms. Having said this, he ascended up to heaven.”
If it were not for the explicit connection between Proculus and the Acta Pilati in the Apology we might be misled into thinking that the reference was limited to mock seriousness. Yet a careful reading of Proculus emphasizes certain features of the surviving Acta Pilati which support the Marcionite understanding.
Proculus stood in the halls of the government declaring what he saw in his visionary state. Many centuries later the Acta Pilati preserved an account of a Roman procurator standing in the same Senate giving an account of what took place in Judea when humanity was visited by a previously unknown god. There are striking parallels between the two accounts.
(my bold)
It is brilliant! Thank you Stephan!
Now, curiously, Pilate in Josephus is the
only Roman governor about which Josephus spends many words to describe his return to Rome:
And so Pilate, after having spent ten years in Judaea, hurried to Rome in obedience to the orders of Vitellius, since he could not refuse. But before he reached Rome Tiberius had already passed away.
https://www.julianspriggs.co.uk/Pages/J ... ilo_Pilate
So the reason Pilate was introduced in the first gospel is that he, being known to have gone to Rome from Judea in order to justify himself before the Emperor, was seen as a potential candidate for the role of first apostle of Christ in the Urbe. And only as such, his name figured in the first gospel.