"A natural solicitude," he said, "and a feeling of duty led me to perform my public functions not only diligently but with love of them too. But hatred dogged me constantly. Intrigue and slander broke my life while the sap was still rising and blasted the fruit it should have made ripe. You've asked me about the Samaritan revolt. Let's sit down on this mound. I can tell you about it in just a few words. Those events are as fresh in my mind today as if they had happened yesterday. A man of the people, potently eloquent, as many are in Syria, persuaded the Samaritans to take up arms and gather on Mount Gerizim, which is held to be a holy place in this region, and he swore to show them the sacred vessels that an eponymous hero, or rather a local prophet by the name of Moses, had hidden there back in the time of Evander and Aeneas, our founding father. On the strength of this assurance the Samaritans revolted. But, warned in time to stop them, I had the mountain occupied by infantry detachments and positioned cavalry to keep watch over approaches to it. These prudent measures were needed urgently. Already the rebels were besieging the town of Tyrathaba, to be found at the foot of Mount Gerizim. I dispersed them easily and nipped the revolt in the bud. Then, to make an example with a minimum of victims, I had the revolt's leaders executed. But you know, Lamia, how dependent I was on the goodwill of Proconsul Vitellius who governed the province of Syria not for Rome but against Rome and thought that the provinces of the Empire could be portioned out like farms to tetrarchs. The principal men among the Samaritans fell weeping with hatred of me at his feet. To hear them, nothing was further from their mind than to disobey Caesar. I had acted provocatively, and it was to resist my violent attack on them that they had gathered about Tyrathaba. And Vitellius heard their complaints and, entrusting the affairs of Judea to his friend Marcellus, he ordered me to justify how I had acted before the emperor. My heart heavy with pain and resentment, I took to the sea. As I drew near to the coast of Italy, Tiberius, worn out by age and the cares of empire, died suddenly on Cape Misenus, the horn of which you can see from here lengthening in the evening mist. I pleaded my case to Caius, his successor, who was naturally bright and was well acquainted with the affairs of Syria. But marvel with me at this, Lamia, at how my misfortune persisted till it brought about my downfall. Caius had kept close to him in Rome the Jew Agrippa, his companion, his childhood friend, whom he loved more than his life. Agrippa looked with favour on Vitellius because Vitellius was the enemy of Antipas, whom Agrippa hated most intensely. The emperor sided with his Jewish friend and would not even grant me an audience. I was forced to stay under a cloud of undeserved disgrace. Swallowing my tears, nourished by gall, I retired to my lands in Sicily where I should have died of regret had my sweet Pontia not come to console her father. I planted wheat and grew the fattest ears of it in all the island. Today my life is done. Posterity will judge between Vitellius and me."
"Pontius," Lamia replied, "I'm convinced that you acted towards the Samaritans to the best of your ability and in the sole interest of Rome. But did you not on that occasion give in too easily to that impetuous bravery that always dragged you into things? You know that in Judea, even though younger than you were and therefore more ardent, it often fell to me to enjoin on you mildness and leniency."
"Leniency to Jews!" cried Pontius Pilate. "Despite your having lived among them, you know little of these enemies of the human race. Both proud and base, combining ignominious cowardice with invincible obstinacy, they undermine both love and hate. My way of thinking, Lamia, is founded on the maxims of the divine Augustus. Already, when I was appointed procurator of Judea, the earth was majestically robed in the Pax Romana. Proconsuls no longer got rich from the sack of provinces as they were seen to do during our civil wars. I was careful only to use wisdom and moderation. As the gods are my witnesses, I was only stiff necked in holding back. What good did these benevolent thoughts do me? You saw me, Lamia, at the beginning of my governorship, when the first revolt broke out. Do I need to remind you of the circumstances? The garrison in Caesarea had gone to take up its winter quarters in Jerusalem. The legionaries carried on their standards pictures of Caesar. These images gave offence to the Jerusalemites who did not recognize the emperor's divinity, as if, under orders to obey, it was not more honourable to obey a god than a man. The nation's priests came before my tribunal to ask me with haughty humility to have the standards removed from the sacred precincts. I refused out of respect for the divinity of Caesar and the majesty of the Empire. Then the plebs, joining forces with the priests, raised their voices threateningly round the praetorium. I ordered the soldiers to form a phalanx in front of the Antonia Tower, and to go, armed with sticks, like lictors, to disperse that insolent crowd. But, oblivious to the blows, the Jews kept on begging me and the most stubborn among them lay on the ground, held out their throats and let themselves be beaten to death by the rods. You then witnessed my humiliation, Lamia. On Vitellius's order, I had to send the standards back to Caesarea. Surely that was a shame that I did not deserve. Here, in full view of the immortal gods, I swear that, during my governorship, I did not offend once against justice and the laws. But I am old. My enemies and all those who informed on me are dead. I shall die unavenged. Who will defend my memory?"
He groaned and stopped speaking. Lamia answered him:
"It is wise not to place either fear or hope in an uncertain future. What does it matter what men will think of us? Our only witnesses and judges are ourselves. Rest assured, Pontius Pilate, of the witness you yourself have borne to your virtue. Be content with your own esteem and that of your friends. Besides, peoples are not governed by gentleness alone. That love of humanity philosophy counsels us to show has little to do with the actions of public figures."
"Let's talk about something else," said Pontius. "The sulphurous vapours exhaled by the Phlegraean Fields are more efficacious when they come up from a ground still made warm by the rays of the sun. I'd better hurry. Goodbye! But, since I've found a friend, I want to take advantage of this piece of luck. Aelius Lamia, do me the honour of coming to take supper with me tomorrow. My house is to be found on the sea shore, at the end of the town, going towards Misenus. You will recognize it easily from the portico on which you'll see a painting showing Orpheus among lions and tigers he is charming with the sounds of his lyre. Till tomorrow, Lamia," he said, climbing back in his litter. "Tomorrow we shall talk of Judea."
The following day, at suppertime, Aelius Lamia went to the house of Pontius Pilate. Two couches only awaited the supper guests. The table, unobtrusive but decently laid, supported silver plates in which had been prepared warblers in honey, thrushes, oysters from Lake Lucrino and lampreys from Sicily. Pontius and Lamia questioned each other as they ate about their infirmities whose symptoms they described at length and they told each other of various remedies which had been recommended to them. Then, congratulating themselves on having been brought back together again in Baiae, they vied with one another in praising the beauty of this coastline and the mildness of the air one breathed there. Lamia vaunted the grace of the courtesans who went by on the beach, laden with gold and dragging behind them trains embroidered by barbarians. But the old procurator deplored an ostentatiousness that, for the sake of tawdry stones and spiders' webs woven by hand, made Roman coinage circulate among foreign peoples and even among enemies of the empire. They afterwards came to talk about the great feats of civil engineering carried out in the region, that huge bridge that Caius had had built between Puteoli and Baiae, and the canals ordered dug by Augustus to bring water from the sea to the lakes of Avernus and Lucrino.
"I too," said Pontius with a sigh, "wanted to undertake great public works. When I was given, for my sins, the governorship of Judea, I traced the plan for an aqueduct two hundred stadia long that was to have brought to Jerusalem an abundant supply of pure water. Height of levels, capacity of modules, obliquity of bronze containers for the pipes to be adjusted to, I had studied everything and, in the opinion of the engineers, solved all the problems myself. I prepared a statute to regulate the use of the water, so that no one individual could make illegal use of it. The architects and workers were ordered and I gave the command to start the work. But, far from watching satisfied that conduit was being erected which, on powerful arches, was to bring health as well as water to their town, the people of Jerusalem cried out in loud lamentations. Tumultuously, accusing us of sacrilege and impiety, they attacked the workers and scattered the foundation stones. Can you imagine filthier barbarians, Lamia? Nevertheless Vitellius took their part and I received the order to discontinue the work."
"It's a big question," said Lamia, "as to whether one should make people happy in spite of themselves."
Pontius Pilate carried on regardless: