Pontius Pilate

Inscription Referring to Pontius Pilate

An inscription was found at Caesarea Maritima bearing Pontius Pilates's name and office:
............................S TIBERIEVM
............................NTIVS PILATVS
............................ECTVS IVDA E
The second line of the inscription refers to Pontius Pilate, while the third line identifies him as "praefectus of Judea." The inscription was probably attached to a structure known as "Tiberium," a temple or other building dedicated to the emperor Tiberius.

Coins Minted by Pontius
Pilate while Praefectus of Judea

One side of the coin shows three ears of barley with the inscription "IOYLIA KAICAPOC." The reverse displays a simpulum (a sacrificial vessel or wine bowl) with the inscription "TIBERIOY KAICAPOC". The date is LIS = year 16 = 29.

One side of the coin displays the lituus (an augur's crooked staff or wand) with the inscription "TIBERIOY KAICAPOC." The reverse shows a wreath with berries, denoting either the year 30 or 31.

Reference to Pontius Pilate outside of the New Testament include Philo, Letter to Gaius 38 and Josephus, War 2.169-74; Ant. 18.55-59. Neither description of Pilate's time as praefectus is commedatory. Both depict him as cruel and arbitrary. The only mention of Pilate in Roman sources occurs in Tacitus, Annals, 15.44, in reference to the origins of Christianity, "the pernicious superstition" (exitiabilis superstitio).