was the sixth procurator of Judaea, and the successor of Valerius Gratus. He held the office
for ten years in the reign of Tiberius, and it was during his government that Christ taught,
suffered, and died. By his tyrannical conduct he excited an insurrection at Jerusalem, and at
a later period commotions in Samaria also, which were not put down without the loss of life.
The Samaritans complained of his conduct to Vitellius, the governor of Syria, who deprived him
of his office, and sent him to Rome to answer before the emperor the accusations that were
brought against him. As Pilatus reached Rome shortly after the death of Tiberius, which took
place on the 15th of March, B. Jud. 2.9.2; Apol. i. pp. 76, 84; Tertull. Apol. 5; Homil. VIII. in Pasch.)
It is not at all improbable that such a report was made; but considering, on the one hand, the
frequency of forgeries in the early Christian Church, and on the other, that it was no Apocr. vol. i pp. 237, 239, vol. iii. p. 456, &c.), as well as his two Latin
letters to the emperor (Fabric. Apocr. vol. i. p. 298, &c.), are the
productions of a later age. (Comp. Winer, Biblisches
Realwöurterbuch, art. Pilatus.)