Secondo Ponzio Pilato

We are doing very badly, Excellency.

Also this year the Jews have not paid their taxes.

But not out of rebellion or stinginess, as is commonly believed.

What time is it?

There is little to the sixth hour. It is almost noon.

But as I was saying ...

At this hour they will be crucifying him.

Precisely.

... I told you that for Jews paying taxes to the state is like ...

... a blasphemy, an impiety.

Because according to them man has no other owner than his god.

And pay tithes to the emperor ...

... it would be like putting Tiberius in the place of the Lord.

They started the road to Calvary at nine o'clock.

- How long did it take? - Ah ...!

What is it?

It's a four-year-old Falerna wine , Excellency.

The same one that Taliarco served Horacio in the sabine cup ...

... while the poet gazed into the distance contemplating the Soratte ...

... covered in white snow, and continued with the Carpe Diem speech.

In other words, from the "we are pulling".

What do I do?

- Hail everyone! - Hail! How's that going?

See how they come dressed. They look like Assyrians or Babylonians.

Everything but Romans. Sight.

Well ... we are at the edge of the empire, Excellency.

In contact with the customs of the barbarians.

They have become brutish.

But are we going to be waiting our whole lives?

The centurion would like to know what time he can come to pick up the lady.

- To go where? - To Cesaria Marítima.

He has asked for an armed escort because Jewish rebels infest the area.

And what is my wife going to do in Cesaria Marítima?

Then embark for Rome, Excellency.

Boys!

When you are on duty in front of the governor's house, wear your uniform.

I don't tell you more times.

Yes, centurion.

- Look what I told you. - Shut.

What are you going to do.

Have you seen Valeriano? Claudia Prócula abandons me because ...

... I have had the prophet crucified.

He says he knew it was going to end like this.

That I knew. He had even dreamed that Socrates interceded for him.

What are you going to do.

Also Calpurnia, in the Ides of March, ...

he dreamed that a tiger was walking through the streets ...

... and that some soldiers were hitting each other between the clouds, ...

and that lightning, thunder and blood fell on the Capitol.

Caesar, don't come out!

- But what are you saying? - I mean ... women ...

... they have premonitions.

The thing is...

they are like animals.

Let's say they are fond of witchcraft.

Now oriental mysteries are in fashion .

What we lacked among so many Chaldean Jew , Assyrian, Egyptian, Sicilian ...

It is crystal clear. They follow the first one with crazy eyes.

Everyone follows someone.

- Yes And who do you follow? - I, you.

I go to my wife's rooms and she is always naked.

And who is going to look at it? I have seen everything, Excellency.

But when I'm on duty I don't look.

There she is, she's still asleep.

- My warmest congratulations. - Because?

No. I mean ... beautiful!

That nude lifts your spirits.

Already a little mature ...

... but tasty.

That!

And thank goodness you weren't looking.

The sea ... across the Jordan ...

we will be ... fishers of men.

Yes...

The ax...

The ax...?

... the ax is the root of the trunk.

- Ahhh! Good grief: the executioner. - Let's hear who it is.

- Are you. The executioner of Jerusalem. - We started?

I offered the Jewish people an alternative. I said:

Christ or Barabbas.

If they chose Barabbas, is it my fault?

And for four criminals sent by the priests ...

... you have to punish a whole town?

In any case, they have killed the prophet.

But who is in charge of Jerusalem?

Roma.

But Rome has the utmost respect for subject peoples ...

... that's why he leaves the local laws inherited from his parents in force.

Here there is the Mosaic Law, the Torah, as it is called.

And on the basis of it Jesus Christ has been tried and condemned.

Pilate, don't cheat.

It is you who has condemned it. According to Roman law.

Let's see how long this dispute will last.

It will become one of the great enigmas of history.

Then answer me: Who has crucified him?

It is only the execution of a sentence, a formality.

- Where is a towel? - I understand now.

- Rome only executes the sentences - No: only Rome, executes the sentences.

But also, I would like to know why you get so angry.

With all the Jews we have crucified!

We have planted more crosses in Palestine than trees on the Seven Hills.

Thieves, murderers, rebels, zealots given to terrorism, magicians ...

One more or one less ...! What was so special about this charlatan?

- He was innocent. - Very well.

But if there has been a mistake, a judicial error, ...

... the defect is there, ...

... in the device of the sentence.

And it always falls, in any case, on who has condemned it.

Precisely, Pilate. Be careful!

But wasn't it noon?

It's noon.

Pilate, you are witnessing a wonder.

In truth that man was a righteous man !

It doesn't concern me. I am still Jewish.

The scripture passage that says:

"The gods who have not made Heaven and Earth will perish."

- But you weren't going to Rome? - After these wonders?

Not anymore. Now I stay here. I want to see what is going to happen.

"Why? What else is going to happen?" - Jesus made a promise.

He said: "I now die but in three days I will return"

- And I want to stay here. - To wait for him to come back.

Yes and what?

- And you believe it? - I didn't say believe it.

- I just said I want to see it. - Is the same. A serious person...

... he is not saying it even as a joke and he does not want to see anything.

How can you believe in a Jesus Christ born of a virgin mother ...

... who dies and after three days comes out of the tomb? Oh well!

Where has something similar been seen? It had to be in a colony, ...

... on the edge of these lost deserts.

Come on, if you count it in Rome ...

- ... they laugh at you in the face. - And all this cataclysm that ...

... it just happened concurrently, how do you explain it to yourself, Excellency?

An augur will have to be consulted.

An omen?

We are Romans. Do not forget. And to decipher ...

... mysterious facts we have always interpreted the flight of birds ...

... or the entrails of a dead animal.

But people no longer settle for those answers.

Tell him too, Valeriano.

What beautiful eyes you have, ma'am.

Come on, tell him too.

I say that in Rome you have conquered the hearts of poets and praetors.

Exaggerations.

If anything, your head is prettier than ...

... a funerary monument from the Republican era.

- Hey ... Valeriano ... - Hey, Pilate. Here's the water ...

... where you have symbolically washed your hands.

Oh no! That was a mistake.

Thunderstorm Jupiter has collapsed , ...

... even Mars has collapsed .

But this lavatory has remained as it was.

- How do you explain it? - How do you explain it?

- Ah ... I don't know. Ask an augur.

Meanwhile I am going home.

If you allow, beautiful lady, I'll accompany you.

Thanks, Valeriano.

They say that the sarcophagi have been opened in the necropolis .

The mummies of the prophets and patriarchs have come out.

The worms have been shaken off the shroud and ...

How do I explain it to myself?

What are you doing? Do you surrender arms to him as when a sovereign passes?

It was not us. The banners have been lowered themselves, Excellency.

It was him. He is a magician. He has done a spell.

Out of!. Come in again. Let's see if the spell is repeated.

Watch out guys, huh?

Because if the eagles bow down I call the executioner ...

... and I have you all cut your throats.

Forward the prisoner!

And laughs!

Do you see how he laughs?

Come here.

Are you, perhaps, the king of the Jews?

Are you the one who says it or have others told you?

The Jewish nation, and the priests here Annas and Caiaphas ...

... they have brought you before me who unworthily represents Rome.

Therefore, answer me and be careful what you say.

An affirmative answer ...

... and you incur a crime of lese majesty ...

... which is punishable by death.

So, it's in the name of Rome ...

... I ask you the question:

Are you king or not?

- Is he deaf? - Nerd.

- Then why don't you answer? - He's superb, like a king.

He says that he is king but that his kingdom is not of this world.

Then it is out of the jurisdiction of Rome!

The act does not constitute a crime.

Look: it's already dried up ... this is a disaster.

Ask him what he has come to do.

What have you come to do?

- Ask him. - But if you don't answer ...

You insist.

- What have you come to do? - I have come so that ...

... everyone who is in favor of the truth hears what I say.

- And what do you say? - I speak the truth.

That doesn't seem like a serious crime to me.

- It has worse. - For instance?

That of not respecting the law of our parents.

Our law says that you have to ...