Praetorium Quotes

Standing in the praetorium, planting the barricades of his awkward questions, Pilate becomes the prototype of every uncertain man or woman forced into a dialogue with God. He asks, only half-believing that he will ever get an answer. What comes back is elliptical, disturbing; but for a moment the heart has been laid open.

Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the praetorium, and they gathered the whole battalion before him. And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe upon him, and plaiting a crown of thorns they put it on his head, and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him they mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they spat upon him, and took the reed and struck him on the head. And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe, and put his own clothes on him, and led him away to crucify him.

—¡Por Marte! ¡Eso no puede ser! —exclamó Trajano visiblemente molesto—. ¡Han luchado por Roma! ¡Han sido heridos por ella! ¡Merecen que Roma los atienda ahora que necesitan ayuda! —Lo sé, augusto, lo entiendo, pero no... —arguyó Critón mirando al suelo, nervioso. —No hay vendas. Ya lo has dicho —sentenció el emperador. Trajano apretaba los labios—. Está todo mi bagaje, con mis togas imperiales y mis túnicas y las telas que se usan en la tienda del praetorium para decorar, y mis sábanas y mantas... —Miró entonces a Liviano—. Que lo traigan todo aquí y que Critón use todo lo que necesite. —Y se dirigió al médico—. Corta todas las telas como más útiles te resulten; usa todas mis togas si hace falta, pero quiero a esos hombres con sus heridas curadas y vendadas. ¿Está claro? —Sí, César —respondió Critón con los ojos bien abiertos. Una duda lo reconcomía por dentro. Sabía que necesitaría, con toda seguridad, todas las telas que se le fueran a traer, pero no sabía si...—. ¿Puedo usar las togas imperiales?

So we set the context for this dramatic confrontation: Judas has betrayed, Peter has denied and the religious authorities, personified by Caiaphas, have judged Jesus worthy of death. They deliver Jesus, bound, to Pilate. These Jewish accusers, however, balk at the entrance to the Roman praetorium. They refuse to enter this Gentile center of power, for it is to them unclean territory. If they do not keep themselves from this Gentile pollution, they will not be able to eat the Passover. The defining and routine rituals of religion are to be observed, and yet these accusers place themselves in the position of trusting a moral code that allows the death penalty to be carried out against religious troublemakers. Here the values of religion are deeply compromised.

A further stroll among the hills brought us to what Scott pronounced the remains of a Roman camp, and as we sat upon a hillock which had once formed part of its ramparts, he pointed out the traces of the lines and bulwarks, and the praetorium, and showed a knowledge of castramentation that would not have disgraced Oldbuck himself. Indeed, various circumstances that I observed about Scott during my visit concurred to persuade me that many of the antiquarian humours of Monkbarns were taken from his own richly compounded character, and that some of the scenes and personages of that admirable novel were furnished by his own neighbourhood.