Free The Painted Messiah by Craig Smith Page A

'Bring the priests to me, if their religion allows them to stand in the sunlight!'
    His guards responded to Cornelius's command, a quiet nod of the old centurion's head. The priests were brought through the gate of the palace like criminals herded by Roman infantry - a dozen-to-fifteen of them. Pilate did not bother to count. They were bearded and dirty. Their leader screamed incoherently at Pilate.
    'You will speak Latin,' Pilate answered quietly. He had no training in Greek beyond a painful six years of reading Homer and the Greek tragedians and could not understand any but the most rudimentary phrases of the obscene koine Greek of the region.
    Cornelius answered for the priest. 'They claim to know only Aramaic, Greek and Hebrew, Prefect.'
    Pilate demanded to know what the man had said, and Cornelius spoke to him in Greek. When the leader answered him, Cornelius said to Pilate, 'He says we defile them by forcing them to walk under the Golden Eagle at the gate to the courtyard.'
    'Defile?' Pilate longed for his short sword. If he had been wearing it at that moment, he would have rushed upon them at once.
    'We need someone to translate this, Prefect. I know only enough Greek to buy wine and women.'
    Pilate smiled without glancing at the centurion. 'I will remember that, Centurion, the next time I need either. Find us an interpreter then.'
    Cornelius sent a tribune scurrying for one while Pilate stood on the steps of his palace facing the rabble of Jewish priests in perfect silence. They were, he thought, exactly as Gratus described, like horses with their ears flat against their skulls. At the moment they were talking among themselves furiously. They seemed to want to leave his presence, though Pilate's guard made that quite out of the question.
    A young Syrian connected to the auxiliary cavalry arrived from within the hall and spoke to the priests. When they had finished talking in what seemed to be a heated exchange of Greek, the Syrian turned to Pilate. 'You pollute them, Prefect, by requiring them to stand before the standards of the Fretensis.'
    Pilate turned and saw the familiar standards, pennants and banners arrayed over his door. As he still considered them and just what he wanted to do with these impertinent priests, the Syrian continued.
    'In their religion they are not allowed to look upon human or animal images.'
    Pilate gave Cornelius a pleasant smile he would have no trouble interpreting. 'Have we more than one interpreter in the palace, Centurion?'
    'We have many, Prefect.'
    'Then you will inform this man that when he preaches to me again in his own words or speaks to these men anything but what I have said, I will have him cut open and hanged from the palace gates.'
    Cornelius told the man in Latin, as if he needed to hear it again: 'Be advised, sir. Speak only the words of Caesar's prefect and the priests. Nothing more - on your life.'
    The young man began to answer, then thought better of it and simply nodded.
    Tell them,' Pilate said, 'they may look upon the standards of the Roman Legions or they will die at the hands of those same men they insult. The choice is theirs.'
    The translation followed promptly, and the Jews roared angrily. Some addressed Pilate, some spoke to one another. As it was not in Greek, but Aramaic, the translator began speaking to the Jews in Greek, asking them to speak a language he could translate.
    'Execute him,' Pilate said.
    Cornelius seemed not to understand for a moment, but as Pilate glared at the interpreter he understood and ordered his guards to take the Syrian by his arms. The poor man's urgency to get the Jews to talk in Greek was now forgotten. He screamed in Latin for Pilate to have mercy.
    Pilate spoke quietly to Cornelius. 'Why is that man still speaking, Centurion?'
    Cornelius gave no order this time, but drew his own sword and walked forward. He swept the point of his weapon directly down across the Syrian's stomach in a vertical slash. While the young man still