Pontius
- I C. Pontius, a leader of the Samnites, who surrounded the Romans in the Caudine Pass, Cic. Off. 2, 21, 75; Liv. 9, 1; Flor. 1, 16, 10.—
- II L. Pontius Aquila, one of the assassins of Caesar, Cic. Phil. 11, 6, 14; Asin. Poll. ap. Cic. Fam. 10, 33, 4; Suet. Caes. 78. —
- III Pontius Pilatus, governor of Judaea in the time of Christ, Tac. A. 15, 44; Tert. Apol. 21; Lact. 4, 18; Sed. Carm. 5, 116.
inde traditus est ~io Pilato presidi prima mane
~ius, declinans consilium
deinde missus est a Tiberio ~ius Pilatus Judee procurator
Drogo filius ~ii(
hunc autem ~ium in principio egritudinis illius graviter ‥ offendisse novimus episcopum
- 1. C. ~, aanvoerder v.d. Samnieten in de slag bij Caudium;
- 2. ~ Aquila, een v.d. moordenaars v. Caesar;
- 3. ~ Pīlātus, prefect v. Judea, voor wie Jezus Christus terecht moest staan.
Tu vero Raymunde de Agoudo et tui pro vestro stari, donatis prædictæ ecclesiæ
duodecim nummos censuales, quos habetis in Pontio Veziono. Vulgo Le pont de Vaysonin comitatu Venascino. Haud scio an eodem significatu nostri
Pontoirdixerint. Locus est supra in Polia 3.
1. A friend of Scipio Africanus minor, was mentioned by Cicero in his work De Fato. (Macr. 2.12, or Cic. Frag. p. 235, ed. Orelli.)
2. Detected in adultery, and dreadfully punished by the husband, P. Cernius. (V. Max. 6.1.13.)
3. T. Pontius, a centurion possessing great bodily strength, mentioned by Cicero (de Senect. 10), is perhaps the same as the Pontius of whom Lucilius speaks (ap. Cic. de Fin. 1.3).
4. Pontius, one of Caesar's soldiers, was taken prisoner by Scipio, the father-in-law of Pompey, but preferred death rather than deserting his old general. (V. Max. 3.8.7.)
5. Pontius, one of the companions of Antony in his revels. (Cic. Phil. 13.2.3.)
a deacon of the African Church, the tried friend and constant companion of Cyprian. Works De Vita et Passione S. Cypriani
He drew up a narrative of the life and sufferings of the martyred bishop, which is styled an excellent production (egregium volume) by Jerome. If the piece extant under the name of Pontius, entitled De Vita et Passione S. Cypriani, be genuine, it certainly does not merit such high commendation, since it is composed in an ambitious declamatory style, full of affectation and rhetorical ornaments. Perhaps the original work may have formed the basis of what we now possess, which has probably been built up into its present form by the labour of various hands. Editions
It will be found attached to all the most important editions of Cyprian, and is contained also in the Acta Primorum Martyrum of Ruinart, 4to. Paris, 1690, and fol. Amst. 1713. The Acta Pontii are preserved in the Miscellanea of Baluze, 8vo. Par. 1678, vol. ii. p. 124, and in the Acta Sanctorum under 8th March, the day marked as his festival in the Roman Martyrologies. Further Information
Hieron. de Viris Ill. 68; Schönemann, Bibl. Patrum Lat. vol. i. c. 3.6. [W.R]
a Roman eques, killed his daughter when she had been guilty of a breach of chastity. (V. Max. 6.1.3.)
[Cominius.]
was deprived of his rank as senator, A. D. 36, as one of the agents of the notorious Albucilla in her adulteries. (Tac. Ann. 6.48.)
the father of C. Pontius, was an old man living at Caudium, when his son defeated the Roman army in the neighbourhood of that town in B. C. 321. The Samnites sent to ask his advice how they should avail themselves of their extraordinary good fortune. The reply which he gave is related at length by Livy (9.1, 3; comp. Appian, Samn. 4.3.) It would appear from Cicero (de Senect. 12), that there was a tradition which supposed Herennius Pontius and Archytas of Tarentum to have been friends; and Niebuhr supposes that Nearchus had written a dialogue in which Archytas, the Samnite Pontius, and Plato, were speakers. (Hist. of Rome, vol. iii. note 373.)
son of HERE'NNIUS, the general of the Samnites in B. C. 321, defeated the Roman army under the two consuls T. Veturius Calvinus and Sp. Postumius Albinus in one of the mountain passes in the neighbourhood of Caudium. The survivors, who were completely at the mercy of the Samnites, were dismissed unhurt by Pontius. They had to surrender their arms, and to pass under the yoke; and as the price of their deliverance, the consuls and the other commanders swore, in the name of the republic, to a humiliating peace. The Roman state however refused to ratify the treaty, and sent back the consuls and the other commanders to Pontius, who, however, refused to accept them. The name of Pontius does not occur again for nearly thirty years, but as Livy rarely mentions the names of the Samnite generals, it is not improbable that Pontius may have commanded them on many other occasions. At all. events we find him again at the head of the Samnite forces in B. C. 292, in which year he defeated the Roman army under the command of the consul Q. Fabius Gurges. This disaster, when nothing but victory was expected, so greatly exasperated the people that Fabius would have been deprived of his imperium, had not his father, the celebrated Fabius Maximus, offered to serve as his legate during the remainder of the war. It was in the same year that the decisive battle was fought, which brought the war to a conclusion. The Samnites were entirely defeated, and Pontius was taken prisoner. In the triumph of the consul, Pontius was led in chains, and afterwards beheaded, an act which Niebuhr characterises as "the greatest stain in the Roman annals," and for which the plea of custom can be offered as the only palliation. (Liv. 9.1, &c., Epit. xi.; Appian, Samn. iv. &c.; Cic. de Senect. 12, de Off. 2.21; Niebuhr, Hist. of Rome, vol. iii. pp. 215, &c., 397, &c.)
consul A. D. 163 with Pastor.
a Roman eques, who continued to plead in the courts after he had lost his sight. (V. Max. 8.7.5.)
[Nigrinus.]
[Paulinus, p. 114.]
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, A. D. 37, he was probably deposed in the preceding year A. D. 36, and would therefore have entered upon his duties as procurator in A. D. 26. Eusebius states that Pilatus put an end to his own life at the commencement of the reign of Caligula, worn out by the many misfortunes he had experienced. (Tac. Ann. 15.44 ; Matthew, xxvii; Mark, xv; Luke, 3.1, xxiii. ; John, xviii. xix.; J. AJ 18.3. § l, &c., 18.4.1, &c., B. Jud. 2.9.2; Euseb. Hist. Eccl. 2.7.) The early Christian writers refer frequently to an official report, made by Pilatus to the emperor Tiberius, of the condemnation and death of Christ. (Just. Mart. Apol. i. pp. 76, 84; Tertull. Apol. 5; Euseb. Hist. Eccl. 2.2; Oros. 7.4; Chrysost. 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 part of the policy of the imperial government to publish such reports, we may reasonably question the genuineness of the document. At all events there can be no doubt that the acts of Pilate, as they are called, which are extant in Greek (Fabric. 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.)
1. A Samnite, appears to have been appointed general of the Samnite forces in the Social war after the death of Pompaedius Silo. At all events he was at the head of the Samnite army in B. C. 82, in which year Carbo and the younger Marius were consuls. Marius and the brother of Telesinus were besieged in Praeneste by Sulla. Telesinus himself, at the head of an army of 40,000 men, had marched to the neighbourhood of Praeneste, apparently with the intention of relieving the town, but in reality with another object, which he kept a profound secret. In the dead of the night he broke up from his quarters, and marched straight upon Rome, which had been left without any army for its protection. The Samnites were upon the point of avenging the many years of oppression which they had experienced from the Romans. Sulla scarcely arrived in time to save the city. Near the Colline gate the battle was fought, the most desperate and bloody of all the contests during the civil war. Pontius fell in the fight; his head was cut off, and carried under the walls of Praeneste, to let the younger Marius know that his last hope of succour was gone. (Appian, App. BC 1.90-93; Vell. 2.27.)
2. A brother of the preceding, commanded the Samnite forces which had been sent to the assistance of the younger Marius, and shared in the defeat of the latter by Sulla, and with him took refuge in Praeneste, where they were besieged by the conqueror, B. C. 82. After the defeat of the Samnites and the death of the elder Telesinus, which have been related above, Marius and the younger Telesinus attempted to escape by a subterraneous passage, which led from the town into the open country ; but finding that the exit was guarded, they resolved to die by one another's hands. Telesinus fell first, and Marius accordingly put an end to his own life, or was stabbed by his slave. (Liv. Epit. 88; Vell. 2.27.)
the son of Q. Titinius, adopted by Pontius, joined Caesar through fear, in B. C. 49. (Cic. Att. 9.19.2.)
(1) A special name of the sea-god Glaucus (q.v.).
(2) Gaius, a Samnite general who defeated the Romans in B.C. 321.
(3) Aquila, a friend of Cicero. He was one of the assassins of Iulius Caesar. He fell at the battle of Mutina, B.C. 43.
(4) Pilātus. The sixth procurator of Iudaea (Tac. Ann. xv. 44). He held office for ten years under Tiberius, from A.D. 26 to 36, and during this period Christ was put to death. His tyrannical conduct in office and the consequent complaints made by the Samaritans led Vitellius, the governor of Syria, to depose him and send him to Rome for trial. He committed suicide in the reign of Caligula (Euseb. H. E. ii. 7).
(5) Telesinus. A Samnite, and commander of a Samnite army, with which he fought against Sulla. He was defeated by Sulla in a hard-fought battle near the Colline Gate, B.C. 82. He fell in the fight; his head was cut off, and carried under the walls of Praenesté, to let the younger Marius know that his last hope of succour was gone (Vell. Pat. ii. 27).
(6) Brother of the preceding, was shut up in Praenesté with the younger Marius, when his brother was defeated by Sulla. After the death of the elder Pontius, Marius and Telesinus, finding it impossible to escape from Praenesté, resolved to die by one another's hands. Telesinus fell first, and Marius put an end to his own life or was slain by his slave. See Marius.