event · E0310
Pilate Stone כתובת פילאטוס
A limestone block from Caesarea bearing a Latin dedication of a "Tiberieum" — a building honoring the emperor Tiberius — by "[Po]ntius Pilatus, [praef]ectus Iudae[ae]": the only contemporary inscription of Pontius Pilate ever found, and the stone that corrected his title (prefect, not procurator, as later sources had it). It was found in 1961, reused as a step in the Roman theater of Caesarea Maritima, by Antonio Frova's Italian expedition. The original is at the Israel Museum; replicas stand at Caesarea and in Milan.
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I. Who
- Hebrew
- כתובת פילאטוס
- Also known as
- Pilate inscription, Tiberieum inscription
- Era
- second-temple
II. When
- Traditional
- c. 3786–3796 AM (26–36 CE, Pilate's prefecture)
- Academic
- 26–36 CE
- Date range
- 26–36 CE
- Duration
- ≈10 years
- Precision
- approximate
Why it matters
Between Herod's death and the Great Revolt, Yehudah was run by Roman prefects from Caesarea — the occupying administration under which the generation before the churban lived, and under which the sages of the late Second Temple taught. For all their weight in history, those prefects left almost no physical trace; this reused building stone is the only inscription any of them left in the province, and it happens to name the most notorious. A government's monument ending as a theater step is its own comment on empires; for the atlas it pins the era of Roman prefecture to a datable object.
V. How do we know
| Claim | Evidence | Confidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| The stone was found in June 1961, in secondary use as a step in the Roman theater of Caesarea Maritima, by Antonio Frova's Italian expedition (spotted by M.T. Fortuna Canivet). Its Latin dedication of a Tiberieum names "[Po]ntius Pilatus, [praef]ectus Iudae[ae]" — the only contemporary epigraphic attestation of Pilate, prefect of Judea 26–36 CE, and the evidence that his title was praefectus rather than the later "procurator." | archaeology external | ★★★★★ | |
| The original is held by the Israel Museum (published as AE 1963 no. 104); replicas stand at Caesarea, where it was found, and in Milan. It anchors the era of the Roman prefects who governed Yehudah between Herod's dynasty and the Great Revolt. | external archaeology | ★★★★★ |