Pontius

“ Pontius. "He will not accept any help, but I have to teach him to
discriminate what is possible from what is impossible."
"Ah! he is always gazing at the stars and you look steadily at the road on which you are walking."
"An architect can make no use of anything that is unsteady or that has no firm foundation."
"That is a hard saying, Pontius. It is true that during the last few weeks I have behaved like a fool."
"I only wish that every tottering structure could recover its balance as quickly and as certainly as you! Antinous was a demigod for beauty, and a good faithful fellow besides." ”

“ A man who for several hours has been using his hands or his mind, or both together, waxes hungry, and all the artists whom Pontius had brought together at Lochias had now been working for several days almost to the verge of exhaustion. Each had done his best, in the first place, no doubt, to give satisfaction to Pontius, whom all esteemed, and to himself; but also in the hope of giving proof of his powers to the Emperor and of showing him how things could be done in Alexandria. ”

“ But Pontius stopped him again, saying:
"Titianus writes me word that he proposes coming to Lochias this evening.
He may arrive at any moment; and not alone, but with my fellow-artist,
Claudius Venator from Rome, who is to assist me with his advice."
"I never even heard his name," said Papias, who was wont to trouble himself as little about the persons as about the works of other artists.
"I wonder at that," said Pontius, closing the double tablets which announced the Emperor's advent.
"Can he do anything?" asked Pollux.
"More than any one of us," replied Pontius. "He is a mighty man." ”

“ Pontius proved, indeed, generous to his foes. He supplied carriages for the sick and wounded, and furnished provisions to last the army until it should arrive at Home. When that city was reached the senate and people came out and welcomed the soldiers with the greatest kindness. But the wounded pride of the legionaries could not be soothed. Those who had homes in the country stole from the ranks and sought their several dwellings. Those who lived in Rome lingered without the walls until after the sun had fallen, and then made their way home through the darkness. ”

“ There is but little room in the actions of public men for that indulgence of human frailty which the philosophers recommend.”
“We’ll say no more at present,” said Pontius. “The sulphureous fumes which rise from the Phlegræan plain are more powerful when the ground which exhales them is still warm beneath the sun’s rays. I must hasten on. Adieu! But now that I have rediscovered a friend, I should wish to take advantage of my good fortune. Do me the favour, Ælius Lamia, to give me your company at supper at my house to-morrow. ”

“ What! You who represent here the august Emperor Tiberius, our protector, among us honest and peaceable people, for without your troops, the populace would long ago have risen against Herod; but prince, you pretend to be indifferent to the words and acts of this Nazarene; you treat him as a madman. Ah! Seigneur Pontius Pilate, to-day is not the first time I have told you this; madmen like this one are public pests!'
'And I repeat to you, seigneurs,' replied Pontius Pilate, extending his empty cup to his slave standing behind him, 'I repeat that you are wrong to alarm yourselves ”

“ They now, too late and in vain, applauded the plans of old Pontius, by blundering between which, they had exchanged the possession of victory for an uncertain peace; and having lost the opportunity of doing a kindness or an injury, were now to fight against men, whom they might have either put out of the way, for ever, as enemies ”

“ She gave the preference to artificial and massive metres; some of the verses were in Latin, others in the Attic, and others again in the Aeolian dialects of Greek, for she had now learnt to use this, and all to punish Pontius—to vex Pontius—and at the same time to appear in his eyes as brilliant as she could. ”

“ Pontius met the Emperor’s servant and his water-carriers and remarked, loudly enough for Mastor to understand him, to Pollux who was with him:
“The architect’s servant is getting Christians to wait upon his master to-day. They are regular and sober workmen who do their duty silently and well.” ”

“ Pontius listened impatiently to these praises.
“I was not the kind of man to fall into the snares of the Jewish women,” he said; “and since you have opened the subject yourself, Lamia, I 25was never able to approve of your laxity. If I did not express with sufficient emphasis formerly how culpable I held you for having intrigued at Rome with the wife of a man of consular rank, it was because you were then enduring heavy penance for your misdoings. Marriage from the patrician point of view is a sacred tie; it is one of the institutions which are the support of Rome. ”

“ He came accordingly, and told them his sentiments; which were, that they should adopt one or other of the extremes, and either gain their affections by an heroic act of generosity, or extirpate them totally, to prevent their ever being able to revenge themselves for whatever indignity they should impose on them. Pontius did not follow the advice of the old man, but took a middle way, which was, to spare their lives, but dismiss them with the loss of their honour, by obliging consuls, officers, and soldiers, to submit to the signal disgrace of passing under the yoke. ”

“ But Pontius was a highminded man, he had a strong Italian feeling, and it was impossible for him to annihilate the army of a people which protected Italy against invading foreigners, particularly the Gauls and Carthaginians: he doubted not but that a lasting peace might be made with the Romans, if one could only lay hold of them. By great good luck, we know the conditions of it from the fragments. The consuls and all the commanders pledged their word of honour that the people would ratify the peace; until then, the knights, who were sons of the first families, remained as hostages. ”

“ PAULINUS, SAINT, of Nola (333–431) . Pontius Meropius Anicius Paulinus, who was successively a consul, a monk and a bishop, was born at Bordeaux in A.D. 353. His father, pracfectus praclorio in Gaul, was a man of great wealth, who entrusted his son's education, with the best of results, to Ausonius. In 378 Paulinus was raised to the rank of consul suffectus, and in the following year he appears to have been sent as consularis into Campania. It was at this period, while present at a festival of St Felix of Nola, that he entered upon his lifelong devotion to the cult of that saint. ”

“ The manner in which Pontius regarded me when the priest said this, left me no doubt that he was at least favourably inclined to the opinions of the Christians; [pg 290] so I answered without hesitation, “My curiosity, instead of being satisfied by what I saw that evening, received new strength ”

“ PILATE, PONTIUS, the Roman governor of Judaea under whom Jesus Christ suffered crucifixion. Of equestrian rank, his name Pontius suggests a Samnite origin, and his cognomen in the gospels, pileatus (if derived from the pileus or cap of liberty) , descent from a freedman. In any case he came in A.D. 26 from the household of Tiberius, through the influence of Sejanus, to be procurator over part of the imperial province of Syria, viz. ”

“ For he is made more worthy who dispenses with what he deserves. And with this excitement were the eager people at that time inflamed, desiring with a spiritual longing, as the event proved, not only a bishop,—for in him whom then with a latent foreboding of divinity they were in such wise demanding, they were seeking not only a priest,—but moreover a future martyr. ”

“ Pontia, a Roman matron who committed adultery with Sagitta, &c. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 12.――A mother infamous for her cruelty. Martial, bk. 1, ltr. 34.――A surname of Venus at Hermione. Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 34.――A woman condemned by Nero as guilty of a conspiracy. She killed herself by opening her veins. She was daughter of Petronius and wife of Bolanus. Juvenal, satire 6, li. 637.――An island in the Tyrrhene sea, where Pilate, surnamed Pontius, is supposed to have lived. Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 6.—Ptolemy, bk. 3, ch. 1. See: Œnotrides.
Pontĭcum mare, the sea of Pontus, generally called the Euxine. ”

“ And, indeed, these doings of his were such, and so great, and so admirable, that I am deterred by the contemplation of their greatness, and confess myself incompetent to discourse in a way that shall be worthy of the honour of his deserts, and unable to relate such noble deeds in such a way that they may appear as great as in fact they are, except that the multitude of his glories is itself sufficient for itself, and needs no other heraldry. ”

“ Pompey, Sextus, in alliance with M. Antony, 264; master of the sea, 264; forms alliance with Octavian and Antony, 264; rupture of the alliance, 265; defeats Octavian's fleet, 265; his own fleet defeated by M. Agrippa, 266; is taken prisoner, and put to death at Miletus, 266. Pontiffs, 12, 51. Pontine Marshes, 4. Pontius, C., defeats the Romans, 57, 58; is defeated and put to death, 59. Pontius, the Samnite, 193. Pontus, 106; kingdom of, 186; made a Roman province, 212. Porcius Cato, M. See Cato. Populus Romanus, 14. Porsena, Lars, marches against Rome in aid of Tarquin, 26 ”

“ Vol. i. p. 433.] ↑ [Elucidation I.] ↑ [See above note 1, this page.] ↑ [The charismata of a higher ministry.] ↑ [Nor does it make any one so. But the Fathers seem to have thought it made good men more humble.] ↑ [This heathen word thus comes into use as applicable to all bishops. It was used derisively by Tertullian, vol. iv. p. 74.] ↑ [Pontius is said to have followed his beloved bishop, a.d. 258, dying a martyr.] ↑ [See Origen, “weeks of years,” vol. iv. p. 353.] ↑ That is, Providence ensured the respite, to fulfil the promise.↑ [See note at end of this memoir.] ”

“ Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, 251; scholar of S. John Evangelist, 73; letters of, see Epistles; letters to, of Ignatius, 108, 172; Martyrdom of, letters on, genuine, 81 n. 1; on Christian charity, 125 Pompey, Consul, 56; first Roman ruler of Judea, 329; Jerusalem taken by, 3 Pomponia Græcina, identified with Lucina of the Crypt, 245 Pontianus, catacomb of, 211, 235 Baptistery in, 236 Pontianus, Bishop of Rome, or Pope, martyr, tomb of, 252 Pontius, on Christian Charity at Carthage, 127 Pontus, Christians in (see also Bithynia) , 45, 50 Pope,——, his ode on S. Cecilia, 294 n. ”

“ In short, in respect of God’s grace, there was no delay, no postponement,—I have said but little,—he immediately received the presbyterate and the priesthood. [6] For who is there that would not entrust every grade of honour to one who believed with such a disposition? There are many things which he did while still a layman, and many things which now as a presbyter he did—many things which, after the examples of righteous men of old, and following them with a close imitation, he accomplished with the obedience of entire consecration—that deserved well of the Lord. ”

“ We give to Pope Sylvester, and to his successors, our palace of Lateran, one of the finest in the world; we give to him our crown, our mitre, our diadem, all our imperial vestments. We give to the Holy Pontiff as a free gift the city of Rome, and all the cities of Western Italy, as well as all the cities of other countries. To make room for him we abdicate our authority over these provinces, transferring the seat of our empire to Byzantium, since it is not just that a temporal emperor shall retain any power where God has set the head of his church. ”

“ All the faith, all the love of those believers, overexcited by the regal spectacle they had just beheld, returned once more to the dream, to the rageful desire that the Pope should be both King and Pontiff, master of men’s bodies as he was of their souls—in one word, the absolute sovereign of the earth. Therein lay the only truth, the only happiness, the only salvation! Let all be given to him, both mankind and the world! ”

“ He was here the Sovereign Pontiff, the all-powerful Master whom Christendom adored. His slim waxen form seemed to have stiffened within his white vestments, heavy with golden broidery, as in a reliquary of precious metal; and he retained a rigid, haughty, hieratic attitude, like that of some idol, gilded, withered for centuries past by the smoke of sacrifices. ”

“ The fiercest and most high minded of the Roman Pontiffs, while bestowing kingdoms and citing great princes to his judgment-seat, was seized in his palace by armed men, and so foully outraged that he died mad with rage and terror. “Thus,” sang the great Florentine poet, “was Christ, in the person of his vicar, a second time seized by ruffians, a second time mocked, a second time drenched with the vinegar and the gall.” The seat of the Papal court was carried beyond the Alps, and the Bishops of Rome became dependants of France. Then came the great schism of the West. ”

“ The Two Pontiffs. The glorious sun rose in undimmed splendour on a morning in the early part of the fourth century over everlasting Rome, his rays glancing on countless temples, statues, columns, and towers, on long lines of aqueducts and other public edifices, and on the proud mansions of the patricians which covered the slopes and crowned the summits of her seven hills. The populace were already astir, bent on keeping holiday, for a grand festival was about to be held in honour of Jupiter Optimus Maximus and his two associate divinities Juno and Minerva. ”