Introduction
Ancient Sources
1. Coponius	r. A.D. 6 to 9
2. Marcus Ambivulus	r. 9 to 12
3. Annius Rufus	r. 12 to 15
4. Valerius Gratus	r. 15 to 26
5. Pontius Pilate	r. 26 to 36 or 37
6. Marcellus	r. began 36 or 37
7. Cuspius Fadus	r. 44 to 45
8. Tiberius Julius Alexander	r. 46 to 48
9. Publius Ventidius Cumanus	r. 48 to 52
10. Marcus Antonius Felix	r. 52 to c. 59
11. Porcius Festus	r. c. 59 to 62
12. Lucceius Albinus	r. 62 to 64
13. Gessius Florus	r. 64 to 66
14. Marcus Antonius Julianus	r. sometime between 66 and 73

While much is known about the rulers of the Roman Empire, the Caesars, because of a large number of primary sources on their lives, comparatively little is known about the procurators (or "prefects" or governors) of Judaea. But why even look at these figures? After all, they are just governers of a small province on the eastern end of a vast and powerful empire. But Judaea was not just any typical Roman province. Judaea is interesting to study for several reasons:

1. It is easier to study Judaea than most of the other provinces because of a good collection of primary sources, specifically the Bible and the works of Flavius Josephus, a Jew born in A.D. 37 who would become a Roman citizen and supporter of their government. Josephus wrote four books that have come down to us. In chronological order they are: The Jewish War (c. A.D. 75) which covers the Jewish revolt of 66-73 and the events that lead up to it, The Antiquities of the Jews (A.D. 93), which retells the Old Testament in the first half and describes Roman rule in Judaea up until the revolt in the second half, Vita, an autobiographical sketch, and Against Apion, in which he defends his Vita from criticisms by those, including one Apion, who charged that the Jewish race was still a young one, even though it had already existed for thousands of years. The first two works contain a wealth of valuable information, and the majority of what is found below.

The Gospels serve as a case study in the Roman legal system. Josephus tells of several incidents in which the governors of Judaea and other provinces inflicted capital punishment on their inhabitants and he is presumably leaving out many other incidents of its usage. The detail the Gospels provide of the trial and death of Jesus and the two ("other") criminals who were crucified alongside him, however, is unmatched anywhere. Jesus' passion narrative is an example of the type of thing that was going on all the time back then.

Finally, there are the other works that supplement the bulk of what we know. Judaean procurators are mentioned briefly by Tacitus in The Histories and The Annals of Imperial Rome, by Suetonius in The Twelve Caesars, and by Philo of Alexandria in Embassy to Gaius.

2. The province of Judaea during this period is the ultimate geographical and temporal nexus of the Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian traditions, the two great guiding forces of Western civilization. The procurators of this province presided over an increasingly hostile population during a time of great religious fervor. These guys were on the ground, in direct control during the events that led to the creation of Christianity (the world's most popular religion today).

The Romans were known to be generally very tolerant of different cultures. As long as they got their tax revenues they didn't care much else about what those superstitious monotheists on the fringe of the empire believed. But there clearly was religious and cultural strife between these two very different peoples and that comes through in the surviving texts, which will be evident from the sketches of the procurators. Judaea was the birthplace of Christianity and the home of Judaism, two religious trends very different from their pagan rulers. I cannot think of a time where two more divergant cultures (Roman paganism and the extremely religious Judaism of the time) have been forced to coexist for any considerable length of time, but it was still a short-lived experiment.

These guys presided over incredibly interesting times, the likes of which have not been seen since. Nationalism, religious fervor, a clash of civilizations, and the incarnation of an individual many believed to be the Son of God -- its enough to strain any government.

3. It is a case study in how the Romans ruled the provinces, from a province that has a lot of recorded information. There is little to no survivng record of most of the other provinces.

What follows are brief sketches of the 14 known men charged with governing the province of Judaea, the only monotheist province out of a slew of pagan ones, from A.D. 6 when the Romans annexed the province from the family of Herod the Great, who had been a "client king," a king who ruled with a treaty with and at the pleasure of the emperor, until about 70 during the first of two Jewish revolts against the empire, when it appears that the administrative system was at least temporarily suspended.

These procurators were responsible in part to the Legate of Syria (a broader political entity of which Judaea was a subdivision) and in part to Caesar himself. They were generally from the Equine class, meaning that they were aristocrats but below the senatorial class, and they would probably not have been happy with the assignment they were given: governing a backwater province full of a hostile mass of "foreigners."

The Gospel According to Matthew. [Matthew]
The Gospel According to Mark. [Mark]
The Gospel According to Luke. [Luke]
The Gospel According to John. [John]
Acts of the Apostles. [Acts]
Acts of Pontius Pilate or The Gospel According to Nicodemus.
Josephus, Flavius. Antiquities of the Jews. [Antiquities, Ant.]
Josephus, Flavius. The Jewish War. [War]
Philo, of Alexandria (Philo Judaeaus). Embassy to Gaius.
Suetonius. The Twelve Caesars. [Suetonius]
Tacitus, Cornelius. The Annals of Imperial Rome. [Annals]
Tacitus, Cornelius. The Histories. [Histories]

Procurator	Bible	Antiquities of the Jews	The Jewish War	Annals of Imperial Rome	The Histories	Twelve Caesars	Embassy to Gaius
Coponius	.	18.01.1, 18.02.2	2.08.1	.	.	.
Marcus Ambivulus	.	18.02.2	.	.	.	.
Annius Rufus	.	18.02.2	.	.	.	.
Valerius Gratus	.	18.02.2, 18.06.1	.	.	.	.
Pontius Pilate	Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 3:1, 13:1, 23, John 18:28-19:38, Acts 3:13, 4:27, 13:28	18.02.2, 18.03.1-18.03.3, 18.04.1-18.04.2, 18.06.1	2.09.2-2.09.4	15.44	.	.	38
Marcellus	.	18.04.2	2.11.6	.	.	.
Cuspius Fadus	.	15.11.4, 19.09.2, 20.01.1-20.01.2, 20.05.1-20.05.2	.	.	.	.
Tiberius Julius Alexander	.	20.05.2	2.11.6, 2.15.1, 2.18.7-2.18.8, 4.10.6, 5.01.6, 5.05.3, 5.12.2, 6.04.3	.	1.11, 2.74, 2.79	Vesp. 6
Publius Ventidius Cumanus	.	20.05.2-20.06.3	2.12.1-2.12.3, 2.12.5-2.12.7	12.54	.	.
Marcus Antonius Felix	Acts 23:24-23:26, 24, 25:14	20.07.1-20.07.2, 20.08.5-20.08.9	2.12.8, 2.13.2, 2.13.4-2.13.5, 2.13.7-2.14.1	12.54	5.09	Claud. 28
Porcius Festus	Acts 24:27, 25, 26:24-26:32	20.08.9-20.09.1	2.14.1	.	.	.
Lucceius Albinus	.	20.09.1-20.09.3, 20.09.5, 20.11.1	2.14.1-2.14.2, 6.05.3	.	.	.
Gessius Florus	.	18.01.6, 19.09.2, 20.11.1	2.14.2-2.16.3, 2.16.5-2.17.1, 2.17.4, 2.18.1, 2.19.4, 2.20.1	.	5.10	.
Marcus Antonius Julianus	.	.	6.04.3	.	.	.

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