Page:The Archko Volume (1896).djvu/132

 CHAPTER VIII.

VALLEUS'S NOTES. — ACTA PILATI, OR PILATE'S REPORT TO CÆSAR OF THE ARREST, TRIAL, AND CRUCIFIXION OF JESUS.

a Roman historian, was nineteen years old when Jesus was born. His works have been thought to be extinct. I know of but two historians that make reference to his writings, Priscian and Tacitus, who speak of him as a descendant of an equestrian family of Campania. From what we gather from these writers, Valleus must have been a close friend of Cæsar, who raised him by degrees until he became one of the great men of Rome, and for sixteen years commanded the army. He returned to Rome in the year 31 and finished his work, which was called Historia Romania. He held the office of prætor when Augustus died, and while Vinceus was consul.

Valleus says that in Judea he met a man called Jesus of Nazareth, who was one of the most remarkable characters he had ever seen; that he was more afraid of Jesus than of a whole army, for he cured all manner of diseases and raised the dead, and when he cursed the orchards or fruit-trees for (128)