Pontius Pilate

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • “Sublime . . . The definitive study of Pilate.”—The Washington Post Book World

“A masterwork . . . one of the most interesting and creative books I’ve read in a very long time.”—Ryan Holiday, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Obstacle Is the Way

“Compelling, eloquent and vivid . . . In a superb blend of scholarship and creativity, Wroe brings this elusive yet pivotal figure to life.”—The Boston Globe
 
One of Esquire’s Best Biographies of All Time • Finalist for the Samuel Johnson Prize
 
The foil to Jesus, the defiant antihero of the Easter story, mocking, skeptical Pilate is a historical figure who haunts our imagination. For some he is a saint, for others the embodiment of human weakness, an archetypal politician willing to sacrifice one man for the sake of stability.
 
In this dazzlingly conceived biography, Ann Wroe brings man and myth to life. Working from classical sources, she reconstructs his origins and upbringing, his career in the military and life in Rome, his confrontation with Christ, and his long journey home. We catch glimpses of him pacing the marble floors in Caesarea, sharpening his stylus, getting dressed shortly before sunrise on the day that would seal his place in history. What were the pressures on Pilate that day? What did he really think of Jesus? 
 
Pontius Pilate lets us see Christ's trial for the first time, in all its confusion, from the point of view of his executioner.

Ann Wroe wrote her first book at the age of seven. She received her doctorate in history from Oxford University, and then joined the BBC World Service to cover the last years of communism in Europe. Since 1992 she has been the editor of the American section of The Economist; before that she was its literary editor. Her books include Lives, Lies and the Iran-Contra Affair and A Fool and His Money, an account of a scandal in a French village during the Hundred Years' War. She lives in London with her husband and three sons.