Roman procurator of Judea AD 26-36.
Unsympathetic to the Jews, his actions
several times provoked riots, and in AD 36 he
was recalled to Rome to account for the
brutal suppression of a Samaritan revolt. The
New Testament Gospels describe his reluctant
ordering of Jesus' crucifixion, but there has
been considerable debate about his actual
role in it; many believe that pressure was
put on him by Jewish conservative priests.
The Greek historian Eusebius says he
committed suicide, but another tradition says
he became a Christian, and he is regarded as
a saint and martyr in the Ethiopian Coptic
and Greek Orthodox churches.