[an original hypothesis]
If, as you often tell me, you love me;
and, of my generation, I look most
like your Beloved, my grandmother, when
you married her . . . I ask---quite urgently---
that you allow me to accompany
Pilate when he departs for his new post.
I know, I know, that Roman policy
forbids this, but you stand above all men;
why not above their antiquated laws?
I hope you will respect and not condemn
me for a silly adolescent ninny, a
callow and credulous girl with a false
sense of the facts of plain reality.
Something unknown to me beckons my heart
to find a way into Jerusalem:
but to what end there, and to take what part,
I cannot say because I do not know.
This is no whim, no joke offered in vain.
Nor do I think that I have gone insane.
I am just driven by this need to go.
If you give leave to . . .
your . . .
Asinia.
Starward
[jlc]
Author's Notes/Comments:
Lines 1-3: Asinia, at the age of fifteen years old, was said to resemble her Grandmother, Vipsania, at the same age, the age when she and Tiberius married. According to some accounts, Tiberius remarked about the resemblance when he attended Vipsania's funeral. I believe I am the first to suggest that Pilate's wife, mentioned in the twenty-seventh chapter of the Gospel of the Apostle Matthew, was Asinia. Later, her sister or cousin. Pomponia Graecina, professed the Christian faith before or during the reign of Nero.
The Emperor Tiberius was the kind of administrator we would call a micro-manager; and, I am told, he did not willingly make exceptions to established policy, especially as regarded the government of Rome's provinces. He even determined how much each governor could "skim" from the annual taxes (knowing that they all did that), and held them accountable to the difference. In those provinces that were governed by the Emperor with both civil and military officials---or, in other words, provinces that were not considered peaceful (which then came under the jurisdiction of the Senate)---spouses and families of appointed administrators were not permitted to reside in, or even visit, the area. Yet, we know from the Apostle Saint Matthew's Gospel, that Pilate's wife was not only present at the Fortress Antonia with her husband (who had come up there for the Passover feast, to keep order; the normal seat of government was Caesarea), but also was aware of the trial of Christ and its importance. Given TIberius' obserssive insistence on absolute compliance with the existing policies of provincial government, only the most powerful influence could have swayed him for an exception. I suggest, given the evidence, that only one person could have accomplished this, and that was Asinia. Although no evidence exists to indicate that TIberius ever molested, or even made advances toward, Asinia (even though having the power to do so), it may have been easier for him to send her to a far part of the empire---where she was not in easy reach in a moment of dire temptation.
