When the tyrant’s diseased mind and body finally expired, at the age of sixty-nine, his whispered obituary among the Jews was that “he had stolen to the throne like a fox, ruled like a tiger, and died like a dog.” One of his last infamous acts, so in keeping with his character, had been to issue an order that every male child under the age of two, living in the tiny neighboring village of Bethlehem and vicinity, be put to the sword. He had heard disquieting rumors that one had been born there who was destined to rule the people as foretold by Jewish prophecy.

Now Herod was dust, as was his patron, Caesar Augustus, and the new emperor of Rome, Tiberius, had divided the little nation between two of Herod’s surviving sons and a Roman governor, or procurator, who at the time was Pontius Pilate. Each enjoyed considerable freedom in governing his own allotted domain, but all three were well aware that their actions were always under the scrutiny of the powerful governor of Syria, Lucius Vitellius.

Vitellius had fascinated me since my early days of work on “The Christ Commission.” Tough and capable, he was my logical choice from the beginning as the sort of leader who would not have hesitated to deputize a team of tribunes to conduct secret hearings into the activities of anyone who threatened the Pax Romana, even a crucified preacher from Nazareth and his followers, who, illogically, were increasing in number despite the death of their leader.

Lucius Vitellius was not only the governor of Syria but also the highest-ranking officer in the entire eastern sector of Rome’s vast empire. From his headquarters in Antioch he commanded four of Rome’s twenty-five legions, and he was responsible only to Tiberius for the maintenance of peace and stability in Syria and along its border as well as among the three million Jews to the south.

Pontius Pilate, fifth Roman procurator to the Jewish provinces of Judaea, Idumaea, and Samaria, did not seem to have overly concerned himself with the growing threat to his authority posed by the rapidly multiplying hordes of potential rebels in Jerusalem and vicinity who now called themselves Christians. His superior, Vitellius, on the other hand, realizing that the ultimate responsibility for maintaining law and order rested on his shoulders alone, would have had no compunction in taking matters into his own hands in order to learn, through his own select commission, all that he could about the dead Jesus and the suspected hoax being perpetrated by his followers that he had risen from the dead.