Explore "The Divine Tragedy" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
PILATE. / Wholly incomprehensible to me, / Vainglorious, obstinate, and given up / To unintelligible old traditions, / And proud, and self-conceited are these Jews! / Not long ago, I marched the legions / Down from Caesarea to their winter-quarters / Here in Jerusalem, with the effigies / Of Caesar on their ensigns, and a tumult / Arose among these Jews, because their Law / Forbids the making of all images! / They threw themselves upon the ground with wild / Expostulations, bared their necks, and cried / That they would sooner die than have their Law / Infringed in any manner; as if Numa / Were not as great as Moses, and the Laws / Of the Twelve Tables as their Pentateuch!
And then, again, when I desired to span / Their valley with an aqueduct, and bring / A rushing river in to wash the city / And its inhabitants, -- they all rebelled / As if they had been herds of unwashed swine! / Thousands and thousands of them got together / And raised so great a clamor round my doors, / That, fearing violent outbreak, I desisted, / And left them to their wallowing in the mire.