Killing Jesus: A History

ravines. Antipas has sought to make this castle impenetrable. He fears attack from Arabia, which lies to the east, so he has enhanced these natural fortifications by erecting sixty-foot-thick walls and corner towers ninety feet high. “Moreover,” the historian Josephus will one day write of Antipas’s designs for Machaerus, “he has put a large quantity of dart-throwers and other machines of war into it, and contrived to get everything thither that might any way contribute to its inhabitants’ security under the longest siege possible.”
    The view from the palace, which lies at the center of the fortified structure, is stunning. If John were allowed to enjoy it, he might be able to see the slender brown curves of his beloved Jordan River snaking through the valley so far below. And perhaps John does pause for a final glimpse as he is marched through the great wooden doors that allow entrance to the citadel. But those doors close behind him all too quickly. Still in chains, he is marched into Antipas’s throne room, where he stands defiant and fearless before this man who says he is king of the Jews. And even when given a chance to recant his charges, John does not. “It is not lawful,” he tells the ruler, “for you to have your brother’s wife.”
    The woman in question, Herodias, 6 sits at Antipas’s side. With his charges, John is not only condemning her husband but her as well. Still, Herodias sees that Antipas is actually fearful of John and is afraid to order his death. Herodias, however, is a patient woman and knows that she will find a way to exact her revenge. How dare this unkempt savage insult her?
    And so it is that John is hurled into the dungeons of Machaerus, there to rot until Antipas sets him free—or Herodias has him killed.
    Meanwhile, a far greater threat to Antipas is beginning to emerge. Jesus of Nazareth has now embarked on a spiritual journey, a mission that will challenge the world’s most powerful men.

CHAPTER SEVEN
    VILLA JOVIS, CAPRI
A.D. 26
NIGHT
    Far away from Galilee, the Roman who considers himself to be the stepson of god is on the move. Life in Rome has been hard on Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus—or so he thinks. So he has exiled himself to this mountaintop island fortress on Capri to live out his days in pleasure and privacy. Now he reclines in his bedroom as nude handmaidens and young boys copulate in front of him. They were handpicked for their beauty and brought from the far-flung reaches of the Roman Empire against their will to perform erotic sexual acts for “the old goat,” as the sixty-eight-year-old Tiberius is called behind his back. Some days the children might be asked to dress as Pans and nymphs, then flit about the royal garden, offering themselves to one another and to the emperor’s invited guests.
    Tonight the orgiasts remain inside this sprawling palace with its marble floors, erotic statues, works of art, and stunning views of the Mediterranean Sea far below. In case the performances of the young girls and boys ordered to submit to the jaded, pockmarked emperor lack imagination, explicit sex manuals from Egypt are on hand for instruction.
    The young performers can’t help but sneak a glance at Tiberius. If all goes well, he will join in, perhaps selecting one of the teenaged boys or girls for himself. But if they fail, and if Tiberius doesn’t find their contortions stimulating, the emperor will not simply leave the room. He will do something far worse. There is a good chance he will hurl their bodies off “Tiberius’s Leap,” the thousand-foot cliff alongside the palace. From that height, it doesn’t matter if a person lands in the sea or on the rocks jutting out into the Gulf of Naples. There is no surviving the fall.
    Which is just as Tiberius designed it. Perversely, just as he enjoys sex and watching others have sex, he also finds delight in watching his victims scream for their lives.
    The truth is, almost all of tonight’s players will suffer the terrifying fate of being thrown off the cliff. Tiberius cannot abide the thought of rumors about his debauchery making their way back to Rome. The best way to keep these children silent is to kill them after he uses them.
    But the young players don’t know this. They actually believe they will one day make it out of Villa Jovis alive and return home to their villages. So they perform as if their lives depend upon it, succumbing to any whim or want of the vile Tiberius.
    Meanwhile,