Mikhail Bulgakov. The Master and Margarita -
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Sanhedrin on the accused Yeshua Ha-Notsri and the secretary recorded
Pilate's words.
A minute later centurion Mark Muribellum stood before the Procurator.
He was ordered by the Procurator to hand the felon over to the captain of
the secret service and in doing so to transmit the Procurator's directive
that Yeshua Ha-Notsri was to be segregated from the other convicts, also
that the captain of the secret service was forbidden on pain of severe
punishment to talk to Yeshua or to answer any questions he might ask.
At a signal from Mark the guard closed ranks around Yeshua and escorted
him from the balcony.
Later the Procurator received a call from a handsome man with a blond
beard, eagles' feathers in the crest of his helmet, glittering lions'
muzzles on his breastplate, a gold-studded sword belt, triple-soled boots
laced to the knee and a purple cloak thrown over his left shoulder. He was
the commanding officer, the Legate of the Legion.
The Procurator asked him where the Sebastian cohort was stationed. The
Legate reported that the Sebastian was on cordon duty in the square in front
of the hippodrome, where the sentences on the prisoners would be announced
to the crowd.
Then the Procurator instructed the Legate to detach two centuries from
the Roman cohort. One of them, under the command of Muribellum, was to
escort the convicts, the carts transporting the executioners' equipment and
the executioners themselves to Mount Golgotha and on arrival to cordon off
the summit area. The other was to proceed at once to Mount Golgotha and to
form a cordon immediately on arrival. To assist in the task of guarding the
hill, the Procurator asked the Legate to despatch an auxiliary cavalry
regiment, the Syrian ala.
When the Legate had left the balcony, the Procurator ordered his
secretary to summon to the palace the president of the Sanhedrin, two of its