The Passion

Beneficarius

Tanius and Pontein were troubled, to say the least. They had to report what can only be described as suspicious activity to their Centurion one thing that neither of them ever wanted to do and indeed no legionnaire ever wanted to do. Reporting suspicious activity to a centurion shows that not only did you mess up and can't do your duty in the legion properly but also, if your report is not satisfactory to the centurion, your services in the legion are no longer needed. Nowhere in the Empire was this stricter than in Jerusalem, and for no one was this harsher than for Tanius and Pontein who were in charge of the crucifixions. "So what are we going to tell him?" asked Pontein to Tanius as they were walking down the short hill from the edge of Jerusalem to the governor's building.  

"Do we really even have to tell him?" asked Tanius back "I mean we'll sound like madmen." 

"Of course we bloody well have to tell him there had to be five hundred people who saw that!"  

"All right, all right don't get pissy with me. I'm only saying that if I were centurion I would think we were mad."

"Well you're not centurion now are you?" 

"All right then what would you do if you were centurion?" 

"I'd think we're insane, then when five hundred people start saying the same thing I would be suspicious that two Beneficarius didn't do their job right." 

"So either way we're going to be fucked?"  

"Exactly might as well tell him and hope he doesn't discharge us."

The event in question started three days ago when they crucified a Palestinian carpenter. It was their last set of crucifixions for the day and they were tired. The phrase "when in Rome do as the Romans do" made no sense to the outside observer because Rome was an empire and you didn't have to go to it because it came to you. To the Romans however it meant to do your job to the best of your ability and enjoy every second of it. This was especially true for the legion and Tanius and Pontein were no exception to this; whipping people, nailing them on crosses all day, and checking to see if they were dead with a spear at one point becomes arduous though, despite their very strong work ethic.  

The carpenter was first flogged and after the flogging the soldiers put a thorn circlet on his head in jest before the walk started. Pontein and Tanius were going over their reports for the day and they saw the soldiers doing this. The two were tired and just wanted to get everything over with so they can finish the day and have some food. Tanius yelled "hey you four! What the bloody hell is going on here?!" 

The soldier who put the crown on the carpenter's head said "Oh! Uhm... Nothing! Sir we were just having a bit of jest with this one, he said he was king of the Jews and well... Haha we gave him a crown and all." 

Tanius and Pontein looked at the face of the mangled carpenter then looked away in disgust. Pontein said "Right, well that may be bloody hilarious, if not so disgusting, but you four are holding up the execution and I'm tired. It's been a long day and we want to get grub so hurry up and get the trail moving." 

"Yes sir!" The soldiers shouted in unison and the carpenter was staring at Pontein. He looked back at the disheveled, broken bag of bones lying in front of him and said "do me a favor and stop looking at me will you? You look revolting."  

The trail was the worn patch of rode that led to the crucifixion mound. At the head of the crucifixion was the carpenter, beaten and weary with thieves and murderers following close behind. All he really did was suggest that people should be nice to each other for a change, did he really deserve this? He tripped and a Jewish woman stopped in front of him, to help him up. She was crying her eyes out yelling "why my son?! Why?!" Tanius, who was tired at this point of the day and wanting to get through with this yelled back at the woman "Out of the way woman now!"