[Reily]

Is the only thing on the ring that’s readable “Pilate i.e. in Latin Pilatus “? No Pontius script readable?

And from the Latin Pilatus , literally “armed with javelins,” from pilum “javelin”.

I’ve read that in the Roman Army the slang word Pilatus was often used for 1st Pilum (1st javelin) - the top centurion in the maniple or maybe cohort - like maybe master sergeant today. So this could just be the ring of such a person rather then have any direct connection to Pontius Pilate.

Mow when they say the ring is the “hallmark of cavalry” do they mean the mounted cavalry which were often auxiliaries (foreign) usually with Roman officers or the Equites (knightly- noble) class of Romans. I also read somewhere that Pontius Pilates was much lower class more like Marcus Agrippa - a self made Roman governing thug!

[Verginius Rufus]

His family name (nomen) was Pontius. Pilatus was a cognomen. In the Republican period cognomina were used to distinguish different branches of the same family but in the imperial period often members of the same immediate family have different cognomina. Pilate was from the equestrian order (equites) rather than of a senatorial family--but equestrians were still pretty wealthy compared to most Romans. Minor provinces like Judaea were often assigned to members of the equestrian order.

Pilate was removed in 36 by Lucius Vitellius, governor of Syria, the father of the later emperor Vitellius (one of the four emperors of A.D. 69).