While it is undoubtedly true that Pilate was corrupt and brutal - the reigns of Tiberius and Caligula were not Romes' finest hours - he was no more so than any other backwater Procurator. They were brutal times and wealth was the only security to be had, even if it was just enough for a comfortable retirement reasonably far from Rome.

It seems that the greatest problem in his term as Procurator was the bloody-mindedness of the people he was sent to govern. The Roman Empire had a specific policy regarding religion. Basically it was that subjects of the Empire were allowed to worhip as they saw fit - usually local deities, though the Egyptian Isis and the Persian Mithras were both popular cults among the people of Rome itself and among Roman citizens across the Empire.

The only stipulation was that people should also honour the Roman State cult, which was based around the deified Emperors Gaius Julius and Octavian Augustus. All that this meant was that people were expected to attend certain ceremonies at certain times of the year, and to use certain forms of words in contracts and other documents. Unfortunately, the people of Judaea had Views on such things, and obstinately refused to comply. It didn't help matters that Pilate, who didn't do subtle, took the customary step of placing an image of the Emperor and storing the signa of the legions in the chief local Temple -the one in Jerusalem. That one led to riots, which were suppressed in the usual no-nonsense style of the Roman military. As far as his seizure of Temple funds was concerned, Jerusalem was badly in need of water, and while Pilate was prepared to have his engineers construct the necessary aqueduct, as far as he was concerned, the local government ought to pay for the bloody thing! Roman law gave him the right to collect and disburse government funds as he saw fit, after all!

This is what happens when you put military men in charge of civilians. No diplomacy, no compromise.

As to the matter of Yeshu'a, there was no reason for Pilate to take a blind bit of notice of an itinerant Essene preacher who was giving local religious authorities gyp. But he may well have executed a Zealot terrorist leader who had the same name.