| |
| | Cloning saves oldest tree in Europe, where Pilate played as a boy (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-04) |
 | | The position of the tree, in a churchyard in the Perthshire village of Fortingall, is yards from the site of a former Roman encampment where, according to local legend, Pontius Pilate is said to have been born while his father, a Roman envoy, was visiting a local king. |
 | | The legend suggests that Pilate's father was in the area on behalf of Caesar Augustus in about 10BC, to persuade Metallanus or Mainus, the head of a Caledonian tribal confederacy, to pay tribute to Rome. |
 | | During the months of waiting, a relationship with a local woman led to the birth of a son, who was given his father's name, brought back to the central Italian region of Samnium and, when he grew up, made a free man and given a pilateus, the felt cap worn by a freed slave. |
| www.millennium-debate.org /ind25fe5.htm (722 words) |
|