Pontius Pilate moved his troops into Jerusalem at night and brought Roman military standards bearing Caesar's image into the holy city. Every previous governor had known better.
According to Josephus in Antiquities XVIII, prior Roman administrators had always removed the images from their standards before entering Jerusalem, out of respect for the Jewish prohibition against graven images (Exodus 20:4). Pilate decided that accommodation was over. He smuggled the standards in under cover of darkness, and by morning the city woke up to find pagan images overlooking the Temple.
The Jewish reaction was immediate and massive. Crowds streamed to Pilate's headquarters in Caesarea and begged for five straight days that he remove the images. On the sixth day, Pilate summoned them to an open assembly, where soldiers he had hidden behind the seats suddenly rose and drew their swords. Pilate told the crowd they would die on the spot unless they accepted the standards.
The Jews threw themselves face-down on the ground, bared their necks, and told him they would rather be killed than see God's law violated. Pilate backed down. He ordered the images carried back to Caesarea. It was one of the only times a Roman governor reversed himself under pressure from an unarmed crowd.
But Pilate was not finished provoking the Jews. He later seized money from the Temple treasury, the korban (קרבן), sacred funds dedicated to God, and used it to build an aqueduct. When crowds protested during a festival in Jerusalem, Pilate sent soldiers disguised as civilians into the crowd carrying concealed clubs. On his signal, they attacked. Many died from the blows; others were trampled in the stampede. Josephus also records that Vitellius, the governor of Syria, later visited Jerusalem, was received warmly, and returned the high priestly vestments to Jewish control, reversing years of Roman custody. It was a rare gesture of respect in an era defined by escalating confrontation.