Twenty-one years after Christ’s birth, Gratus arrives as the new Roman governor. Due to religious unrest in Jerusalem, Gratus leads a cohort of legionaries to garrison the city.

In a garden in a palace on Mount Zion, two young men, about 17 and 19, are conversing in Greek. They are both handsome with black hair and eyes and bronzed skin. The elder youth, Messala, is dressed in Roman style and has been sent to Judea to oversee tax collection. The other boy, Ben-Hur is dressed in local, Jewish garb.

Messala praises Ben-Hur’s physical beauty; Ben-Hur wishes Messala were still the same person he had been when he left five years ago. Messala responds with sarcasm and offends Ben-Hur. When Ben-Hur explains that he is upset with Gratus’s replacement of the high-priest, Messala directly mocks Judaism and the God of the Hebrews. As Ben-Hur grows more upset, Messala vaunts in the political superiority of Rome and how it means that all the world is open to him.

At the end of his monologue, Messala offers to share all his wealth and privilege with Ben-Hur. Ben-Hur is unfamiliar with Messala’s ironic manner and is uncertain whether he is serious.