Ben-Hur declines, but hears that champion charioteer Messala will compete;
0
2
He visits Messala and demands his mother and sister's freedom;
the Romans discover that Miriam and Tirzah have contracted leprosy in prison, and expel them from the city.
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3
Messala asks Ben-Hur for names of Jews who criticize the Roman government;
Ben-Hur counsels his countrymen against rebellion but refuses to name names, and the two part in anger.
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4
Although Messala knows it was an accident,
he condemns Ben-Hur to the galleys, and imprisons his mother and sister, to intimidate the restive Jewish populace by punishing the family of a known friend and prominent citizen.
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5
It is revealed at the end of the novel that Iras(who is Messala's mistress and does not appear in the 1959 film) had murdered Messala in a fit of anger about five years after the chariot race.