CHAPTER 1
A LAW OF HEROD'S ABOUT THIEVES. SALOME AND PHERORAS CALUMNIATE ALEXANDER AND
ARISTOBULUS, UPON THEIR RETURN FROM ROME, FOR WHOM YET HEROD PROVIDES WIVES
1. As king Herod was very zealous in the administration of his entire
government, and desirous to put a stop to particular acts of injustice which
were done by criminals about the city and country, he made a law, no way like
our original laws, and which he enacted of himself, to expose house-breakers
to be ejected out of his kingdom; which punishment was not only grievous to
be borne by the offenders, but contained in it a dissolution of the customs
of our forefathers; for this slavery to foreigners, and such as did not live
after the manner of Jews, and this necessity that they were under to do whatsoever
such men should command, was an offense against our religious settlement, rather
than a punishment to such as were found to have offended, such a punishment
being avoided in our original laws; for those laws ordain, that the thief shall
restore fourfold; and that if he have not so much, he shall be sold indeed,
but not to foreigners, nor so that he be under perpetual slavery, for he must
have been released after six years. But this law, thus enacted, in order to
introduce a severe and illegal punishment, seemed to be a piece of insolence
of Herod, when he did not act as a king, but as a tyrant, and thus contemptuously,
and without any regard to his subjects, did he venture to introduce such a punishment.
Now this penalty, thus brought into practice, was like Herod's other actions,
and became a part of his accusation, and an occasion of the hatred he lay under.
2. Now at this time it was that he sailed
to Italy, as very desirous to meet with Caesar, and to see his sons who lived
at Rome; and Caesar was not only very obliging to him in other respects, but
delivered him his sons again, that he might take them home with him, as having
already completed themselves in the sciences; but as soon as the young men were
come from Italy, the multitude were very desirous to see them, and they became
conspicuous among them all, as adorned with great blessings of fortune, and
having the countenances of persons of royal dignity. So they soon appeared to
be the objects of envy to Salome, the king's sister, and to such as had raised
calumnies against Mariamne; for they were suspicious, that when these came to
the government, they should be punished for the wickedness they had been guilty
of against their mother; so they made this very fear of theirs a motive to raise
calumnies against them also. They gave it out that they were not pleased with
their father's company, because he had put their mother to death, as if it were
not agreeable to piety to appear to converse with their mother's murderer. Now,
by carrying these stories; that had indeed a true foundation [in the fact],
but were only built on probabilities as to the present accusation, they were
able to do them mischief, and to make Herod take away that kindness from his
sons which he had before borne to them; for they did not say these things to
him openly, but scattered abroad such words, among the rest of the multitude;
from which words, when carried to Herod, he was induced [at last] to hate them,
and which natural affection itself, even in length of time, was not able to
overcome; yet was the king at that time in a condition to prefer the natural
affection of a father before all the suspicions and calumnies his sons lay under.
So he respected them as he ought to do, and married them to wives, now they
were of an age suitable thereto. To Aristobulus he gave for a wife Bernice,
Salome's daughter; and to Alexander, Glaphyra, the daughter of Archelaus, king
of Cappadocia.
CHAPTER
2
HOW HEROD TWICE SAILED TO AGRIPPA; AND HOW UPON THE COMPLAINT IN IONIA AGAINST
THE GREEKS, AGRIPPA CONFIRMED THE LAWS TO THEM
1. When Herod had despatched these affairs, and he understood that Marcus
Agrippa had sailed again out of Italy into Asia, he made haste to him, and besought
him to come to him into his kingdom, and to partake of what he might justly
expect from one that had been his guest, and was his friend. This request he
greatly pressed, and to it Agrippa agreed, and came into Judea; whereupon Herod
omitted nothing that might please him. He entertained him in his new-built cities,
and showed him the edifices he had built, and provided all sorts of the best
and most costly dainties for him and his friends, and that at Sebaste and Cesarea,
about that port that he had built, and at the fortresses which he had erected
at great expenses, Alexandrium, and Herodium, and Hyrcania. He also conducted
him to the city Jerusalem, where all the people met him in their festival garments,
and received him with acclamations. Agrippa also offered a hecatomb of sacrifices
to God; and feasted the people, without omitting any of the greatest dainties
that could be gotten. He also took so much pleasure there, that he abode many
days with them, and would willingly have staid longer, but that the season of
the year made him make haste away; for as winter was coming on, he thought it
not safe to go to sea later, and yet he was of necessity to return again to
Ionia.
2. So Agrippa went away, when Herod had
bestowed on him, and on the principal of those that were with him, many presents;
but king Herod, when he had passed the winter in his own dominions, made haste
to get to him again in the spring, when he knew he designed to go to a campaign
at the Bosphorus. So when he had sailed by Rhodes and by Cos, he touched at
Lesbos, as thinking he should have overtaken Agrippa there; but he was taken
short here by a north wind, which hindered his ship from going to the shore;
so he continued many days at Chius, and there he kindly treated a great many
that came to him, and obliged them by giving them royal gifts. And when he saw
that the portico of the city was fallen down, which as it was overthrown in
the Mithridatic war, and was very large and fine building, so was it not so
easy to rebuild that as it was the rest, yet did he furnish a sum not only large
enough for that purpose, but what was more than sufficient to finish the building;
and ordered them not to overlook that portico, but to rebuild it quickly, that
so the city might recover its proper ornaments. And when the high winds were
laid, he sailed to Mitylene, and thence to Byzantium; and when he heard that
Agrippa was sailed beyond the Cyanean rocks, he made all the haste possible
to overtake him, and came up with him about Synope, in Pontus. He was seen sailing
by the ship-men most unexpectedly, but appeared to their great joy; and many
friendly salutations there were between them, insomuch that Agrippa thought
he had received the greatest marks of the king's kindness and humanity towards
him possible, since the king had come so long a voyage, and at a very proper
season, for his assistance, and had left the government of his own dominions,
and thought it more worth his while to come to him. Accordingly, Herod was all
in all to Agrippa, in the management of the war, and a great assistant in civil
affairs, and in giving him counsel as to particular matters. He was also a pleasant
companion for him when he relaxed himself, and a joint partaker with him in
all things; ill troubles because of his kindness, and in prosperity because
of the respect Agrippa had for him. Now as soon as those affairs of Pontus were
finished, for whose sake Agrippa was sent thither, they did not think fit to
return by sea, but passed through Paphlagonia and Cappadocia; they then traveled
thence over great Phrygia, and came to Ephesus, and then they sailed from Ephesus
to Samos. And indeed the king bestowed a great many benefits on every city that
he came to, according as they stood in need of them; for as for those that wanted
either money or kind treatment, he was not wanting to them; but he supplied
the former himself out of his own expenses: he also became an intercessor with
Agrippa for all such as sought after his favor, and he brought things so about,
that the petitioners failed in none of their suits to him, Agrippa being himself
of a good disposition, and of great generosity, and ready to grant all such
requests as might be advantageous to the petitioners, provided they were not
to the detriment of others. The inclination of the king was of great weight
also, and still excited Agrippa, who was himself ready to do good; for he made
a reconciliation between the people of Ilium, at whom he was angry, and paid
what money the people of Chius owed Caesar's procurators, and discharged them
of their tributes; and helped all others, according as their several necessities
required.
3. But now, when Agrippa and Herod were
in Ionia, a great multitude of Jews, who dwelt in their cities, came to them,
and laying hold of the opportunity and the liberty now given them, laid before
them the injuries which they suffered, while they were not permitted to use
their own laws, but were compelled to prosecute their law-suits, by the ill
usage of the judges, upon their holy days, and were deprived of the money they
used to lay up at Jerusalem, and were forced into the army, and upon such other
offices as obliged them to spend their sacred money; from which burdens they
always used to be freed by the Romans, who had still permitted them to live
according to their own laws. When this clamor was made, the king desired of
Agrippa that he would hear their cause, and assigned Nicolaus, one of his friends,
to plead for those their privileges. Accordingly, when Agrippa had called the
principal of the Romans, and such of the kings and rulers as were there, to
be his assessors, Nicolaus stood up, and pleaded for the Jews, as follows: "It
is of necessity incumbent on such as are in distress to have recourse to those
that have it in their power to free them from those injuries they lie under;
and for those that now are complainants, they approach you with great assurance;
for as they have formerly often obtained your favor, so far as they have even
wished to have it, they now only entreat that you, who have been the donors,
will take care that those favors you have already granted them may not be taken
away from them. We have received these favors from you, who alone have power
to grant them, but have them taken from us by such as are no greater than ourselves,
and by such as we know are as much subjects as we are; and certainly, if we
have been vouchsafed great favors, it is to our commendation who have obtained
them, as having been found deserving of such great favors; and if those favors
be but small ones, it would be barbarous for the donors not to confirm them
to us. And for those that are the hindrance of the Jews, and use them reproachfully,
it is evident that they affront both the receivers, while they will not allow
those to be worthy men to whom their excellent rulers themselves have borne
their testimony, and the donors, while they desire those favors already granted
may be abrogated. Now if any one should ask these Gentiles themselves, which
of the two things they would choose to part with, their lives, or the customs
of their forefathers, their solemnities, their sacrifices, their festivals,
which they celebrated in honor of those they suppose to be gods? I know very
well that they would choose to suffer any thing whatsoever rather than a dissolution
of any of the customs of their forefathers; for a great many of them have rather
chosen to go to war on that account, as very solicitous not to transgress in
those matters. And indeed we take an estimate of that happiness which all mankind
do now enjoy by your means from this very thing, that we are allowed every one
to worship as our own institutions require, and yet to live [in peace]; and
although they would not be thus treated themselves, yet do they endeavor to
compel others to comply with them, as if it were not as great an instance of
impiety profanely to dissolve the religious solemnities of any others, as to
be negligent in the observation of their own towards their gods. And let us
now consider the one of these practices. Is there any people, or city, or community
of men, to whom your government and the Roman power does not appear to be the
greatest blessing? Is there any one that can desire to make void the favors
they have granted? No one is certainly so mad; for there are no men but such
as have been partakers of their favors, both public and private; and indeed
those that take away what you have granted, can have no assurance but every
one of their own grants made them by you may be taken from them also; which
grants of yours can yet never be sufficiently valued; for if they consider the
old governments under kings, together with your present government, besides
the great number of benefits which this government hath bestowed on them, in
order to their happiness, this is instead of all the rest, that they appear
to be no longer in a state of slavery, but of freedom. Now the privileges we
desire, even when we are in the best circumstances, are not such as deserve
to be envied, for we are indeed in a prosperous state by your means, but this
is only in common with others; and it is no more than this which we desire,
to preserve our religion without any prohibition; which as it appears not in
itself a privilege to be envied us, so it is for the advantage of those that
grant it to us; for if the Divinity delights in being honored, it must delight
in those that permit them to be honored. And there are none of our customs which
are inhuman, but all tending to piety, and devoted to the preservation of justice;
nor do we conceal those injunctions of ours by which we govern our lives, they
being memorials of piety, and of a friendly conversation among men. And the
seventh day we set apart from labor; it is dedicated to the learning of our
customs and laws,1 we thinking it proper to reflect
on them, as well as on any [good] thing else, in order to our avoiding of sin.
If any one therefore examine into our observances, he will find they are good
in themselves, and that they are ancient also, though some think otherwise,
insomuch that those who have received them cannot easily be brought to depart
from them, out of that honor they pay to the length of time they have religiously
enjoyed them and observed them. Now our adversaries take these our privileges
away in the way of injustice; they violently seize upon that money of ours which
is owed to God, and called sacred money, and this openly, after a sacrilegious
manner; and they impose tributes upon us, and bring us before tribunals on holy
days, and then require other like debts of us, not because the contracts require
it, and for their own advantage, but because they would put an affront on our
religion, of which they are conscious as well as we, and have indulged themselves
in an unjust, and to them involuntary, hatred; for your government over all
is one, tending to the establishing of benevolence, and abolishing of ill-will
among such as are disposed to it. This is therefore what we implore from thee,
most excellent Agrippa, that we may not be ill-treated; that we may not be abused;
that we may not be hindered from making use of our own customs, nor be despoiled
of our goods, nor be forced by these men to do what we ourselves force nobody
to do; for these privileges of ours are not only according to justice, but have
formerly been granted us by you. And we are able to read to you many decrees
of the senate, and the tables that contain them, which are still extant in the
capitol, concerning these things, which it is evident were granted after you
had experience of our fidelity towards you, which ought to be valued, though
no such fidelity had been; for you have hitherto preserved what people were
in possession of, not to us only, but almost to all men, and have added greater
advantages than they could have hoped for, and thereby your government is become
a great advantage to them. And if any one were able to enumerate the prosperity
you have conferred on every nation, which they possess by your means, he could
never put an end to his discourse; but that we may demonstrate that we are not
unworthy of all those advantages we have obtained, it will be sufficient for
us, to say nothing of other things, but to speak freely of this king who now
governs us, and is now one of thy assessors; and indeed in what instance of
good-will, as to your house, hath he been deficient? What mark of fidelity to
it hath he omitted? What token of honor hath he not devised? What occasion for
his assistance of you hath he not regarded at the very first? What hindereth;
therefore, but that your kindnesses may be as numerous as his so great benefits
to you have been? It may also perhaps be fit not here to pass over in silence
the valor of his father Antipater, who, when Caesar made an expedition into
Egypt, assisted him with two thousand armed men, and proved inferior to none,
neither in the battles on land, nor in the management of the navy; and what
need I say any thing of how great weight those soldiers were at that juncture?
or how many and how great presents they were vouchsafed by Caesar? And truly
I ought before now to have mentioned the epistles which Caesar wrote to the
senate; and how Antipater had honors, and the freedom of the city of Rome, bestowed
upon him; for these are demonstrations both that we have received these favors
by our own deserts, and do on that account petition thee for thy confirmation
of them, from whom we had reason to hope for them, though they had not been
given us before, both out of regard to our king's disposition towards you, and
your disposition towards him. And further, we have been informed by those Jews
that were there with what kindness thou camest into our country, and how thou
offeredst the most perfect sacrifices to God, and honoredst him with remarkable
vows, and how thou gavest the people a feast, and acceptedst of their own hospitable
presents to thee. We ought to esteem all these kind entertainments made both
by our nation and to our city, to a man who is the ruler and manager of so much
of the public affairs, as indications of that friendship which thou hast returned
to the Jewish nation, and which hath been procured them by the family of Herod.
So we put thee in mind of these things in the presence of the king, now sitting
by thee, and make our request for no more but this, that what you have given
us yourselves you will not see taken away by others from us."
4. When Nicolaus had made this speech, there
was no opposition made to it by the Greeks, for this was not an inquiry made,
as in a court of justice, but an intercession to prevent violence to be offered
to the Jews any longer; nor did the Greeks make any defence of themselves, or
deny what it was supposed they had done. Their pretence was no more than this,
that while the Jews inhabited in their country, they were entirely unjust to
them [in not joining in their worship] but they demonstrated their generosity
in this, that though they worshipped according to their institutions, they did
nothing that ought to grieve them. So when Agrippa perceived that they had been
oppressed by violence, he made this answer: that, on account of Herod's good-will
and friendship, he was ready to grant the Jews whatsoever they should ask him,
and that their requests seemed to him in themselves just; and that if they requested
any thing further, he should not scruple to grant it them, provided they were
no way to the detriment of the Roman government; but that while their request
was no more than this, that what privileges they had already given them might
not be abrogated, he confirmed this to them, that they might continue in the
observation of their own customs, without any one offering them the least injury.
And when he had said thus, he dissolved the assembly; upon which Herod stood
up and saluted him, and gave him thanks for the kind disposition he showed to
them. Agrippa also took this in a very obliging manner, and saluted him again,
and embraced him in his arms; after which he went away from Lesbos; but the
king determined to sail from Samos to his own country; and when he had taken
his leave of Agrippa, he pursued his voyage, and landed at Cesarea in a few
days' time, as having favorable winds; from whence he went to Jerusalem, and
there gathered all the people together to an assembly, not a few being there
out of the country also. So he came to them, and gave them a particular account
of all his journey, and of the affairs of all the Jews in Asia, how by his means
they would live without injurious treatment for the time to come. He also told
them of the entire good fortune he had met with and how he had administered
the government, and had not neglected any thing which was for their advantage;
and as he was very joyful, he now remitted to them the fourth part of their
taxes for the last year. Accordingly, they were so pleased with his favor and
speech to them, that they went their ways with great gladness, and wished the
king all manner of happiness.
CHAPTER
3
HOW GREAT DISTURBANCES AROSE IN HEROD'S FAMILY ON HIS PREFERRING ANTIPATER,
HIS ELDEST SON, BEFORE THE REST, TILL ALEXANDER TOOK THAT INJURY VERY HEINOUSLY
1. But now the affairs in Herod's family were in more and more disorder,
and became more severe upon him, by the hatred of Salome to the young men [Alexander
and Aristobulus], which descended as it were by inheritance [from their mother
Mariamne]; and as she had fully succeeded against their mother, so she proceeded
to that degree of madness and insolence, as to endeavor that none of her posterity
might be left alive, who might have it in their power to revenge her death.
The young men had also somewhat of a bold and uneasy disposition towards their
father occasioned by the remembrance of what their mother had unjustly suffered,
and by their own affectation of dominion. The old grudge was also renewed; and
they cast reproaches on Salome and Pheroras, who requited the young men with
malicious designs, and actually laid treacherous snares for them. Now as for
this hatred, it was equal on both sides, but the manner of exerting that hatred
was different; for as for the young men, they were rash, reproaching and affronting
the others openly, and were inexperienced enough to think it the most generous
to declare their minds in that undaunted manner; but the others did not take
that method, but made use of calumnies after a subtle and a spiteful manner,
still provoking the young men, and imagining that their boldness might in time
turn to the offering violence to their father; for inasmuch as they were not
ashamed of the pretended crimes of their mother, nor thought she suffered justly,
these supposed that might at length exceed all bounds, and induce them to think
they ought to be avenged on their father, though it were by despatching him
with their own hands. At length it came to this, that the whole city was full
of their discourses, and, as is usual in such contests, the unskilfulness of
the young men was pitied; but the contrivance of Salome was too hard for them,
and what imputations she laid upon them came to be believed, by means of their
own conduct; for they who were so deeply affected with the death of their mother,
that while they said both she and themselves were in a miserable case, they
vehemently complained of her pitiable end, which indeed was truly such, and
said that they were themselves in a pitiable case also, because they were forced
to live with those that had been her murderers, and to be partakers with them.
2. These disorders increased greatly, and
the king's absence abroad had afforded a fit opportunity for that increase;
but as soon as Herod was returned, and had made the forementioned speech to
the multitude, Pheroras and Salome let fall words immediately as if he were
in great danger, and as if the young men openly threatened that they would not
spare him any longer, but revenge their mother's death upon him. They also added
another circumstance, that their hopes were fixed on Archelaus, the king of
Cappadocia, that they should be able by his means to come to Caesar, and accuse
their father. Upon hearing such things, Herod was immediately disturbed; and
indeed was the more astonished, because the same things were related to him
by some others also. He then called to mind his former calamity, and considered
that the disorders in his family had hindered him from enjoying any comfort
from those that were dearest to him or from his wife whom he loved so well;
and suspecting that his future troubles would soon be heavier and greater than
those that were past, he was in great confusion of mind; for Divine Providence
had in reality conferred upon him a great many outward advantages for his happiness,
even beyond his hopes; but the troubles he had at home were such as he never
expected to have met with, and rendered him unfortunate; nay, both sorts came
upon him to such a degree as no one could imagine, and made it a doubtful question,
whether, upon the comparison of both, he ought to have exchanged so great a
success of outward good things for so great misfortunes at home, or whether
he ought not to have chosen to avoid the calamities relating to his family,
though he had, for a compensation, never been possessed of the admired grandeur
of a kingdom.
3. As he was thus disturbed and afflicted,
in order to depress these young men, he brought to court another of his sons,
that was born to him when he was a private man; his name was Antipater; yet
did he not then indulge him as he did afterwards, when he was quite overcome
by him, and let him do every thing as he pleased, but rather with a design of
depressing the insolence of the sons of Mariamne, and managing this elevation
of his so, that it might be for a warning to them; for this bold behavior of
theirs [he thought] would not be so great, if they were once persuaded that
the succession to the kingdom did not appertain to them alone, or must of necessity
come to them. So he introduced Antipater as their antagonist, and imagined that
he made a good provision for discouraging their pride, and that after this was
done to the young men, there might be a proper season for expecting these to
be of a better disposition; but the event proved otherwise than he intended,
for the young men thought he did them a very great injury; and as Antipater
was a shrewd man, when he had once obtained this degree of freedom, and began
to expect greater things than he had before hoped for, he had but one single
design in his head, and that was to distress his brethren, and not at all to
yield to them the pre-eminence, but to keep close to his father, who was already
alienated from them by the calumnies he had heard about them, and ready to be
wrought upon in any way his zeal against them should advise him to pursue, that
he might be continually more and more severe against them. Accordingly, all
the reports that were spread abroad came from him, while he avoided himself
the suspicion as if those discoveries proceeded from him; but he rather chose
to make use of those persons for his assistants that were unsuspected, and such
as might be believed to speak truth by reason of the good-will they bore to
the king; and indeed there were already not a few who cultivated a friendship
with Antipater, in hopes of gaining somewhat by him, and these were the men
who most of all persuaded Herod, because they appeared to speak thus out of
their good-will to him: and with these joint accusations, which from various
foundations supported one another's veracity, the young men themselves afforded
further occasions to Antipater also; for they were observed to shed tears often,
on account of the injury that was offered them, and had their mother in their
mouths; and among their friends they ventured to reproach their father, as not
acting justly by them; all which things were with an evil intention reserved
in memory by Antipater against a proper opportunity; and when they were told
to Herod, with aggravations, increased the disorder so much, that it brought
a great tumult into the family; for while the king was very angry at imputations
that were laid upon the sons of Mariamne, and was desirous to humble them, he
still increased the honor that he had bestowed on Antipater, and was at last
so overcome by his persuasions, that he brought his mother to court also. He
also wrote frequently to Caesar in favor of him, and more earnestly recommended
him to his care particularly. And when Agrippa was returning to Rome, after
he had finished his ten years' government in Asia,2
Herod sailed from Judea; and when he met with him, he had none with him but
Antipater, whom he delivered to Agrippa, that he might take him along with him,
together with many presents, that so he might become Caesar's friend, insomuch
that things already looked as if he had all his father's favor, and that the
young men were already entirely rejected from any hopes of the kingdom.
CHAPTER
4
HOW, DURING ANTIPATER'S ABODE AT ROME, HEROD BROUGHT ALEXANDER AND ARISTOBULUS
BEFORE CAESAR, AND ACCUSED THEM. ALEXANDER'S DEFENCE OF HIMSELF BEFORE CAESAR,
AND RECONCILIATION TO HIS FATHER
1. And now what happened during Antipater's absence augmented the honor
to which he had been promoted, and his apparent eminence above his brethren;
for he had made a great figure in Rome, because Herod had sent recommendations
of him to all his friends there; only he was grieved that he was not at home,
nor had proper opportunities of perpetually calumniating his brethren; and his
chief fear was, lest his father should alter his mind, and entertain a more
favorable opinion of the sons of Mariamne; and as he had this in his mind, he
did not desist from his purpose, but continually sent from Rome any such stories
as he hoped might grieve and irritate his father against his brethren, under
pretence indeed of a deep concern for his preservation, but in truth such as
his malicious mind dictated, in order to purchase a greater hope of the succession,
which yet was already great in itself: and thus he did till he had excited such
a degree of anger in Herod, that he was already become very ill-disposed towards
the young men; but still while he delayed to exercise so violent a disgust against
them, and that he might not either be too remiss or too rash, and so offend,
he thought it best to sail to Rome, and there accuse his sons before Caesar,
and not indulge himself in any such crime as might be heinous enough to be suspected
of impiety. But as he was going up to Rome, it happened that he made such haste
as to meet with Caesar at the city Aquilei:3 so when
he came to the speech of Caesar, he asked for a time for hearing this great
cause, wherein he thought himself very miserable, and presented his sons there,
and accused them of their mad actions, and of their attempts against him: that
they were enemies to him; and by all the means they were able, did their endeavors
to show their hatred to their own father, and would take away his life, and
so obtain his kingdom, after the most barbarous manner: that he had power from
Caesar to dispose of it, not by necessity, but by choice, to him who shall exercise
the greatest piety towards him; while these my sons are not so desirous of ruling,
as they are, upon a disappointment thereof, to expose their own life, if so
be they may but deprive their father of his life; so wild and polluted is their
mind by time become, out of their hatred to him: that whereas he had a long
time borne this his misfortune, he was now compelled to lay it before Caesar,
and to pollute his ears with such language, while he himself wants to know what
severity they have ever suffered from him, or what hardships he hath ever laid
upon them to make them complain of him; and how they can think it just that
he should not be lord of that kingdom which he in a long time, and with great
danger, had gained, and not allow him to keep it and dispose of it to him who
should deserve best; and this, with other advantages, he proposes as a reward
for the piety of such a one as will hereafter imitate the care he hath taken
of it, and that such a one may gain so great a requital as that is: and that
it is an impious thing for them to pretend to meddle with it beforehand; for
he who hath ever the kingdom in his view, at the same time reckons upon procuring
the death of his father, because otherwise he cannot come at the government:
that as for himself, he had hitherto given them all that he was able, and what
was agreeable to such as are subject to the royal authority, and the sons of
a king; what ornaments they wanted, with servants and delicate fare, and had
married them into the most illustrious families, the one [Aristobulus] to his
sister's daughter, but Alexander to the daughter of king Archelaus; and, what
was the greatest favor of all, when their crimes were so very bad, and he had
authority to punish them, yet had he not made use of it against them, but had
brought them before Caesar, their common benefactor, and had not used the severity
which, either as a father who had been impiously abused, or as a king who had
been assaulted treacherously, he might have done, but made them stand upon a
level with him in judgment: that, however, it was necessary that all this should
not be passed over without punishment, nor himself live in the greatest fears;
nay, that it was not for their own advantage to see the light of the sun after
what they have done, although they should escape at this time, since they had
done the vilest things, and would certainly suffer the greatest punishments
that ever were known among mankind.
2. These were the accusations which Herod
laid with great vehemency against his sons before Caesar. Now the young men,
both while he was speaking, and chiefly at his concluding, wept, and were in
confusion. Now as to themselves, they knew in their own conscience they were
innocent; but because they were accused by their father, they were sensible,
as the truth was, that it was hard for them to make their apology, since though
they were at liberty to speak their minds freely as the occasion required, and
might with force and earnestness refute the accusation, yet was it not now decent
so to do. There was therefore a difficulty how they should be able to speak;
and tears, and at length a deep groan, followed, while they were afraid, that
if they said nothing, they should seem to be in this difficulty from a consciousness
of guilt,—nor had they any defence ready, by reason of their youth, and the
disorder they were under; yet was not Caesar unapprised, when he looked upon
them in the confusion they were in, that their delay to make their defence did
not arise from any consciousness of great enormities, but from their unskilfulness
and modesty. They were also commiserated by those that were there in particular;
and they moved their father's affections in earnest till he had much ado to
conceal them.
3. But when they saw there was a kind disposition
arisen both in him and in Caesar, and that every one of the rest did either
shed tears, or at least did all grieve with them, the one of them, whose name
was Alexander, called to his father, and attempted to answer his accusation,
and said, "O father, the benevolence thou hast showed to us is evident, even
in this very judicial procedure, for hadst thou had any pernicious intentions
about us, thou hadst not produced us here before the common savior of all, for
it was in thy power, both as a king and as a father, to punish the guilty; but
by thus bringing us to Rome, and making Caesar himself a witness to what is
done, thou intimatest that thou intendest to save us; for no one that hath a
design to slay a man will bring him to the temples, and to the altars; yet are
our circumstances still worse, for we cannot endure to live ourselves any longer,
if it be believed that we have injured such a father; nay, perhaps it would
be worse for us to live with this suspicion upon us, that we have injured him,
than to die without such guilt. And if our open defence may be taken to be true,
we shall be happy, both in pacifying thee, and in escaping the danger we are
in; but if this calumny so prevails, it is more than enough for us that we have
seen the sun this day; which why should we see, if this suspicion be fixed upon
us? Now it is easy to say of young men, that they desire to reign; and to say
further, that this evil proceeds from the case of our unhappy mother. This is
abundantly sufficient to produce our present misfortune out of the former; but
consider well, whether such an accusation does not suit all such young men,
and may not be said of them all promiscuously; for nothing can hinder him that
reigns, if he have children, and their mother be dead, but the father may have
a suspicion upon all his sons, as intending some treachery to him; but a suspicion
is not sufficient to prove such an impious practice. Now let any man say, whether
we have actually and insolently attempted any such thing, whereby actions otherwise
incredible use to be made credible? Can any body prove that poison hath been
prepared? or prove a conspiracy of our equals, or the corruption of servants,
or letters written against thee? though indeed there are none of those things
but have sometimes been pretended by way of calumny, when they were never done;
for a royal family that is at variance with itself is a terrible thing; and
that which thou callest a reward of piety often becomes, among very wicked men,
such a foundation of hope, as makes them leave no sort of mischief untried.
Nor does any one lay any wicked practices to our charge; but as to calumnies
by hearsay, how can he put an end to them, who will not hear what we have to
say? Have we talked with too great freedom? Yes; but not against thee, for that
would be unjust, but against those that never conceal any thing that is spoken
to them. Hath either of us lamented our mother? yes; but not because she is
dead, but because she was evil spoken of by those that had no reason so to do.
Are we desirous of that dominion which we know our father is possessed of? For
what reason can we do so? If we already have royal honors, as we have, should
not we labor in vain? And if we have them not, yet are not we in hopes of them?
Or supposing that we had killed thee, could we expect to obtain thy kingdom?
while neither the earth would let us tread upon it, nor the sea let us sail
upon it, after such an action as that; nay, the religion of all your subjects,
and the piety of the whole nation, would have prohibited parricides from assuming
the government, and from entering into that most holy temple which was built
by thee.4 But suppose we had made light of other dangers,
can any murderer go off unpunished while Caesar is alive? We are thy sons, and
not so impious or so thoughtless as that comes to, though perhaps more unfortunate
than is convenient for thee. But in case thou neither findest any causes of
complaint, nor any treacherous designs, what sufficient evidence hast thou to
make such a wickedness of ours credible? Our mother is dead indeed, but then
what befell her might be an instruction to us to caution, and not an incitement
to wickedness. We are willing to make a larger apology for ourselves; but actions
never done do not admit of discourse. Nay, we will make this agreement with
thee, and that before Caesar, the lord of all, who is now a mediator between
us, if thou, O father, canst bring thyself, by the evidence of truth, to have
a mind free from suspicion concerning us let us live, though even then we shall
live in an unhappy way, for to be accused of great acts of wickedness, though
falsely, is a terrible thing; but if thou hast any fear remaining, continue
thou on in thy pious life, we will give this reason for our own conduct; our
life is not so desirable to us as to desire to have it, if it tend to the harm
of our father who gave it us."
4. When Alexander had thus spoken, Caesar,
who did not before believe so gross a calumny, was still more moved by it, and
looked intently upon Herod, and perceived he was a little confounded: the persons
there present were under an anxiety about the young men, and the fame that was
spread abroad made the king hated, for the very incredibility of the calumny,
and the commiseration of the flower of youth, the beauty of body, which were
in the young men, pleaded for assistance, and the more so on this account, that
Alexander had made their defence with dexterity and prudence; nay, they did
not themselves any longer continue in their former countenances, which had been
bedewed with tears, and cast downwards to the ground, but now there arose in
them hope of the best; and the king himself appeared not to have had foundation
enough to build such an accusation upon, he having no real evidence wherewith
to correct them. Indeed he wanted some apology for making the accusation; but
Caesar, after some delay, said, that although the young men were thoroughly
innocent of that for which they were calumniated, yet had they been so far to
blame, that they had not demeaned themselves towards their father so as to prevent
that suspicion which was spread abroad concerning them. He also exhorted Herod
to lay all such suspicions aside, and to be reconciled to his sons; for that
it was not just to give any credit to such reports concerning his own children;
and that this repentance on both sides might still heal those breaches that
had happened between them, and might improve that their good-will to one another,
whereby those on both sides, excusing the rashness of their suspicions, might
resolve to bear a greater degree of affection towards each other than they had
before. After Caesar had given them this admonition, he beckoned to the young
men. When therefore they were disposed to fall down to make intercession to
their father, he took them up, and embraced them, as they were in tears, and
took each of them distinctly in his arms, till not one of those that were present,
whether free-man or slave, but was deeply affected with what they saw.
5. Then did they return thanks to Caesar,
and went away together; and with them went Antipater, with an hypocritical pretence
that he rejoiced at this reconciliation. And in the last days they were with
Caesar, Herod made him a present of three hundred talents, as he was then exhibiting
shows and largesses to the people of Rome; and Caesar made him a present of
half the revenue of the copper mines in Cyprus, and committed the care of the
other half to him, and honored him with other gifts and incomes; and as to his
own kingdom, he left it in his own power to appoint which of his sons he pleased
for his successor, or to distribute it in parts to every one, that the dignity
might thereby come to them all. And when Herod was disposed to make such a settlement
immediately, Caesar said he would not give him leave to deprive himself, while
he was alive, of the power over his kingdom, or over his sons.
6. After this, Herod returned to Judea again.
But during his absence no small part of his dominion about Trachon had revolted,
whom yet the commanders he left there had vanquished, and compelled to a submission
again. Now as Herod was sailing with his sons, and was come over against Cilicia,
to [the island] Eleusa, which hath now changed its name for Sebaste, he met
with Archelaus, king of Cappadocia, who received him kindly, as rejoicing that
he was reconciled to his sons, and that the accusation against Alexander, who
had married his daughter, was at an end. They also made one another such presents
as it became kings to make. From thence Herod came to Judea and to the temple,
where he made a speech to the people concerning what had been done in this his
journey. He also discoursed to them about Caesar's kindness to him, and about
as many of the particulars he had done as he thought it for his advantage other
people should be acquainted with. At last he turned his speech to the admonition
of his sons; and exhorted those that lived at court, and the multitude, to concord;
and informed them that his sons were to reign after him; Antipater first, and
then Alexander and Aristobulus, the sons of Mariamne: but he desired that at
present they should all have regard to himself, and esteem him king and lord
of all, since he was not yet hindered by old age, but was in that period of
life when he must be the most skilful in governing; and that he was not deficient
in other arts of management that might enable him to govern the kingdom well,
and to rule over his children also. He further told the rulers under him, and
the soldiery, that in case they would look upon him alone, their life would
be led in a peaceable manner, and they would make one another happy. And when
he had said this, he dismissed the assembly. Which speech was acceptable to
the greatest part of the audience, but not so to them all; for the contention
among his sons, and the hopes he had given them, occasioned thoughts and desires
of innovations among them.
CHAPTER
5
HOW HEROD CELEBRATED THE GAMES THAT WERE TO RETURN EVERY FIFTH YEAR, UPON THE
BUILDING OF CESAREA; AND HOW HE BUILT AND ADORNED MANY OTHER PLACES AFTER A
MAGNIFICENT MANNER; AND DID MANY OTHER ACTIONS GLORIOUSLY
1. About this time it was that Cesarea Sebaste, which he had built, was
finished. The entire building being accomplished: in the tenth year, the solemnity
of it fell into the twenty-eighth year of Herod's reign, and into the hundred
and ninety-second olympiad. There was accordingly a great festival and most
sumptuous preparations made presently, in order to its dedication; for he had
appointed a contention in music, and games to be performed naked. He had also
gotten ready a great number of those that fight single combats, and of beasts
for the like purpose; horse races also, and the most chargeable of such sports
and shows as used to be exhibited at Rome, and in other places. He consecrated
this combat to Caesar, and ordered it to be celebrated every fifth year. He
also sent all sorts of ornaments for it out of his own furniture, that it might
want nothing to make it decent; nay, Julia, Caesar's wife, sent a great part
of her most valuable furniture [from Rome], insomuch that he had no want of
any thing. The sum of them all was estimated at five hundred talents. Now when
a great multitude was come to that city to see the shows, as well as the ambassadors
whom other people sent, on account of the benefits they had received from Herod,
he entertained them all in the public inns, and at public tables, and with perpetual
feasts; this solemnity having in the day time the diversions of the fights,
and in the night time such merry meetings as cost vast sums of money, and publicly
demonstrated the generosity of his soul; for in all his undertakings he was
ambitious to exhibit what exceeded whatsoever had been done before of the same
kind. And it is related that Caesar and Agrippa often said, that the dominions
of Herod were too little for the greatness of his soul; for that he deserved
to have both all the kingdom of Syria, and that of Egypt also.
2. After this solemnity and these festivals
were over, Herod erected another city in the plain called Capharsaba, where
he chose out a fit place, both for plenty of water and goodness of soil, and
proper for the production of what was there planted, where a river encompassed
the city itself, and a grove of the best trees for magnitude was round about
it: this he named Antipatris, from his father Antipater. He also built upon
another spot of ground above Jericho, of the same name with his mother, a place
of great security and very pleasant for habitation, and called it Cypros. He
also dedicated the finest monuments to his brother Phasaelus, on account of
the great natural affection there had been between them, by erecting a tower
in the city itself, not less than the tower of Pharos, which he named Phasaelus,
which was at once a part of the strong defences of the city, and a memorial
for him that was deceased, because it bare his name. He also built a city of
the same name in the valley of Jericho, as you go from it northward, whereby
he rendered the neighboring country more fruitful by the cultivation its inhabitants
introduced; and this also he called Phasaelus.
3. But as for his other benefits, it is
impossible to reckon them up, those which he bestowed on cities, both in Syria
and in Greece, and in all the places he came to in his voyages; for he seems
to have conferred, and that after a most plentiful manner, what would minister
to many necessities, and the building of public works, and gave them the money
that was necessary to such works as wanted it, to support them upon the failure
of their other revenues: but what was the greatest and most illustrious of all
his works, he erected Apollo's temple at Rhodes, at his own expenses, and gave
them a great number of talents of silver for the repair of their fleet. He also
built the greatest part of the public edifices for the inhabitants of Nicopolis,
at Actium;5 and for the Antiochians, the inhabitants
of the principal city of Syria, where a broad street cuts through the place
lengthways, he built cloisters along it on both sides, and laid the open road
with polished stone, and was of very great advantage to the inhabitants. And
as to the olympic games, which were in a very low condition, by reason of the
failure of their revenues, he recovered their reputation, and appointed revenues
for their maintenance, and made that solemn meeting more venerable, as to the
sacrifices and other ornaments; and by reason of this vast liberality, he was
generally declared in their inscriptions to be one of the perpetual managers
of those games.
4. Now some there are who stand amazed at
the diversity of Herod's nature and purposes; for when we have respect to his
magnificence, and the benefits which he bestowed on all mankind, there is no
possibility for even those that had the least respect for him to deny, or not
openly to confess, that he had a nature vastly beneficent; but when any one
looks upon the punishments he inflicted, and the injuries he did, not only to
his subjects, but to his nearest relations, and takes notice of his severe and
unrelenting disposition there, he will be forced to allow that he was brutish,
and a stranger to all humanity; insomuch that these men suppose his nature to
be different, and sometimes at contradiction with itself; but I am myself of
another opinion, and imagine that the occasion of both these sort of actions
was one and the same; for being a man ambitious of honor, and quite overcome
by that passion, he was induced to be magnificent, wherever there appeared any
hopes of a future memorial, or of reputation at present; and as his expenses
were beyond his abilities, he was necessitated to be harsh to his subjects;
for the persons on whom he expended his money were so many, that they made him
a very bad procurer of it; and because he was conscious that he was hated by
those under him, for the injuries he did them, he thought it not an easy thing
to amend his offenses, for that it was inconvenient for his revenue; he therefore
strove on the other side to make their ill-will an occasion of his gains. As
to his own court, therefore, if any one was not very obsequious to him in his
language, and would not confess himself to be his slave, or but seemed to think
of any innovation in his government, he was not able to contain himself, but
prosecuted his very kindred and friends, and punished them as if they were enemies
and this wickedness he undertook out of a desire that he might be himself alone
honored. Now for this, my assertion about that passion of his, we have the greatest
evidence, by what he did to honor Caesar and Agrippa, and his other friends;
for with what honors he paid his respects to them who were his superiors, the
same did he desire to be paid to himself; and what he thought the most excellent
present he could make another, he discovered an inclination to have the like
presented to himself. But now the Jewish nation is by their law a stranger to
all such things, and accustomed to prefer righteousness to glory; for which
reason that nation was not agreeable to him, because it was out of their power
to flatter the king's ambition with statues or temples, or any other such performances;
and this seems to me to have been at once the occasion of Herod's crimes as
to his own courtiers and counselors, and of his benefactions as to foreigners
and those that had no relation to him.
CHAPTER
6
AN EMBASSAGE OF THE JEWS IN CYRENE AND ASIA TO CAESAR, CONCERNING THE COMPLAINTS
THEY HAD TO MAKE AGAINST THE GREEKS; WITH COPIES OF THE EPISTLES WHICH CAESAR
AND AGRIPPA WROTE TO THE CITIES FOR THEM
1. Now the cities ill-treated the Jews in Asia, and all those also of
the same nation which lived at Libya, which joins to Cyrene, while the former
kings had given them equal privileges with the other citizens; but the Greeks
affronted them at this time, and that so far as to take away their sacred money,
and to do them mischief on other particular occasions. When therefore they were
thus afflicted, and found no end of their barbarous treatment they met with
among the Greeks, they sent ambassadors to Caesar on those accounts, who gave
them the same privileges as they had before, and sent letters to the same purpose
to the governors of the provinces, copies of which I subjoin here, as testimonials
of the ancient favorable disposition the Roman emperors had towards us.
2. "Caesar Augustus, high priest and tribune
of the people, ordains thus:—since the nation of the Jews hath been found grateful
to the Roman people, not only at this time, but in time past also, and chiefly
Hyrcanus the high priest, under my father,6 Caesar
the emperor, it seemed good to me and my counselors, according to the sentence
and oath of the people of Rome, that the Jews have liberty to make use of their
own customs, according to the law of their forefathers, as they made use of
them under Hyrcanus the high priest of the Almighty God; and that their sacred
money be not touched, but be sent to Jerusalem, and that it be committed to
the care of the receivers at Jerusalem; and that they be not obliged to go before
any judge on the Sabbath day, nor on the day of the preparation to it, after
the ninth hour;7 but if any one be caught stealing
their holy books, or their sacred money, whether it be out of the synagogue
or public school, he shall be deemed a sacrilegious person, and his goods shall
be brought into the public treasury of the Romans. And I give order that the
testimonial which they have given me, on account of my regard to that piety
which I exercise toward all mankind, and out of regard to Caius Marcus Censorinus,
together with the present decree, be proposed in that most eminent place which
hath been consecrated to me by the community of Asia at Ancyra. And if any one
transgress any part of what is above decreed, he shall be severely punished."
This was inscribed upon a pillar in the temple of Caesar.
3. "Caesar to Norbanus Flaccus, sendeth
greeting. Let those Jews, how many soever they be, who have been used, according
to their ancient custom, to send their sacred money to Jerusalem, do the same
freely." These were the decrees of Caesar.
4. Agrippa also did himself write after
the manner following, on behalf of the Jews: "Agrippa, to the magistrates, senate,
and people of the Ephesians, sendeth greeting. I will that the care and custody
of the sacred money that is carried to the temple at Jerusalem be left to the
Jews of Asia, to do with it according to their ancient custom; and that such
as steal that sacred money of the Jews, and fly to a sanctuary, shall be taken
thence and delivered to the Jews, by the same law that sacrilegious persons
are taken thence. I have also written to Sylvanus the praetor, that no one compel
the Jews to come before a judge on the Sabbath day."
5. "Marcus Agrippa to the magistrates, senate,
and people of Cyrene, sendeth greeting. The Jews of Cyrene have interceded with
me for the performance of what Augustus sent orders about to Flavius, the then
praetor of Libya, and to the other procurators of that province, that the sacred
money may be sent to Jerusalem freely, as hath been their custom from their
forefathers, they complaining that they are abused by certain informers, and
under pretence of taxes which were not due, are hindered from sending them,
which I command to be restored without any diminution or disturbance given to
them. And if any of that sacred money in the cities be taken from their proper
receivers, I further enjoin, that the same be exactly returned to the Jews in
that place."
6. "Caius Norbanus Flaccus, proconsul, to
the magistrates of the Sardians, sendeth greeting. Caesar hath written to me,
and commanded me not to forbid the Jews, how many soever they be, from assembling
together according to the custom of their forefathers, nor from sending their
money to Jerusalem. I have therefore written to you, that you may know that
both Caesar and I would have you act accordingly."
7. Nor did Julius Antonius, the proconsul,
write otherwise. "To the magistrates, senate, and people of the Ephesians, sendeth
greeting. As I was dispensing justice at Ephesus, on the Ides of February, the
Jews that dwell in Asia demonstrated to me that Augustus and Agrippa had permitted
them to use their own laws and customs, and to offer those their first-fruits,
which every one of them freely offers to the Deity on account of piety, and
to carry them in a company together to Jerusalem without disturbance. They also
petitioned me that I also would confirm what had been granted by Augustus and
Agrippa by my own sanction. I would therefore have you take notice, that according
to the will of Augustus and Agrippa, I permit them to use and do according to
the customs of their forefathers without disturbance."
8. I have been obliged to set down these
decrees, because the present history of our own acts will go generally among
the Greeks; and I have hereby demonstrated to them that we have formerly been
in great esteem, and have not been prohibited by those governors we were under
from keeping any of the laws of our forefathers; nay, that we have been supported
by them, while we followed our own religion, and the worship we paid to God;
and I frequently make mention of these decrees, in order to reconcile other
people to us, and to take away the causes of that hatred which unreasonable
men bear to us. As for our customs,8 there is no nation
which always makes use of the same, and in every city almost we meet with them
different from one another; but natural justice is most agreeable to the advantage
of all men equally, both Greeks and barbarians, to which our laws have the greatest
regard, and thereby render us, if we abide in them after a pure manner, benevolent
and friendly to all men; on which account we have reason to expect the like
return from others, and to inform them that they ought not to esteem difference
of positive institutions a sufficient cause of alienation, but [join with us
in] the pursuit of virtue and probity, for this belongs to all men in common,
and of itself alone is sufficient for the preservation of human life. I now
return to the thread of my history.
CHAPTER
7
HOW, UPON HEROD'S GOING DOWN INTO DAVID'S SEPULCHRE, THE SEDITION IN HIS FAMILY
GREATLY INCREASED
1. As for Herod, he had spent vast sums about the cities, both without
and within his own kingdom; and as he had before heard that Hyrcanus, who had
been king before him, had opened David's sepulchre, and taken out of it three
thousand talents of silver, and that there was a much greater number left behind,
and indeed enough to suffice all his wants, he had a great while an intention
to make the attempt; and at this time he opened that sepulchre by night, and
went into it, and endeavored that it should not be at all known in the city,
but took only his most faithful friends with him. As for any money, he found
none, as Hyrcanus had done, but that furniture of gold, and those precious goods
that were laid up there; all which he took away. However, he had a great desire
to make a more diligent search, and to go farther in, even as far as the very
bodies of David and Solomon; where two of his guards were slain, by a flame
that burst out upon those that went in, as the report was. So he was terribly
affrighted, and went out, and built a propitiatory monument of that fright he
had been in; and this of white stone, at the mouth of the sepulchre, and that
at great expense also. And even Nicolaus9 his historiographer
makes mention of this monument built by Herod, though he does not mention his
going down into the sepulchre, as knowing that action to be of ill repute; and
many other things he treats of in the same manner in his book; for he wrote
in Herod's lifetime, and under his reign, and so as to please him, and as a
servant to him, touching upon nothing but what tended to his glory, and openly
excusing many of his notorious crimes, and very diligently concealing them.
And as he was desirous to put handsome colors on the death of Mariamne and her
sons, which were barbarous actions in the king, he tells falsehoods about the
incontinence of Mariamne, and the treacherous designs of his sons upon him;
and thus he proceeded in his whole work, making a pompous encomium upon what
just actions he had done, but earnestly apologizing for his unjust ones. Indeed,
a man, as I said, may have a great deal to say by way of excuse for Nicolaus;
for he did not so properly write this as a history for others, as somewhat that
might be subservient to the king himself. As for ourselves, who come of a family
nearly allied to the Asamonean kings, and on that account have an honorable
place, which is the priesthood, we think it indecent to say any thing that is
false about them, and accordingly we have described their actions after an unblemished
and upright manner. And although we reverence many of Herod's posterity, who
still reign, yet do we pay a greater regard to truth than to them, and this
though it sometimes happens that we incur their displeasure by so doing.
2. And indeed Herod's troubles in his family
seemed to be augmented by reason of this attempt he made upon David's sepulchre;
whether Divine vengeance increased the calamities he lay under, in order to
render them incurable, or whether fortune made an assault upon him, in those
cases wherein the seasonableness of the cause made it strongly believed that
the calamities came upon him for his impiety; for the tumult was like a civil
war in his palace, and their hatred towards one another was like that where
each one strove to exceed another in calumnies. However, Antipater used stratagems
perpetually against his brethren, and that very cunningly; while abroad he loaded
them with accusations, but still took upon him frequently to apologize for them,
that this apparent benevolence to them might make him be believed, and forward
his attempts against them; by which means he, after various manners, circumvented
his father, who believed all that he did was for his preservation. Herod also
recommended Ptolemy, who was a great director of the affairs of his kingdom,
to Antipater; and consulted with his mother about the public affairs also. And
indeed these were all in all, and did what they pleased, and made the king angry
against any other persons, as they thought it might be to their own advantage;
but still the sons of Mariamne were in a worse and worse condition perpetually;
and while they were thrust out, and set in a more dishonorable rank, who yet
by birth were the most noble, they could not bear the dishonor. And for the
women, Glaphyra, Alexander's wife, the daughter of Archelaus, hated Salome,
both because of her love to her husband, and because Glaphyra seemed to behave
herself somewhat insolently towards Salome's daughter, who was the wife of Aristobulus,
which equality of hers to herself Glaphyra took very impatiently.
3. Now, besides this second contention that
had fallen among them, neither did the king's brother Pheroras keep himself
out of trouble, but had a particular foundation for suspicion and hatred; for
he was overcome with the charms of his wife, to such a degree of madness, that
he despised the king's daughter, to whom he had been betrothed, and wholly bent
his mind to the other, who had been but a servant. Herod also was grieved by
the dishonor that was done him, because he had bestowed many favors upon him,
and had advanced him to that height of power that he was almost a partner with
him in the kingdom, and saw that he had not made him a due return for his labors,
and esteemed himself unhappy on that account. So upon Pheroras's unworthy refusal,
he gave the damsel to Phasaelus's son; but after some time, when he thought
the heat of his brother's affections was over, he blamed him for his former
conduct, and desired him to take his second daughter, whose name was Cypros.
Ptolemy also advised him to leave off affronting his brother, and to forsake
her whom he had loved, for that it was a base thing to be so enamored of a servant,
as to deprive himself of the king's good-will to him, and become an occasion
of his trouble, and make himself hated by him. Pheroras knew that this advice
would be for his own advantage, particularly because he had been accused before,
and forgiven; so he put his wife away, although he already had a son by her,
and engaged to the king that he would take his second daughter, and agreed that
the thirtieth day after should be the day of marriage; and sware he would have
no further conversation with her whom he had put away; but when the thirty days
were over, he was such a slave to his affections, that he no longer performed
any thing he had promised, but continued still with his former wife. This occasioned
Herod to grieve openly, and made him angry, while the king dropped one word
or other against Pheroras perpetually; and many made the king's anger an opportunity
for raising calumnies against him. Nor had the king any longer a single quiet
day or hour, but occasions of one fresh quarrel or another arose among his relations,
and those that were dearest to him; for Salome was of a harsh temper, and ill-natured
to Mariamne's sons; nor would she suffer her own daughter, who was the wife
of Aristobulus, one of those young men, to bear a good-will to her husband,
but persuaded her to tell her if he said any thing to her in private, and when
any misunderstandings happened, as is common, she raised a great many suspicions
out of it; by which means she learned all their concerns, and made the damsel
ill-natured to the young man. And in order to gratify her mother, she often
said that the young men used to mention Mariamne when they were by themselves;
and that they hated their father, and were continually threatening, that if
they had once got the kingdom, they would make Herod's sons by his other wives
country schoolmasters, for that the present education which was given them,
and their diligence in learning, fitted them for such an employment. And as
for the women, whenever they saw them adorned with their mother's clothes, they
threatened, that instead of their present gaudy apparel, they should be clothed
in sackcloth, and confined so closely that they should not see the light of
the sun. These stories were presently carried by Salome to the king, who was
troubled to hear them, and endeavored to make up matters; but these suspicions
afflicted him, and becoming more and more uneasy, he believed every body against
every body. However, upon his rebuking his sons, and hearing the defence they
made for themselves, he was easier for a while, though a little afterwards much
worse accidents came upon him.
4. For Pheroras came to Alexander, the husband
of Glaphyra, who was the daughter of Archelaus, as we have already told you,
and said that he had heard from Salome that Herod has enamored on Glaphyra,
and that his passion for her was incurable. When Alexander heard that, he was
all on fire, from his youth and jealousy; and he interpreted the instances of
Herod's obliging behavior to her, which were very frequent, for the worse, which
came from those suspicions he had on account of that word which fell from Pheroras;
nor could he conceal his grief at the thing, but informed him what word Pheroras
had said. Upon which Herod was in a greater disorder than ever; and not bearing
such a false calumny, which was to his shame, was much disturbed at it; and
often did he lament the wickedness of his domestics, and how good he had been
to them, and how ill requitals they had made him. So he sent for Pheroras, and
reproached him, and said, "Thou vilest of all men! art thou come to that unmeasurable
and extravagant degree of ingratitude, as not only to suppose such things of
me, but to speak of them? I now indeed perceive what thy intentions are. It
is not thy only aim to reproach me, when thou usest such words to my son, but
thereby to persuade him to plot against me, and get me destroyed by poison.
And who is there, if he had not a good genius at his elbow, as hath my son,
but would not bear such a suspicion of his father, but would revenge himself
upon him? Dost thou suppose that thou hast only dropped a word for him to think
of, and not rather hast put a sword into his hand to slay his father? And what
dost thou mean, when thou really hatest both him and his brother, to pretend
kindness to them, only in order to raise a reproach against me, and talk of
such things as no one but such an impious wretch as thou art could either devise
in their mind, or declare in their words? Begone, thou art such a plague to
thy benefactor and thy brother, and may that evil conscience of thine go along
with thee; while I still overcome my relations by kindness, and am so far from
avenging myself of them, as they deserve, that I bestow greater benefits upon
them than they are worthy of."
5. Thus did the king speak. Whereupon Pheroras,
who was caught in the very act of his villainy, said that "it was Salome who
was the framer of this plot, and that the words came from her." But as soon
as she heard that, for she was at hand, she cried out, like one that would be
believed, that no such thing ever came out of her mouth; that they all earnestly
endeavored to make the king hate her, and to make her away, because of the good-will
she bore to Herod, and because she was always foreseeing the dangers that were
coming upon him, and that at present there were more plots against him than
usual; for while she was the only person who persuaded her brother to put away
the wife he now had, and to take the king's daughter, it was no wonder if she
were hated by him. As she said this, and often tore her hair, and often beat
her breast, her countenance made her denial to be believed; but the perverseness
of her manners declared at the same time her dissimulation in these proceedings;
but Pheroras was caught between them, and had nothing plausible to offer in
his own defence, while he confessed that he had said what was charged upon him,
but was not believed when he said he had heard it from Salome; so the confusion
among them was increased, and their quarrelsome words one to another. At last
the king, out of his hatred to his brother and sister, sent them both away;
and when he had commended the moderation of his son, and that he had himself
told him of the report, he went in the evening to refresh himself. After such
a contest as this had fallen out among them, Salome's reputation suffered greatly,
since she was supposed to have first raised the calumny; and the king's wives
were grieved at her, as knowing she was a very ill-natured woman, and would
sometimes be a friend, and sometimes an enemy, at different seasons: so they
perpetually said one thing or another against her; and somewhat that now fell
out made them the bolder in speaking against her.
6. There was one Obodas, king of Arabia,
an inactive and slothful man in his nature; but Sylleus managed most of his
affairs for him. He was a shrewd man, although he was but young, and was handsome
withal. This Sylleus, upon some occasion coming to Herod, and supping with him,
saw Salome, and set his heart upon her; and understanding that she was a widow,
he discoursed with her. Now because Salome was at this time less in favor with
her brother, she looked upon Sylleus with some passion, and was very earnest
to be married to him; and on the days following there appeared many, and those
very great, indications of their agreement together. Now the women carried this
news to the king, and laughed at the indecency of it; whereupon Herod inquired
about it further of Pheroras, and desired him to observe them at supper, how
their behavior was one toward another; who told him, that by the signals which
came from their heads and their eyes, they both were evidently in love. After
this, Sylleus the Arabian being suspected, went away, but came again in two
or three months afterwards, as it were on that very design, and spake to Herod
about it, and desired that Salome might be given him to wife; for that his affinity
might not be disadvantageous to his affairs, by a union with Arabia, the government
of which country was already in effect under his power, and more evidently would
be his hereafter. Accordingly, when Herod discoursed with his sister about it,
and asked her whether she were disposed to this match, she immediately agreed
to it. But when Sylleus was desired to come over to the Jewish religion, and
then he should marry her, and that it was impossible to do it on any other terms,
he could not bear that proposal, and went his way; for he said, that if he should
do so, he should be stoned by the Arabs. Then did Pheroras reproach Salome for
her incontinency, as did the women much more; and said that Sylleus had debauched
her. As for that damsel which the king had betrothed to his brother Pheroras,
but he had not taken her, as I have before related, because he was enamored
on his former wife, Salome desired of Herod she might be given to her son by
Costobarus; which match he was very willing to, but was dissuaded from it by
Pheroras, who pleaded that this young man would not be kind to her, since his
father had been slain by him, and that it was more just that his son, who was
to be his successor in the tetrarchy, should have her. So he begged his pardon,
and persuaded him to do so. Accordingly the damsel, upon this change of her
espousals, was disposed of to this young man, the son of Pheroras, the king
giving for her portion a hundred talents.
CHAPTER
8
HOW HEROD TOOK UP ALEXANDER, AND BOUND HIM; WHOM YET ARCHELAUS, KING OF CAPPADOCIA,
RECONCILED TO HIS FATHER HEROD AGAIN
1. But still the affairs of Herod's family were no better, but perpetually
more troublesome. Now this accident happened, which arose from no decent occasion,
but proceeded so far as to bring great difficulties upon him. There were certain
eunuchs which the king had, and on account of their beauty was very fond of
them; and the care of bringing him drink was intrusted to one of them; of bringing
him his supper, to another; and of putting him to bed, to the third, who also
managed the principal affairs of the government; and there was one told the
king that these eunuchs were corrupted by Alexander the king's son with great
sums of money. And when they were asked whether Alexander had had criminal conversation
with them, they confessed it, but said they knew of no further mischief of his
against his father; but when they were more severely tortured, and were in the
utmost extremity, and the tormentors, out of compliance with Antipater, stretched
the rack to the very utmost, they said that Alexander bare great ill-will and
innate hatred to his father; and that he told them that Herod despaired to live
much longer; and that, in order to cover his great age, he colored his hair
black, and endeavored to conceal what would discover how old he was; but that
if he would apply himself to him, when he should attain the kingdom, which,
in spite of his father, could come to no one else, he should quickly have the
first place in that kingdom under him, for that he was now ready to take the
kingdom, not only as his birth-right, but by the preparations he had made for
obtaining it, because a great many of the rulers, and a great many of his friends,
were of his side, and those no ill men neither, ready both to do and to suffer
whatsoever should come on that account.
2. When Herod heard this confession, he
was all over anger and fear, some parts seeming to him reproachful, and some
made him suspicious of dangers that attended him, insomuch that on both accounts
he was provoked, and bitterly afraid lest some more heavy plot was laid against
him than he should be then able to escape from; whereupon he did not now make
an open search, but sent about spies to watch such as he suspected, for he was
now overrun with suspicion and hatred against all about him; and indulging abundance
of those suspicions, in order to his preservation, he continued to suspect those
that were guiltless; nor did he set any bounds to himself, but supposing that
those who staid with him had the most power to hurt him, they were to him very
frightful; and for those that did not use to come to him, it seemed enough to
name them [to make them suspected], and he thought himself safer when they were
destroyed. And at last his domestics were come to that pass, that being no way
secure of escaping themselves, they fell to accusing one another, and imagining
that he who first accused another was most likely to save himself; yet when
any had overthrown others, they were hated; and they were thought to suffer
justly who unjustly accused others, and they only thereby prevented their own
accusation; nay, they now executed their own private enmities by this means,
and when they were caught, they were punished in the same way. Thus these men
contrived to make use of this opportunity as an instrument and a snare against
their enemies; yet when they tried it, were themselves caught also in the same
snare which they laid for others: and the king soon repented of what he had
done, because he had no clear evidence of the guilt of those whom he had slain;
and yet what was still more severe in him, he did not make use of his repentance,
in order to leave off doing the like again, but in order to inflict the same
punishment upon their accusers.
3. And in this state of disorder were the
affairs of the palace; and he had already told many of his friends directly
that they ought not to appear before him, her come into the palace; and the
reason of this injunction was, that [when they were there], he had less freedom
of acting, or a greater restraint on himself on their account; for at this time
it was that he expelled Andromachus and Gemellus, men who had of old been his
friends, and been very useful to him in the affairs of his kingdom, and been
of advantage to his family, by their embassages and counsels; and had been tutors
to his sons, and had in a manner the first degree of freedom with him. He expelled
Andromachus, because his son Demetrius was a companion to Alexander; and Gemellus,
because he knew that he wished him well, which arose from his having been with
him in his youth, when he was at school, and absent at Rome. These he expelled
out of his palace, and was willing enough to have done worse by them; but that
he might not seem to take such liberty against men of so great reputation, he
contented himself with depriving them of their dignity, and of their power to
hinder his wicked proceedings.
4. Now it was Antipater who was the cause
of all this; who when he knew what a mad and licentious way of acting his father
was in, and had been a great while one of his counselors, he hurried him on,
and then thought he should bring him to do somewhat to purpose, when every one
that could oppose him was taken away. When therefore Andromachus and his friends
were driven away, and had no discourse nor freedom with the king any longer,
the king, in the first place, examined by torture all whom he thought to be
faithful to Alexander, whether they knew of any of his attempts against him;
but these died without having any thing to say to that matter, which made the
king more zealous [after discoveries], when he could not find out what evil
proceedings he suspected them of. As for Antipater, he was very sagacious to
raise a calumny against those that were really innocent, as if their denial
was only their constancy and fidelity [to Alexander], and thereupon provoked
Herod to discover by the torture of great numbers what attempts were still concealed.
Now there was a certain person among the many that were tortured, who said that
he knew that the young man had often said, that when he was commended as a tall
man in his body, and a skilful marksman, and that in his other commendable exercises
he exceeded all men, these qualifications given him by nature, though good in
themselves, were not advantageous to him, because his father was grieved at
them, and envied him for them; and that when he walked along with his father,
he endeavored to depress and shorten himself, that he might not appear too tall;
and that when he shot at any thing as he was hunting, when his father was by,
he missed his mark on purpose, for he knew how ambitious his father was of being
superior in such exercises. So when the man was tormented about this saying,
and had ease given his body after it, he added, that he had his brother Aristobulus
for his assistance, and contrived to lie in wait for their father, as they were
hunting, and kill him; and when they had done so to fly to Rome, and desire
to have the kingdom given them. There were also letters of the young man found,
written to his brother, wherein he complained that his father did not act justly
in giving Antipater a country, whose [yearly] revenues amounted to two hundred
talents. Upon these confessions Herod presently thought he had somewhat to depend
on, in his own opinion, as to his suspicion about his sons; so he took up Alexander
and bound him: yet did he still continue to be uneasy, and was not quite satisfied
of the truth of what he had heard; and when he came to recollect himself, he
found that they had only made juvenile complaints and contentions, and that
it was an incredible thing, that when his son should have slain him, he should
openly go to Rome [to beg the kingdom]; so he was desirous to have some surer
mark of his son's wickedness, and was very solicitous about it, that he might
not appear to have condemned him to be put in prison too rashly; so he tortured
the principal of Alexander's friends, and put not a few of them to death, without
getting any of the things out of them which he suspected. And while Herod was
very busy about this matter, and the palace was full of terror and trouble,
one of the younger sort, when he was in the utmost agony, confessed that Alexander
had sent to his friends at Rome, and desired that he might be quickly invited
thither by Caesar, and that he could discover a plot against him; that Mithridates,
the king of Parthia, was joined in friendship with his father against the Romans,
and that he had a poisonous potion ready prepared at Askelon.
5. To these accusations Herod gave credit,
and enjoyed hereby, in his miserable case, some sort of consolation, in excuse
of his rashness, as flattering himself with finding things in so bad a condition;
but as for the poisonous potion, which he labored to find, he could find none.
As for Alexander, he was very desirous to aggravate the vast misfortunes he
was under, so he pretended not to deny the accusations, but punished the rashness
of his father with a greater crime of his own; and perhaps he was willing to
make his father ashamed of his easy belief of such calumnies: he aimed especially,
if he could gain belief to his story, to plague him and his whole kingdom; for
he wrote four letters, and sent them to him, that he did not need to torture
any more persons, for he had plotted against him; and that he had for his partners
Pheroras and the most faithful of his friends; and that Salome came in to him
by night, and that she lay with him whether he would or not; and that all men
were come to be of one mind, to make away with him as soon as they could, and
so get clear of the continual fear they were in from him. Among these were accused
Ptolemy and Sapinnius, who were the most faithful friends to the king. And what
more can be said, but that those who before were the most intimate friends,
were become wild beasts to one another, as if a certain madness had fallen upon
them, while there was no room for defence or refutation, in order to the discovery
of the truth, but all were at random doomed to destruction; so that some lamented
those that were in prison, some those that were put to death, and others lamented
that they were in expectation of the same miseries; and a melancholy solitude
rendered the kingdom deformed, and quite the reverse to that happy state it
was formerly in. Herod's own life also was entirely disturbed; and because he
could trust nobody, he was sorely punished by the expectation of further misery;
for he often fancied in his imagination that his son had fallen upon him, or
stood by him with a sword in his hand; and thus was his mind night and day intent
upon this thing, and revolved it over and over, no otherwise than if he were
under a distraction. And this was the sad condition Herod was now in.
6. But when Archelaus, king of Cappadocia,
heard of the state that Herod was in, and being in great distress about his
daughter, and the young man [her husband], and grieving with Herod, as with
a man that was his friend, on account of so great a disturbance as he was under,
he came [to Jerusalem] on purpose to compose their differences; and when he
found Herod in such a temper, he thought it wholly unseasonable to reprove him,
or to pretend that he had done any thing rashly, for that he should thereby
naturally bring him to dispute the point with him, and by still more and more
apologizing for himself to be the more irritated: he went, therefore, another
way to work, in order to correct the former misfortunes, and appeared angry
at the young man, and said that Herod had been so very mild a man, that he had
not acted a rash part at all. He also said he would dissolve his daughter's
marriage with Alexander, nor could in justice spare his own daughter, if she
were conscious of any thing, and did not inform Herod of it. When Archelaus
appeared to be of this temper, and otherwise than Herod expected or imagined,
and, for the main, took Herod's part, and was angry on his account, the king
abated of his harshness, and took occasion from his appearing to have acted
justly hitherto, to come by degrees to put on the affection of a father, and
was on both sides to be pitied; for when some persons refuted the calumnies
that were laid on the young man, he was thrown into a passion; but when Archelaus
joined in the accusation, he was dissolved into tears and sorrow after an affectionate
manner. Accordingly, he desired that he would not dissolve his son's marriage,
and became not so angry as before for his offenses. So when Archelaus had brought
him to a more moderate temper, he transferred the calumnies upon his friends;
and said it must be owing to them that so young a man, and one unacquainted
with malice, was corrupted; and he supposed that there was more reason to suspect
the brother than the soft. Upon which Herod was very much displeased at Pheroras,
who indeed now had no one that could make a reconciliation between him and his
brother. So when he saw that Archelaus had the greatest power with Herod, he
betook himself to him in the habit of a mourner, and like one that had all the
signs upon him of an undone man. Upon this Archelaus did not overlook the intercession
he made to him, nor yet did he undertake to change the king's disposition towards
him immediately; and he said that it was better for him to come himself to the
king, and confess himself the occasion of all; that this would make the king's
anger not to be extravagant towards him, and that then he would be present to
assist him. When he had persuaded him to this, he gained his point with both
of them; and the calumnies raised against the young man were, beyond all expectation,
wiped off. And Archelaus, as soon as he had made the reconciliation, went then
away to Cappadocia, having proved at this juncture of time the most acceptable
person to Herod in the world; on which account he gave him the richest presents,
as tokens of his respects to him; and being on other occasions magnanimous,
he esteemed him one of his dearest friends. He also made an agreement with him
that he would go to Rome, because he had written to Caesar about these affairs;
so they went together as far as Antioch, and there Herod made a reconciliation
between Archelaus and Titus, the president of Syria, who had been greatly at
variance, and so returned back to Judea.
CHAPTER
9
CONCERNING THE REVOLT OF THE TRACHONITES; HOW SYLLEUS ACCUSED HEROD BEFORE CAESAR;
AND HOW HEROD, WHEN CAESAR WAS ANGRY AT HIM, RESOLVED TO SEND NICOLAUS TO ROME
1. When Herod had been at Rome, and was come back again, a war arose between
him and the Arabians, on the occasion following: the inhabitants of Trachonitis,
after Caesar had taken the country away from Zenodorus, and added it to Herod,
had not now power to rob, but were forced to plough the land, and to live quietly,
which was a thing they did not like; and when they did take that pains, the
ground did not produce much fruit for them. However, at the first the king would
not permit them to rob, and so they abstained from that unjust way of living
upon their neighbors, which procured Herod a great reputation for his care.
But when he was sailing to Rome, it was at that time when he went to accuse
his son Alexander, and to commit Antipater to Caesar's protection, the Trachonites
spread a report as if he were dead, and revolted from his dominion, and betook
themselves again to their accustomed way of robbing their neighbors; at which
time the king's commanders subdued them during his absence; but about forty
of the principal robbers, being terrified by those that had been taken, left
the country, and retired into Arabia, Sylleus entertaining them, after he had
missed of marrying Salome, and gave them a place of strength, in which they
dwelt. So they overran not only Judea, but all Coelesyria also, and carried
off the prey, while Sylleus afforded them places of protection and quietness
during their wicked practices. But when Herod came back from Rome, he perceived
that his dominions had greatly suffered by them; and since he could not reach
the robbers themselves, because of the secure retreat they had in that country,
and which the Arabian government afforded them, and yet being very uneasy at
the injuries they had done him, he went all over Trachonitis, and slew their
relations; whereupon these robbers were more angry than before, it being a law
among them to be avenged on the murderers of their relations by all possible
means; so they continued to tear and rend every thing under Herod's dominion
with impunity. Then did he discourse about these robberies to Saturninus and
Volumnius, and required that they should be punished; upon which occasion they
still the more confirmed themselves in their robberies, and became more numerous,
and made very great disturbances, laying waste the countries and villages that
belonged to Herod's kingdom, and killing those men whom they caught, till these
unjust proceedings came to be like a real war, for the robbers were now become
about a thousand;—at which Herod was sore displeased, and required the robbers,
as well as the money which he had lent Obodas, by Sylleus, which was sixty talents,
and since the time of payment was now past, he desired to have it paid him;
but Sylleus, who had laid Obodas aside, and managed all by himself, denied that
the robbers were in Arabia, and put off the payment of the money; about which
there was a hearing before Saturninus and Volumnius, who were then the presidents
of Syria.10 At last he, by their means, agreed, that
within thirty days' time Herod should be paid his money, and that each of them
should deliver up the other's subjects reciprocally. Now, as to Herod, there
was not one of the other's subjects found in his kingdom, either as doing any
injustice, or on any other account, but it was proved that the Arabians had
the robbers amongst them.
2. When this day appointed for payment of
the money was past, without Sylleus's performing any part of his agreement,
and he was gone to Rome, Herod demanded the payment of the money, and that the
robbers that were in Arabia should be delivered up; and, by the permission of
Saturninus and Volumnius, executed the judgment himself upon those that were
refractory. He took an army that he had, and let it into Arabia, and in three
days' time marched seven mansiones; and when he came to the garrison wherein
the robbers were, he made an assault upon them, and took them all, and demolished
the place, which was called Raepta, but did no harm to any others. But as the
Arabians came to their assistance, under Naceb their captain, there ensued a
battle, wherein a few of Herod's soldiers, and Naceb, the captain of the Arabians,
and about twenty of his soldiers, fell, while the rest betook themselves to
flight. So when he had brought these to punishment, he placed three thousand
Idumeans in Trachonitis, and thereby restrained the robbers that were there.
He also sent an account to the captains that were about Phoenicia, and demonstrated
that he had done nothing but what he ought to do, in punishing the refractory
Arabians, which, upon an exact inquiry, they found to be no more than what was
true.
3. However, messengers were hasted away
to Sylleus to Rome, and informed him what had been done, and, as is usual, aggravated
every thing. Now Sylleus had already insinuated himself into the knowledge of
Caesar, and was then about the palace; and as soon as he heard of these things,
he changed his habit into black, and went in, and told Caesar that Arabia was
afflicted with war, and that all his kingdom was in great confusion, upon Herod's
laying it waste with his army; and he said, with tears in his eyes, that two
thousand five hundred of the principal men among the Arabians had been destroyed,
and that their captain Nacebus, his familiar friend and kinsman, was slain;
and that the riches that were at Raepta were carried off; and that Obodas was
despised, whose infirm state of body rendered him unfit for war; on which account
neither he, nor the Arabian army, were present. When Sylleus said so, and added
invidiously, that he would not himself have come out of the country, unless
he had believed that Caesar would have provided that they should all have peace
one with another, and that, had he been there, he would have taken care that
the war should not have been to Herod's advantage; Caesar was provoked when
this was said, and asked no more than this one question, both of Herod's friends
that were there, and of his own friends, who were come from Syria, Whether Herod
had led an army thither? And when they were forced to confess so much, Caesar,
without staying to hear for what reason he did it, and how it was done, grew
very angry, and wrote to Herod sharply. The sum of his epistle was this, that
whereas of old he had used him as his friend, he should now use him as his subject.
Sylleus also wrote an account of this to the Arabians, who were so elevated
with it, that they neither delivered up the robbers that had fled to them, nor
paid the money that was due; they retained those pastures also which they had
hired, and kept them without paying their rent, and all this because the king
of the Jews was now in a low condition, by reason of Caesar's anger at him.
Those of Trachonitis also made use of this opportunity, and rose up against
the Idumean garrison, and followed the same way of robbing with the Arabians,
who had pillaged their country, and were more rigid in their unjust proceedings,
not only in order to get by it, but by way of revenge also.
4. Now Herod was forced to bear all this,
that confidence of his being quite gone with which Caesar's favor used to inspire
him; for Caesar would not admit so much as an embassage from him to make an
apology for him; and when they came again, he sent them away without success.
So he was cast into sadness and fear; and Sylleus's circumstances grieved him
exceedingly, who was now believed by Caesar, and was present at Rome, nay, sometimes
aspiring higher. Now it came to pass that Obodas was dead; and Aeneas, whose
name was Aretas,11 took the government, for Sylleus
endeavored by calumnies to get him turned out of his principality, that he might
himself take it; with which design he gave much money to the courtiers, and
promised much money to Caesar, who indeed was angry that Aretas had not sent
to him first before he took the kingdom; yet did Aeneas send an epistle and
presents to Caesar, and a golden crown, of the weight of many talents. Now that
epistle accused Sylleus as having been a wicked servant, and having killed Obodas
by poison; and that while he was alive, he had governed him as he pleased; and
had also debauched the wives of the Arabians; and had borrowed money, in order
to obtain the dominion for himself: yet did not Caesar give heed to these accusations,
but sent his ambassadors back, without receiving any of his presents. But in
the meantime the affairs of Judea and Arabia became worse and worse, partly
because of the anarchy they were under, and partly because, as bad as they were,
nobody had power to govern them; for of the two kings, the one was not yet confirmed
in his kingdom, and so had not authority sufficient to restrain the evil-doers;
and as for Herod, Caesar was immediately angry at him for having avenged himself,
and so he was compelled to bear all the injuries that were offered him. At length,
when he saw no end of the mischief which surrounded him, he resolved to send
ambassadors to Rome again, to see whether his friends had prevailed to mitigate
Caesar, and to address themselves to Caesar himself; and the ambassador he sent
thither was Nicolaus of Damascus.
CHAPTER
10
HOW EURYCLES FALSELY ACCUSED HEROD'S SONS; AND HOW THEIR FATHER BOUND THEM,
AND WROTE TO CAESAR ABOUT THEM. OF SYLLEUS; AND HOW HE WAS ACCUSED BY NICOLAUS
1. The disorders about Herod's family and children about this time grew
much worse; for it now appeared certain, nor was it unforeseen before-hand,
that fortune threatened the greatest and most insupportable misfortunes possible
to his kingdom. Its progress and augmentation at this time arose on the occasion
following: one Eurycles, a Lacedemonian, (a person of note there, but a man
of a perverse mind, and so cunning in his ways of voluptuousness and flattery,
as to indulge both, and yet seem to indulge neither of them,) came in his travels
to Herod, and made him presents, but so that he received more presents from
him. He also took such proper seasons for insinuating himself into his friendship,
that he became one of the most intimate of the king's friends. He had his lodging
in Antipater's house; but he had not only access, but free conversation, with
Alexander, as pretending to him that he was in great favor with Archelaus, the
king of Cappadocia; whence he pretended much respect to Glaphyra, and in an
occult manner cultivated a friendship with them all; but always attending to
what was said and done, that he might be furnished with calumnies to please
them all. In short, he behaved himself so to every body in his conversation,
as to appear to be his particular friend, and he made others believe that his
being any where was for that person's advantage. So he won upon Alexander, who
was but young; and persuaded him that he might open his grievances to him with
assurance and with nobody else. So he declared his grief to him, how his father
was alienated from him. He related to him also the affairs of his mother, and
of Antipater; that he had driven them from their proper dignity, and had the
power over every thing himself; that no part of this was tolerable, since his
father was already come to hate them; and he added, that he would neither admit
them to his table, nor to his conversation. Such were the complaints, as was
but natural, of Alexander about the things that troubled him; and these discourses
Eurycles carried to Antipater, and told him he did not inform him of this on
his own account, but that being overcome by his kindness, the great importance
of the thing obliged him to do it; and he warned him to have a care of Alexander,
for that what he said was spoken with vehemency, and that, in consequence of
what he said, he would certainly kill him with his own hand. Whereupon Antipater,
thinking him to be his friend by this advice, gave him presents upon all occasions,
and at length persuaded him to inform Herod of what he had heard. So when he
related to the king Alexander's ill temper, as discovered by the words he had
heard him speak, he was easily believed by him; and he thereby brought the king
to that pass, turning him about by his words, and irritating him, till he increased
his hatred to him and made him implacable, which he showed at that very time,
for he immediately gave Eurycles a present of fifty talents; who, when he had
gotten them, went to Archelaus, king of Cappadocia, and commended Alexander
before him, and told him that he had been many ways of advantage to him, in
making a reconciliation between him and his father. So he got money from him
also, and went away, before his pernicious practices were found out; but when
Eurycles was returned to Lacedemon, he did not leave off doing mischief; and
so, for his many acts of injustice, he was banished from his own country.
2. But as for the king of the Jews, he was
not now in the temper he was in formerly towards Alexander and Aristobulus,
when he had been content with the hearing their calumnies when others told him
of them; but he was now come to that pass as to hate them himself, and to urge
men to speak against them, though they did not do it of themselves. He also
observed all that was said, and put questions, and gave ear to every one that
would but speak, if they could but say any thing against them, till at length
he heard that Euratus of Cos was a conspirator with Alexander; which thing to
Herod was the most agreeable and sweetest news imaginable.
3. But still a greater misfortune came upon
the young men; while the calumnies against them were continually increased,
and, as a man may say, one would think it was every one's endeavor to lay some
grievous thing to their charge, which might appear to be for the king's preservation.
There were two guards of Herod's body, who were in great esteem for their strength
and tallness, Jucundus and Tyrannus; these men had been cast off by Herod, who
was displeased at them; these now used to ride along with Alexander, and for
their skill in their exercises were in great esteem with him, and had some gold
and other gifts bestowed on them. Now the king having an immediate suspicion
of those men, had them tortured, who endured the torture courageously for a
long time; but at last confessed that Alexander would have persuaded them to
kill Herod, when he was in pursuit of the wild beasts, that it might be said
he fell from his horse, and was run through with his own spear, for that he
had once such a misfortune formerly. They also showed where there was money
hidden in the stable under ground; and these convicted the king's chief hunter,
that he had given the young men the royal hunting spears and weapons to Alexander's
dependents, at Alexander's command.
4. After these, the commander of the garrison
of Alexandrium was caught and tortured; for he was accused to have promised
to receive the young men into his fortress, and to supply them with that money
of the king's which was laid up in that fortress, yet did not he acknowledge
any thing of it himself; but his son came ill, and said it was so, and delivered
up the writing, which, so far as could be guessed, was in Alexander's hand.
Its contents were these: "When we have finished, by God's help, all that we
have proposed to do, we will come to you; but do your endeavors, as you have
promised, to receive us into your fortress." After this writing was produced,
Herod had no doubt about the treacherous designs of his sons against him. But
Alexander said that Diophantus the scribe had imitated his hand, and that the
paper was maliciously drawn up by Antipater; for Diophantus appeared to be very
cunning in such practices; and as he was afterward convicted of forging other
papers, he was put to death for it.
5. So the king produced those that had been
tortured before the multitude at Jericho, in order to have them accuse the young
men, which accusers many of the people stoned to death; and when they were going
to kill Alexander and Aristobulus likewise, the king would not permit them to
do so, but restrained the multitude, by the means of Ptolemy and Pheroras. However,
the young men were put under a guard, and kept in custody, that nobody might
come at them; and all that they did or said was watched, and the reproach and
fear they were in was little or nothing different from those of condemned criminals:
and one of them, who was Aristobulus, was so deeply affected, that he brought
Salome, who was his aunt, and his mother-in-law, to lament with him for his
calamities, and to hate him who had suffered things to come to that pass; when
he said to her, "Art thou not in danger of destruction also, while the report
goes that thou hadst disclosed beforehand all our affairs to Sylleus, when thou
wast in hopes of being married to him?" But she immediately carried these words
to her brother. Upon this he was out of patience, and gave command to bind him;
and enjoined them both, now they were kept separate one from the other, to write
down the ill things they had done against their father, and bring the writings
to him. So when this was enjoined them, they wrote this, that they had laid
no treacherous designs, nor made any preparations against their father, but
that they had intended to fly away; and that by the distress they were in, their
lives being now uncertain and tedious to them.
6. About this time there came an ambassador
out of Cappadocia from Archelaus, whose name was Melas; he was one of the principal
rulers under him. So Herod, being desirous to show Archelaus's ill-will to him,
called for Alexander, as he was in his bonds, and asked him again concerning
his fight, whether and how they had resolved to retire; Alexander replied, to
Archelaus, who had promised to send them away to Rome; but that they had no
wicked nor mischievous designs against their father, and that nothing of that
nature which their adversaries had charged upon them was true; and that their
desire was, that he might have examined Tyrannus and Jucundus more strictly,
but that they had been suddenly slain by the means of Antipater, who put his
own friends among the multitude [for that purpose].
7. When this was said, Herod commanded that
both Alexander and Melas should be carried to Glaphyra, Archelaus's daughter,
and that she should be asked, whether she did not know somewhat of Alexander's
treacherous designs against Herod? Now as soon as they were come to her, and
she saw Alexander in bonds, she beat her head, and in a great consternation
gave a deep and moving groan. The young man also fell into tears. This was so
miserable a spectacle to those present, that, for a great while, they were not
able to say or to do any thing; but at length Ptolemy, who was ordered to bring
Alexander, bid him say whether his wife was conscious of his actions. He replied,
"How is it possible that she, whom I love better than my own soul, and by whom
I have had children, should not know what I do?" Upon which she cried out that
she knew of no wicked designs of his; but that yet, if her accusing herself
falsely would tend to his preservation, she would confess it all. Alexander
replied, "There is no such wickedness as those (who ought the least of all so
to do) suspect, which either I have imagined, or thou knowest of, but this only,
that we had resolved to retire to Archelaus, and from thence to Rome." Which
she also confessed. Upon which Herod, supposing that Archelaus's ill-will to
him was fully proved, sent a letter by Olympus and Volumnius; and bid them,
as they sailed by, to touch at Eleusa of Cilicia, and give Archelaus the letter.
And that when they had ex-postulated with him, that he had a hand in his son's
treacherous design against him, they should from thence sail to Rome; and that,
in case they found Nicolaus had gained any ground, and that Caesar was no longer
displeased at him, he should give him his letters, and the proofs which he had
ready to show against the young men. As to Archelaus, he made his defence for
himself, that he had promised to receive the young men, because it was both
for their own and their father's advantage so to do, lest some too severe procedure
should be gone upon in that anger and disorder they were in on occasion of the
present suspicions; but that still he had not promised to send them to Caesar;
and that he had not promised any thing else to the young men that could show
any ill-will to him.
8. When these ambassadors were come to Rome,
they had a fit opportunity of delivering their letters to Caesar, because they
found him reconciled to Herod; for the circumstances of Nicolaus's embassage
had been as follows:—as soon as he was come to Rome, and was about the court,
he did not first of all set about what he was come for only, but he thought
fit also to accuse Sylleus. Now the Arabians, even before he came to talk with
them, were quarrelling one with another; and some of them left Sylleus's party,
and joining themselves to Nicolaus, informed him of all the wicked things that
had been done; and produced to him evident demonstrations of the slaughter of
a great number of Obodas's friends by Sylleus; for when these men left Sylleus,
they had carried off with them those letters whereby they could convict him.
When Nicolaus saw such an opportunity afforded him, he made use of it, in order
to gain his own point afterward, and endeavored immediately to make a reconciliation
between Caesar and Herod; for he was fully satisfied, that if he should desire
to make a defence for Herod directly, he should not be allowed that liberty;
but that if he desired to accuse Sylleus, there would an occasion present itself
of speaking on Herod's behalf. So when the cause was ready for a hearing, and
the day was appointed, Nicolaus, while Aretas's ambassadors were present, accused
Sylleus, and said that he imputed to him the destruction of the king [Obodas],
and of many others of the Arabians; that he had borrowed money for no good design;
and he proved that he had been guilty of adultery, not only with the Arabian,
but Roman women also. And, he added, that above all the rest he had alienated
Caesar from Herod, and that all that he had said about the actions of Herod
were falsities. When Nicolaus was come to this topic, Caesar stopped him from
going on, and desired him only to speak to this affair of Herod, and to show
that he had not led an army into Arabia, nor slain two thousand five hundred
men there, nor taken prisoners, nor pillaged the country. To which Nicolaus
made this answer: "I shall principally demonstrate, that either nothing at all,
or but a very little, of those imputations are true, of which thou hast been
informed; for had they been true, thou mightest justly have been still more
angry at Herod." At this strange assertion Caesar was very attentive; and Nicolaus
said that there was a debt due to Herod of five hundred talents, and a bond,
wherein it was written, that if the time appointed be lapsed, it should be lawful
to make a seizure out of any part of his country. "As for the pretended army,"
he said, "it was no army, but a party sent out to require the just payment of
the money; that this was not sent immediately, nor so soon as the bond allowed,
but that Sylleus had frequently come before Saturninus and Volumnius, the presidents
of Syria; and that at last he had sworn at Berytus, by thy fortune,12
that he would certainly pay the money within thirty days, and deliver up the
fugitives that were under his dominion. And that when Sylleus had performed
nothing of this, Herod came again before the presidents; and upon their permission
to make a seizure for his money, he, with difficulty, went out of his country
with a party of soldiers for that purpose. And this is all the war which these
men so tragically describe; and this is the affair of the expedition into Arabia.
And how can this be called a war, when thy presidents permitted it, the covenants
allowed it, and it was not executed till thy name, O Caesar, as well as that
of the other gods, had been profaned? And now I must speak in order about the
captives. There were robbers that dwelt in Trachonitis; at first their number
was no more than forty, but they became more afterwards, and they escaped the
punishment Herod would have inflicted on them, by making Arabia their refuge.
Sylleus received them, and supported them with food, that they might be mischievous
to all mankind, and gave them a country to inhabit, and himself received the
gains they made by robbery; yet did he promise that he would deliver up these
men, and that by the same oaths and same time that he sware and fixed for payment
of his debt: nor can he by any means show that any other persons have at this
time been taken out of Arabia besides these, and indeed not all these neither,
but only so many as could not conceal themselves. And thus does the calumny
of the captives, which hath been so odiously represented, appear to be no better
than a fiction and a lie, made on purpose to provoke thy indignation; for I
venture to affirm that when the forces of the Arabians came upon us, and one
or two of Herod's party fell, he then only defended himself, and there fell
Nacebus their general, and in all about twenty-five others, and no more; whence
Sylleus, by multiplying every single soldier to a hundred, he reckons the slain
to have been two thousand five hundred."
9. This provoked Caesar more than ever.
So he turned to Sylleus full of rage, and asked him how many of the Arabians
were slain. Hereupon he hesitated, and said he had been imposed upon. The covenants
also were read about the money he had borrowed, and the letters of the presidents
of Syria, and the complaints of the several cities, so many as had been injured
by the robbers. The conclusion was this, that Sylleus was condemned to die,
and that Caesar was reconciled to Herod, and owned his repentance for what severe
things he had written to him, occasioned by calumny, insomuch that he told Sylleus,
that he had compelled him, by his lying account of things, to be guilty of ingratitude
against a man that was his friend. At the last all came to this, Sylleus was
sent away to answer Herod's suit, and to repay the debt that he owed, and after
that to be punished [with death]. But still Caesar was offended with Aretas,
that he had taken upon himself the government, without his consent first obtained,
for he had determined to bestow Arabia upon Herod; but that the letters he had
sent hindered him from so doing; for Olympus and Volumnius, perceiving that
Caesar was now become favorable to Herod, thought fit immediately to deliver
him the letters they were commanded by Herod to give him concerning his sons.
When Caesar had read them, he thought it would not be proper to add another
government to him, now he was old, and in an ill state with relation to his
sons, so he admitted Aretas's ambassadors; and after he had just reproved him
for his rashness, in not tarrying till he received the kingdom from him, he
accepted of his presents, and confirmed him in his government.
CHAPTER
11
HOW HEROD, BY PERMISSION FROM CAESAR, ACCUSED HIS SONS BEFORE AN ASSEMBLY OF
JUDGES AT BERYTUS; AND WHAT TERO SUFFERED, FOR USING A BOUNDLESS AND MILITARY
LIBERTY OF SPEECH. CONCERNING ALSO THE DEATH OF THE YOUNG MEN, AND THEIR BURIAL
AT ALEXANDRIUM
1. So Caesar was now reconciled to Herod, and wrote thus to him: that
he was grieved for him on account of his sons; and that in case they had been
guilty of any profane and insolent crimes against him, it would behoove him
to punish them as parricides, for which he gave him power accordingly; but if
they had only contrived to fly away, he would have him give them an admonition,
and not proceed to extremity with them. He also advised him to get an assembly
together, and to appoint some place near Berytus,13
which is a city belonging to the Romans, and to take the presidents of Syria,
and Archelaus king of Cappadocia, and as many more as he thought to be illustrious
for their friendship to him, and the dignities they were in, and determine what
should be done by their approbation. These were the directions that Caesar gave
him. Accordingly Herod, when the letter was brought to him, was immediately
very glad of Caesar's reconciliation to him, and very glad also that he had
a complete authority given him over his sons. And it strangely came about, that
whereas before, in his adversity, though he had indeed showed himself severe,
yet had he not been very rash nor hasty in procuring the destruction of his
sons; he now, in his prosperity, took advantage of this change for the better,
and the freedom he now had, to exercise his hatred against them after an unheard
of manner; he therefore sent and called as many as he thought fit to this assembly,
excepting Archelaus; for as for him, he either hated him, so that he would not
invite him, or he thought he would be an obstacle to his designs.
2. When the presidents, and the rest that
belonged to the cities, were come to Berytus, he kept his sons in a certain
village belonging to Sidon, called Platana, but near to this city, that if they
were called, he might produce them, for he did not think fit to bring them before
the assembly: and when there were one hundred and fifty assessors present, Hero