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BOOK II.

CONTAINING THE INTERVAL.OF 69 YEARS. [From the death of Herod, till Vespasian was sent to subdue the Jews by Nero.]

CHAP. I.

Archelaus makes a funeral feast for the people, on the account of Herod. After which a great tumult is raised by the multitudé, and he sends the soldiers out upon them, who destroy about three thousand of them.

§1. Now the necessity which Archelaus was under of taking a journey to Rome was the occasion of new disturbances; for when he had mourned for his father* seven days, and had given a very expensive funeral feast to the multitude, (which custom is the occasion of poverty to many of the Jews, because they are forced to feast the multitude, for if any one omits it, he is not esteemed an holy person,) he put on a white garment, and went up. to the holy temple, where the people accosted him with various acclamations. He also spake kindly to the multitude, from an elevated seat, and a throne of gold, and returned them thanks for the zeal they had shewn about his father's funeral, and the submission they had made to him, as if he were already settled in the kingdom: but he told them withal, that "he would not at present, take

• Hear Dean Aldrich's note on this place: "The law, or custom "of the Jews," says he, "requires seven days mourning for the "dead, Antiq. B. xvii.ch. viii. § 4. vol. iv. Whence the author of "the book of Ecclesiasticus, ch. xxii. 12. assigns seven days, as the proper time of mourning for the dead, and ch xxxviii 17. enjoins "men to mourn for the dead, that they may not be evil spoken of; "for as Josephus says presently, if any one omits this mourning "(funeral feast) he is not esteemed an holy person. Now it is cer"tain, that such seven days mourning has been customary from "times of the greatest antiquity, Gen. i. 10. Funeral feasts are "also mentioned as of a considerable antiquity, Ezek. x iv. 17 Jer. "xvi. 7. Prov. xxxi. 6. Deut. xxvi. 14. Josephus, of the War, B. iii, “ch. ix. § 5. vol. v.”

ઠંડ upon him either the authority of a king, or the names "thereto belonging, until Cæsar, who is made lord of this "whole affair.by the testament confirm the succession; for "that when the soldiers would have set the diadem on his "head at Jericho, he would not accept of it; but that he "would make abundant requitals, not to the soldiers only, but "to the people, for their alacrity and good will to him, when "the superior lords [the Romans,] should have given him a complete title to the kingdom; for that it should be his "study to appear in all things better than his father."

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2. Upon this the multitude were pleased, and presently made a trial of what he intended, by asking great things of him; for some made a clamour that he would ease them in their taxes, others, that he would take off the duties upon commodities, and some, that he would loose those that were in prison; in all which cases he answered readily to their satisfaction in order to get the good-will of the multitude; after which he offered [the proper] sacrifices, and feasted with his friends.. And here it was that a great many of those that desired innovations came in crowds towards the evening, and began then to mourn on their own account, when the public mourning for the king was over. These lamented those that were put to death by Herod, because they had cut down the golden eagle that had been over the gate of the temple. Nor was this mourning of a private nature, but the lamentations were very great, the mourning solemn, and the weeping such as was loudly heard all over the city, as being for those men who had perished for the laws of their country, and for the temple. They cried out, that a punishment ought to be inflicted for these men upon those that were bonoured by Herod, and that, in the first place, the man whom he had made high-priest should be deprived, and that it was fit to choose a person of greater piety and purity than he

was.

3. At these clamours Archelaus was provoked, but restrained himself from taking vengeance on the authors, on account of the haste he was in of going to Rome, as fearing lest, upon his making war on the multitude, such an action might detain him at home. Accordingly he made trial to quiet the innovators by persuasion, rather than by force, and sent his general in a private way to them, and by him exhorted them to be quiet. But the seditious threw stones at him, and drove him away as he came into the temple, and before he could say

any thing to them. The like treatment they shewed to others, who came to them after him, many of which were sent by Archelaus in order to reduce them to sobriety, and these answered still on all occasions after a passionate manner; and it openly appeared that they would not be quiet, if their numbers were but considerable. And indeed, at the feast of unleavened bread, which was now at hand, and is by the Jews called the Passover, and used to be celebrated with a great Bumber of sacrifices, an innumerable multitude of the people came out of the country to worship: some of those stood in the temple bewailing the rabbins, [that had been put to death,] and procured their sustenance by begging, in order to support their sedition. At this Archelaus was affrighted, and privately sent a tribune, with his cohort of soldiers, upon them, before the disease should spread over the whole multitude, and gave orders that they should constrain those that began the tumult by force to be quiet. At these the whole multitude were irritated, and threw stones at many of the soldiers, and killed them but the tribune fled away wounded, and had much ado to escape so. After which they betook themselves to their sacrifices, as if they had done no mischief; nor did appear to Archelaus that the multitude could be restrained without bloodshed; so he sent his whole army upon them, the footmen in great multitudes by the way of the city, and the horsemen by the way of the plain, who, falling upon them on the sudden, as they were offering their sacrifices, destroyed about three thousand of them; but the rest of the multitude were dispersed upon the adjoining mountains; these were followed by Archelaus' heralds, who commanded every one to retire to their own homes, whither they all went and left the festival.

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CHAP. II.

Archelaus goes to Rome with a great number of his kindred. He is there accused before Cæsar by Antipater, but is superior to his accusers in judgment, by the means of that defence which Nicolaus made for him.

1. ARCHELAUS went down now to the sea side, with his mother and friends, Poplas, and Ptolemy, and Nicolaus, and left behind him Philip, to be his steward in the palace, and to take care of his domestic affairs. Salome went also along with him with her sons, as did also the king's brethren and sons-in-law. These, in appearance, went to give him all the

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assistance they were able, in order to secure his succession, but in reality to accuse him for his breach of the laws, by what he had done at the temple.

2. But as they were come to Cæsarea, Sabinus, the procurator of Syria met them: he was going up to Judea, to secure Herod's effects: but Varus, [president of Syria,] who was come hither, restrained him from going any farther. This Varus Archelaus had sent for, by the earnest entreaty of Ptolemy. At this time indeed, Sabinus to gratify Varus, neither went to the citadels, nor did he shut up the treasuries where his father's money was laid up, but promised that he would lie still, until Cæsar should have taken cognizance of the af fair. So he abode at Cæsarea; but as soon as those that were his hindrance were gone, when Varus was gone to Antioch, and Archelaus was sailed to Rome, he immediatelywent on to Jerusalem, and seized upon the palace. And when he had called for the governors of the citadels, and the stewards [of the king's private affairs,] he tried to sift out the accounts of the money, and to take possession of the citadels. But the governors of those citadels were not unmindful of the commands laid upon them by Archelaus, and continued to guard them, and said, the custody of them rather belonged to Cæsar, than to Archelaus.

3. In the meantime Antipas went also to Rome, to strive for the kingdom, and to insist, that the former testament wherein he was named to be the king, was valid before the latter testament. Salome had also promised to assist him, as had many of Archelaus' kindred, who sailed along with Archelaus himself also. He also carried along with him his mother, and Ptolemy, the brother of Nicolaus, who seemed one of great weight, on account of the great trust Herod put in him, he having been one of his most honoured friends. However, Antipas depended chiefly upon Irenæus, the orator; upon whose authority he had rejected such as advised him to yield to Archelaus, because he was his elder brother, and because the second testament gave the kingdom to him. The inclinations also of all Archelaus' kindred, who hated him, were removed to Antipas, when they came to Rome, although in the first place every one rather desired to live under their own laws, [without a king,] and to be under a Roman governor; but if they should fail in that point, these desired that Antipas might be their king.

4. Sabinus did also afford these his assistance to the same purpose, by the letters he sent, wherein he accused Archelaus before Cæsar, and highly commended Antipas. Salome also, and those with her, put the crimes which they accused Archelaus of in order, and put them into Cæsar's hands: and after they had done that, Archelaus wrote down the rea, sons of his claim, and by Ptolemy, sent in his father's ring, and his father's accounts. And when Cæsar had maturely weighed by himself what both had to allege for themselves, as also had considered of the great burden of the kingdom, and largeness of the revenues, and withal the number of the children Herod had left behind him, and had moreover read the letters he had received from Varus and Sabinus on this occasion he assembled the principal persons among the Romans together, (in which assembly Caius, the sou of Agrippa, and his daughter Julias, but by himself adopted for his own son, sat in the first seat,) and gave the pleaders. leave to speak.

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5. Then stood up Salome's son, Antipater, (who of all Archelaus' antagonists was the shrewdest pleader,) and ac cused him in the following speech: "That Archelaus did in "words contend for the kingdom, but that in deeds he had long exercised royal authority; and so did but insult Cæ, sar in desiring to be now heard on that account; since he "had not staid for his determination about the succession, "and since he had suborned certain persons, after Herod's death, to move for putting the diadem upon his head; "since he had set himself down in the throne, and given answers as a king and altered the disposition of the army, "and granted to some higher dignities; that he had also complied in all things with the people in their requests 66 they had made to him as to their king, and had also dis "missed those that had been put into bonds by his father, "for most important reasons. Now, after all this he desires "the shadow of that royal authority, whose substance he had already seized to himself, and so hath made Cæsar lord, "not of things but of words. He also reproached him far"ther, that his mourning for his father was only pretended, "while he put on a sad countenance in the day-time, but "drank to great excess in the night, from which behaviour, "he said, the late disturbances among the multitude came, "while they had an indignation thereat. And indeed the purport of his whole discourse was to aggravate Archę

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