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the fourth delivered himself up to Archelaus upon his giving him his right hand for his security. However, this their end was not till afterward, while at present they filled all Judea with a piratic war.

CHAP. V.

Varus composes the tumults in Judea, and crucifies about two thou

sand of the seditious.

1. UPON Varus' reception of the letters, that were written by Sabinus, and the captains, he could not avoid being afraid for the whole legion [he had left there.] So he made haste to their relief, and took with him the other two legions, with the four troops of horsemen to them belonging, and marched to Ptolemais; having given orders for the auxiliaries that were sent by the kings and governors of cities to meet him there. Moreover, he received from the people of Berytus, as he passed through their city, fifteen hundred armed men. Now as soon as the other body of auxiliaries were come to Ptolemais, as well as Aretas the Arabian, (who, out of the hatred he bore to Herod, brought a great army of horse and foot,) Varus sent a part of his army presently to Galilee, which lay near to Ptolemais, and Caius one of his friends, for their captain. This Caius put those that met him to flight, and took the city Sepphoris, and burnt it and made slaves of its inhabitants; but as for Varus himself, he marched to Samaria with his whole army, where he did not meddle with the city itself, because he found that it had made no commotion during these troubles, but pitched his camp about a certain village which was called Arvs. It belonged to Ptolemy, and on that account was plundered by the Arabi. ans, who were very angry even at Herod's friends also. thence marched on to the village Sampho, another fortified place which they plundered, as they had done the other. As they carried off all the money they light upon belonging to the public revenues, all was now full of fire and bloodshed, and nothing could resist the plunders of the Arabians. Emmaus was also burnt, upon the flight of its inhabitants, and this at the command of Varus, out of his rage at the slaughter of those that were about Arus.·

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2. Thence he marched on to Jerusalem, and as soon as he was but seen by the Jews, he made their camps disperse themselves they also went away, and fled up and down the

country; but the citizens received him, and cleared themselves of having any hand in this revolt, and said, that they had raised no commotions, but had only been forced to admit the multitude because of the festival, and that they were ra ther besieged together with the Romans, than assisted those that had revolted. They had before this met with Joseph, the first cousin of Archelaus, and Gratus, together with Rufus, who led those of Sebaste, as well as the king's army: there also met him those of the Roman legion, armed after their accustomed manner; for as to Sabinus, he durst not come into Varus' sight, but was gone out of the city before this, to the sea-side; but Varus sent a part of his army into the country, against those that had been the authors of this commotion, and as they caught great numbers of them, those that appeared to have been the least concerned in these tumults he put into custody, but such as were the most guilty he crucified; these were in number about two thousand.

3. He was also informed, that there continued in Idumea ten thousand men still in arms; but when he found that the Arabians did not act like auxiliaries, but managed the war according to their own passions, and did mischief to the country otherwise than he intended, and this out of their hatred to Herod, he sent them away, but made haste, with his own legions, to march against those that had revolted; but these, by the advice of Achiabus, delivered themselves up to him before it came to a battle. Then did Varus forgive the multitude their offences, but sent their captaius to Cæsar to be examined by him. Now Cæsar forgave the rest, but gave orders that certain of the king's relations (for some of those that were among them who were Herod's kinsmen,) should be put to death, because they had engaged in a war against a king of their own family. When therefore Varus had settled matters at Jerusalem, after this manner, and had left the former legion there, as a garrison, he returned to Antioch.

CHAP. VI.

The Jews greatly complain of Archelaus, and desire that they may be made subject to Roman governors. But when Cæsar had heard what they had to say, he distributed Herod's dominions amongst his sons, according to his own pleasure.

1. But now came another accusation from the Jews against Archelaus at Rome, which he was to answer to. It

was made by those ambassadors, who, before the revolt had come, by Varus' permission, to plead for the liberty of their country; those that came were fifty in number, but there were more than eight thousand of the Jews at Rome who supported them. And when Cæsar had assembled a council of the principal Romans in Apollo's temple, that was in the palace, (this was what he had himself built and adorned, at a vast expense,) the multitude of the Jews stood with the ambassadors, and on the other side stood Archelaus, with his friends; but as for the kindred of Archelaus, they stood on neither side; for to stand on Archelaus' side, their hatred to him, and envy at him, would not give them leave, while yet they were afraid to be seen by Cæsar with his accusers. Besides these, there were present, Archelaus' brother, Philip, being sent thither before-hand out of kindness by Varus, for two reasons; the one was this, that be might be assisting to Archelaus, and the other was this, that in case Cæsar should make a distribution of what Herod possessed among his posterity, he might obtain some share of it.

2. And now, upon the permission that was given to the accusers to speak, they, in the first place, went over Herod's breaches of their law, and said, that" he was not a king, but "the most barbarous of all tyrants, and that they had found " him to be such by the sufferings they underwent from him : “that when a very great number had been slain by him, "those that were left had endured such miseries, that they "called those that were dead happy men: that he had not "only tortured the bodies of his subjects, but entire cities, " and had done much harm to the cities of his own country, "while he adorned those that belonged to foreigners, and he "shed the blood of Jews, in order to do kindness to those "people that were out of their bounds; that he had filled the "nation full of poverty, and of the greatest iniquity, instead "of that happiness, and those laws which they had anciently enjoyed: that, in short, the Jews had borne more calami"ties from Herod, in a few years, than had their fore"fathers during all that interval of time that had passed "since they had come out of Babylon, and returned home,

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This holding a council in the temple of Apollo, in the emperor's palace at Rome, by Augustus, and even the building of this temple magnificently by himself in that palace, are exactly agreeable to Augustus, in his elder years, as Aldrich and Spanheim observe and prove, from Suetonius and Propertius.

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"in the reign of * Xerxes: that however, the nation was come to so low a condition, by being inured to hardships, "that they submitted to his successor of their own accord, though he brought them into bitter slavery: that accordingly they readily called Archelaus, though he was the son "of so great a tyrant, King, after the decease of his father, "and joined with him in mourning for the death of Herod, "and in wishing him good success in that his succession; "while yet this Archelaus, lest he should be in danger of not "being thought the genuine son of Herod, began his reign with "the murder of three thousand citizens; as if he had a mind "to offer so many bloody sacrifices to God for his govern"ment and to fill the temple with the like number of dead "bodies at that festival: that, however, those that were left "after so many miseries had just reason to consider now at "last the calamities they had undergone, and to oppose themselves, like soldiers in war, to receive those stripes t upon their faces, but not upon their backs [as hitherto.] Whereupon they prayed, that the Romans would have compassion upon the [poor] remains of Judea, and not expose what was left of them to such as barbarously tore "them to pieces, and that they would join their country to Syria, and administer the government by their own com"manders; whereby it would [soon] be demonstrated, that "those who are now under the calumny of seditious persons, "and lovers of war, know how to bear governors that are set over them, if they be but tolerable ones." So the Jews concluded their accusation with this request. Then rose up Nicolaus, and confuted the accusations which were brought against the kings, and himself accused the Jewish nation as hard to be ruled, and as naturally disobedient to kings. He also reproached all those kinsmen of Archelaus who had left him, and were gone over to his accusers.

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3. So Cæsar, after he had heard both sides, dissolved the assembly for that time; but a few days afterward he gave the one half of Herod's kingdom to Archelaus, by the name of Ethnarch, and promised to make him king also afterward, if he rendered himself worthy of that dignity. But as to the other half, he divided it into two tretarchies, and gave them

* Here we have a strong confirmation, that it was Xerxes, and not Artaxerxes, under whom the main part of the Jews returned out of the Babylonian captivity, i. e. in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. The same thing is in the Antiquities, B. xi. chap. v. § 1. vol. ii.

to two other sons of Herod, the one of them to Philip, and the other to that Antipas, who contested the kingdom with Archelaus. Under this last was Perea, and Galilee, with a reveDuc of two hundred talents: but Batanea, and Trachonitis, and Auranitis, aud certain parts of Zeno's house about Jamnia, with a revenue of an hundred talents, were made subject to Philip; while Idumea, and all Judea, and Samaria, were parts of the ethnarchy of Archelaus, although Samaria was eased of one quarter of its taxcs, out of regard to their not having revolted with the rest of the nation. He also made subject to him the following cities, viz. Strato's Tower, and Sebaste, and Joppa, and Jerusalem; but as to the Grecian cities Gaza, and Gadara, and Hippos, he cut them off from the kingdom, and added them to Syria. Now the revenue of the country that was given to Archelaus, was four hundred talents. Salome also, besides what the king had left her in his testaments, was now made mistress of Jamnia, and Ashdod, and Phasaelis. Cæsar did moreover bestow upon her the royal palace of Ascalon; by all which she got together a revenue of sixty talents; but he put her house under the ethnarchy of Archelaus. And for the rest of Herod's offspring, they received what was bequeathed to them in his testaments; but, besides that, Cæsar granted Herod's two virgin daughters five hundred thousand [drachmæ] of silver, and gave them in marriage to the sons of Pheroras: but after this family distribution, he gave between them what had been bequeathed to him by Herod, which was a thousand talents, reserving to himself only some inconsiderable presents, in honour of the deceased.

CHAP. VII.

The history of a spurious Alexander. Archelaus is banished, and Glaphyra dies, after what was to happen to both of them had been shewed them in dreams.

1. In the mean time there was a man, who was by birth a Jew, but brought up at Sidon with one of the Roman freedmen, who falsely pretended, on account of the resemblance of their countenances, that he was that Alexander who was slain by Herod. This man came to Rome, in hopes of not being detected. He had one who was his assistant, of his own nation, and who knew all the affairs of the kingdom, and instructed him to say, how those that were sent to kill him and Aristobulus had pity upon them, and stole them away, by

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