ed him to his face, for laying this treacherous plot against them, and chiefly because he had done it for money; and he promised him, that he would give him more money for their preservation, than Antigonus had promised to give for the kingdom. But the sly Parthian endeavoured to remove all this suspicion by apologies and by oaths, and then went [to the other] Pacorus; immediately after which, those Parthians who were left, and had it in charge, seized upon Phasaelus and Hyrcanus, who could do no more than curse their perfidiousness and their perjury. 6. In the meantime the cup-bearer was sent [back,] and laid a plot how to seize upon Herod, by deluding him, and getting him out of the city, as he was commanded to do. But Herod suspected the barbarians from the beginning, and having then received intelligence that a messenger, who was to bring him the letters that informed him of the treachery intended, had fallen among the enemy, he would not go out of the city; though Pacorus said very positively, that he ought to go out, and meet the messengers that brought the letters, for that the enemy had not taken them, and that the contents of them were not accounts of any plots upon them, but of what Phasaelus had done; yet had he heard from others that his brother was seized; and Alexandra,* the shrewdest woman in the world, Hyrcanus's daughter, begged of him that he would not go out, nor trust himself to those barbarians, who now were come to make an attempt upon him openly. 7. Now as Pacorus and his friends were considering how they might bring their plot to bear privately, because it was not possible to circumvent a man of so great prudence, by openly attacking him, Herod prevented them, and went off with the persons that were the most nearly related to him by night, and this without their enemies being apprized of it. But as soon as the Parthians perceived it, they pursued after them, and as he gave orders for his mother, and sister, and the young woman who was betrothed to him, with her mother, and his youngest brother, to make the best of their way, he himself, with his servants, took all the care they could, to keep off the barbarians; and when, at every assault, he had slain a great many of them, he came to the strong hold of Masada. * Mariamne here, in the copies. 8. Nay, he found by experience that the Jews fell more heavily upon him than did the Parthians, and created him troubles perpetually, and this ever since he was gotten sixty furlongs from the city; these sometimes brought it to a sort of a regular battle. Now in the place where Herod beat them, and killed a great number of them, there he afterward built a citadel, in memory of the great actions he did there, and adorned it with the most costly palaces, and erected very strong fortifications, and called it from his own name Herodium. Now, as they were in their flight, many joined themselves to him every day; and at a place called Thressa of Idumea, his brother Joseph met him, and advised him to ease himself of a great number of his followers, because Masada would not contain so great a multitude, which were above nine thousand. Herod complied with his advice, and sent away the most cumbersome part of his retinue, that they might go into Idumea, and gave them provisions for their journey; but he got safe to the fortress, with his nearest relations, and retained with him only the stoutest of his followers; and there it was that he left eight hundred of his men as a guard for the women, and provisions sufficient for a siege, but he made haste himself to Petra of Arabia. 9. As for the Parthians in Jerusalem, they betook themselves to plundering, and fell upon the houses of those that were fled, and upon the king's palace, and spared nothing but Hyrcanus's money, which was not above three hundred talents. They light on other men's money also, but not so much as they hoped for; for Herod, having a long while had a suspicion of the perfidiousness of the barbarians, had taken care to have what was most splendid among his treasures conveyed into Idumea, as every one belonging to him had in like manner done also. But the Parthians proceeded to that degree of injustice, as to fill the country with war without denouncing it, and to demolish the city Marissa, and not only to set up Antigonus for king, but to deliver Phasaelus and Hyrcanus bound into his hands, in order to their being tormented by him. Antigonus himself also bit off Hyrcanus's ears with his own teeth, as he fell down upon his knees to him, that so he might never be able, upon any mutation of affairs, to take the high-priesthood again; for the high-priests that officiated were to be complete, and without blemish. 10. However, he failed in his purpose of abusing Pha saelas, by reason of his courage, for though he neither had the command of his sword, nor of his hands, he prevented all abuses by dashing his head against a stone; so he demonstrated himself to be Herod's own brother, and Hyrcamus a most degenerate relation, and died with great bravery, and made the end of his life agreeable to the actions of it. There is also another report about his end, viz. that he recovered of that stroke, and that a surgeon, who was sent by Antigonus to heal him, filled the wound with poisonous ingredients, and so killed him; whichsoever of these deaths he came to, the beginning of it was glorious. It is also reported, that before he expired, he was informed by a certain poor woman, how Herod had escaped out of their hands, and that he said thereupon, "I now die with comfort, since I leave behind me one alive that will avenge me of mine enemies." 11. This was the death of Phasaelus; but the Parthians, although they had failed of the women they chiefly desired, yet did they put the government of Jerusalem into the hands of Antigonus, and took away Hyrcanus, and bound him, and carried him to Parthia. CHAP. XIV. When Herod is rejected in Arabia, he makes haste to Rome, where Antony and Cæsar join their interest to make him king of the Jews. § 1. Now Herod did the more zealously pursue his journey into Arabia, as making haste to get money of the king, while his brother was yet alive, by which money alone it was that he hoped to prevail upon the covetous temper of the barbarians to spare Phasaelus; for he reasoned thus with himself, that if the Arabian king was too forgetful of his father's friendship with him, and was too covetous to make him a free gift, he would however borrow of him as much as might redeem his brother, and put into his hands, as a pledge, the son of him that was to be redeemed; accordingly, he led his brother's son along with him, who was of the age of seven years. Now he was ready to give three hundred talents for his brother, and intended to desire the intercession of the Tyrians, to get them accepted: however, jate had been too quick for his diligence; and since Phasae lus was dead, Herod's brotherly love was now in vain. Moreover, he was not able to find any lasting friendship among the Arabians; for their king, Malichus, sent to him immediately, and commanded him to return back out of his country, and used the name of the Parthians as a pretence for so doing, as though these had denounced to him by their ambassadors to cast Herod out of Arabia; while in reality they had a mind to keep back what they owed to Antipater, and not be obliged to make requitals to his sons for the free gifts the father had made them. He also took the impudent advice of those who, equal with himself, were willing to deprive Herod of what Antipater had deposited among them; and these men were the most potent of all whom he had in his kingdom. 2. So, when Herod had found that the Arabians were his enemies, and this for those very reasons whence he hoped they would have been the most friendly, and had given them such an answer as his passion suggested, he returned back, and went for Egypt. Now he lodged the first evening at one of the temples of that country, in order to meet with those whom he left behind; but on the next day, word was brought him, as he was going to Rhinoculora, that his brother was dead, and how he came by his death; and when he had lamented him as much as his present circumstances could bear, he soon laid aside such cares, and proceeded on his journey. But now, after some time, the king of Arabia repented of what he had done, and sent presently away messengers to call him back: Herod had prevented them, and was come to Pelusium, where he could not obtain a passage from those that lay with the fleet, so he besought their captains to let him go by them; accordingly, out of the reverence they bore the fame and dignity of the man, they conducted him to Alexandria; and when he came into the city, he was received by Cleopatra with great splendour, who hoped he might be persuaded to be commander of her forces in the expedition she was now about; but he rejected the queen's solicitations, and, being neither affrighted at the height of that storm which had then happened, nor at the tumults that were now in Italy, he sailed for Rome. 3. But as he was in peril about Pamphilia, and obliged to cast out the greatest part of the ship's lading, he, with difficulty, got safe to Rhodes, a place which had been grievously harrassed in the war with Cassius. He was there re ceived by his friends, Ptolemy and Sappinius; and, although he was then in want of money, he fitted up a three decked ship of very great magnitude, wherein he and his friends sailed to Brundusium, and went thence to Rome with all speed: where he first of all went to Antony, on account of the friendship his father had with him, and laid before him the calamities of himself and his family, and that he had left his nearest relations besieged in a fortress, and had sailed to him through a storm, to make supplications to him for assistance. 4. Hereupon Antony was moved to compassion at the change that had been made in Herod's affairs, and this both upon his calling to mind how hospitably he had been treated by Antipater, but more especially on account of Herod's own virtue: so he then resolved to get him made king of the Jews, whom he had himself formerly made tetrarch. The contest also that he had with Antigonus was another inducement, and that of no less weight than the great regard he had for Herod; for he looked upon Antigonus as a seditious person, and an enemy of the Romans and as for Cæsar, Herod found him better prepared than Antony, as remembering very fresh the wars he had gone through, together with his father, the hospitable treatment he had met with from him, and the entire good will he had showed to him, besides the activity which he saw in Herod himself. So he called the senate together, wherein Messala, and after him Atratinus, produced Herod before them, and gave a full account of the merits of his father, and his own good will to the Romans. At the same time they demonstrated, that Antigonus was their enemy, not only because he soon quarrelled with them, but, because he now overlooked the Romans, and took the government by the means of the Parthians. These reasons greatly moved the senate; at which juncture Antony came in, and told them, that it was for their advantage in the Parthian war that Herod should be king; so they all gave their votes for it. And, when the senate was separated, Antony and Cæsar went out, with Herod between them, while the consul and the rest of the magistrates went before them, in order to offer sacrifices, and to lay the decree in the Capitol; Antony also made a feast for Herod on the first day of his reign. * This Brentesium, or Brundusium, has coins still preserved, on which is written BPENAHEIOON, as Spanheim informs us. |