CHAPTER XVI.

HOW HEROD, WHEN HE HAD MARRIED MARIAMNE, TOOK JERUSALEM, WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF SOSIUS, BY FORCE; AND HOW THE GOVERNMENT OF THE ASAMONEANS WAS PUT AN END TO.

§ 1. AFTER the wedding was over, came Sosius through Phoenicia, having sent out his army before him over the midland parts. He also, who was their commander, came himself, with a great number of horsemen and footmen. The king also came himself from Samaria, and brought with him no small army, besides that which was there before, for they were about thirty thousand; and they all met together at the walls of Jerusalem, and encamped at the north wall of the city, being now an army of eleven legions, armed men on foot, and six thou sand horsemen, with other auxiliaries out of Syria. The generals were two: Sosius, sent by Antony to assist Herod, and Herod on his own account, in order to take the goverment from Antigonus, who was declared an enemy to Rome, and that he might himself be king, according to the decree of the

senate.

2. Now the Jews that were inclosed within the walls of the city fought against Herod with great alacrity and zeal (for the whole nation was gather ed together); they also gave out many prophecies about the temple, and many things agreeable to the people, as if God would deliver them out of the dan gers they were in; they had also carried off what was out of the city, that they might not leave any thing to afford sustenance either for men or for beasts; and, by private robberies, they made the want of necessaries greater. When Herod understood this, he opposed ambushes in the fittest places against their private robberies, and he sent legions of armed men to bring in provisions, and that from remote places, so that in a little time they had great plenty of provisions. Now the three bulwarks were easily erected, because so many hands were continually at work upon it; for it was summer time, and there was nothing to hinder them in raising their works, neither from the air nor from the workmen : so they brought their engines to bear, and shook the walls of the city, and tried all manner of ways to get in: yet did not those within discover any fear, but they also contrived not a few engines to oppose their engines withal. They also sallied out, and burnt not only those engines that were not yet perfected, but those that were; and when they came hand to hand, their attempts were not less bold than those of the Romans, though they were behind them in skill. They also erected new works when the former were ruined, and making mines under ground, they met each other, and fought there; and making use of brutish courage rather than of prudent valour, they persisted in this war to the very last; and this they did while a mighty army lay round about them, and while they were distressed by famine and the want of necessaries, for this hap pened to be a Sabbatic Year. The first that scaled the walls were twenty chosen men; the next were Sosius's centurions; for the first wall was taken in forty days, and the second in fifteen more, when some of the cloisters that were about the temple were burnt, which Herod gave out to have been burnt by Antigonus, in order to expose him to the hatred of the Jews. And when the outer court of the tem

ple, and the lower city, were taken, the Jews fled into the inner court of the temple, and into the upper city; but now fearing lest the Romans should hinder them from offering their daily sacrifices to God, they sent an embassage, and desired that they would only permit them to bring in beasts for sacrifices, which Herod granted, hoping they were going to yield; but when he saw that they did nothing of what he supposed, but bitterly opposed him, in order to preserve the kingdom to Antigonus, he made an assault upon the city, and took it by storm; and now all parts were full of those that were slain, by the rage of the Romans at the long duration of the siege, and by the zeal of the Jews that were on Herod's side, who were not willing to leave one of their adversaries alive; so they were murdered continually in the narrow streets and in the houses by crowds, and as they were flying to the temple for shelter, and there was no pity taken of either infants or the aged, nor did they spare so much as the weaker sex; nay, although the king sent about, and besought them to spare the people, yet nobody restrained their hands from slaughter, but, as if they were a company of madmen, they fell upon persons of all ages, without distinction; and then Antigonus, without regard to either his past or present circumstances, came down from the citadel, and fell down at the feet of Sosius, who took no pity of him, in the change of his fortune, but insulted him beyond measure, and called him Antigone [i. e. a woman, and not a man]; yet did he not treat him as if he were a woman, by letting him go at liberty, but put him into bonds, and kept him in close custody.

3. And now Herod having overcome his enemies, his care was to govern those foreigners who had been his assistants, for the crowd of strangers rushed to see the temple, and the sacred things in the temple; but the king thinking a victory to be a more severe affliction than a defeat, if any of those things which it was not lawful to see should be seen by them, used entreaties and threatenings, and even sometimes force itself, to restrain them. He also prohibited the ravage that was made in the city, and many times asked Sosius, whether the Romans would empty the city both of money and men, and leave him king of a desert; and told him, that he esteemed dominion over the whole habitable earth as by no means an equivalent satisfaction for such a murder of his citizens: and when he said that this plunder was justly to be permitted the soldiers for the seige they had undergone, he replied, that he would give every one his reward out of his own money; and by this means he redeemed what remained of the city from destruction; and he performed what he had promised him, for he gave a noble present to every soldier, and a proportionable present to their commanders; but a most royal present to Sosius himself, till they all went away full of money.

4. This destruction befel the city of Jerusalem when Marcus Agrippa and Caninius Gallus were consuls at Rome, on the hundred and eighty-fifth

• Note here, that Josephus fully and frequently assures us, that there passed above three years between Herod's first obtaining the kingdom at Rome and his second obtaining it upon the taking of Jerusalem and death of Antigonus. The present history of this interval twice mentions the army going into winter quarters, which perhaps belonged to two several winters (ch. xv. sect. 3, 4); and though Josephus says nothing how long they lay in those quarters, yet does he give such an account of the long and studied delays of Ventidius, Silo, and Macheras, who were to see Herod settled in his new kingdom (but seem not to have had sufl. cient forces for that purpose, and were for certain all corrupted by Antigonus to make the longest delays possible), and gives us such particulas

olympiad, on the third month, on the solemnity of the fast, as if a periodical revolution of calamities had returned since that which befel the Jews under Pompey; for the Jews were taken by him on the same day, and this was after twenty-seven years' time. So when Sosius had dedicated a crown of gold to God, he marched away from Jerusalem, and carried Antigonus with him in bonds to Antony; but Herod was afraid lest Antigonus should be kept in prison [only] by Antony, and that when he was carried to Rome by him, he might get his cause to be heard by the senate, and might demonstrate, as he was himself of the royal blood, and Herod but a private man, that therefore it belonged to his sons, however, to have the kingdom, on account of the family they were of, in case he had himself offended the Romans by what he had done. Out of Herod's fear of

this it was that he, by giving Antony a great deal of money, endeavoured to persuade him to have Antigonus slain, which, if it were once done, he should be free from that fear. And thus did the govern ment of the Asamoneans cease, a hundred and twen ty six years after it was first set up. This family was a splendid and an illustrious one, both on account of the nobility of their stock, and of the dignity of the high-priesthood, as also for the glorious actions their ancestors had performed for our nation but these men lost the government by their dissensions one with another, and it came to Herod, the son of Antipater, who was of no more than a vulgar family, and of no eminent extraction, but one that was subject to other kings. And this is what history tells us was the end of the Asamonean family.

www.

§ 1. How Sosius and Herod took Jerusalem by force; and besides that, how they took Antigonus captive, has been related by us in the foregoing book. We will now proceed in the narration. And since Herod had now the government of all Judea put into his hands, he promoted such of the private men of the city as had been of his party, but never left off avenging and punishing every day those that had chosen to be of the party of his enemies ; but Pollio the Pharisee, and Sameas, a disciple of his, were honoured by him above all the rest; for when Jerusalem was besieged, they advised the citizens to receive Herod; for which advice they were well requited. But this Pollio, at the time when Herod was once upon his trial of life and death, foretold, in a way of reproach, to Hyrcanus and the other judges, how this Herod, whom they suffered now to escape, would afterward inflict punishment on them all; which had its completion in time, while God fulfilled the words he had spoken.

accounts of the many great actions of Herod during the same interval, as fairly imply that interval, before Herod went to Samosata, to have been very considerable. However, what is wanting in Josephus, is fully supplied by Moses Chorenen is, the Armenian historian, in his history of that interval (b. ii. ch. xviii.); where he directly assures us that Tigranes, then king of Armenia, and the principal manager of this Parthian war, rigued two year after Herod was made king at Rome, and yet Antony did not hear of his death, in that very neighbourhood, at Samosata, till he was come thither to besige it; after which Herod brought him an army, which was three hundred and forty miles' march, and through a difficult country, full of enemies also, and joined with him in the siege of Samosata till that city was taken; then Herod and Bosins marched back with their large armies the same number of three hundred and forty miles; and when, in a little time, they sat down to besiege Jerusalem, they were not able to take it but by a siege of five months. All which put together, fully supplies what is wanting in Josephus, and secures the entire chronology of these times beyond contradiction,

2. At this time Herod, now he had got Jerusalem under his power, carried off all the royal ornaments, and spoiled the wealthy men of what they had gotten; and when, by these means, he had heaped together a great quantity of silver and gold, he gave it all to Antony, and his friends that were about him. He also slew forty-five of the principal men of Antigonus's party, and set guards at the gates of the city, that nothing might be carried out together with their dead bodies. They also searched the dead, and whatsoever was found, either of silver or gold, or other treasure, it was carried to the king; nor was there any end of the miseries he brought upon them; and this distress was in part occasioned by the covetousness of the prince regent, who was still in want of more, and in part by the Sabbatic Year, which was still going on, and forced the country to lie still uncultivated, since we are forbidden to sow the land in that year. Now when Antony had received Antigonus as his captive, he determined to keep him against his triumph; but when he heard that the nation grew seditious, and that, out of their hatred to Herod, they continued to bear good-will to Antigonus, he resolved to behead him at Antioch, for otherwise the Jews could no way be brought to quiet. And Strabo of Cappadocia attests to what I have said, when he thus speaks:-" Antony ordered Antigonus the Jew to be brought to Antioch, and there to be beheaded; and this Antony seems to me to have been the very first man who beheaded a king, as supposing he could no other way bend the minds of the Jews so as to receive Herod, whom he had made king in his stead; for by no torments could they be forced to call him king, so great a fondness they had for their former king; so he thought that this dishonourable death would diminish the value they had for Antigonus's memory, and at the same time would diminish the hatred they bare to Herod." Thus far Strabo.

CHAPTER II.

HOW HYRCANUS WAS SET AT LIBERTY BY THE PARTHIANS, AND RETURNED TO HEROD; AND WHAT ALEXANDRA DID WHEN SHE HEARD THAT ANANELUS WAS MADE HIGH-PRIEST.

§ 1. Now after Herod was in possession of the kingdom, Hyrcanus the high-priest, who was then a captive among the Parthians, came to him again, and was set free from his captivity in the manner following:-Barzapharnes and Pacorus, the generals of the Parthians, took Hyrcanus, who was first mnade high-priest and afterwards king, and Herod's brother, Phasaelus, captives, and were carrying them away into Parthia. Phasaelus indeed could not bear the reproach of being in bonds; and thinking that death with glory was better than any life whatsoever, he became his own executioner, as I have formerly related.

2. But when Hyrcanus was brought into Parthia, the king of Phraates treated him after a very gen. tle manner, as having already learned of what an illustrious family he was ; on which account he set him free from his bonds, and gave him a habitation at Babylon,* where there were Jews in great numbers. These Jews honoured Hyrcanus as their high-priest and king, as did all the Jewish nation that dwelt as far as Euphrates, which respect was very much to his satisfaction. But when he was informed that Herod had received the kingdom, new hopes came upon him, as having been himself still of a kind disposition towards him; and expect ing that Herod would bear in mind what favour he had received from him, and when he was upon his trial, and when he was in danger that a capital sentence would be pronounced against him, he delivered him from that danger, and from all punishment. Accordingly, he talked of that matter with the Jews that came often to him with great affection; but they endeavoured to retain him among them, and desired that he would stay with them, putting him in mind of the kind offices and honours they did him, and that those honours they paid him were not at all inferior to what they could pay to either their high-priests or their kings: and what was a greater motive to determine him, they said, was this, that he could not have those dignities [in Judea] because of that maim in his body, which had been inflicted on him by Antigonus; and that kings do not use to requite men for those kindnesses which they received when they were private persons, the height of their fortune making usually no small changes in them.

3. Now, although they suggested these arguments to him for his own advantage, yet did Hyrcanus still desire to depart. Herod also wrote to him, and persuaded him to desire of Phraates, and the Jews that were there, that they should not grudge him the royal authority, which he should have jointly with himself, for that now was the proper time for himself to make him amends for the favours he had received from him, as having been brought up by him, and saved by him also, as well as for Hyrcanus to receive it. And as he wrote thus to Hyrcanus, so did he send also Sara

• The city here called "Babylon" by Josephus, seems to be one which was built by some of the Seleucidae, upon the Tigris; which, long after the utter desolation of Old Babylon, was commonly so called, and I suppose not far from Seleucia; just as the later adjoining city Bagdat has been and is often called by the same old name of Babylon till this very Any.

mallas his ambassador to Phraates, and many presents with him, and desired him in the most obliging way, that he would be no hinderance to his gratitude towards his benefactor. But this zeal of Herod's did not flow from that principle, but because he had been made governor of that country without having any just claim to it, he was afraid, and that upon reasons good enough, of a change in his condition, and so made what haste he could to get Hyrcanus into his power, or indeed to put him quite out of the way; which last thing he effected afterwards.

4. Accordingly, when Hyrcanus came, full of assurance, by the permission of the king of Parthia, and at the expense of the Jews, who supplied him with money, Herod received him with all possible respect, and gave him the upper place at public meetings, and set him above all the rest at feasts, and thereby deceived him. He called him his father, and endeavoured, by all the ways possible, that he might have no suspicion of any treacherous design against him. He also did other things, in order to secure his government, which yet occasioned a sedition in his own family; for being cautious how he made any illustrious person the high-priest of God,+ he sent for an obscure priest out of Babylon, whose name was Ananelus, and bestowed the high-priesthood upon him.

5. However, Alexandra, the daughter of Hyrcanus, and wife of Alexander, the son of Aristobulus the king, who had also brought Alexander [two] children, could not bear this indignity. Now this son was one of the greatest comeliness, and was called Aristobulus; and the daughter, Mariamne, was married to Herod, and eminent for her beauty also. This Alexandra was much disturbed, and took this indignity offered to her son exceeding ill, that while he was alive, any one else should be sent to have the dignity of the high-priesthood conferred upon him. Accordingly she wrote to Cleopatra (a musician assisting her in taking care to have her letters carried) to desire her intercession with Antony, in order to gain the high-priesthood for her

son.

6. But as Antony was slow in granting this request, his friend Dellius came into Judea upon some affairs, and when he saw Aristobulus, he stood in admiration at the tallness and handsomeness of the child, and no less at Mariamne, the king's wife, and was open in his commendations of Alexandra, as the mother of most beautiful children: and when she came to discourse with him, he persuaded her to get pictures drawn of them both, and to send them to Antony, for that when he saw them, he would deny her nothing that she would ask. Accordingly, Alexandra was elevated with these words of his, and sent the pictures to Antony. Dellius also talked extravagantly, and said that these children seemed not derived from men, but from some god or other. His design in doing so was to entice Antony into lewd pleasures with them, who was ashamed to send for the damsel, as

Here we have an eminent example of Herod's worldly and profane politics, when by the abuse of his unlawful and usurped power, to make whom he pleased high-priest, in the person of Ananelus, he occasioned such disturbances in his kingdom, and in his own family, as suffered him to enjoy no lasting peace or tranquillity ever afterwards; and such is frequently the effect of profane court-politics about matters of religion in other ages and nations. The Old Testament is full of the mis ries of the p ople of the Jews derived from such court-politics, especially in and after the days of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, "who made Israel to sin;" who gave the most pernicious example of it; who brought on the grossest corruption of religion by it; and the punishment of whose family for it was most remarkable. The case is too well known to need of particular citations.

Of this wicked Dellius, see the note on the War, b. i. ch. xv. sect. 3

being the wife of Herod, and avoided it, because of the reproaches he should have from Cleopatra on that account; but he sent in the most decent manner he could, for the young man ; but added this withal, unless he thought it hard upon him so to do. When this letter was brought to Herod, he did not think it safe for him to send one so handsome as was Aristobulus, in the prime of his life, for he was sixteen years of age, and of so noble a family, and particularly not to Antony, the principal man among the Romans, and one that would abuse him in his amours, and besides, one that openly indulged himself in such pleasures as his power allowed him, without controul. He therefore wrote back to him, that if this boy should only go out of the country, all would be in a state of war and uproar; because the Jews were in hopes of a change in the government, and to have another king over them.

7. When Herod had thus excused himself to Antony, he resolved that he would not entirely permit the child of Alexandra to be treated dishonourably but his wife Mariamne lay vehemently at him to restore the high-priesthood to her brother; and he judged it was for his advantage so to do, because, if he once had that dignity, he could not go out of the country. So he called all his friends together, and told them that Alexandra privately conspired against his royal au hority, and endeavoured, by the means of Cleopatra, so to bring it about, that he might be deprived of the govern ment, and that by Antony's means this youth might have the management of public affairs in his stead; and that this procedure of hers was unjust, since she would at the same time deprive her daughter of the dignity she now had, and would bring disturbances upon the kingdom, for which he had taken a great deal of pains, and had gotten with extraordinary hazards: that yet, while he well remembered her wicked practices, he would not leave off doing what was right himself, but would even now give the youth the high-priesthood; and that he formerly set up Ananelus, because Aristobulus was then so very young a child. Now when he had said this, not at random, but as he thought with the best discretion he had, in order to deceive the women, and those friends whom he had taken to consult withal, Alexandra, out of the great joy she had at this unexpected promise, and out of fear from the suspicions she lay under, fell a weeping; and made the following apology for herself, and said, that as to the [high] priesthood, she was very much concerned for the disgrace her son was under, and so did her utmost endeavours to procure it for him, but that as to the kingdom, she had made no attempts, and that if it were offered her [for her son], she would not accept it; and that now she would be satisfied with her son's dignity, while he himself held the civil government, and she had thereby the security that arose from his peculiar ability in governing, to all the remainder of her family: that she was now overcome by his benefits, and thankfully accepted of this honour shown by him to her son, and that she would hereafter be entirely obedient; and she desired him to excuse her, if the nobility of her family, and that freedom of acting which she thought that allowed her, had made her act too precipitately and imprudently in this matter. So when they had spoken thus to one another, they came to an agreement; and all suspicions, so far as appeared, were vanished away.

CHAPTER III.

AS

§ 1. So king Herod immediately took the highpriesthood away from Ananelus, who, as we said before, was not of this country, but one of those Jews that had been carried captive beyond Euphrates; for there were not a few ten thousands of this people that had been carried captives, and dwelt about Babylonia, whence Ananelus came. He was one of the stock of the high-priests, and had been of old a particular friend of Herod; and when he was first made king, he conferred that dignity upon him, and now put him out of it again, in order to quiet the troubles in his family, though what he did was plainly unlawful, for at no other time [of old] was any one that had once been in that dignity deprived of it. It was Antiochus Epiphanes who first broke that law, and deprived Jesus, and made his brother Onias high-priest in his stead. Aristobulus was the second that did so, and took that dignity from his brother [Hyrcanus]; and this Herod was the third who took that high office away [from Ananelus], and gave it to this young man, Aristobulus, in his stead.

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2. And now Herod seemed to have healed the divisions in his family; yet was he not without suspicion, as is frequently the case of people seeming to be reconciled to one another, but thought that, as Alexandra had already made attempts tending to innovations, so did he fear that she would go on therein, if she found a fit opportunity for so doing; so he gave a command that she should dwell in the palace, and meddle with no public affairs her guards also were so careful, that nothing she did in private life every day was concealed. All these hardships put her out of patience, by little and little, and she began to hate Herod; for as she had the pride of a woman to the utmost degree, she had great indignation at this suspicious guard that was about her, as desirous rather to undergo any thing that could befall her than to be deprived of her liberty of speech, and, under the notion of an honorary guard, to live in a state of slavery and terror. She therefore sent to Cleopatra, and made a long complaint of the circumstances she was in, and entreated her to do her utmost for her assistance. Cleopatra hereupon advised her to take her son with her, and come away immediately to her into Egypt. This advice pleased her; and she had this contrivance for getting away: She got two coffins made, as if they were to carry away two dead bodies, and put herself into one, and her son into the other, and gave orders to such of her servants as knew of her intentions, to carry them away in the night-time. Now their road was to be

• When Josephus says here that this Ananelus, the new high-priest, was" of the stock of the high-priests," and since he had been just telling us that he was a priest of an obscure family or character (ch. ii. sect. 4), it is not at all probable that he could so soon say that he was "of the stock of the high-priests." However, Josephus here makes a remarkable observation, that this Ananelus was the third that was ever unjustly and wickedly turned out of the high-priesthood by the civil power, no king or governor having ventured to do so, that Josephus knew of, but that heathen tyrant and persecutor Antiochus Epiphanes; that barbar. ous parricide Aristobulus, the first that took royal authority among the Maccabees; and this tyrant kang Herod the Great, although afterward that infamous practice became frequent, till the very destruction of Jerusalem, when the office of high-priesthood was at an end.