immediately, in order to do mischief to the || From thence he marched to Jerusalem: wherepublic. They were in some small measure upon those Jews whose camp lay there, and indeed, and in small matters, hurtful to the who had besieged the Roman legion, not bearRomans: but the murders they committed ing the coming of this army, left the siege imupon their own people lasted a long while. perfect. But as to the Jerusalem Jews, when As soon as Varus was informed of the state Varus reproached them bitterly for what had of Judea, by Sabinus's writing to him, he was been done, they cleared themselves of the acafraid for the legion he had left there. So he cusation and alleged that the conflux of the took the two other legions, (for there were people was occasioned by the feast; that the three legions in all belonging to Syria), and war was not made with their approbation, but four troops of horsemen; with the several by the rashness of the strangers; while they auxiliary forces which either the kings, or were on the side of the Romans, and besieged certain of the tetrarchs, afforded him; and together with them, rather than having any made what haste he could to assist those that inclination to besiege them. There also came were then besieged in Judea. He also gave beforehand to meet Varus, Joseph, the cousin order that all that were sent out for this ex-german of king Herod; as also Gratus and pedition should hasten to Ptolemais. The Rufus: who brought their soldiers along with citizens of Berytus gave him one thousand five them; together with those Romans who had hundred auxiliaries, as he passed through been besieged. But Sabinus did not come their city. Aretas also, the king of Arabia into Varus's presence, but stole out of the city Petrea, out of his hatred to Herod, and in order privately, and went to the sea side. to purchase the favor of the Romans, sent him Upon this, Varus sent a part of his army no small assistance; besides their footmen and into the country, to seek out those that had horsemen. And when he had collected all his been the authors of the revolt: and when they forces together, he committed part of them to were discovered, he punished some of them his son, and to a friend of his, and sent them that were most guilty, and some he dismissed. upon an expedition into Galilee, which lies in Now the number of those that were crucified the neighborhood of Ptolemais. Accordingly, on this account were two thousand. After they made an attack upon the enemy, and which he disbanded his army, which he found put them to flight, and took Sepphoris, and no way useful to him in the affairs he came made its inhabitants slaves, and burnt the city.about. For they behaved themselves very But Varus himself pursued his march to Sa-disorderly, and disobeyed his orders, out of maria, with his whole army. Yet did he not regard to that gain which they made by the meddle with the city of that name, because it mischief they did. As for himself, when he had not joined with the seditious: but pitched was informed that ten thousand Jews were his camp at a certain village that belonged to gotten together, he made haste to catch them. Ptolemy, whose name was Arus; which the But they did not proceed so far as to fight Arabians burnt, out of their hatred to Herod, him: but by the advice of Achiabus they came and out of the enmity they bore to his friends. together, and delivered themselves up to him. Thence they marched to another village, Hereupon Varus forgave the crime of revoltwhose name was Sampho: which the Arabi-ing to the multitude; but sent their several ans plundered and burnt; although it was a commanders to Cæsar. Many of these Cæsar fortified and a strong place. And all along dismissed: but for the several relations of this march nothing escaped them; but all Herod, who had been among these men in this places were full of fire and slaughter. Em- war, they were the only persons whom he maus was also burnt by Varus's order, after its punished; who, without the least regard to inhabitants had deserted it: that he might justice, had fought against their own kinavenge those that had there been destroyed. dred. CHAP. CHAP. XI. OF AN AMBASSAGE OF THE JEWS TO CESAR; AND THE WHE * and declared that he was indeed in name a king, but that he had taken to himself that uncontrollable authority which tyrants exercise over their subjects; and had made use of that authority for the destruction of the Jews: THEN Varus had settled these affairs, and did not abstain from making many innoand had placed the former legion at vations among them, according to his own inJerusalem, he returned to Antioch. But as clinations. And that whereas there were a for Archelaus, he had new sources of trou- great many who perished by that destruction ble come upon him at Rome, on the fol- he brought upon them: they that survived lowing occasions: For an ambassage of the were far more miserable than those that sufJews was come to Rome; Varus having per- fered under him; not only by the anxiety mitted the nation to send it; that they might they were in from his looks and disposition petition for the liberty of living by their own towards them, but from the danger their eslaws. Now the number of the ambassadors tates were in of being taken away by him. that were sent by the authority of the nation They said he was continually adorning those was fifty, to which they joined above eight cities that lay in their neighborhood, but thousand of the Jews, that were at Rome al- were inhabited by foreigners; but so that the ready. Hereupon Cæsar assembled his friends, cities belonging to his own government were and the chief men among the Romans, in the ruined and utterly destroyed. That whereas, temple of Apollo, which he had built at a when he took the kingdom, it was in an exvast charge; whither the ambassadors came; traordinary flourishing condition, he had filled and a multitude of the Jews that were there the nation with the utmost degree of poverty. already came with them as did also Arche- And when, upon unjust pretences, he had laus, and his friends. But as for the several slain any of the nobility, he took away their kinsmen which Archelaus had, they would estates: and when he permitted any of them not join themselves with him, out of their to live, he condemned them to the forfeiture hatred to him; and yet they thought it of what they possessed. And besides the antoo gross a thing for them to assist nual impositions which he laid upon every the ambassadors against him as supposing one of them, they were to make liberal preit would be a disgrace to them in Cæsar's sents to himself, to his domestics, and friends; opinion to think of thus acting in opposition and to such of his slaves as were vouchsafed to a man of their own kindred. Philip also the favor of being his tax-gatherers; because was come hither out of Syria, by the per- there was no way of obtaining an exemption. suasion of Varus, with this principal inten-from unjust violence, without giving either. tion to assist his brother: for Varus was his great friend. But still so, that if there should any change happen in the form of government, which Varus suspected there would; and if any distribution should be made oned after an insolent and inhuman manner: account of the number that desired the liberty of living by their own laws; that he might not be disappointed, but might have his share in it. Now upon the liberty that was given to the Jewish ambassadors to speak, they who hoped to obtain a dissolution of the regal government began to accuse Herod of his iniquities: gold or silver for it. That they would say nothing of the corruption of the chastity of their virgins, and the reproach laid on their wives for incontinency; and those things act because it was not a smaller pleasure to the sufferers to have such things concealed, than it would have been not to have suffered them. That Herod had put such abuses upon them as a wild beast would not have put on them, if power had been given him. And that although their nation had passed through many subversions, and alterations of government, Every station of life is exposed to trouble and dan- succeed one another, perpetually accumulate upon man in ger. Trials, like the waves and billows, which rapidly || his present state. B. their history gave no account of any calamity they had ever been under that could be compared with this, which Herod had brought upon them. That it was for this reason they thought they might justly salute Archelaus as king; upon the supposition, that whosoever should be set over their kingdom, he would appear more mild to them than Herod had been: and that they joined with him in the mourning for his father, in order to gratify him; and were ready to oblige him in other points also, if they could meet with any degree of moderation from him. But that he seemed to be afraid lest he should not be deemed Herod's own son; and so, without any delay, he let the nation understand his meaning; and this before his dominion was well established; since the power of disposing of it belonged to Cæsar, who could either give it to him, or not, as he pleased. That he had given a specimen of his future virtue to his subjects, and with what kind of moderation and good administration he would govern them, by his first action which concerned his own citizens, and God himself also; when he made the slaughter of three thousand of his own countrymen at the temple. How then could they avoid the just hatred of him, who, to the rest of his barbarity, had added this, as one of their crimes, that they had opposed and contradicted him in the exercise of his authority? Now the main thing they required was, that they might be added to Syria, and be put under the authority of such presidents as should be sent to them. For that it would thereby be made evident, whether they were really a seditious people, and generally fond of innovations; or whether they * This assertion is not true. See xiv. 9, xv. 3, and xvi. 9. + Since Josephus here informs us that Archelaus had one half of the kingdom of Herod ; and presently informs us farther, that Archelaus's annual income, after an abatement of one quarter for the present, was 600 talents: we may thence gather, pretty nearly, what was the yearly income of Herod the Great: I mean about 1600 talents: which, at the known value of 3000 shekels to a talent, and about 2s. 10d. to a shekel in the days of Josephus, see the Note on III. S. amounts to 680,0001. sterling per anWhich income, though great in itself, bearing no proportion to his vast expenses every where visible in Josephus, and to the vast sums he left behind him in his will, num. would live in an orderly manner, if they might have governors of any moderation set over them. Now when the Jews had said this, Nicolaus vindicated the king from those accusations, and said, that as for Herod, since he had never been thus * accused all the time of his life, it was not fit for those that might have accused him for lesser crimes than those now mentioned, and might have procured him to be punished, during his life time, to bring an accusation against him now he was dead. He also attributed the actions of Archelaus to the Jews' injuries to him: who affecting to govern contrary to the laws, and going about to kill those that would have hindered them from acting unjustly, when they were by him punished by what they had done, made their complaints against him. So he accused them of their attempts for innovation; and of the pleasure they took in sedition: by reason of their not having learned to submit to justice, and to the laws; but still desiring to be superior in all things. When Cæsar had heard these pleadings, he dissolved the assembly: but a few days afterward he appointed Archelaus, not indeed to be king of the whole country; but ethnarch of the one-half of that which had been subject to Herod and promised to give him the royal dignity hereafter, if he governed his part virtuously. But as for the other half, he divided it into two parts; and gave it to two other of Herod's sons, Philip and Antipas: that Antipas who disputed with Archelaus for the whole kingdom. Now it was that Perca and Galilee paid their tribute, which † amounted annually to two hundred talents: while Chap. 8. and 11. the rest must have arisen either from his confiscation of those great men's estates whom he put to death, or made to fine for the saving of their lives: or from some other heavy methods of oppression, which such savage tyrants usually exercise upon their miserable subjects; or rather from these several methods put together; all which yet seem much too small for his expenses; being drawn from no larger a nation than that of the Jews, which was very populous, but without the advantage of trade, to bring them riches. So that I cannot but strongly suspect that no small part of his wealth arose from another source: I mean from some vast sums he took out of David's sepulchre; but concealed from the people. See the note on VII. 15. Batanca, CHAP. XII. CONCERNING A SPURIOUS ALEXANDER, WHEN these THEN these affairs had been settled by Cæsar, a certain young man, by birth a Jew, but brought up by a Roman freed-man in the city Sidon, ingrafted himself into the kindred of Herod by the resem Batanea, with Trachonitis, as well as Auranitis, with a certain part of what was called the house of Zenodorus, paid the tribute of one hundred talents to Philip. But Idumea and Judea, and the country of Samaria, paid tribute to Archelaus; but had now a fourth part of that tribute taken off by the order of Cæsar, who decreed them that mitigation, because they did not join in this revolt with the rest of the multitude. There were also certain of the cities which paid tribute to Arche-blance of his countenance: which those that laus; Strato's tower and Sebaste, with Joppa and Jerusalem. For as to Gaza, Gadara, and Hippos, they were Grecian cities; which Casar separated from his government, and added to the province of Syria. Now the tribute money that came to Archelaus every year from his own dominions amounted to six hundred talents. And so much came to Herod's sons from their father's inheritance. But Salome, besides what her brother left her by his will, which were Jamnia, Ashdod, and Phasaelis, and five hundred thousand drachmæ of coined silver, received from Cæsar a present of a royal habitation at Askelon. In all, her annual revenues amounted to sixty talents; and her dwelling-house was within Archelaus's government. The rest also of the king's relations received what his will allotted them. Moreover Cæsar made a present to each of Herod's two virgin daughters, besides what their father left them, of two hundred and fifty thousand drachmæ of silver, and married them to Pheroras's sons. He also granted all that was bequeathed to himself to the king's sons, which was one thousand five hundred talents; excepting a few of the vessels, which he reserved, not so much for their great value, as because they were memorials of the deceased king. * Take here a very useful note of Grotius's, on Luc. III. 1, here quoted by Dr. Hudson. "When Josephus says that some part of the house or possession of Zenodorus (i. e. Abilene) was allotted to Philip: he thereby declares that the larger part of it belonged to another. This other was Lysanias, whom Luke mentions; of the posterity of that Lysanias who was possessed of the same country called Abilene, from the city Abila; and by others Chalcidene, from the city Chalcis: when the government of the east was under Antonias; and this after Ptolemy, the son of Menneus; from which Lysanias this country came to be saw him attested to be that of Alexander, the son of Herod, whom he had slain. And this was an incitement to him to endeavor to obtain the government. So he took to him, as an assistant, a man of his own country, (one that was well acquainted with the affairs of the palace; but on other accounts an ill man; and one whose nature made him capable of causing great disturbances to the public; and one that became a teacher of such a mischievous contrivance to the other,) and declared himself to be Alexander, the son of Herod but stolen away by one of those that were sent to slay him: who in reality slew other men in order to deceive the spectators, but saved both him and his brother Aristobulus. Thus was this man elated, and able to impose on those that came to him. And when he was come to Crete, he made all the Jews that came to discourse with him to believe him to be Alexander. And when he had gotten much money, which had been presented to him there, he passed over to Melos. There he got much more money than he had before; out of the belief they had that he was of the royal family, and their hopes that he would recover his father's principality, and reward his benefactors. So he hasted to Rome: and was conducted thither by those strangers who en commonly called the country of Lysanias. And as, after tertained him. He was also so fortunate, as, || for the contrary reasons, had a rugged body. upon his landing at * Dicearchia, to bring When, therefore, Cæsar saw how the master the Jews that were there into the same delu- and the scholar agreed in this lying story, and sion. And not only other people, but also all in a bold way of talking; he inquired about those that had been friendly with Herod, or Aristobulus, and asked what became of him, had a kindness for him, joined themselves to who was said to have been stolen away togethis man as to their king. The cause of it ther with him: and for what reason it was was, that the men were glad of his pretences; that he did not come along with him, and which were seconded by the likeness of his endeavor to recover that dominion which was countenance: which made those that had been due to his high birth also? And when he said, acquainted with Alexander strongly believe that he had been left in the isle of Crete, for that he was the very same person: and this fear of the dangers of the sea that in case they confirmed to others by oath. Insomuch any accident should come to himself, the posthat when the report went about that he was terity of Mariamne might not utterly perish, coming to Rome, the whole multitude of the but that Aristobulus might survive, and puJews that were there went out to meet him: nish those that laid such treacherous designs ascribing it to Divine Providence that he had against them. And when he persevered in his so unexpectedly escaped; and being very joy- affirmations, and the author of the imposture ful on account of his mother's family. And agreed in supporting it, Cæsar took the young when he was come, he was carried in a royal man by himself, and said to him, "If thou litter through the streets; and all the orna- wilt not impose upon me, thou shalt escape ments about him were such as kings were with thy life. Tell me then, who thou art? adorned withal: and this was at the expense and who it was that had boldness enough to of those that entertained him. The multitude contrive such a cheat as this? For this conalso flocked about him greatly, and made trivance is too considerable a piece of villany mighty acclamations to him: and nothing to be undertaken by one of thy age." Acwas omitted which could be thought suitable cordingly, because he had no other way to to one who had been so unexpectedly pre- take, he told Cæsar the contrivance, and after served. what manner, and by whom, it was planned. When this thing was told Cæsar, he did So Cæsar, upon observing the spurious Alexnot believe it because Herod was not easily ander to be a strong active man, and fit to to be imposed upon in such affairs as were of work with his hands, that he might not break great concern to him. Yet having some sus- his promise to him, put him among those that picion it might be so, he sent one Caledus a were to row among the mariners; but slew freed-man of his, and one that had conversed him that induced him to do what he had done. with the young men themselves; and bade For as for the people of Melos, he thought him bring Alexander into his presence. So them sufficiently punished, in having thrown he brought him, being no more accurate in away so much of their money upon this spujudging about him than the rest of the multi-rious Alexander. And such was the ignomitude. Yet did not he deceive Cæsar. For nious conclusion of this bold contrivance. although there were a resemblance between him and Alexander; yet was it not so exact as to impose on such as were prudent in discerning. For this spurious Alexander had his hands rough, by the labors he had been put to and instead of that softness of body which HEN Archelaus entered on his eththe other had, and this as derived from his narchy, and was come into Judea,‡ delicate and generous education; this man, he accused Joazar, the son of Boethus, of as * Puteoli. † Alexander and Aristobulus. CHAP. XIII. OF A SECOND ACCUSATION AGAINST ARCHELAUS; AND HIS WH + A. D. 1. sisting |