dier, and proportionably to their commanders, and with a most royal bounty to Sosius himself, whereby nobody went away but in a wealthy condition. Hereupon Sosius dedicated a crown of gold to God, and then went away from Jerusalem, leading Antigonus away in bonds to Antony; then did the * axe bring him to his end, who had still a fond de sire of life, and some frigid hopes of it to the last, but by his cowardly behaviour well deserved to die by it.

4. Hereupon king Herod distinguished the multitude that was in the city, and for those that were of his side, he made them still more his friends by the honours he conferred on them; but for those of Antigonus's party he slew them; and as his money ran low, he turned all the ornaments he had into money, and sent it to Antony, and to those about him. Yet could he not hereby purchase an exemption from all sufferings; for Antony was now bewitched by his love to Cleopatra, and was entirely conquered by her charms. Now Cleopatra had put to death all her kindred, till no one near to her in blood remained alive, and after that she fell a slaying those no way related to her. So she calumniated the principal men among the Syrians to Antony, and persuaded him to have them slain, that so she might easily gain to be mistress of what they had; nay, she extended her avaricious humour to the Jews and Arabians, and secretly laboured to have Herod and Malichus, the kings of both those nations, slain by his order.

5. Now as to these her injunctions to Antony, he complied in part; for though he esteemed it too abominable a thing to kill such good and great kings, yet was he thereby alienated from the friendship he had for them. He also took away a great deal of their country; nay, even the plantation of palm-trees at Jericho, where also grows the balsam-tree, and bestowed them upon her; as also all the cities on this side the river Eleutherus, Tyre and Sidon † excepted. And when she was become mistress of these, and had con

*This death of Antigonus is confirmed by Plutarch and Strabo; the latter of whom is cited for it by Josephus himself, Antiq. B. ch. i. § 2. as Dean Aldrich here observes.

†This ancient liberty of Tyre and Sidon under the Romans, taken notice of by Josephus, both here and Antiq B xv. ch.iv. § 1. is confirmed by the test mony of Strabo, B. xvi. p. 757. as. Dean Aldrich remarks; although, as he justly adds, this liberty lasted but a little while longer, when Augustus took it away from them.

ducted Antony in his expedition against the Parthians, as far as Euphrates, she came by Apamia and Damascus into Judea ; and there did Herod pacify her indignation at him by large presents. He also hired of her those places that had been torn away from his kingdom, at the yearly rent of two hundred talents. He conducted her also as far as Pelusium, and paid her all the respect possible. Now it was not long after this that Antony was come back from Parthia, and led with him Artabazes, Tigranes's son, captive, as a present for Cleopatra; for this Parthian was presently given her, with his money, and all the prey that was taken with him.

CHAP. XIX.

How Antony, at the persuasion of Cleopatra, sent Herod to fight against the Arabians; and how, after several battles, he at length got the victory. As also concerning a great earthquake.

§ 1. Now when the war about Actium was begun, Herod prepared to come to the assistance of Antony, as being already freed from his troubles in Judea, and having gained Hyrcania, which was a place that was held by Antigonus's sister. However, he was cunningly hindered from partaking of the hazards that Antony went through, by Cleopatra; for since, as we have already noted, she had laid a plot against the kings [of Judea and Arabia,] she prevailed with Antony to commit the war against the Arabians to Herod; that so, if he got the better, she might become mistress of Arabia, or, if he were worsted, of Judea; and that she might destroy one of these kings by the other.

2. However, this contrivance tended to the advantage of Herod; for at the very first he took hostages from the enemy, and got together a great body of horse, and ordered them to march against them about Diospolis, and he conquered that army although it fought resolutely against him. After which defeat, the Arabians were in great motion, and assembled themselves together at Kanatha, a city of Colosyria, in vast multitudes, and waited for the Jews. And when Herod was come thither, he tried to manage this war with particular prudence, and gave orders that they should build a wall about their camp; yet did not the multitude comply with those

orders, but were so emboldened by the foregoing victory, that they presently attacked the Arabians, and beat them at the first onset, and then pursued them; yet were there snares laid for Herod in that pursuit; while Athenio, one of Cleopatra's generals, and always an antagonist to Herod, sent out of Kanatha the men of that country against him; for, upon this fresh onset, the Arabians took courage, and returned back, and both joined their numerous forces about stony places that were hard to be gone over, and there put Herod's nen to the rout, and made a great slaughter of them: ut those that escaped out of the battle fled to Oriza, where the Arabians surrounded their camp, and took it, with all the men in it.

3. In a little time after this calamity, Herod came to bring them succours; but he came too late.. Now the occa sion for that blow was this, that the officers would not obey orders; for had not the fight began so suddenly, Athenio had not found a proper season for the snares he laid for Herod: however, he was even with the Arabians afterward, and overran their country, and did them more harm than their single victory could compensate. But as he was avenging himself on his enemies, there fell upon him another providential calamity; for, in the seventh year of his reign, when the war about Actium was at the height, at the beginning of the spring, the earth was shaken, and destroyed an immense number of cattle, with thirty thousand men; but the army received no harm, because it lay in the open air. In the mean time the fame of this earthquake elevated the Arabians to greater courage, and this by augmenting it to a fabulous height, as is constantly the case in melancholy ac

This seventh year of the reign of Herod, [from the conquest, or the death of Antigonus,] with the great earthquake in the be ginning of the same spring, which are here fully implied to be not much before the fight at Actium, between Octavius and Antony, and which is known from the Roman historians to have been in the beginning of September, in the thirty-first year before the Christian æra, determines the chronology of Josephus, as to the reign of Herod, viz. that he began in the year 37, beyond rational contradiction. Nor is it quite unworthy of our notice, that this seventh year of the reign of Herod, or the thirty- first before the Christian æra, contained the latter part of a Sabbatic year on wh ch Sabbatic year, therefore, it is plain, this great earthquake happened in Judea.

cidents, and pretending that all Judea was overthrown; upon this supposal, therefore, that they should easily get a land that was destitute of inhabitants into their power, they first sacrificed those ambassadors who were come to them from the Jews, and then marched into Judea immediately. Now the Jewish nation were affrighted at this invasion, and quite dispirited at the greatness of their calamities one after another; whom yet Herod got together, and endeavoured to encourage to defend themselves by the following speech which he made to them.

4. "The present dread you are under, seems to me to have seized upon you very unreasonably. It is true, you might justly be dismayed at that providential chastisement which hath befallen you; but to suffer yourselves to be equally terrified at the invasions of men is unmanly. As for myself, I am so far from being affrighted at our enemies after this earthquake, that I imagine that God hath thereby laid a bait for the Arabians, that we may be avenged on them; for their present invasion proceeds more from our accidental misfortunes, than that they have any great dependence on their weapons, or their own fitness for action. Now that hope which depends not on men's own power, but on other's ill success, is a very ticklish thing; for there is no certainty among men, either in their bad or good fortunes; but we may easily observe, that fortune is mutable, and goes from one side to another; and this you may readily learn from examples among ourselves, for when you were once victors in the former fight, your enemies overcame you at last; and very likely it will now happen so, that those who think themselves sure of beating you will themselves be beaten. For, when men are very confident, they are not upon their guard, while fear teaches men to act with caution; insomuch, that I venture to prove from your very timorousness, that you ought to take courage; for when you were more bold than you ought to have been, and than I would have had you, and marched on, Athenio's treachery took place; but your present slowness. and seeming dejection of mind is to me a pledge and assurance of victory. And indeed, it is proper beforehand to be thus provident; but when we come to action, we ought to erect our minds, and make our enemies,

be they ever so wicked, believe, that neither any human, no, nor any providential misfortune, can ever depress the courage of the Jews while they are alive: nor will any of them ever overlook an Arabian, or suffer such a one to become lord of his good things, whom he has in a manner taken captive, and that many times also. And do not you disturb yourselves at the quaking of inanimate creatures, nor do you imagine that this earthquake is another sign of another calamity; for such affections of the elements are according to the course of nature, nor does it import any thing farther to men, than what mischief it does immediately of itself. Perhaps there may come some short sign beforehand in the case of pestilences, and famines, and earthquakes; but these calamities themselves have their force limited by themselves, [without foreboding any other calamity.] And indeed, what greater mischief can the war, though it should be a violent one, do to us, than the earthquake hath done? Nay, there is a signal of our enemies destruction visible, and that a very great one also; and this is not a natural one, nor derived from the hand of foreigners neither, but it is this, that they have barbarously murdered our ambassadors, contrary to the common law of mankind; and they have destroyed so many, as if they esteemed them sacrifices for God, in relation to this war. But they will not avoid his great eye, nor his invincible right hand; and we shall be revenged of them presently, in case we still retain any of the courage of our forefathers, and rise up boldly to punish these covenant breakers. Let every one, therefore, go on and fight, not so much for his wife or his children, or for the danger his country is in, as for these ambassadors of ours; those dead ambassadors will conduct this war of ours better than we ourselves who are alive. And, if you will be ruled by me, I will myself go before you into danger; for you know this well enough, that your courage is irresistible, unless you hurt yourselves by acting rashly."*.

*This speech of Herod is set down twice by Josephus here, and Antiq. B. v. ch 8. § 3. to the very same purpose, but by no means in the same words; whence it appears, that the sense was Herod's, but the composition Josephus's.