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cities, and destroyed two thousand men that were in them, and burned their houses, and then returned to his camp; but his head-quarters were at the village called Cana.

6. Now a great multitude of Jews resorted to him every day, both out of Jericho, and the other parts of the country. Some were moved so to do out of their hatred to Antigonus, and some out of regard to the glorious actions Herod had done, but others were led on by an unreasonable desire of change; so he fell upon them immediately. As for Pappus and his party, they were not terrified, either at their number, or at their zeal, but marched out with great alacrity to fight them, and it came to a close fight. Now other parts of their army made resistance for a while; but Herod running the utmost hazard, out of the rage he was in at the murder of his brother, that he might be avenged on those that had been the authors of it, soon beat those that opposed him, and, after he had beaten them, he always turned his force against those that stood to it still, and pursued them all; so that a great slaughter was made, while some were forced back into that village whence they came out; he also pressed hard upon the hindermost, and slew a vast number of them; he also fell into the village with the enemy, where every house was filled with armed men, and the upper rooms were crowded above with soldiers for their defence; and when he had beaten those that were on the outside, he pulled the houses to pieces, and plucked out those that were within; upon many he had the roofs shaken down, whereby they perished by heaps, and as for those that fled out of the ruins, the soldiers received them with their swords in their hands; and the multitude of those slain, and lying on heaps was so great, that the conquerors could not pass along the roads. Now the enemy could not bear this blow; so that when the multitude of them which was gathered together, saw that those in the village were slain, they dispersed themselves and fled away; upon the confidence of which victory, Herod had marched immediately to Jerusalem, unless he had been hindered by the depth of winter's [coming on.] This was the impediment that lay in the way of this his entire glorious progress, and was what hindered Antigonus from being now conquered, who was already disposed to forsake the city.

7. Now when at the evening Herod had already dismissed his friends to refresh themselves after their fatigue, and when he was gone himself, while he was still hot in his armour, like a common soldier, to bathe himself, and had but one servant that attended him, and before he was gotten into the bath, one of the enemies met him in the face with a sword in his hand, and then a second, and then a third, and after that

more of them; these were men who had run away out of the battle into the bath in their armour, and they had lain there for some time in great terror, and in privacy; and when they saw the king, they trembled for fear, and ran by him in a fright (although he were naked) and endeavoured to get off into the public road: now there was by chance nobody else at hand, that might seize upon these men, and for Herod, he was contented to have come to no harm himself; so that they all got away in safety.

8. But on the next day Herod had Pappus's head cut off, who was the general for Antigonus, and was slain in the battle, and sent it to his brother Pheroras, by way of punishment for their slain brother; for he was the man that slew Joseph. Now as winter was going off, Herod marched to Jerusalem, and brought his army to the wall of it; this was the third year since he had been made king at Rome: so he pitched his camp before the temple; for on that side it might be besieged, and there it was that Pompey took the city. So he parted the work among the army, and demolished the suburbs, and raised three banks, and gave orders to have towers built upon those banks, and left the most laborious of his acquaintance at the works. But he went himself to Samaria, to take the daughter of Alexander, the son of Aristobulus to wife, who had been betrothed to him before, as we have already said; and thus he accomplished this by the bye, during the siege of the city; for he had his enemies in great contempt already.

9. When he had thus married Mariamne, he came back to Jerusalem with a greater army: Sosius also joined him with a large army, both of horsemen and footmen, which he sent before him through the midland parts, while he marched himself along Phenicia; and when the whole army was gotten together, which were eleven regiments of footmen, and six thousand horsemen, besides the Syrian auxiliaries, which was no small part of the army, they pitched their camp near to the north wall. Herod's dependence was upon the decree of the senate, by which he was made king, and Sosius relied upon Antony, who sent the army that was under him to Herod's assistance.

CHAP. XVIII.

How Herod and Sosius took Jerusalem by force; and what death Antigonus came to. Also concerning Cleopatra's avaricious temper..

$1. Now the multitude of the Jews that were in the

city were divided into several factions; for the people that crowed about the temple, being the weakest part of them, gave it out, that, as the times were, he was the happiest and most religious man who should die first. But as to the more bold and hardy men, they got together in bodies, and fell a robbing others, after various manners; and these particularly plundered the places that were about the city, and this because there was no food left either for the horses or the men; yet some of the warlike men, who were used to fight regu larly, were appointed to defend the city during the siege, and these drove those that raised the banks away from the wall, and these were always inventing one engine or another to be an hindrance to the engines of the enemy; nor had they so much success any way as in the mines under ground.

2. Now as for the robberies which were committed, the king contrived that ambushes should be so laid, that they might restrain their excursions; and as for the want of provisions, he provided that they should be brought to them from great distances. He was also too hard for the Jews, by the Romans' skill in the art of war; although they were bold to the utmost degree, now they durst not come to a plain battle with the Romans, which was certain death, but through their mines under-ground they would appear in the midst of them on the sudden, and before they could batter down one wall, they built them another in its stead; and, to sum up all at once, they did not shew any want either of pains-taking or of contrivances, as having resolved to hold out to the very last. Indeed, though they had so great an army lying round about them, they bore a siege of five months, till some of Herod's chosen men ventured to get upon the wall, and fell into the city, as did Sosius's centurions, after them; and now they first of all seized upon what was about the temple, and upon the pouring in of the army, there was slaughter of vast multitudes every where, by reason of the rage the Romans were in at the length of this siege, and by reason that the Jews, who were about Herod, earnestly endeavoured that none of their adversaries might remain; so they were cut to pieces by great multitudes, as they were crowded together in narrow streets and in houses, or were running away to the temple; nor was there any mercy shewn, either to infants, or to the aged, or to the weaker sex; insomuch, that although the king sent about, and desired them to spare the people, nobody could be persuaded to withhold their right-hand from slaughter, but they slew people of all ages, like madmen. Then it was that Antigonus, without any regard to his former or to his present fortune, came down from the citadel, and fell down at Sosius's feet,

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who, without pitying him at all, upon the change of his condition, laughed at him beyond measure, and called him Antigona.* Yet did he not treat him like a woman, or let him go free, but put him into bonds, and kept him in custody.

3. But Herod's concern at present, now he had gotten his enemies under his power, was to restrain the zeal of his foreign auxiliaries; for the multitude of the strange people were very eager to see the temple, and what was sacred in the holy house itself; but the king endeavoured to restrain them, partly by his exhortations, partly by his threatenings, nay, partly by force, as thinking the victory worse than a defeat to him, if any thing that ought not to be seen were seen by them. He also forbade at the same time the spoiling of the city, asking Sosius, in the most earnest manner, whether the Romans, by thus emptying the city of money and men, had a mind to leave him king of a desert? and told him, That he judged the dominion of the habitable earth too small a compensation for the slaughter of so many citizens.' And when Sosius said, That it was but just to allow the soldiers this plunder, as a reward for what they suffered during the siege,' Herod made answer, That he would give every one of the soldiers a reward out of his own money.' So he purchased the deliverance of his country, and performed his promises to them, and made presents after a magnificent manner to each soldier, 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 still had a fond desire of life, and some frigid hopes of it to the last, but by his cowardly behaviour well deserved to die by it.

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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

i. e. A woman, not a man.

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

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 conducted 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 respects 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.

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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

*This ancient liberty of Tyre and Sidon under the Romans, taken notice of by Josephus, both here and Antiq. B. XV. chap. iv. sect. 1. is confirmed by the testimony 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.

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