66 "make abundant requitals, not to the soldiers only, but to the people, for their alacrity and good-will to him, when the su"perior lords [the Romans] should have given him a com"plete title to the kingdom; for that it should be his study "to appear in all things better than his father." 2. Upon this the multitude were pleased, and presently made a trial of what he intended, by asking great things of him; for some made a clamour that he would ease them in their taxes, others that he would take off the duties upon commodities, and some, that he would loose those that were in prison; in all which cases he answered readily to their satisfaction, in order to get the good-will of the multitude; after which he offered [the proper] sacrifices and feasted with his friends. And here it was that a great many of those that desired innovations came in crowds towards the evening, and began then to mourn on their own account when the public mourning for the king was over. These lamented those that were put to death by Herod, because they had cut down the golden eagle that had been over the gate of the temple. Nor was this mourning of a private nature, but the lamentations were very great, the mourning solemn, and the weeping such as was loudly heard all over the city, as being for those men who had perished for the laws of their country, and for the temple. They cried out, that a punishment ought to be inflicted for these men upon those that were honoured by Herod, and that, in the first place, the man whom he had made high priest should be deprived, and that it was fit to chuse a person of greater piety and purity than he was. 3. At these clamours Archelaus was provoked, but restrained himself from taking vengeance on the authors, on account of the haste he was in of going to Rome, as fearing lest, upon his making war on the multitude, such an action might detain him at home. Accordingly he made trial to quiet the innovators by persuasion rather than by force, and sent his general in a private way to them, and by him exhorted them to be quiet. But the seditious threw stones at him, and drove him away as he came into the temple, and before he could say any thing to them. The like treatment they shewed to others who came to them after him, many of which were sent by Archelaus in order to reduce them to sobriety, and these answered still on all occasions after a passionate manner; and it openly appeared that they would not be quiet, if their numbers were but considerable. And indeed at the feast of unleavened bread, which was now at hand, and is by the Jews called the Passover, and used to be celebrated with a great number of sacrifices, an innumerable multitude of the people came out of the country to worship: some of these stood in the temple bewailing the Rabbins [that had been put to death] and procured their sustenance by begging, in order to support their sedition. At this Archelaus was affrighted, and privately sent a tribune, with his cohort of soldiers, upon them, before the disease should spread over the whole multitude, and gave orders that they should constrain those that began the tumult by force to be quiet. At these the whole multitude were irritated, and threw stones at many of the soldiers, and killed them: but the tribune fled away wounded, and had much ado to escape so. After which they betook themselves to their sacrifices, as if they had done no mischief; nor did it appear to Archelaus that the multitude could be restrained without bloodshed; so he sent his whole army upon them, the footmen in great multitudes by the way of the city, and the horsemen by the way of the plain, who, falling upon them on the sudden, as they were offering their sacrifices, destroyed about three thousand of them; but the rest of the multitude were dispersed upon the adjoining mountains; these were followed by Archelaus's heralds, who commanded every one to retire to their own homes, whither they all went, and left the festival. СНАР. II. Archelaus goes to Rome with a great number of his kindred. He is there accused before Cæsar by Antipater; but is superior to his accusers in judgment, by the means of that defence which Nicolaus made for him. $ 1. ARCHELA RCHELAUS went down now to the sea-side, with his mother and his friends, Poplas and Ptolemy, and Nicolaus; and left behind him Philip, to be his steward in the palace, and to take care of his domestic affairs. Salome went out also along with him with her sons, as did also the king's brethren and sons-in-law. These, in appearance, went to give him all the assistance they were able, in order to secure his succession, but in reality to accuse him for his breach of the laws, by what he had done at the temple. 2. But as they were come to Cæsaria, Sabinus, the procurator of Syria met them; he was going up to Judea, to secure Herod's effects: but Varus [president of Syria] who was come thither, restrained him from going any farther. This Varus, Archelaus had sent for, by the earnest intreaty of Ptolemy. At this time indeed, Sabinus, to gratify Varus, neither went to the citadels, nor did he shut up the treasuries where his father's money was laid up, but promised that he would lie still, until Cæsar should have taken cognizance of the affair. So he abode at Cæsarea; but as soon as those that were his hindrance were gone, when Varus was gone to Antioch, and Archelaus was sailed to Rome, he immediately went on to Jerusalem, and seized upon the palace. And when he had called for the governors of the citadels, and the stewards [of the king's private affairs] he tried to sift out the accounts of the money, and to take possession of the citadels. But the governors of those citadels were not unmindful of the commands laid upon them by Archelaus, and continued to guard them, and said, the custody of them rather belonged to Cæsar than to Archelaus. 3. In the mean time, Antipas went also to Rome, to strive for the kingdom, and to insist, that the former testament wherein he was named to be the king, was valid before the latter testament. Salome had also promised to assist him, as had many of Archelaus's kindred, who sailed along with Archelaus himself also. He also carried along with him his mother, and Ptolemy, the brother of Nicolaus, who seemed one of great weight, on account of the great trust Herod put in him, he having been one of his most honoured friends. However, Antipas depended chiefly upon Ireneus, the orator; upon whose authority he had rejected such as advised him to yield to Archelaus, because he was his elder brother, and because the second testament gave the kingdom to him. inclinations also of all Archelaus's kindred, who hated him, were removed to Antipas, when they came to Rome, although in the first place every one rather desired to live under their own laws [without a king] and to be under a Roman governor; but if they should fail in that point, these desired that Antipas might be their king. The 4. Sabinus did also afford these his assistance to the same purpose, by the letters he sent, wherein he accused Archelaus before Cæsar, and highly commended Antipas. Salome also, and those with her, put the crimes which they accused Archelaus of in order, and put them into Cæsar's hands; and after they had done that, Archelaus wrote down the reasons of his claim, and, by Ptolemy, sent in his father's ring, and his father's accounts. And, when Cæsar had maturely weighed, by himself, what both had to alledge for themselves, as also had considered of the great burden of the kingdom, and largeness of the revenues, and withal, the number of the children Herod had left behind him, and had moreover read the letters he had received from Varus and Sabinus on this occasion, he assembled the principal persons among the Romans together (in which assembly Caius, the son of Agrippa, and his daughter Julias, but by himself adopted for his own son, sat in the first seat) and gave the pleaders leave to speak. 5. Then stood up Salome's son, Antipater, (who of all Archelaus's antagonists was the shrewdest pleader) and accused him in the following speech: "That Archelaus did in "words contend for the kingdom, but that in deeds he had "long exercised royal authority, and so did but insult Cæsar, "in desiring to be now heard on that account; since he had "not staid for his determination about the succession, and "since he had suborned certain persons, after Herod's death, "to move for putting the diadem upon his head; since he had set himself down in the throne, and given answers as "a king, and altered the disposition of the army, and grant"ed to some higher dignities; that he had also complied in "all things with the people, in the requests they had made "to him as to their king; and had also dismissed those that "had been put into bonds by his father for most important 66 reasons. Now, after all this, he desires the shadow of that "royal authority, whose substance he had already seized "to himself, and so hath made Cæsar lord, not of things, but "of words. He also reproached him farther, that his mourning for his father was only pretended, while he put on a sad "countenance in the day-time, but drank to great excess in "the night; from which behaviour, he said, the late distur"bances among the multitude came, while they had an in"dignation thereat. And, indeed, the purport of his whole "discourse was to aggravate Archelaus's crime, in slaying "such a multitude about the temple, which multitude came "to the festival, but were barbarously slain in the midst of "their own sacrifices; and he said, there was such a vast number of dead bodies heaped together in the temple, as ઃઃ even a foreign war that should come upon them [suddenly] "before it was denounced, could not have heaped together. "And he added, that it was the foresight his father had of "that his barbarity, which made him never give him any "hopes of the kingdom, but when his mind was more infirm "than his body, and he was not able to reason soundly, and "did not well know what was the character of that son, whom "in his second testament he made his successor; and this was "done by him at a time when he had no complaints to make "of him whom he had named before, when he was sound in "body, and when his mind was free from all passion. That, "however, if any one should suppose Herod's judgment, "when he was sick was superior to that at another time, yet "had Archelaus forfeited his kingdom by his own behaviour, "and those his actions which were contrary to the law, and to "its disadvantage. Or what sort of a king will this man be, "when he hath obtained the government from Cæsar, who "bath slain so many before he hath obtained it? 6. When Antipater had spoken largely to this purpose, and had produced a great number of Archelaus's kindred as witnesses, to prove every part of the accusation, he ended his discourse. Then stood up Nicolaus to plead for Archelaus. He alledged, That "the slaughter in the temple could not be "avoided; that those that were slain, were become enemies, "not to Archelaus's kingdom only, but to Cæsar, who was to "determine about him. He also demonstrated, that Arche"laus's accusers had advised him to perpetrate other things, "of which he might have been accused. But he insisted, "that the latter testament should, for this reason above all "others, be esteemed valid, because Herod had therein ap-. pointed Cæsar to be the person who should confirm the "succession; for he who shewed such prudence, as to recede "from his own power, and yield it up to the lord of the "world, cannot be supposed mistaken in his judgment about "him that was to be his heir; and he that so well knew "whom to chuse for arbitrator of the succession, would not "be unacquainted with him whom he chose for his successor." 66 7. When Nicolaus had gone through all he had to say, Archelaus came, and fell down before Cæsar's knees, without any noise. Upon which he raised him up, after a very obliging manner, and declared, that truly he was worthy to succeed his father. However, he still made no firm determination in his case; but when he had dismissed those assessors that had been with him that day, he deliberated by himself about the allegations which he had heard, whether it were fit to constitute any of those named in the testaments for Herod's successor, or whether the government should be parted among all his posterity, and this because of the number of those that seemed to stand in need of support therefrom. CHAP. III. The Jews fight a great battle with Sabinus's soldiers, and a great destruction is made at Jerusalem. § 1. Now before Cæsar had determined any thing about these affairs, Malthace, Archelaus's mother, fell sick and died. Letters also were brought out of Syria from Varus, about a revolt of the Jews. This was foreseen by Varus, who accordingly, after Archelaus was sailed, went up to Jerusalem to restrain the promoters of the sedition, since it was manifest that the nation would not be at rest; so he left one of those legions, which he brought with him out of Syria, in the city, and went himself to Antioch. But Sabinus came, after he was gone, and gave them an occasion of making in |