"laws, but still desiring to be superior in all things." This was the substance of what Nicolaus said.

4. When Cæsar had heard these pleadings, he dissolved the assembly; but a few days afterwards 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, to Philip and to Antipas, that Antipas who disputed with Archelaus for the whole kingdom. Now to him it was that Perea and Galilee paid their tribute, which amounted * annually two hundred talents, while 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

* 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 therefore gather pretty nearly what was Herod the Great's yearly income, I mean about 1600 talents, which, at the known value of 3000 shekels to a talent, and about 28. 10d. to a shekel, in the days of Josephus, see the note on Antiq. B. III. ch. viii. sect. 2. Vol. I. amounts to £680,000 Sterling per annum; which income, though great in itself, bearing no proportion to his vast expences every where visible in Josephus, and to the vast sums he left behind him in his will, chap. viii. sect. 1. and chap. xii. sect I. the rest must have arisen either from his confiscation of those great men's estates whom he put to death, or made to pay 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 very much too small for his expences, 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 this 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 Antiq. B. VII. ch. xv. sect. 3. Vol. I.

Take here a very useful note of Grotius, on Luke, B. III. ch. i. here quoted by Dr. Hudson: "When Josephus says, that some part of the house [or pose "session] of Zenodorus (i. e. Abilene), was allotted to Philip, he thereby de"clares 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 Antonius, "and this after Ptolemy, the son of Mennius, from which Lysanias, this coun"try, came to be commonly called the Country of Lysanias; and as, after the "death of the former Lysanias, it was called the tetrarchy of Zenodorus, so, after "the death of Zenodorus, or when the time for which he hired it was ended, "when another Lysanias of the same name with the former, was possessed of "the same country, it began to be called again the tetrarchy of Lysanias.' However, since Josephus elsewhere, Antiq. B. XX. ch. vii. sect. 1. Vol. III. clearly distinguishes Abilene from Chalcidine, Grotius must be here so far mistaken.

with the rest of the multitude. There were also certain of the cities which paid tribute to Archelaus, Strato's tower, and Sebaste, with Joppa and Jerusalem; for as to Gaza and Gadara, and Hippos, they were Grecian cities, which Cæsar separated from his government, and added them to the province of Syria. Now the tribute-money that came to Archelaus every year from his own dominions, amounted to six hundred talents.

5. And so much came to Herod's sons from their father's inheritance. But Salome, besides what her brother left her by his testament, which were Jamnia, and Ashdod, and Phasaelis, and five hundred thousand [drachmæ] of coined silver, Cæsar made her a present of a royal habitation at Askelon; in all, her revenues amounted to sixty talents by the year, and her dwelling-house was within Archelaus's government. The rest also of the king's relations received what his testament 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 [drachma] 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 for himself; and they were acceptable to him, not so much for the great value they were of, as because they were memorials of the king to him.

CHAP. XII.

Concerning a spurious Alexander.

§ 1. W WHEN these affairs had been thus 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 resemblance of his countenance, which those that saw him attested to be that of Alexander, the son of Herod, whom he had slain; and this was an incitement to him to endeavour 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 Alexauder, and 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 im

VOL. III.

D

pose on those that came to him; and when he was come to Crete, he made all the Jews that came to discourse with him believe him [to be Alexander.] And when he had gotten much money which had been presented to him there, he passed over to Melos, where 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 made haste to Rome, and was conducted thither by those strangers who entertained him. He was also so fortunate, as, upon his landing at Dicearchia, to bring the Jews that were there into the same delusion; and not only other people, but also all those that had been great with Herod, or bad a kindness for him, joined themselves to this man as to their king. The cause of it was this, that men were glad of his pretences, which were seconded by the likeness of his countenance, which made those that had been acquainted with Alexander strongly to believe that he was no other but the very same person, which they also confirmed to others by oath; insomuch that when the report went about him that he was coming to Rome, the whole multitude of the Jews that were there went out to meet him, ascribing it to divine providence that he had so unexpectedly escaped, and being very joyful on account of his mother's family. And when he was come, he was carried in a royal litter through the streets, and all the ornaments about him were such as kings are adorned withal; and this was at the expences of those that entertained him. The multitude also flocked about him greatly, and made mighty acclamations to him, and nothing was omitted which could be thought suitable to such as had been so unexpectedly preserved.

2. When this thing was told Cæsar, he did not believe it, because Herod was not easily to be imposed upon in such affairs as were of great concern to him; yet having some suspicion it might be so, he sent one Celadus, a freed man of his, and one that had conversed with the young men themselves, and bade him bring Alexander into his presence: so he brought him, being no more accurate in judging about him than the rest of the multitude. Yet did not he deceive Cæsar; for 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 labours he had been put to, and instead of that softness of body which the other had, and this as derived from his delicate and generous education, this man, for the contrary reason, had a rugged body. When therefore, Cæsar saw how the master and the scholar agreed.

in this lying story, and in a bold way of talking, he enquired about Aristobulus, and asked what became of him, who [it seems] was stolen away together with him, and for what reason it was that he did not come along with him, and endeavour to recover that dominion which was due to his high birth also? And when he said, That " he had been left in "the isle of Crete, for fear of the dangers of the sea, that in 66 case any accident should come to himself, the posterity of "Mariamne might not utterly perish, but that Aristobulus "might survive, and punish those that laid such treacherous "designs against them." And when he persevered in his affirmations, and the author of the imposture agreed in supporting it, Cæsar took the young man by himself, and said to him, "If thou wilt not impose upon me, thou shalt "have this for thy reward, that thou shalt escape with thy "life; tell me then who thou art? and who it was that had "boldness enough to contrive such a cheat as this? For this "contrivance is too considerable a piece of villany to be un"dertaken by one of thy age." Accordingly, because he had no other way to take, he told Cæsar the contrivance, and after what manner, and by whom it was laid together. So Cæsar, upon observing the spurious Alexander to be a strong active man, and fit to work with his hands, that he might not break his promise to him, put him among those that were to row among the mariners; but slew him that induced him to do what he had done; for as for the people of Melos, he thought them sufficiently punished, in having thrown away so much of their money upon this spurious Alexander. And such was the ignominious conclusion of this bold contrivance about the spurious Alexander,

CHAP. XIII.

How Archelaus, upon a second accusation, was banished to Vienna.

§ 1. WHEN Archelaus was entered on his ethnarchy, and

was come into Judea, he accused Joazar, the son of Boethus, of assisting the seditious, and took away the high-priesthood, from him, and put Eleazar his brother in his place. He also magnificently rebuilt the royal palace that had been at Jericho, and he diverted half the water with which the village of Neara used to be watered, and drew off that water into the plain to water those palm trees which he had there planted: he also built a village, and put his own name upon it, and called it Archeleis. Moreover, he transgressed the law of

*

*Spanheim seasonably observes here, that it was forbidden the Jews to marry

Tour fathers, and married Glaphyra, the daughter of Archelaus, who had been the wife of his brother Alexander, which Alexander had children by her, while it was a thing detestable among the Jews, to marry the brother's wife; nor did this Eleazar abide long in the high-priesthood, Jesus, the son of Sie, being put in his room while he was still living.

2. But in the tenth year of Archelaus's government, both his brethren, and the principal men of Judea and Samaria, not being able to bear his barbarous and tyrannical usage of them, accused him before Cæsar, and that especially because -they knew he had broken the commands of Caesar, which obliged him to behave himself with moderation among them. Whereupon Cæsar, when he heard it, was very angry, and called for Archelaus's steward, who took care of his affairs at Rome, and whose name was Archelaus also, and thinking it beneath him to write to Archelaus, he bid him sail away as soon as possible, and bring him to us; so the inan made haste in his voyage, and when he came into Judea he found Archelaus feasting with his friends; so he told him what Cæsar had sent him about, and hastened him away. And when he was come [to Rome], Cæsar, upon hearing what certain accusers of his had to say, and what reply he could make, both banished him, and appointed Vienna a city of Gaul, to be the place of bis habitation, and took his money away from him.

3. Now before Archelaus was gone up to Rome upon this 'message, he related this dream to his friends, that he saw "ears of corn, in number ten, full of wheat perfectly ripe, "which ears, as it seemed to him, were devoured by oxen." And when he was awake and gotten up, because the vision appeared to be of great importance to him, he sent for the diviners, whose study was employed about dreams. And while some were of one opinion, and some of another, (for all their interpretations did not agree,) Simon, a man of the sect of the Essens, desired leave to speak his mind freely, and said, that the vision denoted a change in the affairs of Ar

66

chelaus, and that not for the better; that oxen, because "that animal takes uneasy pains in his labours, denoted af"flictions, and indeed denoted farther, a change of affairs; "because that land which is ploughed by oxen cannot remain "in its former state: and that the ears of corn being ten, de"termined the like number of years, because an ear of corn "66 grows in one year; and that the time of Archelaus's go66 vernment was over." And thus did this man expound the dream. Now, on the fifth day after this dream came first to

'

their brother's wife, when she had children by her first husband, and that Zonoras [cites, or] interprets the clause before us accordingly.