for he did not suppose that Herod would be quiet; who indeed came upon him with an army presently, in order to revenge his father's death; but upon hearing the advice of his brother Phasaelus, not to punish him in an open manner, lest the multitude should fall into a sedition, he admitted of Malichus's apology, and professed that he cleared him of that suspicion; he also made a pompous funeral for his father.

6. So Herod went to Samaria, which was then in a tumult, and settled the city in peace; after which, at the [Pentecost] festival, he returned to Jerusalem, having his armed men with him hereupon Hyrcanus, at the request of Malichus, who feared his approach, forbade them to introduce foreigners to mix themselves with the people of the country, while they were purifying themselves; but Herod despised the pretence, and him that gave that command, and came in by night. Upon which Malichus came to him, and bewailed Antipater; Herod also made him believe he admitted of his lamentation as real, although he had much ado to restrain his passion at him: however, he did himself bewail the murder of his father, in his letter to Cassius, who on other accounts also hated Malichus; Cassius sent him word back, that he should avenge his father's death upon him, and privately gave order to the tribunes that were under him, that they should assist Herod in a righteous action he was about.

7. And because, upon the taking of Laodicea by Cassius, the men of power were gotten together from all quarters, with presents and crowns in their hands, Herod allotted this time for the punishment of Malichus. When Malichus suspected that, and was at Tyre, he resolved to withdraw his son privately from among the Tyrians, who was a hostage there, while he got ready to fly away into Judea: the despair he was in of escaping, excited him to think of greater things; for he hoped that he should raise the nation to a revolt from the Romans, while Cassius was busy about the war against Antony, and that he should easily depose Hyrcanus, and get the crown for himself.

8. But fate laughed at the hopes he had; for Herod foresaw what he was so zealous about, and invited both Hyrcanus and him to supper; but calling one of the principal servants that stood by him to him, he sent him out, as though it were to get things ready for supper, but in reality to give notice beforehand about the plot that was laid against him. Accord ingly they called to mind what orders Cassius had given them, and went out of the city with their swords in their hands, upon the sea-shore, where they encompassed Malichus round about, and killed him with many wounds. Upon which Hyrcanus was immediately affrighted, till he swooned away, and

fell down at the surprise he was in; and it was with difficulty that he was recovered, when he asked, who it was that had killed Malichus? And when one of the tribunes replied, that it was done by the command of Cassius, "Then," said he, "Cassius hath saved both me and my country, by cutting off one that was laying plots against them both." Whether he spake according to his own sentiments, or whether his fear was such that he was obliged to commend the action by saying so, is uncertain; however, by this method Herod inflicted punishment upon Malichus.

CHAP. XII.

Phasaelus is too hard for Felix; Herod also overcomes Antigonus in battle; and the Jews accuse both Herod and Phasaelus; but Antonius acquits them, and makes them tetrarchs.

§ 1. WHEN Cassius was gone out of Syria, another sedition arose at Jerusalem, wherein Felix assaulted Phasaelus with an army, that he might revenge the death of Malichus upon Herod, by falling upon his brother. Now Herod happened then to be with Fabius, the governor of Damascus, and as he was going to his brother's assistance, he was detained by sickness; in the mean time Phasaelus was by himself too hard for Felix, and reproached Hyrcanus on account of his ingratitude, both for what assistance he had afforded Malichus and for overlooking Malichus's brother, when he possessed himself of the fortresses; for he had gotten a great many of them already, and among them the strongest of them all, Massada.

2. However, nothing could be sufficient for him against the force of Herod, who, as soon as he was recovered, took the other fortresses again, and drove him out of Massada in the posture of a supplicant: he also drove away Marion, the tyrant of the Tyrians, out of Galilee, when he had already possessed himself of three fortified places; but as to those Tyrians whom he had caught, he preserved them all alive; nay, some of them he gave presents to, and so sent them away; and thereby procured good-will to himself from the city, and hatred to the tyrant. Marion had indeed obtained that tyrannical power of Cassius, who set tyrants over all Syria;* and out of his hatred to Herod it was that he assisted

Here we see that Cassius set tyrants over all Syria; so that his assisting to destroy Cæsar does not seem to have proceeded from his true zeal for public liberty, but from a desire to be a tyrant himself.

Antigonus, the son of Aristobulus; and principally on Fabius's account, whom Antigonus had made his assistant by money, and had him accordingly on his side when he made his descent; but it was Ptolemy, the kinsman of Antigonus, that supplied all that he wanted.

3. When Herod had fought against these in the avenues of Judea, he was conqueror in the battle, and drove away Antigonus, returning to Jerusalem beloved by every body, for the glorious actions he had done; for those who did not before favour him did join themselves to him now, because of his marriage into the family of Hyrcanus; for as he had formerly married a wife out of his own country, of no ignoble blood, who was called Doris, of whom he begat Antipater; so did he now marry Mariamne, the daughter of Alexander, the son of Aristobulus, and the grand-daughter of Hyrcanus, and was become thereby a relation of the king.

4. But when Cæsar and Antony had slain Cassius near Philippi, and Cæsar was gone to Italy, and Antony to Asia, amongst the rest of the cities which sent ambassadors to Antony unto Bithynia, the great men of the Jews came also, and accused Phasaelus and Herod, that they kept the government by force, and that Hyrcanus had no more than an honourable name. Herod appeared ready to answer this accusation, and, having made Antony his friend by the large sums of money which he gave him, he brought him to such a temper as not to hear the other speak against him; and thus did they part at this time.

5. However after this there came a hundred of the principal men among the Jews to Daphne by Antioch, to Antony, who was already in love with Cleopatra to the degree of slavery; these Jews put those men that were the most potent both in dignity and eloquence foremost, and accused the brethren.* But Messala opposed them, and defended the brethren, and that while Hyrcanus stood by him, on account of his relation to them. When Antony had heard both sides, he asked Hyrcanus, which party was the fittest to govern? who replied, that Herod and his party were the fittest. Antony was glad of that answer; for he had been formerly treated in a hospitable and obliging manner by his father Antipater, when he marched into Judea with Gabinius; so he constituted the brethren tetrarchs, and committed to them the government of Judea.

6. But when the ambassadors had indignation at this procedure, Antony took fifteen of them, and put them into custody, whom he was also going to kill presently, and the rest

Phasaelus and Herod.

he drove away with disgrace; on which occasion a still greater tumult arose at Jerusalem. So they sent again a thousand ambassadors to Tyre, where Antony now abode, as he was marching to Jerusalem. Upon these men, who made a clamour, he sent out the governor of Tyre, and ordered him to punish all that he could catch of them, and to settle those in the administration whom he had made tetrarchs,

7. But before this, Herod and Hyrcanus went out upon the sea-shore, and earnestly desired of these ambassadors, that they would neither bring ruin upon themselves, nor war upon their native country, by their rash contentions; and, when they grew still more outrageous, Antony sent out armed men, and slew a great many, and wounded more of them; of whom those that were slain were buried by Hyrcanus, as were the wounded put under the care of physicians by him; yet would not those that had escaped be quiet still, but put the affairs of the city into such disorder, and so provoked Antony, that he slew those whom he had in bonds also.

CHAP. XIII.

The Parthians bring Antigonus back into Judea, and cast Hyrcanus and Phasaelus into prison. The flight of Herod, and the taking of Jerusalem, and what Hyrcanus and Phasaelus suffered.

§ 1. Now, two years afterward, when Barzapbarnes, a governor among the Parthians, and Pacorus, the king's son, had possessed themselves of Syria; and when Lysanias had already succeeded, upon the death of his father Ptolemy, the son of Menneus, in the government [of Chalcis,] he prevailed with the governor, by a promise of a thousand talents and five hundred women, to bring back Antigonus to his kingdom, and to turn Hyrcanus out of it. Pacorus was by these means induced so to do, and marched along the sea-coast, while he ordered Barzapharnes to fall upon the Jews as he went along the Mediterranean part of the country; but of the maritime people, the Tyrians would not receive Pacorus, although those of Ptolemais and Sidon had received him; so he committed a troop of his horse to a certain cup-bearer belonging to the royal family, of his own name [Pacorus,] and gave him orders to march into Judea, in order to learn the state of affairs among their enemies, and to help Antigonus when he should want his assistance.

2. Now as these men were ravaging Carmel, many of the Jews ran together to Antigonus, and showed themselves ready to make an incursion into the country; so he sent

them before into that place called Drymus,* [the wood-land,] to seize upon the place; whereupon a battle was fought be tween them; and they drove the enemy away, and pursued them, and ran after them as far as Jerusalem, and as their numbers increased they proceeded as far as the king's palace; but as Hyrcanus and Phasaelus received them with a strong body of men, there happened a battle in the market-place, in which Herod's party beat the enemy, and shut them up in the temple, and set sixty men in the houses adjoining, as a guard on them. But the people that were tumultuous. against the brethren came in and burned those men while Herod, in his rage for killing them, attacked and slew many of the people, till one party made incursions on the other by turns, day by day, in the way of ambushes, and slaughters were made continually among them.

3. Now when that festival which we call Pentecost, was at hand, all the places about the temple, and the whole city, was full of a multitude of people that were come out of the country, and which were the greatest part of them armed also, at which time Phasaelus guarded the wall, and Herod with a few guarded the royal palace; and when he made an assault upon his enemies, as they were out of their ranks, on the north quarter of the city, he slew a very great number of them, and put them all to flight; and some of them he shut up within the city, and others within the outward rampart. In the mean time, Antigonus desired that Pacorus might be admitted to be a reconciler between them; and Phasaelus was prevailed upon to admit the Parthian into the city with five hundred horse, and to treat him in a hospitable manner; who pretended that he came to quell the tumult, but in reality he came to assist Antigonus: however, he laid a plot for Phasaelus, and persuaded him to go as an ambassador to Barzapharnes, in order to put an end to the war, although Herod was very earnest with him to the contrary, and exhorted him to kill the plotter, but not to expose himself to the snares he had laid for him, because the barbarians are naturally perfidious. However, Pacorus went out and took Hyrcanus with him, that he might be the less suspected; he also left some of the horsemen,† called the freemen, with Herod, and conducted Phasaelus with the rest.

This large and noted wood or woodland belonging to Carmel, called Apunos by the Septuagint, is mentioned in the Old Testament, 2 Kings xix. 23. and Isa. xxviii. 24. and by Strabo, B. xvi, p. 758; as both Aldrich and Spanheim here remark very pertinently.

These accounts, both here and Antiq. B. xiv. ch. xiii. sect. 5. vol. iii. that the Parthians fought chiefly on horseback, and that only some few of their soldiers were freedmen, perfectly agree with Trogus Pompeius, in Justin, B. xli. 2, 3; as Dean Aldrich well observes on this place.