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turrets, more than was the foregoing, and the entire altitude was about ninety cubits: The appearance of it refembled the tower of Pharus, which exhibited a fire to fuch as failed to Alexandria, but was much larger than it in compafs. This was now converted to an house, wherein Simon exercifed his tyrannical authority. The third tower was Mariamne, for that was the queen's name: It was folid as high as twenty cubits; its breadth and its length were twenty cubits, and were equal to each other: Its upper buildings were more magnificent, and had greater variety than the other towers had; for the king thought it moft proper for him to adorn that which was denominated from his wife, better than those denominated from men, as those were built ftronger than this that bore his wife's name. The entire height of this tower was fifty cubits.

4. Now as these towers were fo very tall, they appeared much taller by the place on which they flood; for that very old wall wherein they were, was built on an high hill, and was itself a kind of elevation that was still thirty cubits taller: Over which were the towers fituated, and thereby were made much higher to appearance. The largenefs alfo of the stones was wonderful; for they were not made of common small stones, nor of fuch large ones as men could carry, but they were of white marble, cut out of the rock; each ftone was twenty cubits in length, and ten in breadth, and five in depth. They were fo exactly united to one another, that each tower looked like one entire rock of ftone, fo growing naturally, and afterward cut by the hands of the artificers into their prefent shape and corners ; fo little, or not at all, did their joints or connexion appear. Now as thefe towers were themselves on the north fide of the wall, the king had a palace inwardly thereto adjoined, which exceeds all my ability to defcribe it; for it was fo very curious as to want no coft nor fkill in its conftruction, but was entirely walled about to the height of thirty cubits, and was adorned with towers at equal diftances, and with large bed-chambers, that would contain beds for an hundred guefts a-piece, in which the variety of the ftones is not to be expreffed: For a large quantity of thofe that were rare of that kind was collected together. Their roofs were also wonderful, both for the length of the beams, and the splendour of their ornaments. The number of the rooms was also very great, and the variety of the figures that were about them was prodigious; their furniture was complete, and the greatest part of the veffels that were put in them were of filver and gold. There were befides many porticoes, one beyond another, round about, and in each of these porticoes curious pillars; yet were all the courts that were exposed to the air every where green. There were moreover feveral groves of trees, and long walks through them, with deep canals, and cifterns, that in feveral parts were filled with brazen ftatues, through which the water ran out. There were withal

many dove courts of tame pigeons about the canals. But indeed it is not poffible to give a complete defcription of these palaces; and the very remembrance of them is a torment to one, as putting one in mind what vaftly rich buildings that fire which was kindled by the robbers hath confumed: For thefe were not burnt by the Romans, but by these internal plotters, as we have already related, in the beginning of their rebellion. That fire began at the tower of Antonia, and went on to the palaces, and confumed the upper parts of the three towers themselves.

1

CHAP. V.

A Defcription of the Temple.

1. NOW this temple, as I have already faid, was built upI plain at the top was hardly fufficient for the holy house, and the altar, for the ground about it was very uneven, and like a precipice; but when king Solomon, who was the person that built the temple, and built a wall to it, on its eaft fide, there was then added one cloifter founded on a bank cast up for it, and on the other parts the holy house tood naked. But in future ages the people + added new banks, and the hill became a larger plain. They then broke down the wall on the north fide, and took in as much as fufficed afterward for the compafs of the entire temple. And when they had built walls on three fides of the temple round about, from the bottom of the hill, and had performed a work that was greater than could be hoped for, (in which work long ages were spent by them, as well as all their facred treasures were exhausted, which were ftill replenished by thofe tributes which were fent to God from the whole habitable earth); they then encompassed their upper-courts with cloifters, as well as they [afterward] did the loweft [court of the] temple. The lowelt

But note, that

Thefe dove-courts in Jofephus, built by Herod the Great, are, in the opinion of Reland, the very fame that were mentioned by the Talmudifts, and named by them Herod's dove-courts. Nor is there any reason to suppose otherwise, since in both accounts they were exprefsly tame pigeons which were kept in them. + See the defcription of the temples hereto belonging, chap xv. what Jofephus here fays, of the original fcantinefs of this mount Moriah, that it was quite too little for the temple, and that at first it held only one cloister, or Court of Solomon's building, and that the foundations were forced to be added long afterwards by degrees, to render it capable of the cloifters for the other sourts, &c is without all foundation in the fcriptures, and not at all confirmed by his exacter account in the Antiquities. All that is, or can be true here is this, that when the court of the Gentiles was long afterward to be encompaffed with cloifters, the fouthern foundation for these cloifters was found not to be large or firm enough, and was raised, and that additional foundation fupported by great pillars and arches under ground, which Jofephus speaks of elsewhere, Antiq B. XV, ch. xi. § 3Vol. II. and which Mr. Maundrel faw, and defcribes, p. 100, as extant undex ground at this day.

part of this was erected to the height of three hundred cubits, and in fome places more; yet did not the entire depth of the foundations appear, for they brought earth, and filled up the valleys, as being defirous to make them on a level with the narrow ftreets of the city; wherein they made use of stones of forty cubits in magnitude. For the great plenty of money they then had, and the liberality of the people, made this attempt of theirs to fucceed to an incredible degree. And what could not be fo much as hoped for as ever to be accomplished, was, by perfeverance and length of time, brought to perfection. 2. Now for the works that were above these foundations, these were not unworthy of fuch foundations; for all the cloifters were double, and the pillars to them belonging_were twenty-five cubits in height, and fupported the cloisters. These pillars were of one entire flone each of them, and that ftone was white marble; and the roofs were adorned with cedar,. curiously graven. The natural magnificence, and excellent polish, and the harmony of the joints in thele cloisters, afforded a prospect that was very remarkable; nor was it on the outfide adorned with any work of the painter, or engraver. The cloifters [of the outmoft court] were in breadth thirty cubits, while the entire compafs of it was by measure fix furlongs, including the tower of Antonia; thofe entire courts that were expofed to the air were laid with ftones of all forts. When you go through these [firft cloisters, unto the fecond [court of the] temple, there was a partition, made of ftone all round, whofe height was three cubits, its construction was very elegant; upon it ftood pillars, at equal distances from one another, declaring the law of purity, fome in Greek, and fome in Roman letters, That no foreigner should go within that fanctuary; for that fecond [court of the] temple was called the Sanctuary, and was afcended to by fourteen fteps from the first court. This court was four fquare, and had a wall about it peculiar to itself; the height of its buildings, although it were* on the outfide forty cubits, was hidden by the fteps, and onthe infide that height was but twenty-five cubits; for it being built over against an higher part of the hill with steps, it was no farther to be entirely defcerned within, being covered by the hill itfelt. Beyond thefe fourteen steps there was the dif tance of ten cubits: This was all plain; whence there were

What Jofephus feems here to mean is this, that these pillars, fupporting the cloifters in the fecond court, had their foundations or loweft parts as deep as the floor of the firft or lowest court, but that fo far of thofe lowest parts as were equal to the elevation of the upper floor above the loweft, were, and must be hidden on the infide by the ground or rock itself on which that upper court was built; fo that 40 cubits vifible below, were reduced to 25 vifible above, and implies the difference of their heights to be 15 cubits. The main difficulty lies here, how 14 or 15 fteps fhould give an ascent of 5 cubits, half a cubit seeming fufficient for a fingle flep. Poffibly there were 14 or 15 fteps at the partition wall and 14 or 15 more thence into the court itself, which would bring the whole near to the juk proportion. See§. 3, infra. But I determine nothing,

other steps, each of five cubits a piece, that led to the gates, which gates on the north and fouth fides were eight, on each of thofe fides four, and of neceffity two on the eaft. For fince there was a partition built for the women on that fide, as the proper place wherein they were to worship, there was a neceffity of a fecond gate for them: This gate was cut out of its wall over against the first gate. There was alfo on the other fides one fouthern and one northern gate, through which was a paffage into the court of the women: For as to the other gates, the women were not allowed to pass through them; nor when they went through their own gate could they go beyond their own wall. This place was allotted to the women of our own country, and of other countries, provided they were of the fame nation, and that equally; the western gate of this court had no gate at all, but the wall was built entire on that fide. But then the cloifters which were betwixt the gates, extended from the wall inward, before the chambers; for they were fupported by very fine and large pillars. Thefe cloifters were fingle, and, excepting their magnitude, were no way inferior to those of the lower court.

3. Now nine of these gates were on every fide covered over with gold and filver, as were the jambs of their doors and their lintels: But there was one gate that was without the [inward court of the holy houfe, which was of Corinthian brats, and greatly excelled thofe that were only covered over with filver and gold. Each gate had two doors, whofe height was fever. ally thirty cubits, and their breadth fifteen. However, they had large spaces within of thirty cubits, and had on each fiderooms, and thofe, both in breadth and in length, built like towers, and their height was above forty cubits. Two pillars did alfo fupport thefe rooms, and were in circumference twelve cubits. Now the magnitudes of the other gates were equal one to another; but that over the Corinthian gate, which opened on the east over against the gate of the holy houfe itfelt, was much larger; for its height was fifty cubits; and its doors were forty cubits; and it was adorned after a moft costly manner, as having much richer and thicker plates of filver and gold upon them than the other. Thele nine gates had that filver and gold poured upon them by Alexander the father of Tiberias. Now there were fifteen fteps, which led away from the wall of the court of the women to this greater gate; whereas those that led thither from the other gates were five steps fhorter.

4. As to the holy houfe itfelt, which was placed in the midst [ot the inmost court], that moft facred part of the temple, it was afcended to by twelve fteps; and in front its height and its breadth were equal, and each an hundred cubits, though it was behind forty cubits narrower; for on its front it had what may be ftyled thoulders on each fide, that paffed twenty cubits farther.

Its firft gate was seventy cubits high, and twenty-five

cubits broad: But this gate had no doors; for it reprefented the univerfal vifibility of heaven, and that it cannot be excluded from any place. Its front was covered with gold all over, and through it the first part of the houfe, that was more inward, did all of it appear; which, as it was very large, fo did all the parts about the more inward gate appear to fhine to thofe that ław them: But then, as the entire house was divided into two parts within, it was only the first part of it that was open to our view. Its height extended all along to ninety cubits in height, and its length was fifty cubits, and its breadth twenty. But that gate which was at this end of the first part of the house, was, as we have already obferved, all over covered with gold, as was its whole wall about it: It had alfo golden vines above it, from which clusters of grapes hung as tall as a man's height. But then this house, as it was divided into two parts, the inner part was lower than the appearance of the outer, and had golden doors of fifty-five cubits altitude, and fixteen in breadth; but before thefe doors there was a veil of equal largenefs with the doors. It was a Babylonian curtain, embroidered with blue, and fine linen and fcarlet, and purple, and of a contexture that was truly wonderful. Nor was this mixture of colours without its myftical interpretation, but was a kind of image of the univerfe; for by the fcarlet there seemed to be enigmatically fignified fire, by the fine flax the earth, by the blue the air, and by the purple the fea; two of them having their colours the foundation of this refemblance; but the fine flax and the purple have their own origin for that foundation, the earth producing the one, and the fea the other. This curtain had allo embroidered upon it all that was mystical in the heavens, excepting that of the [twelve] figns, representing living creatures.

5. When any perfons entered into the temple, its floor received them. This part of the temple therefore was in height fixty cubits, and its length the fame; whereas its breadth was but twenty cubits: But ftill that fixty cubits in length was divided again, and the first part of it was cut off at forty cubits, and had in it three things that were very wonderful and famous among all mankind, the candlestick, the table [of thew bread and the altar of incenfe. Now the feven lamps fignified the feven planets; for fo many there were fpringing out of the candlestick. Now the twelve loaves that were upon the table fignified the circle of the zodiac and the year: But the altar of incenfe, by its thirteen kinds of fweet smelling fpices with which the fea replenished it, fignified, that God is the poffeffor of all things that are both in the uninhabitable and habitable parts of the earth, and that they are all to be dedicated to his ufe. But the inmoft part of the temple of all was of twenty cubits. This was alfo feparated from the outer part by a veil. In this there was nothing at all. It was inaceffible and iviolable, and not to be feen by any; and was