and which the Jews call Pentecost [i. e. the 50th day,] was at hand, its name being taken from the number of the days [after the passover,] the people got together, but not on account of the accustomed divine worship, but of the indig nation they had [at the present state of affairs.] Wherefore an immense multitude ran together out of Galilee and Idumea, and Jericho and Perea, that was beyond Jordan; but the people that naturally belonged to Judea itself were above the rest, both in number and in the alacrity of the men. So they distributed themselves into three parts, and pitched their camps in three places: one was at the north side of the temple, another at the south side, by the Hippodrome, and the third part were at the palace on the west. So they lay round about the Romans on every side, and besieged them.

2. Now Sabinus was affrighted both at their multitude, and at their courage, and sent messengers to Varus continually, and besought him to come to his suc cour quickly, for that, if he delayed, his legion would be cut to pieces. As for Sabinus himself, he got up to the highest tower of the fortress, which was called Phasaelus: it is of the same name with Herod's brother, who was destroyed by the Parthians; and then he made signs to the soldiers of that legion to attack the enemy for his astonishment was so great, that he durst not go down to his own men. Hereupon the soldiers were prevailed upon, and leaped out into the temple, and fought a terrible battle with the Jews; in which while there were none over their heads to distress them, they were too hard for them by their skill, and the others' want of skill in war; but when once many of the Jews had gotten up to the top of the cloisters, and threw their darts downwards upon the heads of the Romans, there were a great many of them destroyed. Nor was it easy to avenge themselves upon those that threw their weapons from on high, nor was it more easy for them to sustain those who came to fight them hand to hand.

3. Since therefore the Romans were sorely afflicted by both these circum. stances, they set fire to the cloisters, which were works to be admired, both on account of their magnitude and costliness: Whereupon those that were above them were presently encompassed with the flame, and many of them perished therein; as many of them also were destroyed by the enemy, who came suddenly upon them; some of them also threw themselves down from the walls backward. and some there were who, from the desperate condition they were in, prevented the fire by killing themselves with their own swords; but so many of them as crept out from the walls, and came upon the Romans, were easily mastered by them, by reason of the astonishment they were under; until at last some of the Jews being destroyed, and others dispersed by the terror they were in, the soldiers fell upon the treasure of God, which was now deserted, and plundered about four hundred talents, of which sum Sabinus got together all that was not carried away by the soldiers.

4. However, this destruction of the works [about the temple,] and of the men, occasioned a much greater number, and those of a more warlike sort, to get together to oppose the Romans. These encompassed the palace round, and threatened to destroy all that were in it, unless they went their ways quickly: for they promised that Sabinus should come to no harm, if he would go out with his legion. There were also a great many of the king's party, who deserted the Romans, and assisted the Jews: yet did the most warlike body of them all, who were three thousand of the men of Sebaste, go over to the Romans. Rufus also, and Gratus, their captains, did the same (Gratus having the foot of the king's party under him, and Rufus the horse ;) each of whom, even without the forces under them, were of great weight on account of their strength and wisdom, which turn the scales in war. Now the Jews persevered in the siege, and tried to break down the walls of the fortress, and cried out to Sabinus and his party, that they should go their ways, and not prove a hindrance to them, now they hoped, after a long time, to recover that ancient liberty which their forefathers had enjoyed. Sabinus, indeed, was well contented to get out of the danger he was in, but ho

distrusted the assurances the Jews gave him, and suspected such gentle treatment was but a bait laid as a snare for them: this consideration, together with the hopes he bad of succour from Varus, made him bear the siege still longer.

CHAP. IV.

Herod's veteran Soldiers become tumultuous. The Robberies of Judas. Simon and Athrongeus take the Name of King upon them.

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1. Ar this time there were great disturbances in the country, and that in many places; and the opportunity that now offered itself induced a great many to set for kings. And, indeed, in Idumea two thousand of Herod's veteran soldiers got together, and armed themselves, and fought against those of the king's party: against whom Achiabus, the king's first cousin, fought, and that out of some of the places that were the most strongly fortified, but so as to avoid a direct conflict with them in the plains. In Sepphoris also, a city of Galilee, there was one Judas (the son of that arch robber Hezekiah, who formerly overran the country, and had been subdued by King Herod ;) this man got no small multitude together, and brake open the place where the royal armour was laid up, and armed those about him, and attacked those that were so earnest to gain the dominion.

2. In Perea also, Simon, one of the servants to the king, relying upon the handsome appearance and tallness of his body, put a diadem upon his own head also: he also went about with a company of robbers that had gotten together and burnt down the royal palace that was at Jericho, and many other costly edifices besides and procured himself very easily spoils by rapine, as snatching them out of the fire. And he had soon burnt down all the fine edifices, if Gratus, the captain of the foot of the king's party, had not taken the Trachonite archers, and the most warlike of Sebaste, and met the man. His footmen were slain in the battle in abundance; Gratus also cut to pieces Simon himself as he was flying along a strait valley, when he gave him an oblique stroke upon his neck, as he ran away, and brake it. The royal palaces that were near Jordan at Betnaramptha were also burnt down by some of the seditious that came out of Perea.

3. At this time it was that a certain shepherd ventured to set himself up for a king: he was called Athrongeus. It was his strength of body that made him expect such a dignity, as well as his soul which despised death; and besides these qualifications, he had four brethren like himself. He put a troop of armed men under each of these his brethren, and made use of them as his generals and com manders, when he made his incursions, while he did himself act like a king, and meddled only with the more important affairs: and at this time he put a diadem about his head, and continued after that to overrun the country for no little time with his brethren, and became their leader in killing both the Romans and those of the king's party; nor did any Jew escape him, if any gain could accrue to him thereby. He once ventured to encompass a whole troop of Romans at Emmaus, who were carrying corn and weapons to their legion: his men, therefore, shot their arrows and darts, and thereby slew their centurion Arius, and forty of the stoutest of his men, while the rest of them, who were in danger of the same fate, upon the coming of Gratus, with those of Sebaste, to their assistance, escaped. And when these men had thus served both their own countrymen and foreigners, and that through this whole war, three of them were after some time subdued, the eldest by Archelaus, the two next by falling into the hands of Gratus and Ptole meus; but the fourth delivered himself up to Archelaus, upon his giving him his right hand for his security. However, this their end was not till afterward, while at present they filled all Judea with a piratic war.

CHAP. V.

Varus composes the Tumults in Judea, and crucifies about two thousand
of the seditious.

1. UPON Varus's reception of the letters that were written by Sabinus and the captains, he could not avoid being afraid for the whole legion [he had left there.] So he made haste to their relief, and took with him the other two legions, with the four troops of horsemen to them belonging, and marched to Ptolemais, having given orders for the auxiliaries that were sent by the kings and governors of cities to meet him there. Moreover, he received from the people of Berytus, as he passed through their city, fifteen hundred armed men. Now as soon as the other body of auxiliaries were come to Ptolemais, as well as Aretas the Arabian (who out of the hatred he bore to Herod, brought a great army of horse and foot,) Varus sent a part of his army presently to Galilee, which lay near to Ptolemais, and Caius one of his friends for their captain. This Caius put those that met him to flight, and took the city Sepphoris, and burnt it, and made slaves of its in babitants; but as for Varus himself, he marched to Samaria with his whole army, where he did not meddle with the city itself, because he found that it had made no commotion during these troubles, but pitched his camp about a certain village which was called Arus. It belonged to Ptolemy, and on that account was plun dered by the Arabians, who were very angry even at Herod's friends also. thence marched on to the village Sampho, another fortified place, which they plundered, as they had done the other. As they carried off all the money they light upon belonging to the public revenues, all was now full of fire and bloodshed. and nothing could resist the plunders of the Arabians. Emmaus was also burnt, upon the flight of its inhabitants, and this at the command of Varus, out of his rage at the slaughter of those that were about Arus.

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2. Thence he marched on to Jerusalem, and as soon as he was but seen by the Jews, he made their camps disperse themselves: they also went away, and fled up and down the country; but the citizens received him, and cleared themselves of having any hand in this revolt; and said, that they had raised no commotions, but had only been forced to admit the multitude because of the festival, and that they were rather besieged together with the Romans, than assisted those that had revolted. There had before this met him Joseph, the first cousin of Archelaus, and Gratus, together with Rufus, who led those of Sebaste, as well as the king's army: there also met him those of the Roman legion, armed after their accustomed manner; for as to Sabinus, he durst not come into Varus's sight, but was gone out of the city before this to the seaside: but Varus sent a part of his army into the country against those that had been the authors of this commotion; and as they caught great numbers of them, those that appeared to have been the least concerned in these tumults he put into custody, but such as were the most guilty he crucified: these were in number about two thousand.

3. He was also informed that there continued in Idumea ten thousand men still in arms; but when he found that the Arabians did not act like auxiliaries, but managed the war according to their own passions, and did mischief to the country otherwise than he intended, and this out of their hatred to Herod, he sent them away, but made haste with his own legions, to march against those that had revolted; but these, by the advice of Archiabus, delivered themselves up to him before it came to a battle. Then did Varus forgive the multitude their offences, but sent their captains to Cæsar to be examined by him. Now Cæsar forgave the rest; but gave orders that certain of the king's relations (for some of those there were among them who were Herod's kinsmen) should be put to death; because they had engaged in a war against a king of their own family. When,

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therefore, Varus had settled matters at Jerusalem after this manner, and had left the former legion there as a garrison, he returned to Antioch.

CHAP. VI.

The Jews greatly complain of Archelaus, and desire that they may be made subject to the Roman Governors. But when Cæsar had heard what they had to say, he distributed Herod's Dominions among his Sons, according to his own

Pleasure.

*

§ 1. But now came another accusation from the Jews against Archelaus at Rome, which he was to answer to. It was made by those ambassadors who, be fore the revolt, had come, by Varus's permission, to plead for the liberty of their country: those that came were fifty in number, but there were more than eight thousand of the Jews at Rome who supported them. And when Cæsar had as sembled a council of the principal Romans in Apollo's temple, that was in the palace (this was what he had himself built and adorned at a vast expense,) the multitude of the Jews stood with the ambassadors, and on the other side stood Archelaus with his friends; but as for the kindred of Archelaus, they stood on neither side; for to stand on Archelaus's side, their hatred to him and envy at him would not give them leave, while yet they were afraid to be seen by Cesar with his accusers. Besides these, there was present Archelaus's brother, Philip, being sent thither beforehand out of kindness by Varus for two reasons; the one was this, that he might be assisting to Archelaus; and the other was this, that in case Cæsar should make a distribution of what Herod possessed among his pos terity, he might obtain some share of it.'

2. And now, upon the permission that was given to the accusers to speak, they in the first place went over Herod's breaches of their law, and said, that "he was not a king, but the most barbarous of all tyrants, and that they had found him to be such by the sufferings they underwent from him: that when a very great number had been slain by him, those that were left had endured such miseries, that they called those that were dead happy men; that he had not only tortured the bodies of his subjects, but entire cities, and had done much harm to the cities of his own country, while he adorned those that belonged to foreigners; and he shed the blood of Jews, in order to do kindnesses to those people that were out of their bounds: that he had filled the nation full of poverty and of the greatest iniquity, instead of that happiness and those laws which they had anciently enjoyed that, in short, the Jews had borne more calamities from Herod in a few years, than had their forefathers during all that interval of time that had passed since they had come out of Babylon, and returned home, in the reign of Xerxes:† that, however, the nation was come to so low a condition, by being inured to hard. ships, that they submitted to his successor of their own accord, though he brought them into bitter slavery: that, accordingly, they readily called Archelaus, though he was the son of so great a tyrant, King, after the decease of his father, and joined with him in mourning for the death of Herod, and in wishing him good suc. cess in that his succession; while yet this Archelaus, lest he should be in danger of not being thought the genuine son of Herod, began his reign with the murder of three thousand citizens, as if he had a mind to offer so many bloody sacrifices to God for his government, and to fill the temple with the like number of dead bodies at that festival: that, however, those that were left after so many miseries

This holding a council in the temple of Apollo, in the emperor's palace at Rome, by Augustus, and even the building of this temple magnificently by himself in that palace, are exactly agreeable to Au gustus, in his elder years, as Aldrich and Spanheim observe and prove from Suetonius and Propertius.

Here we have a strong confirmation that it was Xerxes, and not Artaxerxes, under whom the main part of the Jews returned out of the Babylonian captivity, i, e. in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. The same thing is in the Antinuities. B. xi. ch. v. sect. i.

had just reason to consider now at last the calamities they had undergone, and to oppose themselves, like soldiers in war, to receive those stripes upon their faces [but not upon their backs as hitherto.] Wherefore they prayed, that the Romana would have compassion upon the [poor] remains of Judea, and not expose what was left to them to such as barbarously tore them to pieces, and that they would join their country to Syria, and administer the government by their own commanders; whereby it would [soon] be demonstrated, that those who are now under the calumny of seditious persons, and lovers of war, know how to bear go. vernors, that are set over them, if they be but tolerable ones." So the Jews concluded their accusation with this request. Then rose up Nicholas, and confuted the accusations which were brought against the kings, and himself accused the Jewish nation as hard to be ruled, and as naturally disobedient to kings. He also reproached all those kinsmen of Archelaus who had left him, and were gone over to his accusers.

3. So Cæsar, after he had heard both sides, dissolved the assembly for that time; but a few days afterward he gave the one half of Herod's kingdom to Archelaus, by the name of Ethnarch, and promised to make him king also afterward, if he rendered himself worthy of that dignity. But as to the other half, he divided it into two tetrarchies, and gave them to two other sons of Herod, the one of them to Philip, and the other to that Antipas who contested the kingdom with Archelaus. Under this last was Perea and Galilee, with a revenue of two hundred talents: but Batanea, and Trachonitis, and Auranitis, and certain parts of Zeno's house about Jamnia, with a revenue of a hundred talents, were made subject to Philip; while Idumea, and all Judea and Samaria, were parts of the ethnarchy of Archelaus, although Samaria was eased of one quarter of its taxes, out of regard to their not having revolted with the rest of the nation. He also made subject to him the following cities, viz. Strato's Tower, and Sebaste, and Joppa, and Jerusalem; but as to the Grecian cities, Gaza, and Gadara, and Hippos, he cut them off from the kingdom, and added them to Syria. Now the revenue of the country that was given to Archelaus was four hundred talents, Salome also, besides what the king had left her in his testaments, was now made mistress of Jamnia, and Ashdod, and Phasaelis. Cæsar did, moreover, bestow upon her the royal palace of Ascalon; by all which she got together a revenue of sixty talents; but he put her house under the ethnarchy of Archelaus. And for the rest of Herod's offspring, they received what was bequeathed to them in his testaments; but, besides that, Cæsar granted to Herod's two virgin daughters five hundred thousand [drachmæ] of silver, and gave them in marriage to the sons of Pheroras: but after this family distribution, he gave between them what bad been bequeathed to him by Herod, which was a thousand talents, reserving to himself only some inconsiderable presents in honour of the deceased.

CHAP. VII.

The History of the spurious Alexander. Archelaus is banished, and Glaphyra dies, after what was to happen to both of them had been shown them in Dreams.

1. In the meantime there was a man, who was by birth a Jew, but brought up at Sidon with one of the Roman freedmen, who falsely pretended, on account of the resemblance of their countenances, that he was that Alexander who was slain by Herod. This man came to Rome in hopes of not being detected. He had one who was his assistant, of his own nation, and who knew all the affairs of the kingdom, and instructed him to say how those that were sent to kill him and Aristobulus had pity upon them, and stole them away, by putting bodies that were like theirs in their places. This man deceived the Jews that were at Crete, and got a great deal of money of them for travelling in splendour; and thence