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received the proposal kindly, Artabanus and Vitellius went to Euphrates, and as a bridge was laid over the river, they each of them came with their guards about them, and met one another on the midst of the bridge. And when they had agreed upon the terms of peace, Herod the tetrarch erected a rich tent on the midst of the passage, and made them a feast there. Artabanus also, not long afterward, seut his son Darius, as an hostage, with many presents, among which there was a man seven cubits tall, a Jew he was by birth, and his name was Eleazar, who for his tallness was called a giant. After which Vitellius went to Antioch, and Artabanus to Babylon; but Herod [the tetrarch, ] being desirous to give Cæsar the first information that they had obtained hostages, sent posts with letters, wherein he had accurately described all the particulars, and had left nothing for the con sul Vitellius to inform him of. But when Vitellius's letters were sent, and Cæsar had let him know that he was acquainted with the affairs already, because Herod had given him an account of them before, Vitellius was very much troubled at it; and supposing that he had been thereby a greater sufferer than he really was, he kept up a secret anger upon this occasion, till he could be revenged on him, which he was after Caius had taken the government.

6. About this time it was that Philip, Herod's brother, departed this life, in the twentieth year of the reign of Tiberius, after he had been tetrarch of Trachonitis and Gaulanitis, and of the nation of the Bataneans also, thirty-seven years. He had showed himself a person of moderation and quietness in the conduct of his life and government; he constantly lived in that country which was subject to him; he used to make his progress with a few chosen friends; his tribunal also, on which he sat in judgment, followed him in his progress; and when any one met him who wanted his assistance, he made no delay, but had his tribunal set down immediately, wheresoever he happened to be, and sat down upon it, and heard his complaint; he there ordered the guilty that were convicted to be pun. ished, and absolved those that had been accused unjustly. He died at Julius; and when he was carried to that monument which he had already erected for himself beforehand, he was buried with great pomp. His principality Tiberius took, for he left no sons behind him, and added it to the province of Syria; but gave order that the tributes which arose from it should be collected, and laid up in that his tetrarchy.

CHAP. V.

Herod the Tetrarch makes War with Aretas, the King of Arabia, and is beaten by him; as also concerning the Death of John the Baptist; how Vitellius went up to Jerusalem: together with some Account of Agrippa, and of the Posterity

of Herod the Great.

1. ABOUT this time Aretas, the king of Arabia Petrea, and Herod, had a quarrel on the account following: Herod the tetrarch had married the daughter of Aretas, and had lived with her a great while; but when he was once at Rome, he lodged with Herod, who was his brother indeed, but not by the same mother; for this

This calculation from all Josephus's Greek copies is exactly right; for since Herod died about Sopteinber, in the fourth year before the Christian æra, and Tiberius began, as is well known, Aug. 19, Å. D. 14, it is evident that the 37th year of Philip, reckoned from his father's death, was the 20th of Tiberius, or near the end of A. D. 33, (the very year of our Saviour's death also, or however in the beginning of the next year, A. D. 34.) This Philip the tetrarch seems to have been the best of all the posterity of Herod, for his love of peace, and his love of justice.

+ An excellent example this.

This Herod seems to have had the additional name of Philip, as Antipas was named Herod-ArdiDas, and as Antipas and Antipater seem to be in a manner the very same name, yet were the names of two sons of Herod the Great; so might Philip the tetrarch and this Herod Philip be two different sous of the same father, all which Grotius observes on Matt. xiv. 3. Nor was it, as I agree with Grotius and others of the learned, Philip the tetrarch, but this Herod-Philip, whose wife Herod the tetrarch had marFied, and that in her first husband's lifetime, and wher, her first husband had issue by her; for which VOL II 5

Herod was the son of the high priest Simon's daughter. However, he fell in love with Herodias, this last Herod's wife who was the daughter of Aristobulus ther brother, and the sister of Agrippa the Great. This man ventured to talk to her about a marriage between them, which address, when she admitted, an agreement was made for her to change her habitation, and come to him as soon as he should return from Rome: one article of this marriage also was this, that he should divorce Aretas's daughter. So Antipas, when he had made this agreement, sailed to Rome: but when he had done there the business he went about, and was returned again, his wife having discovered the agreement he had made with Herodias, and having learned it before he had notice of her knowledge of the whole design, she desired him to send her to Macherus, which is a place in the borders of the dominions of Aretas and Herod, without informing him of any of her intentions. Accordingly Herod sent her thither, as thinking his wife had not per ceived any thing: now she had sent a good while before to Macherus, which was subject to her father, and so all things necessary for her journey were made ready for her by the general of Aretas's army; and by that means she soon came into Arabia, under the conduct of several generals, who carried her from one to another successively; and she soon came to her father, and told him of Herod's in. tentions. So Aretas made this the first occasion of his enmity between him and Herod, who had also some quarrel with him about their limits at the country of Gemalitis. So they raised armies on both sides, and prepared for war, and sent their generals to fight instead of themselves; and when they had joined battle, all Herod's army was destroyed by the treachery of some fugitives, who, though they were of the tetrarchy of Philip, joined with Herod's army. So Herod wrote about these affairs to Tiberius, who, being very angry at the attempt made by Aretas, wrote to Vitellius, to make war upon him, and either to take him alive, and bring him to him in bonds, or to kill him, and send him his head. This was the charge that Tiberius gave to the president of Syria.

2. Now some of the Jews thought that the destruction of Herod's army came from God, and that very justly, as a punishment of what he did against John, who was called the Baptist; for Herod slew him, who was a good man, and commanded the Jews to exercise virtue, both as to righteousness towards one another, and piety towards God, and so to come to baptism: for that the washing [with water] would be acceptable to him, if they made use of it, not in order to the putting away [or the remission] of some sins [only,] but for the purification of the body: supposing still that the soul was thoroughly purified beforehand by righteousness. Now when [many] others came in crowds about him, for they were greatly moved [or pleased] by hearing his words, Herod, who feared lest the great influence John had over the people, might put it into his power and inclination to raise a rebellion (for they seemed ready to do any thing he should advise,) thought it best by putting him to death, to prevent any mischief he might cause, and not bring himself into difficulties, by sparing a man who might make him repent of it when it should be too late. Accordingly he was sent a prisoner, out of Herod's suspicious temper, to Macherus, the castle I before mentioned, and was there put to death. Now the Jews had an opinion that the destruction of this army was sent as a punishment upon Herod, and a mark of God's displeasure to him.

3. So Vitellius prepared to make war with Aretas, having with him two legiona of arined men; he also took with him all those of light armature, and of the horse. men which belonged to them, and were drawn out of those kingdoms which were auder the Romans, and made haste for Petra, and came to Ptolemais. But as he was marching very busily, and leading his army through Judea, the principal men met him, and desired that he would not thus march through their land; for that

adulterous and incestuous marriage, John the Baptist justly reproved Herod the tetrarch, and for whic reproof Salome, the daughter of Herodias, by her first husband Herod-Philio, who was still alive, occa stowed him to be unjustly beheaded.

the laws of their country would not permit them to overlook those images which were brought into it, of which there were a great many in their ensigns; so he was persuaded by what they said, and changed that resolution of his, which he bad before taken in that matter. Whereupon he ordered the army to march along the great plain, while he himself, with Herod the tetrarch, and his friends, went up to Jerusalem to offer sacrifice to God, an ancient festival of the Jews being then just approaching; and when he had been there, and been honourably enter. tained by the multitude of the Jews, he made a stay there for three days, within which time he deprived Jonathan of the high priesthood, and gave it to his bro ther Theophilus. But when on the fourth day, letters came to him, which in formed him of the death of Tiberius, he obliged the multitude to take an oath of fidelity to Caius; he also recalled his army, and made them every one to go home, and take their winter quarters there, since upon the devolution of the empire upon Caius, he had not the like authority of making this war which he had before. It was also reported, that when Aretas heard of the coming of Vitellius to fight him, he said, upon his consulting the diviners, that it was impossible that this army of Vitellius's could enter Petra; for that one of the rulers would die; either he that gave orders for the war, or he that was marching at the other's desire, in order to be subservient to his will, or else he against whom this army was prepared Bo Vitellius truly retired to Antioch; but Agrippa, the son of Aristobulus, wen up to Rome a year before the death of Tiberius, in order to treat of some affair with the emperor, if he might be permitted so to do. I have now a mind to describe Herod and his family, how it fared with them, partly because it is suitable to this history to speak of that matter, and partly because this thing is a demon stration of the interposition of Providence, how a multitude of children is of no advantage, no more than any other strength that mankind set their hearts upon, besides those acts of piety which are done towards God; for it happened, that within the revolution of a hundred years, the posterity of Herod, which were a great many in number, were, excepting a few, utterly destroyed.* One may well. apply this for the instruction of mankind, and learn thence how unhappy they were; it will also show us the history of Agrippa, who, as he was a person most worthy of admiration, so was he from a private man, beyond all the expectation of those that knew him, advanced to great power and authority. I have said something of them formerly, but I shall now also speak accurately about them.

4. Herod the Great had two daughters by Mariamne, the [grand] daughter of Hyrcanus; the one was Salampsio, who was married to Phasaelus her first cou sin, who was himself the son of Phasaelus, Herod's brother; her father making the match: the other was Cypros, who was herself married also to her first cou sin Antipater, the son of Salome, Herod's sister. Phasaelus had five children by Salampsio, Antipater, Herod, and Alexander; and two daughters, Alexandra and Cypros; which last, Agrippa the son of Aristobulus married; and Timius of Cyprus married Alexandra: he was a man of note, but had by her no children Agrippa had by Cypros two sons and three daughters, which daughters were named Bernice, Mariamne, and Drusilla; but the names of the sons were Agrippa and Drusus, of which Drusus died before he came to the years of puberty; but their father Agrippa was brought up with his other brethren, Herod and Aristo bulus; for these were also the sons of the son of Herod the Great, by Bernice, but Bernice was the daughter of Costobarus and of Salome, who was Herod's sister. Aristobulus left these infants, when he was slain by his father, together with his brother Alexander, as we have already related. But when they were arrived at the years of puberty, this Herod, the brother of Agrippa, married Mariamne, the daughter of Olympias, who was daughter of Herod the king, and

• Whether this sudden extinction of alınost the entire lineage of Herod the Great, which was very numerous, as we are both here and in the next section informed, was not in part as a punishment for the gross incests they were frequently guilty of, in marrying their own nephews and nieces, well deserves to Be considered. See Levit. xviii. 6, 7; xxi. 10, and Noldius, De Herod. No. 269,270.

of Joseph, the son of Joseph who was brother to Herod the king, and had by her a son, Aristobulus: but Aristobulus, the third brother of Agrippa, mar. ried Jotape, the daughter of Sampsigeramus, king of Emesa;* they had a daughter who was deaf, whose name also was Jotape; and these hitherto were the children of the male line. But Herodias, their sister, was married to Herod [Philip,] the son of Herod the Great, who was born of Mariamne, the daughter of Simon the high priest, who had a daughter Salome; after whose birth Herodias took upon her to confound the laws of our country; and divorced herself from her husband while he was alive, and was married to Herod [Antipas,] her husband's brother by the father's side; he was tetrarch of Galilee: but her daughter Salome was married to Philip, the Son of Herod, and tetrarch of Trachonitis; and as he died childless, Aristobulus, the son of Herod, the brother of Agrippa, married her; they had three sons, Herod, Agrippa, and Aristobulus : and this was the posterity of Phasaelus and Salampsio. But the daughter of Antipater by Cypros, was Cypros, whom Alexis Selcias, the son of Alexas, married; they had a daughter, Cypros; but Herod and Alexander, who, as we told you, were the brothers of Antipater, died childless. As to Alexander, the son of Herod the king, who was slain by his father; he had two sons, Alexander and Tigranes, by the daughter of Archelaus, king of Cappadocia : Tigranes, who was king of Armenia, was accused at Rome, and died childless; Alexander had a son of the same name with his brother Tigranes, and was sent to take possessiun of the kingdom of Armenia by Nero: he had a son Alexander, who married Jotape, the daughter of Antiochus, king of Commagena; Vespasian made him king of an island in Cilicia. But these descendants of Alexander, soon after their birth, deserted the Jewish religion, and went over to that of the Greeks; but for the rest of the daughters of Herod the king, it happened that they died childless. And as these descendants of Herod, whom we have enumerated, were in being at the same time that Agrippa the Great took the kingdom, and I have now given an account of them, it now remains that I relate the several hard fortunes which befell Agrippa, and how he got clear of them, and was advanced to the greatest height of dignity and power.

CHAP. VI.

Of the Navigation of King Agrippa to Rome, to Tiberius Cæsar: and how, upon his being accused by his own Freedman, he was bound: how also he was set at Liberty by Caius, after Tiberius's Death, and was made King of the

Tetrarchy of Philip.

1. A LITTLE before the death of Herod the king, Agrippa lived at Rome, and was generally brought up and conversed with Drusus, the emperor Tiberius's son; and contracted a friendship with Antonia, the wife of Drusus the Great, who had his mother Bernice in great esteem, and was very desirous of advancing her son. Now, as Agrippa was by nature magnanimous and generous in the presents he made, while his mother was alive, this inclination of his mind did not appear, that he might be able to avoid her anger for such his extravagance; but when Bernice was dead, and he was left to his own conduct, he spent a great extravagantly in his daily way of living, and a great deal in the immoderate presents he made, and those chiefly among Cæsar's freedmen, in order to gain their assistance, insomuch that he was in a little time reduced to poverty, and could not live at Rome any longer. Tiberius also forbade the friends of his deceased son to come into his sight, because on seeing them he should be put in mind of his son, and his grief would thereby be revived.

*There are coins still extant of this Emesa, as Spanheim informs us.

deal

+ Spanteim also informs us of a coin still extant of this Jotape, daughter of the king of Commagena

2. For these reasons he went away from Rome, and sailed to Judea, but in evil circumstances, being dejected with the loss of that money which he once had, and because he had not wherewithal to pay his creditors, who were many in number, and such as gave him no room for escaping them. Whereupon he knew not what to do; so, for shame of his present condition, he retired to a certain tower, at Malatha, in Idumea, and had thoughts of killing himself; but his wife Cypros perceived his intentions, and tried all sorts of methods to divert him from taking such a course: so she sent a letter to his sister Herodias, who was now the wife of Herod the tetrarch, and let her know Agrippa's present design, and what necessity it was which drove him thereto, and desired her as a kinswoman of his, to give him her help, and to engage her husband to do the same, since she saw how she alleviated these her husband's troubles all she could, although she had not the like wealth to do it withal. So they sent for him, and allotted him Tiberias for his habitation, and appointed him some income of money for his maintenance, and made him a magistrate of that city, by way of honour to him. Yet did not Herod long continue in that resolution of supporting him, though even that support was not sufficient for him; for as once they were at a feast at Tyre, and in their cups, and reproaches were cast upon one another, Agrippa thought that was not to be borne, while Herod hit him in the teeth with his poverty, and with his owing his necessary food to him. So he went to Flaccus, one that had been consul, and had been a very great friend to him at Rome formerly, and was now president of Syria.

3. Hereupon Flaccus received him kindly, and he lived with him. Flaccus had also with him there Aristobulus, who was indeed Agrippa's brother, but was at variance with him; yet did not their enmity to one another hinder the friendship of Flaccus to them both, but still they were honourably treated by him. However, Aristobulus did not abate of his ill will to Agrippa, till at length he brought him into ill terms with Flaccus: the occasion of bringing on which estrangement was this: the Damascens were at difference with the Sidonians about their limits, and when Flaccus was about to hear the cause between them, they understood that Agrippa had a mighty influence upon him; so they desired that he would be of their side, and for that favour promised him a great deal of money; so he was zealous in assisting the Damascens as far as he was able. Now Aristobulus had gotten intelligence of this promise of money to him, and accused him to Flaccus of the same; and when, upon a thorough examination of the matter, it appeared plainly so to be, he rejected Agrippa out of the number of his friends. So he was reduced to the utmost necessity, and came to Ptolemais; and because he knew not where else to get a livelihood, he thought to sail to Italy; but as he was restrained from so doing by want of money, he desired Marsyas, who was his freedman, to find some method of procuring him so much as he wanted for that purpose, by borrowing such a sum of some person or other. So Marsyas desired of Peter, who was the freedman of Bernice, Agrippa's mother, and by the right of her testament was bequeathed to Antonia, to lend him so much upon Agrippa's own bond and security; but he accused Agrippa of having de frauded him of certain sums of money, and so obliged Marsyas, when he made the bond of 20,000 Attic drachmæ, to accept of 2,500 drachmæ* less than what he desired, which the other allowed of, because he could not help it. Upon the receipt of this money, Agrippa came to Anthedon, and took shipping, and was going to set sail; but Herennius Capito, who was the procurator of Jamnia, sent a band of soldiers to demand of him 300,000 drachmæ of silver, which were by him owing to Cæsar's treasury while he was at Rome, and so forced him to stay. He then pretended that he would do as he bid him: but when night came on, he cut his cables, and went off, and sailed to Alexandria, where he desired Alexan

Spanheim observes, that we have here an instance of the Attic quantity of use money, which was the eighth part of the original sum, or twelve and a half per cent. for such is the proportion of 2,500 to 20,000

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