ANTIPATER GOVERNOR OF JUDEA--HEROD--BIRTH OF CHRIST

ANTIPATER GOVERNOR OF JUDEA--HEROD--BIRTH OF CHRIST
ANTIPATER GOVERNS OVER HYRCANUS
Although Hyrcanus II had again become the nominal head of the reduced and, dependant princedom of Judea, Antipater was the actual governor, and managed all things as he would.
ALEXANDER ATTEMPTS TO REBEL
In the year 57 B.C., Alexander, the eldest son of Aristobulus, who had escaped on the way to Rome, reappeared in Judea, and soon succeeded in collecting an army of ten thousand foot and fifteen hundred horse. He seized and garrisoned the strong fortresses of Alexandrium, Machaerus, Hyrcania, and several others, and thence ravaged the whole country. Hyrcanus was not in a condition to make head against him: but for the protection of Jerusalem he was desirous of rebuilding the walls of that city; but this was forbidden by the jealousy of the Romans, and the prince was then obliged to apply to them for assistance. Gabinius (the same who had before been in the country with Pompey), who had lately become proconsul of Syria, sent some troops into Judea under the command of Mark Anthony, the commander of the cavalry--who afterward took so conspicuous a gait in the affairs of Rome, while he prepared to follow himself with a larger army. The Roman general, being joined by Antipater with the forces of Hyrcanus, defeated Alexander near Jerusalem, with the loss of three thousand men, and compelled him to seek refuge in Alexandrium, to which siege was immediately laid. Gabinius, who had now arrived, perceiving that the reduction of so strong a place would require time, left a sufficient force to invest it, and with the rest made a progress through the country. Many cities which he found in ruins, he directed to be rebuilt, according to the intentions of Pompey:[410] among these was Samaria, which, after his own name, he called Gabiana, which was not long after changed by Herod to Sebaste. When he returned to the camp at Alexandrium he was visited by the mother of the besieged Alexander, who had already offered to capitulate, and now, by her address and mediation, was allowed to depart on condition that the fortresses which he held in his power should be demolished, that they might give no occasion for future revolts.
[410] Those were--Scythopolis (Bethshan), Samaria, Dora, Azotus or Ashdod, Jamnia, Gaza, Anthedon, Raphia, Gamala, Apollonia, Marissa, and some others.
ARISTOCRACY SET UP IN JERUSALEM
Gabinius then went to Jerusalem, and confirmed Hyrcanus in the high-priesthood; but he took upon him to change the government to an aristocracy, undoubtedly at the request of the Jews themselves, who had formerly much desired such a change from Pompey. Hitherto the administration of public affairs had been managed, under the prince, by two councils, or courts of justice; the lesser, consisting of twenty-three persons, was instituted in every city, and each of these lesser councils was subject to the control of the great council, or Sanhedrin,[411] of seventy-two members, sitting at Jerusalem. Both were suppressed by Gabinius, who divided the country into five districts, appointing in each an executive council for its government. These districts will be sufficiently indicated by the names of the cities in which the respective councils sat--Jerusalem, Jericho, Gadara, Amathus, and Sepphoris. This, in fact, changed the government into an aristocracy, for all real power rested in the hands of the several councils, composed of the principal persons of each district, and the power of the prince was completely nullified. This form of government continued to the year 44 B.C., when Hyrcanus was restored to his former power by Julius Caesar.
[411] This is the first historical notice of such a council. The Jews deem that the council of seventy elders appointed to assist Moses was afterward constantly maintained, and that with it we are to identify the Sanhedrin of their later history. But if such a body had existed, it is impossible but that its presence must have been indicated, in the long intervening period, on some of the many occasions which would have called for the exercise of its functions. That the Sanhedrin was intended as an imitation of the council of the seventy elders, is very possible and likely; but scarcely any one who has examined the matter closely imagines that it had any earlier existence than the time of the Maccabees.
The high-priest was usually the president of this tribunal, and there were two vice-presidents who sat the one on his right hand and the other on his left. The members were--1. Those who were called “chief priests” in the Gospels. These were partly priests, who had previously exercised the office of high-priests, and partly of the heads of the twenty-four classes of priests, who were called honorarily, high or chief-priests. 2. Elders, being the heads of tribes and of large groups of allied families. 3. The scribes, or men of learning. It is to be understood, however, that although all the chief priests had a seat in the Sanhedrin, only those of the elders and scribes sat there who were elected to fill up vacancies.
There is no reason to doubt the assertion of the Talmudists, that the Sanhedrin had secretaries and apparitors. The place in which this great council sat in Jerusalem can not with any certainty be determined. The Talmudists inform us that the council sat so as to form a semi-circle, of which the president and two vice-presidents occupied the center. We learn from other sources that they either sat upon the door, carpets being spread under them, or upon cushions slightly elevated, with their knees bent and legs crossed as is still the fashion in the East.
Appeals from the municipal councils and other matters of importance, were brought before this high council. Its powers were much limited by the Romans; but in the time of Christ it still possessed the power of trying offenders and of passing sentence; although when the penalty was high or capital it was necessary that it should be confirmed by the Roman governor, who also assumed the right or executing as his own the sentence which he had confirmed.
Roman Consul

ARISTOBULUS ESCAPES AND IS RECAPTURED
About this time Aristobulus contrived to escape from his captivity at Rome, with his younger son Antigonus, and returned to Judea, where his presence excited a revolt. But he was ere long defeated, taken captive with his son, and sent back to his former prison. The report which Gabinius sent, however, of the services which the wife of Aristobulus had rendered in suppressing her son Alexander's insurrection, procured the release of all the family except Aristobulus himself.
ALEXANDER FAILS AGAINST ROMANS
In 56 B.C. Gabinius undertook to restore Ptolemy Auletes to the throne of Egypt. He and Mark Anthony succeeded in this object, in which they received no slight assistance from Hyrcanus; or rather from Antipater, who eagerly laid hold of every opportunity of serving and ingratiating himself with the Romans, through whose favor alone could he hope that his ambitious designs would ever be realized. By his means the Roman army was most bountifully furnished with provisions, arms, and money; and measures were taken to dispose the Jews of Egypt to forward their cause, which they had large means of doing. While the substantial force of the Romans was absent on this expedition, Alexander; the son of Aristobulus, got together a large army, with which he contrived to make himself master of Judea, and massacred all the Romans who had the misfortune to fall in his way. Several fled to Mount Gerizim, and were there besieged by Alexander, when Gabinius returned victorious from Egypt. The proconsul endeavored, through Antipater, to make peace with him; but as, although many had abandoned him on the approach of the Romans, he was still at the head of thirty thousand men, he refused to listen to any terms of accommodation. In a battle, which soon followed, near Mount Tabor, ten thousand of his men were slain, and the rest dispersed. Gabinius then went to Jerusalem, and settled affairs there according to the views of Antipater, who had much influence both with him and Anthony.
CRASSUS PLUNDERS TEMPLE
In the year 55 the proconsul Gabinius was recalled, to answer for the venality and extortion of his government. Yet he is regretted by Josephus as one who was friendly to the Jews; who, however, had to pay a high price for his friendship. They certainly gained nothing by the exchange for the new proconsul, who was no other than the wealthy and avaricious Crassus (the colleague of Pompey and Julius Caesar in the triumvirate), who procured himself to be invested with unusually large powers, and who, being consul for that year, embarked for Syria before his consulship expired. Crassus was bent on an expedition against the Parthians; and he failed not, before his departure, to plunder the temple at Jerusalem of all the treasures which Pompey had spared. He took everything that he deemed worth taking, and the value of his plunder is estimated at ten thousand talents. In the war against the Parthians, which was entirely unexpected and unprovoked, Crassus was at first successful; but in the end, he and his son were slain, and the Roman army disgraced, B.C. 53.
CASSIUS GOVERNS SYRIA AND JUDAH
Cassius, who had commanded a wing of the Roman army in the battle, conducted a body of five hundred horse safely back to Syria, the government of which devolved on him until a successor to Crassus should be appointed. Having, with much ability, so organized the broken resources of the province as to defend it successfully against the Parthian invasion of 52 B.C., he afterward marched into Judea, and forced Alexander, who began raising fresh disturbances as soon as the news of the defeat of Crassus arrived in Syria, to terms of peace.
POMPEY AND CAESAR BATTLE
In the civil war which broke out between Pompey and Caesar, Syria and Palestine were variously involved. When Caesar passed the Rubicon in 49 B.C., and made himself master of Rome, he thought that Aristobulus might be useful to his cause against that of Pompey, which was strong in the east; and therefore sent him into Palestine, with two legions under his command, to keep Syria in awe. But Pompey's party contrived to poison him on the way, and thus frustrated the design. His always-active son, Alexander, had raised forces in expectation of his father's arrival; but Pompey sent orders to his son-in-law, Q. Metellus Scipio, whom he had promoted to the government of Syria, to put him to death. He was accordingly taken, brought to Antioch, tried, and beheaded.
ANTIPATER GAINS FAVOR OF ROMANS
In the midst of all the causes of agitation in Judea--from the contests of the Hasmonean princes--from the different characters of the governors of Syria--from the march of armies--from the intrigues which divided courts and people in the quarrel between Pompey and Caesar--Antipater never slept, was never found wanting to himself. He had availed himself of his power over the feeble Hyrcanus to make for himself a personal influence and reputation, through the services he was thereby able to render to the various parties and persons whose friendship might be useful to him. He was moreover the father of four sons, who understood and concurred in his view--all of them brave, ambitious, magnificent, full of spirit and high hopes. One of them, Phasael, was already governor of Jerusalem, and another, Herod, was governor of Galilee. These, it will be perceived, were two of the five districts into which the country had been divided by Gabinius. Thus the family went on gathering strength from day to day, while the Hasmonean family--through the imbecility of Hyrcanus, and the reverses of Aristobulus and his sons--sustained a daily loss of power and influence. In the contest between Pompey and Caesar, Antipater, who was under obligations to the former, was in a critical and difficult position. But such men as he are never wrong. Their felicitous instincts enable them to discover the falling cause in sufficient time to make the abandonment of it a merit with him whose star is rising. Thus Antipater turned in good time to the side of the new master; and in the Egyptian campaign rendered important services to Caesar by bringing to his aid the forces concentrated in Judea, Idumea, and part of Arabia; while in action he displayed great abilities and courage, which no one knew better than Caesar how to appreciate and respect. On his return from Egypt, the crown of which he had fixed on the head of the too-celebrated Cleopatra, the eldest daughter of Ptolemy Auletes, he went to Jerusalem, and there employed the absolute power he possessed quite in subservience to the views and wishes of Antipater. In vain did Antigonus, the surviving son of Aristobulus, appear, and plead that the lives of his father and brother had been lost in his cause: he was heard coldly, and dismissed as a troublesome person. Caesar abrogated the aristocratic government which Gabinius had established ten years before, and confirmed Hyrcanus in his full powers as high-priest and ethnarch. He ordered the remission every sabbatic year of the annual tribute payable to the Romans: he further conceded that the Jews should not, as formerly, be obliged to provide winter quarters for the Roman troops, or to pay an equivalent in money; and he granted such further privileges and immunities to the Jews throughout the empire, that the Roman yoke became very light upon them for a time. Antipater himself was appointed procurator of Judea for the Romans. The decree in which these privileges were embodied was engraved on brass, and laid up in the capitol at Rome and in the temples of Zidon, Tyre, and Ashkelon. Hyrcanus afterward ventured; by ambassadors sent to Rome, to solicit permission to fortify Jerusalem, and to rebuild the walls which Pompey had thrown down. This was granted by Caesar, and immediately executed by Antipater.
SANHEDRIN TOLD TO ACCEPT HEROD
Julius Caesar left the government of Syria in the hands of Sextus Caesar, his relative, who was also well disposed toward the family of Antipater. The promotion of his son Herod to be governor of Galilee has already been noticed. He displayed great activity and daring in clearing his province of the robbers by which it had been infested. But having put the leader of these banditti, with several of his associates to death, by his own mere authority, without any form of trial, the jealousy of several of the leading Jews was awakened, and they obliged Hyrcanus to cite him to Jerusalem to answer for his conduct before the Sanhedrin. He came arrayed in purple, with a numerous retinue, and presented to Hyrcanus a letter from Sextus Caesar, commanding him to acquit Herod under pain of his highest displeasure. The prince, who liked Herod, was well enough inclined to this before, and the accusers were so damped by the young man's audacity, as well as by the letter, which also intimidated the Sanhedrin, that they all sat in awkward silence until one firm and honest voice, that of Sameas, was heard rebuking the members of the council for their cowardice and predicting that the day would come when Herod would refuse them the pardon which they were then all too ready to extend to him. This was verified in the end. When Sameas had spoken, the Sanhedrin exhibited some inclination to act; but Hyrcanus adjourned the sitting, and gave Herod a hint to quit Jerusalem. He repaired to Sextus Caesar at Damascus, and not only obtained his protection, but received from him the government of all Coele-Syria on condition of paying a stipulated tribute. On this Herod collected a small army, and was with difficulty persuaded by his father and his brother Phasael from marching to Jerusalem, to avenge himself for the insult he considered he had received in being summoned before the Sanhedrin.
THE CAESARS SLAIN
The assassination of Sextus Caesar in Syria, by Bassus, and of Caesar himself at Rome, by Brutus, Cassius, and their confederates, rekindled the flames of civil war, and might have prostrated the hopes of one less ductile than Antipater. Cassius passed over into Syria to secure that important province for the republic, and was compelled to exact heavy contributions to maintain the large army he had raised. Judea was assessed at seven hundred talents, one half of which Antipater commissioned his sons Phasael and Herod to raise, and entrusted the collection of the other half to Malichus, a Jew, one of the chief supporters of Hyrcanus. Herod won the favor of Cassius by the promptitude with which he produced his quota; but Malichus, being more dilatory, would have been put to death, had not Hyrcanus redeemed him by paying one hundred talents out of his own coffers. There was something in this affair to kindle the smoldering jealousy with which Malichus and the heads of the Jewish nation were disposed to regard the concentration of all the real power of the government in the hands of an Idumean and foreigner, as they regarded Antipater; and they plotted to destroy him and all his family. Antipater was poisoned by a glass of wine given to him at the very table of Hyrcanus: in revenge for which Phasael and Herod procured Malichus to be put to death by the Roman garrison at Tyre, in obedience to an order which they obtained from Cassius.
HEROD ESPOUSED TO HIGH PRIEST GRANDDAUGHTER
The influence of Antipater over Hyrcanus being now withdrawn, the adverse party soon succeeded in bringing him over to their views, by directing his fears toward the overgrown and increasing power of the sons of Antipater. Felix, the commander of the Roman forces at Jerusalem, was also led into the same views; for by this time (42 B.C.) Cassius and Brutus had been defeated and slain at Philippi by Anthony and Octavius. This party was, however, soon mastered by the brothers, who recovered Masada and all the fortresses of which it had obtained possession, and even dared to expel Felix from Jerusalem, as the change of affairs produced by the battle of Philippi, rendered it unlikely that the now dominant avengers of Caesar would resent the insult offered to one employed by his slayers. They upbraided Hyrcanus for favoring a party which had always sought to curb his power, which had been on all occasions supported by the sagacious and firm counsels of Antipater. A reconciliation was, however, soon effected, as Herod greatly wished to strengthen his pretensions by a marriage with Miriam or Mariamne, the beautiful granddaughter of the high-priest, to whom he was accordingly espoused.
ANTIGONUS REBELLION STOPPED
But although the adverse party had been repressed, it was not extinguished; and it soon found a new head in the person of Antigonus, the surviving son of Aristobulus, whose unsuccessful application to Caesar has lately been noticed. Nothing less was now professed than an intention to restore him to the throne of his father, his claims to which were strongly supported by some neighboring princes, and even by the Roman governor of Damascus, who had been won by a sum of money. But when he arrived in Judea with his army, he was totally defeated by Herod, and compelled for the present to relinquish his purpose.
ANTHONY AND HEROD SOLIDIFY POWER
This was the state of affairs (B.C. 41) when, after the battle of Philippi, Mark Anthony passed into Syria, to secure that important province for the conquerors. The discontented party sent a deputation to him soon after his arrival, to complain of the sons of Antipater. But Anthony who had been already joined by Herod, and had accepted presents from him, was indisposed toward them, especially when Herod reminded him of the services, well known to himself, which Antipater had rendered to Gabinius in the expedition to Egypt. About the same time Anthony received an embassy from Hyrcanus, touching the ransom of the inhabitants of Gophna, Emmaus, Lydda, Thamma, and some other places, whom Cassius had sold for slaves because they refused to pay their portion of the seven hundred talents which he exacted. Anthony granted the application, and notified his determination to the Tyrians, who had probably purchased most of these persons, Tyre being a great mart for slaves.
Nothing discouraged by the former neglect, one hundred Jews of the first consideration repaired to Anthony at Daphne near Antioch, to renew their complaints against Herod and Phasael. Anthony gave them an audience, and then turning to Hyrcanus, who was present, asked him, in their hearing, whom he esteemed most able to conduct the affairs of the government, under himself. Influenced, probably, by the recent contract of marriage between his grand-daughter and Herod, he named the two brothers, on which Anthony conferred upon them the rank and power of Tetrarchs, committed the affairs of Judea to their management, imprisoned fifteen of the deputies, and would have put them to death, had not Herod interceded for them. So things were managed in those times. With the usual pertinency of the nation, the discontented Jews renewed the complaint at Tyre in a body of a thousand deputies; but Anthony thought proper to treat this as a tumultuous assembly, and ordered his soldiers to disperse it, which was not done without bloodshed. Anthony was then on his way to Egypt. Summoned, on his first arrival in Syria: to appear before him to account for the part she was alleged to have taken in assisting Cassius, Cleopatra had not in vain exercised upon him the fascinations by which Caesar had before been subdued. The story of Anthony's thralldom to this charming but most unprincipled woman, is too familiar to need more than the slight allusions which the connection of this history requires. Lost in luxurious ease and dalliance, Anthony wasted much time at Alexandria, leaving the affairs of Syria and Asia Minor to get into a state of confusion, satisfying himself that by-and-by he would rouse himself to some great effort which would set all right.
ANTHONY KEEPS SYRIA AND REGION
In the spring of the year B.C. 40 the news from both Syria and Italy compelled the warrior to break off the enchantment by which he was bound, and to look closely to his affairs. In Syria, the people disgusted and exhausted by the successive exactions of Cassius and Anthony, refused to bear them any longer. The people of Aradus kindled the flame of opposition, by openly resisting the collectors of tribute, which example was soon followed by others. They united themselves with the Palmyrenes, and the princes whom Anthony had deposed, and called to the Parthians for aid. They gladly responded to the call, and entered the country in great numbers under the command of their king's son Pacorus, and of a Roman general (Labienus) who had belonged to the party of Pompey. The king with one division of the army took possession of Syria, while Labienus with another performed the same service in Syria. Anthony was made perfectly acquainted with this when he reached Tyre; but the news which he also received from Italy so much more nearly concerned his personal prosperity, that he immediately embarked for that country. On his arrival, affairs between him and Octavius wore, for a time, a threatening aspect. But the opportune death of Anthony's wife Fulvia allowed an opening for intermarriages between Anthony, Octavius, and Lepidus, and peace between the triumvirs was for a time restored. They then divided the Roman empire among themselves. Anthony received Syria and the East, Lepidus obtained Africa, and Octavius all the West, B.C. 40.
ANTIGONUS MADE KING AND HYRCANUS DISQUALIFIED
Meanwhile the Parthians, having made themselves masters of Syria, as related, began to take part in the affairs of Palestine. Pacorus was induced by the offer of one thousand talents in money, and five hundred women, to undertake to place Antigonus on the throne of Judea. To put this contract in execution he furnished a body of soldiers, under the command of his cup-bearer, who also bore the name of Pacorus, to assist the operations of Antigonus. The united force found no effectual resistance until it reached Jerusalem, where the struggle was protracted without any decisive results. But at length it was agreed between the real belligerents to admit the Parthian commander within the city, to act as umpire between them. Phasael (the governor of Jerusalem) invited him to his own house, and allowed himself to be persuaded that the best course that could be taken would be for him and Hyrcanus to go and submit the matter in dispute to the arbitration of Barzapharnes, the Parthian governor of Syria. They went notwithstanding the dissuasions of the less confiding Herod. Barzapharnes treated them with great attention and respect, until he supposed that sufficient time had elapsed to enable Pacorus to secure Herod at Jerusalem, when he immediately put them in chains, and shut them up in prison. But Herod, suspecting the treachery of the Parthians, withdrew with his family by night from Jerusalem, and repaired to the strong fortress of Masada, situated upon a high mountain west of the Dead sea. On finding that Herod had escaped, the Parthians plundered the country, made Antigonus king according to their contract, and departed, leaving Hyrcanus and Phasael in his hands. Phasael, feeling assured that he was doomed to death, dashed out his brains against his prison walls: the life of his aged uncle was spared by the nephew; but he cut off his ears to disqualify him from ever again acting as high-priest, and thus mutilated, sent him back to the safe keeping of the Parthians, who sent him to Seleucia on the Tigris.
HEROD MADE KING
In this seemingly desperate state of his affairs, for to the great body of the Jews themselves Antigonus appears to have been more acceptable than he, Herod repaired to Egypt, and took ship at Alexandria for Rome. He was warmly welcomed by Anthony, by whom he was introduced to Octavius, who was induced to notice him favorably by the report of the very great services which Antipater had rendered to his grand-uncle (and adoptive father) Caesar, in the Egyptian expedition. The object of Herod's journey was to induce the Romans to raise to the throne of Judea Aristobulus, the brother of his espoused Mariamne. This Aristobulus was the son of Alexandra, the daughter of Hyrcanus, by Alexander the eldest son of Aristobulus, so that he seemed to unite in his person the claims of both branches of the Hasmonean family. For himself, Herod proposed to govern the country under Aristobulus, as his father had governed it under Hyrcanus. But Anthony suggested the startling idea of making Herod himself king of Judea; and noticing the eagerness with which he grasped at the glittering bait, he undertook, on the promise of a sum of money, to secure this object for him. He easily induced Octavius to concur with him; and their joint representations secured the appointment from the senate. Accordingly, during the consulship of Demetrius Calvinus and Asinius Pollio, in the one hundred and eighty-fourth Olympiad, in the year B.C. 40, the man who had a few weeks before been on the point of destroying himself from sheer despair of his fortunes, was conducted to the Capitol between the two foremost men in the world, Anthony and Octavius, and there consecrated king, with idolatrous sacrifices. All this was so soon accomplished, that Herod departed from Rome seven days after his arrival, and landed at Ptolemais only three months after his flight from Jerusalem. If the Parthians had still been in possession of Syria, it would have availed him little to have been made a king at Rome; but by the time of his return they had already been driven out of Syria by the Romans, and had withdrawn beyond the Euphrates.
ANTIGONUS FAILS SIEGE OF MASADA
Herod diligently applied himself to the collecting such a force as might enable him, to relieve the friends he had left in Masada, who had all the while been closely besieged by Antigonus, and were at one time reduced to such extremities for want of water, that they had fully intended to surrender the next day, when an abundant fall of rain during the intervening night filled all the cisterns and enabled them to hold out until Herod came to their relief.
HEROD HAD LITTLE CONTROL OF SOLDIERS
Three years elapsed before Herod can be said to have obtained possession of the throne which the Romans had given to him. The assistance which the Romans themselves rendered is of questionable value, as at first the generals appointed to assist him would only act just as money induced them; and under pretence that the forces wanted provisions, ravaged the country in such a manner as was well calculated to render his cause odious to the Jews. One good service to the land was performed in the extirpation of the numerous bands of robbers which infested Galilee, dwelling chiefly in the caverns of the hill country, and which were so numerous as sometimes to give battle to the troops in the open field. They were, however, pursued with fire and sword, in all their difficult retreats, and after great numbers had been slain, the rest sought refuge beyond Jordan.
JERUSALEM TAKEN BY SIEGE AND STORM
The arrival of Anthony in Syria enabled Herod to obtain more efficient assistance than before; and, after having subdued the open country, he, with his Roman auxiliaries, sat down before Jerusalem. During this siege he consummated his marriage with Mariamne, to whom he had four years before been betrothed. He was not only passionately attached to this lady, but he hoped that the affinity thus contracted with the Hasmonean family, which was still very popular among the Jews, would conciliate the people to his government. The city held out for six months, whereby the Romans were so greatly exasperated that when at last (B.C. 27) they took it by storm, they plundered the town and massacred the inhabitants without mercy. Herod complained that they were going to make him king of a desert; and paid down a large sum of money to induce them to desist. Antigonus surrendered himself in rather a cowardly manner to the Roman general (Sosius), and, throwing himself at his feet, besought his clemency with so much abjectness, that the Roman repelled him with contempt, addressing him by the name of Antigona, as if unworthy a man's name. He sent him to Anthony, who at first intended to reserve him for his triumph; but, being assured by Herod that while Antigonus lived the Jews generally would not acknowledge himself as king, or cease to raise disturbances on his behalf and this representation being backed by a sum of money, Anthony put him to death at Antioch, by the rods and the axe of the lictor[412] --an indignity which the Romans had never before inflicted upon a crowned head. Thus ignominiously ended the dynasty of the Hasmoneans, one hundred and twenty-six years after its glorious commencement. Herod commenced his reign by cutting off all the heads of the Hasmonean party, not only to secure himself in the throne, but, by the confiscation of their property, to enrich his coffers, which were well exhausted by his profuse expenditure, and by the rapacity of the Romans. In this process all the members of the Sanhedrin perished, except Pollio and Sameas, which last, it will be remembered, had predicted this result. The ground on which they were spared was, that they alone had counselled submission to the course of events, by surrendering the city to Herod; whereas the others were constantly encouraging each other and the citizens in the now vain expectation that Jehovah would, as of old, interpose for the deliverance of his temple.[413]
[412] An officer that carried an ax and rods as insignia of his position. He would attend the chief magistrates when they were in public, clearing the way, enforcing respect, catching and punishing criminals
[413] This Pollio and Sameas of Josephus are the famous Hillel and Shammai of the Rabbinical writers--two of the most eminent of the ancient doctors of the nation. Hillel was of the royal line of David, being descended from Shephatiah, David's son by Abital (1 Chronicles 3:3). He was born in Babylonia, and came to Jerusalem in the fortieth year of his age; and for his eminence in the study of the law, he was appointed president of the Sanhedrin, forty years after, in the eightieth year of his age, and held that high station for forty years more; and it continued in his family to the tenth generation. He was succeeded by Simeon, supposed to be the same who took Christ in his arms when he was presented in the temple (Luke 2:22-35). His son Gamaliel was president of the Sanhedrin when Peter and the apostles were summoned before them (Acts 5:34); “at whose feet” the Apostle Paul was “brought up,” or educated, in the sect and discipline of the Pharisees (Acts 23:3). He lived until within eighteen years of the destruction of Jerusalem, and in the Jewish writings is distinguished by the title of Gamaliel the Old. He was succeeded by Simeon II, who perished in the destruction of Jerusalem. His son was Gamaliel II, and his again Simeon III. He was succeeded by his son, the celebrated R. Judah Hakkadosh, or “the holy,” who committed the traditional law to writing, in the Mishna. His son and successor was Gamaliel III; after him Judah Gemaricus; after him Hillel II, the ingenious compiler of the present Jewish Calendar, A.D. 358.
Shammai had been a disciple of Hillel, and approached the nearest to him in learning and eminence of all the Mishnical doctors. He was vice-president of the Sanhedrin, and disagreed in several points with his master Hillel was of a mild and conciliatory temper; but Shammai of an angry and fierce spirit. Hence proceeded violent disputes and contests between the two schools, which at length ended in bloodshed. At last they were allayed by a fictitious Bath Col, or voice from heaven, deciding to favor of Hillel, to which the school of Shammai submitted. See Hales, ii. 593. Persons acquainted with the matters in controversy between the schools of Hillel and Shammai will find various marked allusions to them in the Gospels, and although less frequently, in the Epistles.
ANANEL THEN ARISTOBULUS MADE HIGH PRIESTS
Herod, sensible that the Jews would not tolerate his own assumption of the high-priesthood in the room of Antigonus, designed to render that office politically insignificant, and therefore appointed it to Ananel of Babylon, an obscure priest, although descended from the ancient high-priests, and who was entirely without influence or connections to render him dangerous (B.C. 36). This appointment occasioned confusion in his own family; for Mariamne his wife, and Alexandra her mother, took umbrage at the exclusion of her brother Aristobulus--the same youth for whose brows he had originally designed the diadem which he had himself been induced to assume. Mariamne was constantly harassing him on the subject; and her mother Alexandra, a woman of great spirit, went much further, for she complained to Cleopatra, queen of Egypt, by letter, and had begun to engage the interest of Anthony himself in the matter, when Herod saw that it was necessary to his domestic peace and public safety that he should depose Ananel and promote Aristobulus to his office, who was then but seventeen years of age. He was, however, so seriously displeased at the bold step which Alexandra had taken, that he ordered her to be confined in her own palace, and placed around her some of his confidential servants to watch all her movements. She wrote to Cleopatra, complaining of this treatment, and in reply was advised to make her escape to Egypt. Accordingly she arranged that herself and Aristobulus should be placed in two coffins, and carried by attached servants to the seacoast, where a ship was waiting to receive them. But their flight was intercepted by Herod, whom, however, the fear of Cleopatra prevented from treating them with harshness. He, however, secretly resolved to put Aristobulus out of the way, as a person whose influence he had great reason to dread.
ARISTOBULUS DROWNED
This intention was strengthened when he perceived how dangerously the discharge of his functions brought under the admiring notice of the Jews this beautiful fragment of the Maccabean race, in which they were delighted to trace out the noble qualities and lineaments by which that race had been distinguished. At the feast of tabernacles Aristobulus officiated at the altar in the splendid robes of the high-priest, which set off to such advantage the angelic grace and beauty of his youthful person, that the Jews could not contain themselves, but gave vent to the most lively demonstrations of their admiration and love. This sealed his doom. Soon after, Herod engaged Aristobulus, with suitable companions of his own age, in a variety of sports and entertainments at Jericho. Among other things they bathed in a lake, where the young men kept immersing Aristobulus, as if in sport, until he was drowned. Loud were the lamentations of Herod at this most unhappy “accident.” By these, and by the grand funeral with which he honored the remains of Aristobulus, and by the trophies with which he surcharged his tomb, he sought to disguise from the people the real character of this transaction. But they were not deceived. The deed inspired the whole nation with hatred and horror, which even his own family shared. As to Alexandra, her emotions were so overpowering that only the hope of vengeance enabled her to live.
HYRCANUS RETURNS TO JERUSALEM
Old Hyrcanus was at this time in Jerusalem. He had been, and might have remained, very happily situated at Seleucia, where he was treated by the Jews in that quarter, who were more numerous and more wealthy than those of Judea, as their king and high-priest; in which point of view he was also considered and respected by the Parthian king. But when the fears and suspicions of Herod extended even to him, and, desiring to get him into his power, he sent, and invited him to come and spend the evening of his days in his own land, and with his own family, and engaged the Parthian king to permit him to do so--Hyrcanus, who liked Herod, and had great confidence in his gratitude, could not be dissuaded by the earnest remonstrances and entreaties of his eastern friends; but returned to Jerusalem, where he was well received, and until a more convenient season, treated by Herod with attention and respect.
CLEOPATRA GIVEN COELE-SYRIA
Anthony was now again in Syria, and on his arrival had invited Cleopatra to join him at Laodicea. Alexandra again applied to Cleopatra; and she took much interest in the matter--not from any strong natural feelings--for she had herself committed crimes as great, but in the hope of inducing Anthony to add Judea to her dominions if Herod were disgraced. She therefore brought the affair under the notice of Anthony; and as he could not but remember that Herod had originally sought for the murdered youth the crown he now wore himself, he was induced to summon him to Laodicea to answer for his conduct. Herod was obliged to obey, and was not without anxiety for the result. He however took care so to propitiate Anthony beforehand, by the profusion of his gifts, that on his arrival he was immediately acquitted, and the avarice of Cleopatra was in some degree appeased by the assignment of Coele-Syria to her, in lieu of Judea, of which she had always been, and soon again became covetous, B.C. 34.
HEROD HAS MARITAL PROBLEMS
Before his departure from Jerusalem, Herod, uncertain of the result, had left private instructions with his uncle Joseph (who had married his sister Salome) to put Mariamne to death in case he was condemned, for he knew that Anthony had heard much of her extreme beauty, and feared that he might take her to himself, after his death. Joseph had the great imprudence to divulge this secret to Mariamne herself, representing it, however, as resulting from the excess of her husband's love to her. But she rather regarded it as a proof of so savage a nature, that she conceived an unconquerable repugnance toward him. Soon after a rumor came that he had been put to death by Anthony; on which Alexandra, who was now also acquainted with the barbarous orders left with Joseph, was preparing to seek protection with the Roman legion stationed in the city, when letters from Herod himself, announcing his acquittal and speedy return, induced them to relinquish their design. The firebrand of the family was Salome, the sister of Herod, and she failed not to apprize her brother of this intention, as well as to insinuate that too close an intimacy had subsisted between Mariamne and Joseph. Salome had been, it seems, provoked to hatred of this highborn lady, by the hauteur[414] with which she had been looked down upon and treated as an inferior by her. Although struck with jealousy, the king allowed his deep love for Mariamne to subdue him, when all her beauty shone once more upon him. He could only bring himself to question her gently, and was satisfied from her answers, and from the conscious innocence of her manner, that she had been maligned. Afterward, while assuring her of the sincerity and ardor of his love toward her, she tauntingly reminded him of the proof of that which he had given in his orders to Joseph. This most imprudent disclosure rekindled all the jealousy of Herod. Convinced that the charge which he had heard was true, he flung her from his arms; Joseph he ordered to be put to death, without admitting him to his presence; and although his love for Mariamne at this time restrained his rage against her, he put her mother Alexandra into custody, as the cause of all these evils.
[414] Haughty manner, arrogance
HEROD REPELS CLEOPATRA'S INTRIGUES
The disgraceful history of Anthony in Egypt is familiar to the reader; and it is only needful to advert to one or two points in which Herod and Palestine were more or less involved.
In B.C. 33 Jerusalem was “honored” with a visit from Cleopatra, on her return from the banks of the Euphrates, whither she had accompanied Anthony on his Armenian expedition. Before this she had succeeded in persuading Anthony--although he steadily refused wholly to sacrifice Herod to her ambition--to give her the fertile territories around Jericho, the celebrated balsam afforded by which, together with the palm-tees in which it abounded, furnished a considerable revenue, the deprivation of which could not but have given great offence to Herod. The means which this abandoned woman used, during her stay at Jerusalem, to bring the king under the spell of those fascinations for which, more than for her beauty, she was celebrated, added, in his mind, disgust and contempt to the sense of wrong; and although he received and entertained her with the most sedulous attention and apparent respect, he had it seriously in consideration whether, seeing she was wholly in his power, he could safely compass the death of one who had more than once endeavored to accomplish his own. The dread of Anthony's vengeance deterred him, and he conducted the queen with honor to the frontiers of her own kingdom, after having endeavored to propitiate her cupidity by ample gifts. But nothing could satiate her thirst for gain and aggrandizement, and her plots to gain possession of Judea were continued, and could hardly have been defeated by a less accomplished master in her own arts than Herod “the Great.” One time she engaged Anthony to commit to him a hazardous war on her account with the Arabian king reigning in Petra, calculating that the death of either of them would enable her to appropriate his dominions. Herod gained one battle; but he lost another through the defection of the Egyptian general at a critical moment of the conflict. Herod was, however, ultimately successful, and won great honor by a signal and effective victory, which brought the Arabians of Seir under his dominion.
EARTHQUAKE AND ANTHONY DEFEATED BY OCTAVIUS
The same year (B.C. 31) had opened with an earthquake so tremendous as had never before been known in Judea: it is said that not fewer than thirty thousand persons were either swallowed up in the chasms which opened in the earth, or destroyed by the fall of their houses. The confusion and loss which this calamity occasioned greatly troubled the king, and not long after he found (as far as his own interests were concerned) a more serious matter of anxiety in the result of the battle of Actium (Sept. 2d., B.C. 31), when Octavius obtained a decided victory over Anthony, who fled to Egypt, as his last retreat. Herod did not exhibit any blameworthy alacrity in abandoning the patron of his fortunes. He sent by a special messenger to exhort him to put to immediate death the woman who had been his ruin, seize her treasures and kingdom, and thus obtain means of raising another army, with which either once more to contend for empire, or at least to secure a more advantageous peace than he could otherwise expect. But finding that Anthony paid no heed to this proposal, and neglected his own offers of service, he thought it was high time to take care of himself, by detaching his fortunes from one whose utter ruin he saw to be inevitable. Therefore when Octavius, early in B.C. 30, had come to Rhodes, on his way to Egypt, he went thither to him.
HYRCANUS EXECUTED BY HEROD
But before his departure he made such arrangements as showed, after his own peculiar manner, the sense he entertained of the serious importance of the present contingencies. He placed his mother, sister, wives, and children, in the strong fortress of Masada, under the care of his brother Pheroras. But seeing that Mariamne and her mother Alexandra could not agree with his mother and sister, he placed them separately in the fortress of Alexandrium, under the care of a trusty Idumean named Sohemus, with secret orders to put them both to death, if Octavius should treat him harshly; and that, in concurrence with Pheroras, he should endeavor to secure the crown for his children. And, fearful that the existence and presence of Hyrcanus might suggest the obvious course of deposing himself and restoring the original occupant of the throne, he was glad of the opportunity of putting him to death, with the faint show of justice which might be derived from the detected design of the old man (instigated by his daughter Alexandra), to make his escape to the Arabian king Malchus, the most active of Herod's foreign enemies, and the son of that king Aretas who had formerly invaded Judea for the purpose of restoring Hyrcanus to the throne which his brother had usurped. Hyrcanus was eighty years of age when he was thus made to experience the heartless ingratitude of the man who owed life and all things to his favor.
HEROD RETAINS CROWN UNDER OCTAVIUS
On his arrival at Rhodes, Herod conducted himself with the tact of no common man. When admitted to an audience he frankly acknowledged all he had done for Anthony, and all he would still have done had his services been accepted. He even stated the last counsel which he had given to that infatuated man; and having thus enabled Octavius to judge how faithful he was to his friends, he offered him that friendship which the conduct of Anthony left him free to offer. Octavius was charmed by this manly frankness; and, mindful of Antipater's services to Julius Caesar, and of the part which he had himself taken in placing Herod on the throne, his overtures were received with pleasure, and he was directed again to take up and wear on his head the diadem which he had laid aside when he entered the presence. By this significant intimation he was confirmed in his kingdom; and then and after he was treated with a degree of consideration not usually paid to tributary kings.
HEROD MURDERS WIFE MARIAMNE
Meanwhile Mariamne had, by her address, managed to extract from Sohemus the acknowledgment of the last directions concerning her which he had received from Herod. The consequence was that although she concealed her knowledge of the fact, she received him on his return with coldness and dislike, which offended him highly; and, presuming on the depth of his affection for her, she continued long to maintain a degree of haughtiness and reserve which greatly aggravated his displeasure. After Herod had been fluctuating for a whole year between love and resentment, Mariamne one day brought matters to a crisis by her pointed refusal to receive his love, and by her upbraiding him with the murder of her grandfather and brother. Enraged beyond further endurance, Herod immediately ordered her confidential eunuch to be put to the torture, that he might discover the cause of her altered conduct; but the tortured wretch could only say that it probably arose from some communication which Sohemus had made to her. This hint sufficed; as he concluded that Sohemus must have been too intimate with her, or that he would not have revealed the secret with which he had been entrusted. Sohemus was immediately seized and put to death; Marianne herself was then accused by Herod of adultery before judges of his own selection, by whom she was condemned, but with a conviction that their sentence of death would not be executed. Neither would it, probably, but for the intervention of Cypros the mother of Herod, and Salome his sister, who, fearing he might relent, suggested that by delay occasion for a popular commotion in her favor might be given. She was therefore led to immediate execution, and met her death with the firmness which became her race, although assailed on the way by the violent and indecent reproaches of her own mother Alexandra, who now began to be seriously alarmed for her own safety. She, however, did not long escape; for when Herod fell sick the next year (B.C. 28), from the poignancy of his remorse and anguish at the loss of Marianne, she laid a plot for seizing the government; but it was disclosed to Herod by the officers whose fidelity she endeavored to corrupt, and he instantly ordered her to be put to death.
HEROD AWARDED EXTRA DISTRICTS
We must return to an earlier year, to notice that Octavius passed through Syria on his way to Egypt, and that Herod went to meet him at Ptolemais, where he entertained him and his army with the most profuse magnificence. Besides this he presented the emperor with eight hundred talents, and furnished large supplies of bread, wine, and other provisions, for the march through the desert, where the army might have been much distressed for the want of such necessaries. He accompanied the army himself through the desert to Pelusium. On the return of Octavius the same way, after the death of Anthony and Cleopatra, and the reduction of Egypt to the condition of a Roman province, he was received and entertained with the same truly royal liberality and magnificence, by which he was so gratified that, in return, he presented Herod with the four thousand Gauls who had formed the body-guard of Cleopatra, and also restored to him the districts and towns of which the principality had been divested by Pompey and Anthony.
OCTAVIUS BECOMES AUGUSTUS
In B.C. 27, four years after the battle of Actium, Octavius received from the flattery of the senate the name--or rather the title which became a name--of Augustus, and with it all the powers of the state. That he might not, however, seem to assume all the authority to himself, he divided the empire into two parts, the quiet and peaceable portions he assigned to the senate, to be governed by consular and praetorian officers; these were called senatorial; but the turbulent and insecure provinces which lay on the outskirts of the empire, he reserved for himself; these were called imperial, and were governed by presidents and procurators. This was one of the strokes of deep statesmanship which distinguish the history of Augustus Caesar, for under the appearance of leaving to the senate the most settled and easily governed provinces, he secured in his own hands the whole military power of the empire, which was necessarily stationed in the comparatively unsettled imperial provinces to retain them in subjection--such as Egypt, Syria, Phoenicia, Silicia, and Cyprus, in the east, and Spain in the west.
HEROD EXECUTES COSTABARUS
In the year B.C. 25, Herod found an opportunity of cutting off the last branch of the Hasmonean race. His turbulent sister Salome, having fallen out with her second husband Costabarus, the governor of Idumea and Gaza, she took the liberty of sending him a bill of divorce, in conformity with the Roman customs, but contrary to the Mosaical law and usage, which confined that privilege to her husband (Deuteronomy 24:1-2, etc., Matthew 5:31); and she then returned to her brother, before whom she cunningly ascribed her conduct to the fact that Costabarus, in conjunction with some chiefs of the Hasmonean party, had entered into a conspiracy against him. In proof of this, she stated that he kept to concealment the sons of Babas, whom Herod had, at the taking of Jerusalem, entrusted to him to be destroyed. The sons of Babas were found in the retreat indicated by Salome, and put to death; and, taking all the rest for granted, the king ordered Costabarus and his alleged associates to be immediately executed.
JEWS BEGIN REVOLTING AGAINST HEROD
The Hasmonean family being now extirpated, root and branch, and no person being in existence whose claims to the throne could be considered superior to his own, Herod ventured to manifest a greater disregard for the law of Moses, and more attachment to heathenish customs than he had previously deemed safe. He began by abolishing some of the ceremonies which the former required, and by introducing not a few of the latter. He then proceeded to build a magnificent theater in the city, and a spacious amphitheater in the suburbs, where he instituted public games, which were celebrated every fifth year in honor of Augustus. In order to draw the larger concourse on these occasions, proclamation of the approaching games were made, not only in his own dominions, but in neighboring provinces and distant kingdoms. Gladiators, wrestlers, and musicians, were invited from all parts of the world, and prizes of great value were proposed to the victors. These games, and more especially the combats between men and wild beasts, were highly displeasing to the Jews; who also viewed with a jealous eye the trophies with which the places of public entertainment were adorned, regarding them as coming within the interdiction of idolatrous images by the Mosaical law. In vain did Herod endeavor to overcome their dislike. Connected with other causes of discontent, old and new, it increased daily, and at last grew to such a height that ten of the most zealous malcontents, including one blind man, formed a conspiracy, and assembled, with daggers concealed under their garments, for the purpose of assassinating Herod when he entered the theater. They had brought their minds to a state of indifference to the result; for they were persuaded that if they failed, their death could not but render the tyrant more odious to the people, and thus equally work out the object they sought. Nor were they quite mistaken. Their design was discovered; and they were put to death with the most cruel tortures. But when the mob indicated their view of the matter--their hatred of himself, and sympathy with the intended assassins--by literally tearing the informer in pieces, and throwing his flesh to the dogs, Herod was exasperated to the uttermost. By torture, he compelled some women to name the principal persons who were concerned in this transaction, all of whom were hurried off to instant death together with their innocent families. This crowning act of savageness rendered the tyrant so perfectly detestable to his subjects, that be began very seriously to contemplate the possibility of a general revolt, and to take his measures accordingly. He built new fortresses and fortified towns throughout the land, and strengthened those that previously existed. In this he did more than the original inducement required; for Herod was a man of taste, and had quite a passion for building and improvements so that in the course of his long reign the country assumed a greatly improved appearance, through the number of fine towns and magnificent public works and buildings which he erected. In this respect there had been no king like him since Solomon; and if he could have reigned in peace, if domestic troubles, opposition from his subjects, and the connection with the Romans, had not called into active operation all the darker features of his character, it is easy to conceive that his reign might have been very happy and glorious.
HEROD'S BUILDING PROGRAM
He rebuilt Samaria, or rather completed the rebuilding of it which Gabinius had begun. His attention seems to have been drawn to its excellent site, and strong military position; and, from the magnificent scale on which it was restored, we conceive that he contemplated the possibility of withdrawing his court to it, in the very likely contingency of being unable to maintain himself at Jerusalem. He gave the completed city the name of Sebaste--the name, in Greek, of his great patron Augustus. He also built Gaba in Galilee, and Heshbon in Perea; besides many others which he called by the names of the different members of his own family--as, Antipatris, from the name of his father Antipater; Cypron, near Jericho, after his mother Cypros (who was descended from an Arabian family, although born at Ashkelon in Palestine); and Phasaelis, in the plains of Jericho, after his brother Phasael. In most of these cities he planted colonies of his foreign soldiers, to hold the country in subjection.
To extend his fame, Herod even built numerous splendid edifices, and made large improvements in cities beyond the limits of his own dominion--such as gymnasiums at Ptolemais, Tripolis, and Damascus; the city walls at Bibulus; porticoes, or covered walls, at Tyre, Beyrutus, and Antioch; bazars and theaters at Zidon and Damascus; an aqueduct at Laodicea on the sea; and baths, reservoirs, and porticoes, at Ashkelon. He also made groves in several cities; to others he made rich presents, or furnished endowments for the support of their games; and by such means his fame was widely spread in the Roman empire.
At Jerusalem Herod built himself a splendid palace, on Mount Zion, the site of the original fortress of Jebus, and of the citadel which had so much annoyed the Jews during the Maccabean wars. It was in the Grecian style of architecture, and two large and sumptuous apartments in it Herod named Caesareum, in honor of the emperor, and Agrippeum, after his favorite Agrippa.
We receive a better idea of the largeness of Herod's views, however, by his building the town and forming the harbor at what he named Caesarea. The site had formerly been marked by a castle called Strato's tower, on the coast between Dora and Joppa. Here he made the most convenient and safest port to be found on all the coast of Phoenicia and Palestine, by running out a vast semi-circular mole or breakwater, of great depth and extent, into the sea, so as to form a spacious and secure harbor against the stormy winds from the south and west, leaving only an entrance into it from the north. This soon became a noted point of departure from, and entrance into, Palestine; and, as such, is often mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles. It also acquired a new importance as the seat of government after Judea became an imperial province; Caesarea being then the usual residence of the procurator.
HEROD'S PROVISIONS IN FAMINE
In the year B.C. 22, the want of the usual rains in Syria and Palestine produced a severe famine, which was followed by a pestilence that carried off great multitudes of the people. Herod behaved nobly on this occasion. He exhausted his treasury and even the silver plate of his table in purchasing provisions from Egypt, and in buying wool for clothing, as most of the sheep of the country had been slaughtered in the dearth. This bounty was not confined to his own dominions, but extended to the neighboring Syrians. By this conduct so much of gratitude and kind feeling toward him was produced; as only the continued and growing tyranny of his subsequent reign could obliterate.
HEROD PREPARES TO MARRY ANOTHER MARIAMNE
The next year Herod contracted a marriage with another Mariamne, the daughter of the priest Simon. To pave the way for this alliance, the king removed the existing high-priest, Jesus the son of Phabet, and invested the father of Mariamne with that once high office. Herod next began to build a castle; which he called Herodium, on a small round hill, near the place where he repulsed the Parthians, under the cupbearer Pacorus, when they pursued him on his flight from Jerusalem. The situation and the protection which the castle offered were so inviting, that numbers of opulent people began to build themselves houses around, so that in a short time the spot was occupied by a fair city.
Oriental Builders

HEROD HONORED BY AUGUSTUS
About this time Herod might be deemed to have attained the summit of all his wishes. Strong in the favor of the emperor, he was feared, if not loved, by the people under his rule, and respected by the Roman governors and by the neighboring princes and kings. Of the favor and confidence of Augustus he received proofs which were of high value to him. As a reward for his services in clearing the country of robbers, the valuable districts of Trachonitis, Auranitis, and Batanea, beyond Jordan, were added to his dominion; and, what was perhaps more for his personal influence and honor, he was soon after named the emperor's procurator in Syria, and orders were given to the governor of that great province to undertake nothing of importance without his knowledge and advice. Herod also procured from the emperor the dignity of a tetrarch for his only surviving brother, Pheroras; for Herod himself had given him a territory in Perea beyond Jordan, with a revenue of one hundred talents, to order that he might live in a style suitable to his birth, without being dependant on the king's successor. As some acknowledgment for all these favors, Herod built a temple of white marble at Paneas (Banias, the sources of the Jordan), and dedicated it to Augustus. But this act, and others of a similar character, were so highly offensive to the Jews, that, to pacify them, Herod was obliged to remit a portion of their tribute.
HEROD PLANS TO REBUILD TEMPLE
It seems likely that the reflections made upon his conduct in building heathen temples first drew his attention to the condition of Jehovah'stemple at Jerusalem, which in the lapse of time had gone much out of repair, and had sustained great damage during the civil wars. He was then led to form the bold design of pulling it down and rebuilding it entirely on a more magnificent scale. To this he was induced not only from the magnificence of his ideas, his love of building, and the desire of fame, but also to conciliate the good opinion of his discontented subjects, and create a new interest in the continuance of his life and welfare.
Herod made his proposal in a general assembly of the people at Jerusalem, probably at the Passover, in the year B.C. 19, the eighteenth of his reign. The people were much startled by the offer. They recognized the grandeur of the undertaking, and the need and benefit of it; but they were fearful that, after he had taken down the old building, he might be unable or unwilling to build the new. To meet this objection, Herod undertook not to demolish the old temple until all the materials required for the new one were collected on the spot; and on these terms his offer was accepted with as much satisfaction as the Jews were capable of deriving from any of his acts. Herod kept his word. A thousand carts were speedily at work in drawing stones and materials; ten thousand of the most skilful workmen were brought together; and a thousand priests were so far instructed in masonry and carpentry as might enable them to expedite and superintend the work. After two years had been spent in these preparations, the old temple was pulled down, and the new one commenced in the year B.C. 17. And with such vigor was the work carried on, that the sanctuary, or, in effect, the proper temple, was finished in a year and a half, and the rest of the temple, containing the outer buildings, colonnades, and porticoes, in eight years more, so as to be then fit for divine service, according to the king's intention, B.C. 7. But the expense of finishing and adorning the whole continued to be long after carried on from the sacred treasury, until the fatal government of Gessius Florus, in the year A.D. 62. Hence, during the ministry of Christ (A.D. 28), the Jews said to him, “Forty and six years hath this temple been in building, and wilt thou erect it in three days?” (John 2:20.)
HEROD'S SONS
By the first Mariamne, Herod had two sons, Alexander and Aristobulus, whom he sent to be educated at Rome, where they remained three years, under the immediate inspection of Augustus, who had kindly lodged them in his own palace. Two years after the foundation of the temple, Herod went to Rome himself, to pay his respects to the emperor, and take back to Judea his sons, whose education was now complete. He was received with unusual friendliness by Augustus, and was entertained with much distinction during his stay. Soon after his return he married the elder of the brothers to Glaphyra, the daughter of Archelaus, king of Cappadocia, and the younger to Berenice, the daughter of his own notorious sister Salome. Now it happened that both the young men inherited a full share of the pride and hauteur of their mother Mariamne, and were disposed to look down upon all the connections of their father. That they ever entertained any designs against him is not probable, but it is very probable, from their conduct, that apart from their respect for him, they deemed their right to the crown irrefragable, derived from their mother rather than from him, and, to point of fact, much greater than his own. By corrupting her own daughter, who was married to one of the brothers, Salome made herself acquainted with their more private sentiments, and learned that their sympathies leaned all to the side of their murdered mother, and that in their own domestic circles they spoke with strong abhorrence of the authors of her undeserved and untimely death, and lamented the various acts of cruelty of which their father had been guilty. This was enough to determine Salome to accomplish their ruin, as she saw clearly that if ever they possessed power, she was likely to suffer for the part she had taken in compassing the death of Mariamne. She was also envious of their popularity; for the very same feeling which inclined them to rest upon their connection with the Hasmonean dynasty, inclined the Jews to regard them with peculiar interest and favor as the last relics of that illustrious house. Salome therefore took every occasion of prejudicing Herod against his sons, and of turning his paternal love and pride into jealousy and dislike. To this end indeed, little more was needed than to make known to him, with some exaggeration, the true state of their feelings.
The first measure which Herod took to check the pride of the two brothers was, three years after his return (B.C. 13), to bring to court his eldest son Antipater, whom he had by his first wife Doris, while he was in a private station, and whom he had divorced on his marriage with Mariamne. But this measure, intended to teach them wholesome caution, only operated in provoking Alexander and Aristobulus to greater discontent and more intemperate language than before. In fact, they had almost insensibly become the heads of the Hasmonean party, still very powerful in the country, and were urged on by the necessities of that position, and by the conviction that the popular feeling was entirely on their side. As to Antipater, he had all the ambition of his father with all the artfulness of his aunt. Openly, he seemed to advocate the cause of the brothers, and to extenuate their indiscretions, while he took care to surround the king with persons who reported to him all their sayings with the most invidious aggravations. By this means the affection with which Herod had regarded the brothers, not only for their own noble qualities, but for their mother's sake, was alienated from them, and fixed upon Antipater. Him, the father at length recommended to Augustus as his successor, and obtained from him authority to leave the crown to him in the first instance, and afterward to the sons of Mariamne, B.C. 11.
The curious reader will find in Josephus a full account of all the various plots which were laid by Antipater, assisted by his aunt Salome and his uncle Pheroras, to bring about the destruction of the young princes. This they at last effected by a false charge that they designed to poison their father. On this, he brought them to trial before a council held at Beyrutus, at which the Roman governors Saturnius and Volumnius presided, and where Herod pleaded in person against his sons with such vehemence that he, with some difficulty, procured their condemnation, although nothing could be clearly proved against them but an intention to withdraw to some foreign country, where they might live in peace. The time and the mode of putting the sentence into execution were left to the king's own discretion. This was not until he came to Sebaste, where, in a fit of rage, produced in the same manner, and through the same agencies as his previous treatment of these unfortunate young men, he ordered them to be strangled, B.C. 6. In these two unfortunate brothers the noble family of the Hasmoneans may be said to have become utterly extinct.
HEROD OPENS DAVID'S TOMB
It was somewhat before this time that Herod, being greatly in want of money, bethought himself of opening the tomb of David, having probably heard the story of the treasure which the first Hyrcanus was reported to have found there. As might be expected, he discovered nothing but the royal ornaments with which the king had been buried.
JOHN THE BAPTIST IS BORN
In the spring of the year B.C. 5 the birth of the great harbinger, John the Baptist, announced the approach of One greater than he, whose sandal-thong he, thereafter, declared himself unworthy to loose.
CENSUS AND SYRIAN TAX
At and for some time before the date to which we are now arrived, the relations of Herod with Rome had become more unpleasant than at any former period. Not long before he put Alexander and Aristobulus to death Herod had a quarrel with Obadas king of Arabia, which led him to march some troops into that country, and to the defeat of the banded robbers, against whom chiefly he acted, and of a party of Arabs who came to their relief. This affair was reported to Augustus in such a manner as raised his wrath against Herod; and attending only to the fact that Herod had marched a military force into Arabia, which Herod's friends could not deny, he, without inquiring into the provocation and circumstances, wrote to Herod a very severe letter, the substance of which was, that he had hitherto treated him as a friend, but should henceforth treat him as a subject. Herod sent an embassy to clear himself; but Augustus repeatedly refused to listen to them; and so the king was obliged for a time to submit to all the injurious treatment which the emperor thought proper to inflict. The chief of these was the degrading his kingdom to a Roman province. For soon after, Josephus incidentally mentions, that “the whole nation took an oath of fidelity to Caesar and to the king jointly, except six thousand of the Pharisees, who, through their hostility to the regal government, refused to take it, and were fined for their refusal by the king; but the wife of his brother Pheroras paid the fine for them.” As this was shortly before the death of Pheroras himself, it coincides with the time of this decree for the enrollment of which St. Luke (Luke 2:1) makes mention; and we may therefore certainly infer that the oath was administered at the same time, according to the usage of the Roman census, in which a return of persons' ages and properties was required to be made upon oath, under penalty of the confiscation of the goods of the delinquents. And the reason for registering ages was, that among the Syrians, males from fourteen years of age and females from twelve, until their sixty-fifth year, were subject to a capitation or poll-tax, by the Roman law. This tax was two drachmae a head, or half a stater, equal to thirty cents of our money.[415]
[415] See the case of Christ, and Peter afterward, where “a stater,” the amount for both, was procured by miracle. Matthew 17:24-27.
Cyrenius, a Roman senator and procurator, or collector of the emperor's revenue, was employed to make the enrollment. This person, whom Tacitus calls Quirinus, and describes as “an active soldier and rigid commissioner,”[416] was well qualified for an employment so odious to Herod and to his subjects, and probably came to execute the decree with an armed force. By the wary policy of the Romans, to prevent insurrection as well as to expedite business, all were required to repair to their own cities. Even in Italy the consular edict commanded the Latin citizens not to be enrolled at Rome, but all in their own cities. And this precaution was of course more necessary in such turbulent provinces as Judea and Galilee.[417]
[416] Impiger militiae et acribus ministeriis.
[417] For this clear view of the somewhat perplexed subject of the Census alluded to by St. Luke, we are indebted to Dr. Hales, from whose excellent “Analysis of Chronology” we have, indeed, obtained much and various aid in the present history.
JESUS IS BORN
The decree was peremptory, and admitted of no delay: therefore, in the autumn of the year 5 of the popular era Before Christ,[418] a carpenter of Nazareth in Galilee, by name Joseph, journeyed with his wife Mary, although she was then large with child, to Bethlehem in Judea, that being their paternal city, as they were both “of the race and lineage of David.” They were not among the first comers, and the place was so thronged that they could not find room even in the lodging-room's of the caravanserai of Bethlehem, but were obliged to seek shelter in the stables of the same. Here the woman was taken in labor, and gave birth to a male child. That child, thus humbly born, was the long-promised “Desire of Nations,” the “Savior” of the World”--JESUS CHRIST. Nor did he come sooner than he was expected. The Jews expected anxiously, and from day to day, the Great Deliverer of whom their prophets had spoken; and the precise fore-calculations of the prophet Daniel had given them to know that the time of his coming was near. This indeed partly explains the uneasy relations between Herod and his subjects; and the distaste of the latter to the kingship which he had taken. For they wanted no king, until their king Messiah should come to take the throne of his father David, and lead them forth, conquering and to conquer, breaking the nations in pieces as an iron rod breaks the vessels of the potter, and bringing all the Gentiles to their feet. Full of these magnificent ideas of their king Messiah, they failed to recognize the promised Deliverer, in One who came to deliver them, not from the Romans--but from their sins; whose kingdom was not to be of this world--and whose reign, not over lands and territories, but in the hearts of men.
[418] That the birth of Christ is thus given to the autumn of the year five before Christ, is an apparent anomaly, which may require a few words of explanation. The Era of the Birth of Christ was not to use until A.D. 532 in the time of Justinian, when it was introduced by Dionysius Exiguus, a Scythian by birth, and a Roman abbot; and which only began to prevail in the West about the time of Charles Martel and Pope Gregory II, A.D. 730. It has long been agreed by all chronologers that Dionysius made a mistake in placing the birth of Christ some years too late; but the amount of the difference has been variously estimated, at two, three, four, five, or even eight years. The most general conclusion is that which is adopted in our Bibles, and which places the birth of Christ four years before the common era, or more probably a few months more, according to the conclusion of Hales, which we have deemed it proper to adopt. The grounds of this conclusion are largely and ably stated in the Analysis, vol. i., p. 83-93. As to the day--it appears that the 25th of December was not fixed upon till the time of Constantine, in the fourth century, although there was an early tradition in its favor. It is probable that it really took place about or at the Feast of Tabernacles (say the autumnal equinox) of B.C. 5, or at the Passover (say the vernal equinox) of B.C. 4. The former is the opinion of Hales and others, and the latter of Archbishop Usher and our Bibles.
Nor was he expected only by the Jews. He was the “Desire of Nations.” There were strong pulsations of the universal heart, in expectation of some great change, of the advent of some distinguished personage who should bring in a new order of things, of some kind or other, and who should work such deeds and establish such dominion as never before existed. It was even expected that this great personage should issue from Judea; an expectation which was probably derived from the more distinct anticipations of the Jews, if not partly from a remote glimpse at the meaning of those prophecies which referred to Messiah, and which many educated persons must have read in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures. But the expectations which the nations entertained were, like those of the Jews, connected with dreams of a universal temporal empire, which the expected Messiah was to establish. As, however, they had not the strong national interest in the expectation of a conquering king, they clung with less tenacity than the Jews to this notion of his functions, although, blinded by it, they, were for a while as unable as the Hebrews to recognize the Anointed of God in the infant of Bethlehem.
BETHLEHEM BABIES MURDERED
The prevalence and character of this expectation account for the watchfulness of Herod, and for the horrible promptitude with which he ordered the massacre of all the infants of Bethlehem as soon as the inquiries of the Parthian magi gave him cause to suspect that the King of the Jews had been born there.
The census, which was begun by Cyrenius, was not completed to the extent originally contemplated, for Herod found means to disabuse Augustus of the impression under which he had acted, and was restored to the imperial favor and confidence. To make him some amends the emperor was disposed to have consigned to him the forfeited kingdom of the Nabateans; but the painful disagreements and atrocities in the family of Herod were about the same time brought so conspicuously under his notice, that, with his usual sagacity, he doubted the wisdom of committing the conquest and government of a new kingdom to an old man who had proved himself incapable of ruling his own house.
HEROD DIVORCES AGAIN
We have before incidentally mentioned the part which was taken by the wife of Pheroras, in paying the fines of the Pharisees, who refused to take the oath required of all the people. In consequence of this, many of that powerful body began to whisper that God would give the kingdom to Pheroras; on which account Herod caused several Pharisees and some members of his own family to be executed. Further, regarding the wife of Pheroras as the cause of all this trouble, he very peremptorily required him to divorce her. His brother replied that nothing but death should separate him from his wife, and retired in disgust to Perea, in his own territory beyond Jordan. Thus was quite destroyed the good understanding which had for so many years subsisted between the two brothers. Blinded by resentment, Pheroras readily came into the plans of Antipater: and between them it was settled that Herod should be taken off by poison; that Antipater should sit on his throne; and that meanwhile he should contrive to be sent to Rome, to preclude any suspicion of his part in the transaction. This plot would probably have succeeded but for the death of Pheroras himself, which led to the discovery of the whole, and even made known to Herod the part which Antipater had taken in compassing the death of the two sons of the first Mariamne. It appeared also that the second Mariamne was a party in this conspiracy, in consequence of which she was divorced, the name of her son was struck out of the king's will, and her father, the high-priest Simon, was deposed from his office, which was given to Matthias the son of Theophilus. On these disclosures, Herod managed to get Antipater back from Rome, without allowing him to become acquainted with what had transpired. On his arrival he was formally accused before Quintilius Varus, the prefect of Syria, who was then at Jerusalem, and was imprisoned until the affair should have been submitted to the judgment of Augustus.
TEMPLE EAGLE DESTROYED
Meanwhile Herod, then in the sixty-ninth year of his age, fell ill of that grievous disease of which he died, and which, by some singular dispensation of Providence, appears to have been the peculiar lot of tyrannous and proud sovereigns, and which rendered him wretched in himself and a terror to all around him. A report got into circulation that his disease afforded no chance of his recovery, in consequence of which a dangerous tumult was excited by two celebrated doctors, named Judas and Matthias, who instigated their disciples to pull down and destroy a golden eagle of large size and exquisite workmanship, which had been placed over one of the gates of the temple. Scarcely had this rash act been completed, when the royal guards appeared and seized the two leaders and forty of their most zealous disciples. Some of them were burnt, and others executed in various ways by Herod's order. Being suspected of having privately encouraged the tumult, Matthias was deprived of his high-priesthood, and the office given to Joazar, the brother of his wife.
HEROD'S HEALTH FAILS
In the meantime the disease of Herod became more loathsome and intolerable. It appears to have been an erosion of the bowels and other viscera by worms, which occasioned violent spasms and the most exquisite tortures, until he at length became a mass of putrefaction. Experiencing no benefit from the warm baths of Calirrhoe beyond Jordan, he gave up all hopes of recovery, and after having distributed presents among his attendants and soldiers, he returned to Jericho. His sufferings were not likely to humanize his naturally savage disposition. He was convinced, by the recent outbreak, that his death would occasion no sorrow in Israel, and therefore, to oblige the nation to mourn at his death, he sent for the heads of the most eminent families in Judea, and confined them in prison, leaving orders with his sister Salome and her husband Alexas to put them all to death as soon as he should have breathed his last. This sanguinary design was, however, not executed by them.
HEROD DIES
At length Herod received full powers from Rome to proceed against his son Antipater. At this intelligence, the dying tyrant appeared to revive; but he soon after attempted suicide, and although prevented, the wailing cries, usual in such cases, were raised throughout the palace for him, as if he were actually dead. When Antipater, in his confinement heard these well-known lamentations, he attempted by large bribes to induce his guard to permit his escape; but he was so universally hated for procuring the death of the sons of Mariamne, that the guard made his offers known, and Herod ordered his immediate execution. On the fifth day after, Herod himself died, shortly before the Passover, in the seventieth year of his age, and the thirty-seventh from his appointment to the throne. Before his death was announced, Salome, as if by his order, liberated the nobles confined in the hippodrome, whose death she had been charged to execute, but dared not, had she been so inclined. His corpse, under the escort of his life-guard, composed of Thracians, Germans, and Gauls, was carried with great pomp to Herodium, and there buried.
HEROD'S TEN WIVES
Herod had ten wives, two of whom bore him no children, and whose names history has not preserved. As it is of some importance to understand clearly the combinations of relationship among his descendants by these different wives, the details in the note below will not be unacceptable to the reader.[419]
[419] The wives of Herod “the Great” were--
I Doris, the mother of Antipater.
II. Mariamne, the daughter of Alexandra. She had--
1. Alexander, who married Glaphyra, the daughter of the king of Cappadocia, by whom he had--Tigraues, king of Armenia, and Alexander, who married a daughter of Antiochus king of Comagene.
2. Aristobulus, who married Berenice the daughter of Salome, the sister of Herod, by whom he had--Herod, king of Chalcis, who married, first, Mariamne, the daughter of Olympias (sister of Archelaus the ethnarch); and afterward his niece Berenice, by whom he had Aristobulus, Berenicicus, and Hyrcanus. The eldest of these, Aristobulus, married Salome (she whose dancing cost John the Baptist his head), then the widow of the tetrarch Philip, by whom he had Agrippa, Herod, and Aristobulus. Agrippa I, king of the Jews, who married Cypros the daughter of (Mariamne's daughter) Salampso, by whom he had Drusius; Agrippa II, who was at first king of Chalcis, and afterward tetrarch of Trachonitis; Berenice, whose second husband was her uncle Herod, king of Chalcis; Mariamne, married first to Archelaus son of Chelcias, and afterward to Demetrius, alabarch of the Jews at Alexandria, by whom she had Berenice and Agrippa ; Drusilla, who was first married to Aziz, king of Emesa, and afterward to Felix the Roman procurator of Judea, by whom she had a son named Agrippa, who, with his wife, perished in the flames of Vesuvius. The third son of Aristobulus the son of Mariamne, was Aristobulus, who married Jotape, daughter to the king of Emesa: and there were two daughters. Herodias, who married, first, Herod (called Philip in the Gospels), son of Herod the Great by the second Mariamne, by whom she had Salome (the dancer), and afterward to his half-brother Herod Antipas, the tetrarch of Galilee--both her uncles. Mariamne, who married her uncle Antipater.
3. The third son of Mariamne was Herod, who died young while at his studies in Rome. Mariamne had also two daughters--
4. Salampso, who married her cousin Phasael, after having been promised to Pheroras.
5. Cypros, who married Antipater, the son of Salome, sister of Herod the Great.
III. Herod's third wife was Pallas, by whom he had a son, Phasael.
IV. Phaedra, who had a daughter called Roxana, married to a son of Pheroras.
V. Mariamne, daughter of the high-priest Simon. Herod had by her--Herod-Philip, the first husband of Herodias, by whom he had Salome (the dancing lady), whose first husband was Philip, and her second Aristobulus, the son of Herod king of Chalcis.
VI. Malthace, a Samaritan woman, who was mother to Archelaus the ethnarch of Judea, and Herod Antipas, the tetrarch of Galilee, who married first a daughter of the Arabian king Aretas, whom he put away, and took Herodias, the wife of his brother Herod-Philip, who was still living. Malthace had also a daughter, Olympias, who married Joseph, a nephew to Herod the Great.
VII. Cleopatra, who was the mother of Herod and Philip, tetrarch of Trachonitis, which last married the noted Salome, daughter of Herod-Philip and Herodias.
VIII. Elphis had a daughter called Salome, married to a son of Pheroras.
ARCHELAUS MADE GOVERNOR, JUDAH IS MADE A PROVINCE
Herod was succeeded in the kingdom of Judea by his son Archelaus, whose evil conduct so displeased the Romans, that they reduced Judea to the form of a Roman province, ruling it by procurators or governors, sent and recalled at their pleasure; the power of life and death was taken out of the hands of the Jews, and vested in a Roman governor; and the taxes being gathered by the publicans, were paid more directly to the emperor.
HERODS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
As there are several Herods mentioned in the New Testament, it may not be amiss here to distinguish them, according to the best authority which can be obtained. 1. Herod the king of Judea (already noticed), who died while Christ was an infant (See Matthew 2:19). 2. His son, Herod Antipas, the tetrarch[420] of Galilee, who took away his brother Philip's wife, and beheaded John the Baptist (See Matthew 14:3-10). 3. That Herod who put the Apostle James to death, and was afterward smitten by the angel of the Lord with a strange and sudden death (See Acts 12:2, and ver. 20-23). Historians consider him the grandson of the first Herod, and the father of King Agrippa, before whom Paul made his defence. The almighty Disposer of all events, at whose nod empires rise and fall, and nations flourish or decay, marks with undeviating attention, and a retributive hand, not only the sins of a people, but the turpitude of those who profess to govern.
[420] The title and office of tetrarch had its origin from the Gauls, who having made an incursion into Asia Minor, succeeded to taking from the king of Bithynia that part of it which from them took the name of Galatia. The Gauls who made this invasion consisted of three tribes; and each tribe was divided into few parts, or tetrarchates, each of which obeyed its own tetrarch. The tetrarch was of course subordinate to the king. The appellation of tetrarch, which was thus originally applied to the chief magistrate of the fourth part of a tribe, subject to the authority of the king, was afterward extended in its application and given to any governors, subject to some king or emperor, without regard to the proportion of the people or tribe which they governed. Thus Herod Antipas and Philip were denominated tetrarchs, although they did not rule as much as the fourth part of the whole territory. Although these rulers were dependant upon the Roman emperor, they nevertheless governed the people within their jurisdiction according to their own choice and authority. They were, however, inferior in point of rank to the ethnarchs, who, although they did not publicly assume the name of king, were addressed with that title by their subjects, as was the case, for instance, with respect to Archelaus. (Matthew 2:22; Jos. Antiq. xvii. 11; 4.)