THE WARS OF THE JEWS
OR
THE HISTORY OF THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM
Book I: Chapter 10
CAESAR MAKES ANTIPATER PROCURATOR OF JUDEA; AS DOES
ANTIPATER APPOINT PHASAELUS TO BE GOVERNOR OF
JERUSALEM, AND HEROD GOVERNOR OF GALILEE; WHO, IN SOME
TIME, WAS CALLED TO ANSWER FOR HIMSELF [BEFORE THE
SANHEDRIM], WHERE HE IS ACQUITTED. SEXTUS CAESAR IS
TREACHEROUSLY KILLED BY BASSUS AND IS SUCCEEDED BY
MARCUS.
1. ABOUT this time it was that Antigonus, the
son of Aristobulus, came to Caesar, and became, in a
surprising manner, the occasion of Antipater’s further
advancement; for whereas he ought to have lamented
that his father appeared to have been poisoned on
account of his quarrels with Pompey, and to have
complained of Scipio’s barbarity towards his brother,
and not to mix any invidious passion when he was suing
for mercy; besides those things, he came before
Caesar, and accused Hyrcanus and Antipater, how they
had driven him and his brethren entirely out of their
native country, and had acted in a great many
instances unjustly and extravagantly with relation to
their nation; and that as to the assistance they had
sent him into Egypt, it was not done out of good-will
to him, but out of the fear they were in from former
quarrels, and in order to gain pardon for their
friendship to [his enemy] Pompey.
2. Hereupon Antipater threw away his garments, and
showed the multitude of the wounds he had, and said,
that as to his good-will to Caesar, he had no occasion
to say a word, because his body cried aloud, though he
said nothing himself; that he wondered at Antigonus’s
boldness, while he was himself no other than the son
of an enemy to the Romans, and of a fugitive, and had
it by inheritance from his father to be fond of
innovations and seditions, that he should undertake to
accuse other men before the Roman governor, and
endeavor to gain some advantages to himself, when he
ought to be contented that he was suffered to live;
for that the reason of his desire of governing public
affairs was not so much because he was in want of it,
but because, if he could once obtain the same,
he might stir up a sedition among the Jews, and use
what he should gain from the Romans to the disservice
of those that gave it him.
3. When Caesar heard this, he declared Hyrcanus to
be the most worthy ofthe high priesthood, and gave
leave to Antipater to choose what authority he
pleased; but he left the determination of such dignity
to him that bestowed the dignity upon him; so he was
constituted procurator of allJudea, and obtained
leave, moreover, to rebuild 12 those walls of his
country that had been thrown down. These honorary
grants Caesar sentorders to have engraved in the
Capitol, that they might stand there as indications of
his own justice, and of the virtue of Antipater.
4. But as soon as Antipater had conducted Caesar
out of Syria he returned to Judea, and the first thing
he did was to rebuild that wall of his own country
[Jerusalem] which Pompey had overthrown, and then to
go over the country, and to quiet the tumults that
were therein; where he partly threatened, and partly
advised, every one, and told them that in case they
would submit to Hyrcanus, they would live happily and
peaceably, and enjoy what they possessed, and that
with universal peace and quietness; but that in case
they hearkened to such as had some frigid hopes by
raising new troubles to get themselves some gain, they
should then find him to be their Lord instead of their
procurator; and find Hyrcanus to be a tyrant instead
of a king; and both the Romans and Caesar to be their
enemies, instead of rulers; for that they would not
suffer him to be removed from the government, whom
they had made their governor. And, at the same time
that he said this, he settled the affairs of the
country by himself, because he saw that Hyrcanus was
inactive, and not fit to manage the affairs of the
kingdom. So he constituted his eldest son, Phasaelus,
governor of Jerusalem, and of the parts about it; he
also sent his next son,Herod, who was very young, 13
with equal authority into Galilee.
5. Now Herod was an active man, and soon found
proper materials for hisactive spirit to work upon. As
therefore he found that Hezekias, the head of the
robbers, ran over the neighboring parts of Syria with
a great band of men, he caught him and slew him, and
many more of the robbers with him; which exploit was
chiefly grateful to the Syrians, insomuch that hymns
were sung in Herod’s commendation, both in the
villages and in the cities, as having procured their
quietness, and having preserved what they
possessed to them; on which occasion he became
acquainted with Sextus Caesar, a kinsman of the great
Caesar, and president of Syria. A just emulation of
his glorious actions excited Phasaelus also to imitate
him. Accordingly, he procured the good-will of the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, by his own management of the
city affairs, and did not abuse his power in any
disagreeable manner; whence it came to pass that the
nation paid Antipater the respects that were due only
to a king, and the honors they all yielded him were
equal to the honors due to an absolute Lord; yet did
he not abate any part of that good-will or fidelity
which he owed to Hyrcanus.
6. However, he found it impossible to escape envy
in such his prosperity; for the glory of these young
men affected even Hyrcanus himself already privately,
though he said nothing of it to any body; but what he
principally was grieved at was the great actions of
Herod, and that so many messengers came one before
another, and informed him of the great reputation he
got in all his undertakings. There were also many
people in the royal palace itself who inflamed his
envy at him; those, I mean, who were obstructed in
their designs by the prudence either of the young men,
or of Antipater. These men said, that by committing
the public affairs to the management of Antipater and
of his sons, he sat down with nothing but the bare
name of a king, without any of its authority; and they
asked him how long he would so far mistake himself, as
to breed up kings against his own interest; for that
they did not now conceal their government of affairs
any longer, but were plainly lords of the nation, and
had thrust him out of his authority; that this was the
case when Herod slew so many men without his giving
him any command to do it, either by word of mouth, or
by his letter, and this in contradiction to the law of
the Jews; who therefore, in case he be not a king, but
a private man, still ought to come to his trial, and
answer it to him, and to the laws of his country,
which do not permit any one to be killed till he hath
been condemned in judgment.
7. Now Hyrcanus was, by degrees, inflamed with
these discourses, and at length could bear no longer,
but he summoned Herod to take his trial. Accordingly,
by his father’s advice, and as soon as the affairs of
Galilee would give him leave, he came up to
[Jerusalem], when he had first placed garrisons in
Galilee; however, he came with a sufficient body of
soldiers, so many indeed that he might not appear to
have with him an army able to
overthrow Hyrcanus’s government, nor yet so few as
to expose him to the insults of those that envied him.
However, Sextus Caesar was in fear for the young man,
lest he should be taken by his enemies, and brought to
punishment; so he sent some to denounce expressly to
Hyrcanus that he should acquit Herod of the capital
charge against him; who acquitted him accordingly, as
being otherwise inclined also so to do, for he loved
Herod.
8. But Herod, supposing that he had escaped
punishment without the consent of the king, retired to
Sextus, to Damascus, and got every thing ready, in
order not to obey him if he should summon him again;
whereupon those that were evil-disposed irritated
Hyrcanus, and told him that Herod was gone away in
anger, and was prepared to make war upon him; and as
the king believed what they said, he knew not what to
do, since he saw his antagonist was stronger than he
was himself. And now, since Herod was made general of
Coelesyria and Samaria by Sextus Caesar, he was
formidable, not only from the good-will which the
nation bore him, but by the power he himself had;
insomuch that Hyrcanus fell into the utmost degree of
terror, and expected he would presently march against
him with his army.
9. Nor was he mistaken in the conjecture he made;
for Herod got his army together, out of the anger he
bare him for his threatening him with the accusation
in a public court, and led it to Jerusalem, in order
to throw Hyrcanus down from his kingdom; and this he
had soon done, unless his father and brother had gone
out together and broken the force of his fury, and
this by exhorting him to carry his revenge no further
than to threatening and affrighting, but to spare the
king, under whom he had been advanced to such a degree
of power; and that he ought not to be so much provoked
at his being tried, as to forget to be thankful that
he was acquitted; nor so long to think upon what was
of a melancholy nature, as to be ungrateful for his
deliverance; and if we ought to reckon that God is the
arbitrator of success in war, an unjust cause is of
more disadvantage than an army can be of advantage;
and that therefore he ought not to be entirely
confident of success in a case where he is to fight
against his king, his supporter, and one that had
often been his benefactor, and that had never been
severe to him, any otherwise than as he had hearkened
to evil counselors, and this no further than by
bringing a shadow of injustice upon him. So Herod was
prevailed upon by these arguments, and supposed that
what he had already done was sufficient for his
future hopes, and that he had enough shown his power
to the nation.
10. In the mean time, there was a disturbance among
the Romans about Apamia, and a civil war occasioned by
the treacherous slaughter of Sextus Caesar, by
Cecilius Bassus, which he perpetrated out of his
good-will to Pompey; he also took the authority over
his forces; but as the rest of Caesar’s commanders
attacked Bassus with their whole army, in order to
punish him for the murder of Caesar, Antipater also
sent them assistance by his sons, both on account of
him that was murdered, and on account of that Caesar
who was still alive, both of which were their friends;
and as this war grew to be of a considerable length,
Marcus came out of Italy as successor to Sextus.
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