THE WARS OF THE JEWS
OR
THE HISTORY OF THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM
Book I: Chapter 12
PHASAELUS IS TOO HARD FOR FELIX; HEROD ALSO
OVERCOMES ANTIGONUS IN RATTLE; AND THE JEWS ACCUSE
BOTH HEROD AND PHASAELUS BUT ANTONIUS ACQUITS THEM,
AND MAKES THEM TETRARCHS.
1. WHEN Cassius was gone out
of Syria, another sedition arose at Jerusalem, wherein
Felix assaulted Phasaelus with an army, that he might
revenge the death of Malichus upon Herod, by falling
upon his brother. Now Herod happened then to be with Fabius, the governor of Damascus, and as he was going
to his brother’s assistance, he was detained by
sickness; in the mean time, Phasaelus was by himself
too hard for Felix, and reproached Hyrcanus on account
of his ingratitude, both for what assistance he had
afforded Maliehus, and for overlooking Malichus’s
brother, when he possessed himself of the fortresses;
for he had gotten a great many of them already, and
among them the strongest of them all, Masada.
2. However, nothing could be sufficient for him
against the force of Herod, who, as soon as he was
recovered, took the other fortresses again, and drove
him out of Masada in the posture of a supplicant; he
also drove away Marion, the tyrant of the Tyrians, out
of Galilee, when he had already possessed himself of
three fortified places; but as to those Tyrians whom
he had caught, he preserved them all alive; nay, some
of them he gave presents to, and so sent them away,
and thereby procured good-will to himself from the
city, and hatred to the tyrant. Marion had indeed
obtained that tyrannical power of Cassius, who set
tyrants over all Syria16 and out of hatred to Herod it
was that he assisted Antigonus, the son of
Aristobulus, and principally on Fabius’s account, whom
Antigonus had made his assistant by money, and had him
accordingly on his side when he made his descent; but
it was Ptolemy, the kinsman of Antigonus, that
supplied all that he wanted.
3. When Herod had fought against these in the
avenues of Judea, he was conqueror in the battle, and
drove away Antigonus, and returned to Jerusalem,
beloved by every body for the glorious action he had
done; for those who did not before favor him did join
themselves to him now, because of his marriage into
the family of Hyrcanus; for as he had formerly married
a wife out of his own country of no ignoble blood, who
was called Doris, of whom he begat Antipater; so did
he now marry Mariamne, the daughter of Alexander, the
son of Aristobulus, and the granddaughter of Hyrcanus,
and was become thereby a relation of the king.
4. But when Caesar and Antony had slain Cassius
near Philippi, andCaesar was gone to Italy, and Antony
to Asia, amongst the rest of the cities which sent
ambassadors to Antony unto Bithynia, the great men of
the Jews came also, and accused Phasaelus and Herod,
that they kept the government by force, and that
Hyrcanus had no more than an honorable name. Herod
appeared ready to answer this accusation; and having
made Antony his friend by the large sums of money
which he gave him, he brought him to such a temper as
not to hear the others speak against him; and thus did
they part at this time.
5. However, after this, there came a hundred of the
principal men amongthe Jews to Daphne by Antioch to
Antony, who was already in love with Cleopatra to the
degree of slavery; these Jews put those men that were
the most potent, both in dignity and eloquence,
foremost, and accused the brethren. 17 But Messala
opposed them, and defended the brethren, and that
while Hyrcanus stood by him, on account of his
relation to them. When Antony had heard both sides, he
asked Hyrcanus which party was the fittest to govern,
who replied that Herod and his party were the fittest.
Antony was glad of that answer, for he had been
formerly treated in an hospitable and obliging manner
by his father Antipater, when he marched into Judea
with Gabinius; so he constituted the brethren
tetrarchs, and committed to them the government of
Judea.
6. But when the ambassadors had indignation at this
procedure, Antonytook fifteen of them, and put them
into custody, whom he was also going to kill
presently, and the rest he drove away with disgrace;
on which occasion a still greater tumult arose at
Jerusalem; so they sent again a thousand ambassadors
to Tyre, where Antony now abode, as he was
marching to Jerusalem; upon these men who made a
clamor he sent out the governor of Tyre, and ordered
him to punish all that he could catch of them, and to
settle those in the administration whom he had made
tetrarchs.
7. But before this Herod, and Hyrcanus went out
upon the sea-shore, and earnestly desired of these
ambassadors that they would neither bring ruin upon
themselves, nor war upon their native country, by
their rash contentions; and when they grew still more
outrageous, Antony sent out armed men, and slew a
great many, and wounded more of them; of whom those
that were slain were buried by Hyrcanus, as were the
wounded put under the care of physicians by him; yet
would not those that had escaped be quiet still, but
put the affairs of the city into such disorder, and so
provoked Antony, that he slew those whom he had in
bonds also.
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