THE WARS OF THE JEWS
OR
THE HISTORY OF THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM
Book I: Chapter 14
WHEN HEROD IS REJECTED IN ARABIA, HE MAKES HASTE TO
ROME WHERE ANTONY AND CAESAR JOIN THEIR INTEREST TO
MAKE HIM KING.
1. NOW Herod did the more zealously
pursue his journey into Arabia, as making haste to get
money of the king, while his brother was yet alive; by
which money alone it was that he hoped to prevail upon
the covetous temper of the barbarians to spare
Phasaelus; for he reasoned thus with himself,: — that
if the Arabian king was too forgetful of his father’s
friendship with him, and was too covetous to make him
a free gift, he would however borrow of him as much as
might redeem his brother, and put into his hands, as a
pledge, the son of him that was to be redeemed.
Accordingly he led his brother’s son along with him,
who was of the age of seven years. Now he was ready to
give three hundred talents for his brother, and
intended to desire the intercession of the Tyrians, to
get them accepted; however, fate had been too quick
for his diligence; and since Phasaelus was dead,
Herod’s brotherly love was now in vain. Moreover, he
was not able to find any lasting friendship among the
Arabians; for their king, Malichus, sent to him
immediately, and commanded him to return back out of
his country, and used the name of the Parthians as a
pretense for so doing, as though these had denounced
to him by their ambassadors to cast Herod out of
Arabia; while in reality they had a mind to keep back
what they owed to Antipater, and not be obliged to
make requitals to his sons for the free gifts the
father had made them. He also took the impudent advice
of those who, equally with himself, were willing to
deprive Herod of what Antipater had deposited among
them; and these men were the most potent of all whom
he had in his kingdom.
2. So when Herod had found that the Arabians were
his enemies, and thisfor those very reasons whence he
hoped they would have been the most friendly, and had
given them such an answer as his passion suggested, he
returned back, and went for Egypt. Now he lodged the
first evening at one of the temples of that country,
in order to meet with those whom he left
behind; but on the next day word was brought him,
as he was going to Rhinocurura, that his brother was
dead, and how he came by his death; and when he had
lamented him as much as his present circumstances
could bear, he soon laid aside such cares, and
proceeded on his journey. But now, after some time,
the king of Arabia repented of what he had done, and
sent presently away messengers to call him back: Herod
had prevented them, and was come to Pelusium, where he
could not obtain a passage from those that lay with
the fleet, so he besought their captains to let him go
by them; accordingly, out of the reverence they bore
to the fame and dignity of the man, they conducted him
to Alexandria; and when he came into the city, he was
received by Cleopatra with great splendor, who hoped
he might be persuaded to be commander of her forces in
the expedition she was now about; but he rejected the
queen’s solicitations, and being neither aftrighted at
the height of that storm which. then happened, nor at
the tumults that were now in Italy, he sailed for
Rome.
3. But as he was in peril about Pamphylia, and
obliged to cast out the greatest part of the ship’s
lading, he with difficulty got safe to Rhodes, a place
which had been grievously harassed in the war with
Cassius. He was there received by his friends, Ptolemy
and Sappinius; and although he was then in want of
money, he fitted up a three-decked ship of very great
magnitude, wherein he and his friends sailed to
Brundusium, 21 and went thence to Rome with all speed;
where he first of all went to Antony, on account of
the friendship his father had with him, and laid
before him the calamities of himself and his family;
and that he had left his nearest relations besieged in
a fortress, and had sailed to him through a storm, to
make supplication to him for assistance.
4. Hereupon Antony was moved to compassion at the
change that had been made in Herod’s affairs, and this
both upon his calling to mind how hospitably he had
been treated by Antipater, but more especially on
account of Herod’s own virtue; so he then resolved to
get him made king of the Jews, whom he had himself
formerly made tetrarch. The contest also that he had
with Antigonus was another inducement, and that of no
less weight than the great regard he had for Herod;
for he looked upon Antigonus as a seditious person,
and an enemy of the Romans; and as for Caesar, Herod
found him better prepared than Antony, as remembering
very fresh the wars he had gone through together with
his father, the
hospitable treatment he had met with from him, and
the entire good-will he had showed to him; besides the
activity which he saw in Herod himself. So he called
the senate together, wherein Messalas, and after him
Atratinus, produced Herod before them, and gave a full
account of the merits of his father, and his own
good-will to the Romans. At the same time they
demonstrated that Antigonus was their enemy, not only
because he soon quarreled with them, but because he
now overlooked the Romans, and took the government by
the means of the Parthians. These reasons greatly
moved the senate; at which juncture Antony came in,
and told them that it was for their advantage in the
Parthian war that Herod should be king; so they all
gave their votes for it. And when the senate was
separated, Antony and Caesar went out, with Herod
between them; while the consul and the rest of the
magistrates went before them, in order to offer
sacrifices, and to lay the decree in the Capitol.
Antony also made a feast for Herod on the first day of
his reign.
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