THE WARS OF THE JEWS
OR
THE HISTORY OF THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM
Book I: Chapter 17
THE DEATH OF JOSEPH [HEROD’S BROTHER] WHICH HAD
BEEN SIGNIFIED TO HEROD IN DREAMS. HOW HEROD WAS
PRESERVED TWICE AFTER A WONDERFUL MANNER. HE CUTS OFF
THE HEAD OF PAPPUS, WHO WAS THE MURDERER OF HIS
BROTHER AND SENDS THAT HEAD TO [HIS OTHER BROTHER]
PHERORAS, AND IN NO LONG TIME HE BESIEGES JERUSALEM
AND MARRIES MARIAMNE.
1. IN the mean time, Herod’s
affairs in Judea were in an ill state. He had left his
brother Joseph with full power, but had charged him to
make no attempts against Antigonus till his return;
for that Macheras would not be such an assistant as he
could depend on, as it appeared by what he had done
already; but as soon as Joseph heard that his brother
was at a very great distance, he neglected the charge
he had received, and marched towards Jericho with five
cohorts, which Macheras sent with him. This movement
was intended for seizing on the corn, as it was now in
the midst of summer; but when his enemies attacked him
in the mountains, and in places which were difficult
to pass, he was both killed himself, as he was very
bravely fighting in the battle, and the entire Roman
cohorts were destroyed; for these cohorts were
new-raised men, gathered out of Syria, and here was no
mixture of those called veteran soldiers among them,
who might have supported those that were unskillful in
war.
2. This victory was not sufficient for Antigonus;
but he proceeded to that degree of rage, as to treat
the dead body of Joseph barbarously; for when he had
got possession of the bodies of those that were slain,
he cut off his head, although his brother Pheroras
would have given fifty talents as a price of
redemption for it. And now the affairs of Galilee were
put in such disorder after this victory of
Antigonus’s, that those of Antigonus’s party brought
the principal men that were on Herod’s side to the
lake, and there drowned them. There was a great change
made also in Idumea, where Macheras was building a
wall about one of the fortresses, which was called
Gittha. But Herod had not yet been informed of these
things; for after the taking of Samosata, and when
Antony had set Sosius over the affairs of
Syria, and had given him orders to assist Herod
against Antigonus, he departed into Egypt; but Sosius
sent two legions before him into Judea to assist
Herod, and followed himself soon after with the rest
of his army.
3. Now when Herod was at Daphne, by Antioch, he had
some dreams which clearly foreboded his brother’s
death; and as he leaped out of his bed in a disturbed
manner, there came messengers that acquainted him with
that calamity. So when he had lamented this misfortune
for a while, he put off the main part of his mourning,
and made haste to march against his enemies; and when
he had performed a march that was above his strength,
and was gone as far as Libanus, he got him eight
hundred men of those that lived near to that mountain
as his assistants, and joined with them one Roman
legion, with which, before it was day, he made an
irruption into Galilee, and met his enemies, and drove
them back to the place which they had left. He also
made an immediate and continual attack upon the
fortress. Yet was he forced by a most terrible storm
to pitch his camp in the neighboring villages before
he could take it. But when, after a few days’ time,
the second legion, that came from Antony, joined
themselves to him, the enemy were aftrighted at his
power, and left their fortifications ill the night
time.
4. After this he marched through Jericho, as making
what haste he could to be avenged on his brother’s
murderers; where happened to him a providential sign,
out of which, when he had unexpectedly escaped, he had
the reputation of being very dear to God; for that
evening there feasted with him many of the principal
men; and after that feast was over, and all the guests
were gone out, the house fell down immediately. And as
he judged this to be a common signal of what dangers
he should undergo, and how he should escape them in
the war that he was going about, he, in the morning,
set forward with his army, when about six thousand of
his enemies came running down from the mountains, and
began to fight with those in his forefront; yet durst
they not be so very bold as to engage the Romans hand
to hand, but threw stones and darts at them at a
distance; by which means they wounded a considerable
number; in which action Herod’s own side was wounded
with a dart.
5. Now as Antigonus had a mind to appear to exceed
Herod, not only in the courage, but in the number of
his men, he sent Pappus, one of his
companions, with an army against Samaria, whose
fortune it was to oppose Macheras; but Herod overran
the enemy’s country, and demolished five little
cities, and destroyed two thousand men that were in
them, and burned their houses, and then returned to
his camp; but his head-quarters were at the village
called Cana.
6. Now a great multitude of Jews resorted to him
every day, both out of Jericho and the other parts of
the country. Some were moved so to do out of their
hatred to Antigonus, and some out of regard to the
glorious actions Herod had done; but others were led
on by an unreasonable desire of change; so he fell
upon them immediately. As for Pappus and his party,
they were not terrified either at their number or at
their zeal, but marched out with great alacrity to
fight them; and it came to a close fight. Now other
parts of their army made resistance for a while; but
Herod, running the utmost hazard, out of the rage he
was in at the murder of his brother, that he might be
avenged on those that had been the authors of it, soon
beat those that opposed him; and after he had beaten
them, he always turned his force against those that
stood to it still, and pursued them all; so that a
great slaughter was made, while some were forced back
into that village whence they came out; he also
pressed hard upon the hindermost, and slew a vast
number of them; he also fell into the village with the
enemy, where every house was filled with armed men,
and the upper rooms were crowded above with soldiers
for their defense; and when he had beaten those that
were on the outside, he pulled the houses to pieces,
and plucked out those that were within; upon many he
had the roofs shaken down, whereby they perished by
heaps; and as for those that fled out of the ruins,
the soldiers received them with their swords in their
hands; and the multitude of those slain and lying on
heaps was so great, that the conquerors could not pass
along the roads. Now the enemy could not bear this
blow, so that when the multitude of them which was
gathered together saw that those in the village were
slain, they dispersed themselves, and fled away; upon
the confidence of which victory, Herod had marched
immediately to Jerusalem, unless he tad been hindered
by the depth of winter’s [coming on]. This was the
impediment that lay in the way of this his entire
glorious progress, and was what hindered Antigonus
from being now conquered, who was already disposed to
forsake the city.
7. Now when at the evening Herod had already
dismissed his friends tore fresh themselves after
their fatigue, and when he was gone himself, while he
was still hot in his armor, like a common soldier, to
bathe himself, and had but one servant that attended
him, and before he was gotten into the bath, one of
the enemies met him in the face with a sword in his
hand, and then a second, and then a third, and after
that more of them; these were men who had run away out
of the battle into the bath in their armor, and they
had lain there for some time in, great terror, and in
privacy; and when they saw the king, they trembled for
fear, and ran by him in a flight, although he was
naked, and endeavored to get off into the public road.
Now there was by chance nobody else at hand that might
seize upon these men; and for Herod, he was contented
to have come to no harm himself, so that they all got
away in safety.
8. But on the next day Herod had Pappus’s head cut
off, who was thegeneral for Antigonus, and was slain
in the battle, and sent it to his brother Pheroras, by
way of punishment for their slain brother; for he was
the man that slew Joseph. Now as winter was going off,
Herod marched to Jerusalem, and brought his army to
the wall of it; this was the third year since he had
been made king at Rome; so he pitched his camp before
the temple, for on that side it might be besieged, and
there it was that Pompey took the city. So he parted
the work among the army, and demolished the suburbs,
end raised three banks, and gave orders to have towers
built upon those banks, and left the most laborious of
his acquaintance at the works. But he went himself to
Samaria, to take the daughter of Alexander, the son of
Aristobulus, to wife, who had been betrothed to him
before, as we have already said; and thus he
accomplished this by the by, during the siege of the
city, for he had his enemies in great contempt
already.
9. When he had thus married Mariamne, he came back
to Jerusalem with a greater army. Sosius also joined
him with a large army, both of horsemen and footmen,
which he sent before him through the midland parts,
whil
e he marched himself along Phoenicia; and when the
whole army was gotten together, which were eleven
regiments of footmen, and six thousand horsemen,
besides the Syrian auxiliaries, which were no small
part of the army, they pitched their camp near to the
north wall. Herod’s dependence was upon the decree of
the senate, by which he was made king; and Sosius
1338 relied upon Antony, who sent the army that was
under him to Herod’s assistance.
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