THE WARS OF THE JEWS
OR
THE HISTORY OF THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM
Book I: Chapter 19
HOW ANTONY AT THE PERSUASION OF CLEOPATRA SENT
HEROD TO FIGHT AGAINST THE ARABIANS; AND NOW AFTER
SEVERAL BATTLES, HE AT LENGTH GOT THE VICTORY. AS ALSO
CONCERNING A GREAT EARTHQUAKE.
1. NOW when the war
about Actium was begun, Herod prepared to come to the
assistance of Antony, as being already freed from his
troubles in Judea, and having gained Hyrcania, which
was a place that was held by Antigonus’s sister.
However, he was cunningly hindered from partaking of
the hazards that Antony went through by Cleopatra; for
since, as we have already noted, she had laid a plot
against the kings [of Judea and Arabia], she prevailed
with Antony to commit the war against the Arabians to
Herod; that so, if he got the better, she might become
mistress of Arabia, or, if he were worsted, of Judea;
and that she might destroy one of those kings by the
other.
2. However, this contrivance tended to the
advantage of Herod; for at the very first he took
hostages from the enemy, and got together a great body
of horse, and ordered them to march against them about
Diespous; and he conquered that army, although it
fought resolutely against him. After which defeat, the
Arabians were in great motion, and assembled
themselves together at Kanatha, a city of Celesyria,
in vast multitudes, and waited for the Jews. And when
Herod was come thither, he tried to manage this war
with particular prudence, and gave orders that they
should build a wall about their camp; yet did not the
multitude comply with those orders, but were so
emboldened by their foregoing victory, that they
presently attacked the Arabians, and beat them at the
first onset, and then pursued them; yet were there
snares laid for Herod in that pursuit; while Athenio,
who was one of Cleopatra’s generals, and always an
antagonist to Herod, sent out of Kanatha the men of
that country against him; for, upon this fresh onset,
the Arabians took courage, and returned back, and both
joined their numerous forces about stony places, that
were hard to be gone over, and there put Herod’s men
to the rout, and made a
great slaughter of them; but those that escaped out
of the battle fled to Ormiza, where the Arabians
surrounded their camp, and took it, with all the men
in it.
3. In a little time after this calamity, Herod came
to bring them succors; but he came too late. Now the
occasion of that blow was this, that the officers
would not obey orders; for had not the fight begun so
suddenly, Athenio had not found a proper season for
the snares he laid for Herod: however, he was even
with the Arabians afterward, and overran their
country, and did them more harm than their single
victory could compensate. But as he was avenging
himself on his enemies, there fell upon him another
providential calamity; for in the seventh 29 year of
his reign, when the war about Actium was at the
height, at the beginning of the spring, the earth was
shaken, and destroyed an immense number of cattle,
with thirty thousand men; but the army received no
harm, because it lay in the open air. In the mean
time, the fame of this earthquake elevated the
Arabians to greater courage, and this by augmenting it
to a fabulous height, as is constantly the case in
melancholy accidents, and pretending that all Judea
was overthrown. Upon this supposal, therefore, that
they should easily get a land that was destitute of
inhabitants into their power, they first sacrificed
those ambassadors who were come to them from the Jews,
and then marched into Judea immediately. Now the
Jewish nation were affrighted at this invasion, and
quite dispirited at the greatness of their calamities
one after another; whom yet Herod got together, and
endeavored to encourage to defend themselves by the
following speech which he made to them:
4. “The present dread you are under seems to me to
have seized upon you very unreasonably. It is true,
you might justly be dismayed at that providential
chastisement which hath befallen you; but to suffer
yourselves to be equally terrified at the invasion of
men is unmanly. As for myself, I am so far from being
aftrighted at our enemies after this earthquake, that
I imagine that God hath thereby laid a bait for the
Arabians, that we may be avenged on them; for their
present invasion proceeds more from our accidental
misfortunes, than that they have any great dependence
on their weapons, or their own fitness for action. Now
that hope which depends not on men’s own power, but on
others’ ill success, is a very ticklish thing; for
there is no certainty among men, either
in their bad or good fortunes; but we may easily
observe that fortune is mutable, and goes from one
side to another; and this you may readily learn from
examples among yourselves; for when you were once
victors in the former fight, your enemies overcame you
at last; and very likely it will now happen so, that
these who think themselves sure of beating you will
themselves be beaten. For when men are very confident,
they are not upon their guard, while fear teaches men
to act with caution; insomuch that I venture to prove
from your very timorousness that you ought to take
courage; for when you were more bold than you ought to
have been, and than I would have had you, and marched
on, Athenio’s treachery took place; but your present
slowness and seeming dejection of mind is to me a
pledge and assurance of victory. And indeed it is
proper beforehand to be thus provident; but when we
come to action, we ought to erect our minds, and to
make our enemies, be they ever so wicked, believe that
neither any human, no, nor any providential
misfortune, can ever depress the courage of Jews while
they are alive; nor will any of them ever overlook an
Arabian, or suffer such a one to become Lord of his
good things, whom he has in a manner taken captive,
and that many times also. And do not you disturb
yourselves at the quaking of inanimate creatures, nor
do you imagine that this earthquake is a sign of
another calamity; for such affections of the elements
are according to the course of nature, nor does it
import any thing further to men, than what mischief it
does immediately of itself. Perhaps there may come
some short sign beforehand in the case of pestilences,
and famines, and earthquakes; but these calamities
themselves have their force limited by themselves
[without foreboding any other calamity]. And indeed
what greater mischief can the war, though it should be
a violent one, do to us than the earthquake hath done?
Nay, there is a signal of our enemies’ destruction
visible, and that a very great one also; and this is
not a natural one, nor derived from the hand of
foreigners neither, but it is this, that they have
barbarously murdered our ambassadors, contrary to the
common law of mankind; and they have destroyed so
many, as if they esteemed them sacrifices for God, in
relation to this war. But they will not avoid his
great eye, nor his invincible right hand; and we shall
be revenged of them presently, in case we still retain
any of the courage of our forefathers, and rise up
boldly to punish these covenant-breakers. Let every
one therefore go on and fight, not so much for his
wife or his children, or for the danger his country is
in, as for these ambassadors of ours; those dead
ambassadors will conduct this war of ours better than
we ourselves who are alive. And if you will be ruled
by me, I will myself go before you into danger; for
you know this well enough, that your courage is
irresistible, unless you hurt yourselves by acting
rashly. 30 5. When Herod had encouraged them by this
speech, and he saw with what alacrity they went, he
offered sacrifice to God; and after that sacrifice, he
passed over the river Jordan with his army, and
pitched his camp about Philadelphia, near the enemy,
and about a fortification that lay between them. He
then shot at them at a distance, and was desirous to
come to an engagement presently; for some of them had
been sent beforehand to seize upon that fortification:
but the king sent some who immediately beat them out
of the fortification, while he himself went in the
forefront of the army, which he put in battle-array
every day, and invited the Arabians to fight. But as
none of them came out of their camp, for they were in
a terrible fright, and their general, Elthemus, was
not able to say a word for fear, — so Herod came upon
them, and pulled their fortification to pieces, by
which means they were compelled to come out to fight,
which they did in disorder, and so that the horsemen
and foot-men were mixed together. They were indeed
superior to the Jews in number, but inferior in their
alacrity, although they were obliged to expose
themselves to danger by their very despair of victory.
6. Now while they made opposition, they had not a
great number slain; but as soon as they turned their
backs, a great many were trodden to pieces by the
Jews, and a great many by themselves, and so perished,
till five thousand were fallen down dead in their
flight, while the rest of the multitude prevented
their immediate death, by crowding into the
fortification. Herod encompassed these around, and
besieged them; and while they were ready to be taken
by their enemies in arms, they had another additional
distres
s upon them, which was thirst and want of
water; for the king was above hearkening to their
ambassadors; and when they offered five hundred
talents, as the price of their redemption, he pressed
still harder upon them. And as they were burnt up by
their thirst, they came out and voluntarily delivered
themselves up by multitudes to the Jews, till in five
days’ time four thousand of them were put into bonds;
and on the sixth day the multitude that were left
despaired of saving
1346 themselves, and came out to fight: with these
Herod fought, and slew again about seven thousand,
insomuch that he punished Arabia so severely, and so
far extinguished the spirits of the men, that he was
chosen by the nation for their ruler.
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