THE WARS OF THE JEWS
OR
THE HISTORY OF THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM
Book I: Chapter 20
HEROD IS CONFIRMED IN HIS KINGDOM BY CAESAR, AND
CULTIVATES A FRIENDSHIP WITH THE EMPEROR BY
MAGNIFICENT PRESENTS; WHILE CAESAR RETURNS HIS
KINDNESS BY BESTOWING ON HIM THAT PART OF HIS KINGDOM
WHICH HAD BEEN TAKEN AWAY FROM IT BY CLEOPATRA WITH
THE ADDITION OF ZENODORUSS COUNTRY ALSO.
1. BUT now
Herod was under immediate concern about a most
important affair, on account of his friendship with
Antony, who was already overcome at Actium by Caesar;
yet he was more afraid than hurt; for Caesar did not
think he had quite undone Antony, while Herod
continued his assistance to him. However, the king
resolved to expose himself to dangers: accordingly he
sailed to Rhodes, where Caesar then abode, and came to
him without his diadem, and in the habit and
appearance of a private person, but in his behavior as
a king. So he concealed nothing of the truth, but
spike thus before his face: “O Caesar, as I was made
king of the Jews by Antony, so do I profess that I
have used my royal authority in the best manner, and
entirely for his advantage; nor will I conceal this
further, that thou hadst certainly found me in arms,
and an inseparable companion of his, had not the
Arabians hindered me. However, I sent him as many
auxiliaries as I was able, and many ten thousand [cori]
of corn. Nay, indeed, I did not desert my benefactor
after the bow that was given him at Actium; but I gave
him the best advice I was able, when I was no longer
able to assist him in the war; and I told him that
there was but one way of recovering his affairs, and
that was to kill Cleopatra; and I promised him that,
if she were once dead, I would afford him money and
walls for his security, with an army and myself to
assist him in his war against thee: but his affections
for Cleopatra stopped his ears, as did God himself
also who hath bestowed the government on thee. I own
myself also to be overcome together with him; and with
his last fortune I have laid aside my diadem, and am
come hither to thee, having my hopes of safety in thy
virtue; and I desire that thou wilt first consider how
faithful a friend, and not whose friend, I have been.”
2. Caesar replied to him thus: “Nay, thou shalt not
only be in safety, but thou shalt be a king; and that
more firmly than thou wast before; for thou art worthy
to reign over a great many subjects, by reason of the
fastness of thy friendship; and do thou endeavor to be
equally constant in thy friendship to me, upon my good
success, which is what I depend upon from the
generosity of thy disposition. However, Antony hath
done well in preferring Cleopatra to thee; for by this
means we have gained thee by her madness, and thus
thou hast begun to be my friend before I began to be
thine; on which account Quintus Didius hath written to
me that thou sentest him assistance against the
gladiators. I do therefore assure thee that I will
confirm the kingdom to thee by decree: I shall also
endeavor to do thee some further kindness hereafter,
that thou mayst find no loss in the want of Antony.”
3. When Caesar had spoken such obliging things to
the king, and had put the diadem again about his head,
he proclaimed what he had bestowed on him by a decree,
in which he enlarged in the commendation of the man
after a magnificent manner. Whereupon Herod obliged
him to be kind to him by the presents he gave him, and
he desired him to forgive Alexander, one of Antony’s
friends, who was become a supplicant to him. But
Caesar’s anger against him prevailed, and he
complained of the many and very great offenses the man
whom he petitioned for had been guilty of; and by that
means he rejected his petition. After this Caesar went
for Egypt through Syria, when Herod received him with
royal and rich entertainments; and then did he first
of all ride along with Caesar, as he was reviewing his
army about Ptolemais, and feasted him with all his
friends, and then distributed among the rest of the
army what was necessary to feast them withal. He also
made a plentiful provision of water for them, when
they were to march as far as Pelusium, through a dry
country, which he did also in like manner at their
return thence; nor were there any necessaries wanting
to that army. It was therefore the opinion, both of
Caesar and of his soldiers, that Herod’s kingdom was
too small for those generous presents he made them;
for which reason, when Caesar was come into Egypt, and
Cleopatra and Antony were dead, he did not only bestow
other marks of honor upon him, but made an addition to
his kingdom, by giving him not only the country which
had been taken from him by Cleopatra, but besides
that, Gadara, and Hippos, and Samaria; and
moreover, of the maritime cities, Gaza 31 and
Anthedon, and Joppa, and Strato’s Tower. He also made
him a present of four hundred Galls [Galatians] as a
guard for his body, which they had been to Cleopatra
before. Nor did any thing so strongly induce Caesar to
make these presents as the generosity of him that
received them.
4. Moreover, after the first games at Actium, he
added to his kingdom both the region called
Trachonitis, and what lay in its neighborhood, Batanea,
and the country of Auranitis; and that on the
following occasion: Zenodorus, who had hired the house
of Lysanias, had all along sent robbers out of
Trachonitis among the Damascenes; who thereupon had
recourse to Varro, the president of Syria, and desired
of him that he would represent the calamity they were
in to Caesar. When Caesar was acquainted with it, he
sent back orders that this nest of robbers should be
destroyed. Varro therefore made an expedition against
them, and cleared the land of those men, and took it
away from Zenodorus. Caesar did also afterward bestow
it on Herod, that it might not again become a
receptacle for those robbers that had come against
Damascus. He also made him a procurator of all Syria,
and this on the tenth year afterward, when he came
again into that province; and this was so established,
that the other procurators could not do any thing in
the administration without his advice: but when
Zenodorus was dead, Caesar bestowed on him all that
land which lay between Trachonitis and Galilee. Yet,
what was still of more consequence to Herod, he was
beloved by Caesar next after Agrippa, and by Agrippa
next after Caesar; whence he arrived at a very great
degree of felicity. Yet did the greatness of his soul
exceed it, and the main part of his magnanimity was
extended to the promotion of piety.
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