THE WARS OF THE JEWS
OR
THE HISTORY OF THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM
Book II: Chapter 6
THE JEWS GREATLY COMPLAIN OF ARCHELAUS AND DESIRE
THAT THEY MAY BE MADE SUBJECT TO ROMAN GOVERNORS. BUT
WHEN CAESAR HAD HEARD WHAT THEY HAD TO SAY, HE
DISTRIBUTED HEROD’S DOMINIONS AMONG HIS SONS ACCORDING
TO HIS OWN PLEASURE.
1. BUT now came another
accusation from the Jews against Archelaus at Rome,
which he was to answer to. It was made by those
ambassadors who, before the revolt, had come, by
Varus’s permission, to plead for the liberty of their
country; those that came were fifty in number, but
there were more than eight thousand of the Jews at
Rome who supported them. And when Caesar had assembled
a council of the principal Romans inApollo’s 2 temple,
that was in the palace, (this was what he had himself
built and adorned, at a vast expense,) the multitude
of the Jews stood with the ambassadors, and on the
other side stood Archelaus, with his friends; but as
for the kindred of Archelaus, they stood on neither
side; for to stand on Archelaus’s side, their hatred
to him, and envy at him, would not give them leave,
while yet they were afraid to be seen by Caesar with
his accusers. Besides these, there were present
Archelaus’s brother Philip, being sent thither
beforehand, out of kindness by Varus, for two reasons:
the one was this, that he might be assisting to
Archelaus; and the other was this, that in case Caesar
should make a distribution of what Herod possessed
among his posterity, he might obtain some share of it.
2. And now, upon the permission that was given the
accusers to speak,they, in the first place, went over
Herod’s breaches of their law, and said that be was
not a king, but the most barbarous of all tyrants, and
that they had found him to be such by the sufferings
they underwent from him; that when a very great number
had been slain by him, those that were left had
endured such miseries, that they called those that
were dead happy men; that he had not only tortured the
bodies of his subjects, but entire cities, and had
done much harm to the cities of his own country, while
he adorned those that belonged to foreigners; and he
shed the blood of Jews, in order to do kindnesses to
those people that were out of their bounds;
that he had filled the nation full of poverty, and
of the greatest iniquity, instead of that happiness
and those laws which they had anciently enjoyed; that,
in short, the Jews had borne more calamities from
Herod, in a few years, than had their forefathers
during all that interval of time that had passed since
they had come out of Babylon, and returned home, in
thereign of Xerxes 3 that, however, the nation was
come to so low a condition, by being inured to
hardships, that they submitted to his successor of
theirown accord, though he brought them into bitter
slavery; that accordingly they readily called
Archelaus, though he was the son of so great a tyrant,
king, after the decease of his father, and joined with
him in mourning for the death of Herod, and in wishing
him good success in that his succession; while yet
this Archelaus, lest he should be in danger of not
being thought the genuine son of Herod, began his
reign with the murder of three thousand citizens; as
if he had a mind to offer so many bloody sacrifices to
God for his government, and to fill the temple with
the like number of dead bodies at that festival: that,
however, those that were left after so many miseries,
had just reason to consider now at last the calamities
they had undergone, and to oppose themselves, like
soldiers in war, to receive those stripes upon their
faces [but not upon their backs, as hitherto].
Whereupon they prayed that the Romans would have
compassion upon the [poor] remains of Judea, and not
expose what was left of them to such as barbarously
tore them to pieces, and that they would join their
country to Syria, and administer the government by
their own commanders, whereby it would [soon] be
demonstrated that those who are now under the calumny
of seditious persons, and lovers of war, know how to
bear governors that are set over them, if they be but
tolerable ones. So the Jews concluded their accusation
with this request. Then rose up Nicolaus, and confuted
the accusations which were brought against the kings,
and himself accused the Jewish nation, as hard to be
ruled, and as naturally disobedient to kings. He also
reproached all those kinsmen of Archelaus who had left
him, and were gone over to his accusers.
3. So Caesar, after he had heard both sides,
dissolved the assembly for thattime; but a few days
afterward, he gave the one half of Herod’s kingdom to
Archelaus, by the name of Ethnarch, and promised to
make him king also afterward, if he rendered himself
worthy of that dignity. But as to the other half, he
divided it into two tetrarchies, and gave them to two
other
sons of Herod, the one of them to Philip, and the
other to that Antipas who contested the kingdom with
Archelaus. Under this last was Perea and Galilee, with
a revenue of two hundred talents; but Batanea, and
Trachonitis, and Auranitis, and certain parts of
Zeno’s house about Jamnia, with a revenue of a hundred
talents, were made subject to Philip; while Idumea,
and all Judea, and Samaria were parts of the ethnarchy
of Archelaus, although Samaria was eased of one
quarter of its taxes, out of regard to their not
having revolted with the rest of the nation. He also
made subject to him the following cities, viz.
Strato’s Tower, and Sebaste, and Joppa, and Jerusalem;
but as to the Grecian cities, Gaza, and Gadara, and
Hippos, he cut them off from the kingdom, and added
them to Syria. Now the revenue of the country that was
given to Archelaus was four hundred talents. Salome
also, besides what the king had left her in his
testaments, was now made mistress of Jamnia, and
Ashdod, and Phasaelis. Caesar did moreover bestow upon
her the royal palace of Ascalon; by all which she got
together a revenue of sixty talents; but he put her
house under the ethnarchy of Archelaus. And for the
rest of Herod’s offspring, they received what was
bequeathed to them in his testaments; but, besides
that, Caesar granted to Herod’s two virgin daughters
five hundred thousand [drachmae] of silver, and gave
them in marriage to the sons of Pheroras: but after
this family distribution, he gave between them what
had been bequeathed to him by Herod, which was a
thousand talents, reserving to himself only some
inconsiderable presents, in honor of the deceased.
|
