HISTORY OF NATIONS. THE J A I' FA GAI'I-. J liRl'SALILM THE HISTORY OF THE JEWS, FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD TO THE PRESENT TIME. * BY REV. H. H. MILMAN, IBBBENDARY OF ST. PETER's, AND MINISTER OF ST. MARSA REf'S, WESTMINSTER; AUTHOR OF "THE HISTORT OF CHRISTIANITY," &C 8I?(ti) if^aps anU Hngrabings. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. II. THE BRADLEY COMPANY, PUBLISHERS. NEW YOBE CONTEJTTS. BOOK IX THB BIOH PRIESTS. rhe Captivity— The Return to the Holy Land— Rebuilding cf the TtB*- pie— The Samaritans— Esther— Ezra— Nehemlah— Simon the ivA — Alexandrian Jews. Persecution under Anliochus Ep-phanes PM* * BOOK X- TBB ASMONEAMS. Matiathlas— Judas the Maccabee— Jonathan— Simon— John HyreanM — Arlstobulua I.— Alexander Jannseus— Alexandra—Arisiobulus IL — Hyrcanuall * BOOK XL ^ BGROD. Accession— Battle of Actium— Death of Mariamne— Magnificence «f Herod— Sebaste built— Rebuilding of the Temple— Caesarea—Sonf of Mariamne— Death of Antipater— Death of Herod 8S BOOK xn. THE HERODIAN FAMILT Archelaus— Roman Governors— Pontius Pilate— Herod A ntipas— Philip —Accession of Caligula— Agrippa—Persecutionfl In Alexandria— Philo— Babylonian Jews— Agrippa King 108 BOOK XIIL THE ROMAN GOVERNORS. Cugplus Fadus— Tiberius Alexander— Ventidius Cumanus— Felix— Porcius Festus— Albinus- Gesslus FIoru§— Coiiimencenient of the Revolt— ThP Zealots'— Manahem—Mas;-nrre of the Jews in the Pro- vinces— Advance and Dffeat of Cestius Gallu* IM If «:!ONTENTI» BOOK XIV. PREPARATIONS FOR THB WAR. Vespasian — Jfwephus — Affairs of Galilee — John of Gischa.* — Affiirg of Jerusalem — Ananus tlie Chief Priest — Simon, Son of Giora.s Baitlfs' near Ascalon • 209 BOOK XV. THE WAR. Vespasian — Sioge of Jotapata—Fall of Japha— Mount Gerizim— Cap ture of Jotapat.i — Josephus — Surrender of Tiberias — Fall of Tanchea —Massacre— Siege of Ganiala— Fall of Itabyriuiii — Taking of Ga ■lala— of Ciscbala — Flight of John — Feuds in Jerusalem iSt HISTORY OF THE JEWS. BOOK IX THE HIGH-PRIESTS. l%e Capacity— The Return to the Holy Land— Rebuilding of tU Temple — The Samarttans F.-slher—Kira — JVeheniiah — Simnn (Ae fust — Alexandrian Jew* f'ersecution under Antioehua Epipkanei B. C. 584. Nothing could present a more striking contrast to their native country than the region into which the Hebrews were transplanted. Instead of their irre- gular and picturesque mountain city, crowning its unequal heights, and looking down into its deep and precipitous ravines, through one of which a scanty stream wound along ; they entered the vast, square, and level city of Babylon, occupying both sides of the broad Euphrates; while all around spread immense plains, which were intersected by long straight canals, bordered by rows of willows. How unlike their national temple — a small but highly finished and richly adorned fabric, standing m the midst of its courts on the brow of a lofty precipice — the colossal temple oi lue Chaldean Bel, rising from the plain with its eight stupendous stories or towers, one above the other, to the per- pendicular height of a furlong ! The palace of the Babylonian kings was more than twice the size of their whole city : it covered eight miles, with its hanging gardens built on arched terraces, each 6 HISTORY OF THE JEWS rising above tlie other, and rich in all the luxuriance of artificial cultivation. How different from the sunny cliffs of their own land, where the olive anc the vine grew spontaneously, and tho coo], shady and secluded valleys, where they could always find shelter from the heat of the burninir noon ! No wonder then that in the pathetic words of their own hymn, by the waters of Babylon they sat down and wept, when they remembered thee, O Sion. Of their general treatment as captives we know little. The psalm above quoted seems to intimate that the Babylonians had taste enough to appreciate their poetical and musical talent, and that they were sum- moned occasionally to amuse the banquets of their masters, though it was much against their will that they sung the songs of Zion in a strange land. In general it seems that the Jewish exiles were allowed to dwell together in considerable bodies, not sold as household or personal slaves, at least not those of the better order, of whom the captivity chiefly con- sisted. They were colonists rather than captives, and became by degress possessed of considerable property. There was one large settlement on the river Chebar, considerably to the north of Babylon. It was there that the prophet Ezekiel related hik splendid visions, which seemed impressed with the immense and gigantic character of the region and empire of Babylon. To the bold and rapid creations of the earliei Hebrew poets, Ezekiel adds not merely a vehement and tragical force, peculiar to his owii mind, but a vastness and magnificence of imagery, drawn from the scenery and circumstances by which he was surrounded. The world of Ezekiel, and that of his cotemporary, Daniel, seems enlarged: the future teems with imperial dynasties and wide and universal monarchies. It is curious that the earliest monuments of Persian antiquity, in Per- sepolis and its neighbourhood, abound with sculp- tures representing those symbolic and composite DANIEL. 7 animals, which occur so frequently in the visions of these two prophets, especially Daniel. Daniel had been among those noble youths transported to Babvlon at the first invasion of Nebuchadnezzar, most likely as hostages for the good conduct and submission of the vassal king. These young men were treated with great kindness, educated with the utmost care, both in the manners and duties of the great officers of the Assyrian court ; and in all the half-scientific, half-superstitious knowledge, the as- tronomy, the divination, and skill in the interpreta- tion of dreams, for which the priesthood of the Chaldeans long maintained unrivalled celebrity. Daniel received the name of Belteshazzar ; his chiei companions, Hananiah, JMishael and Azariah, those of Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego. If the eminence to w'hich Daniel attained in the favour of successive moaarchs, inspired the captive Jews with confidence that divine Providence still watched over the chosen people, his example contri- buted no less to confirm them in their adherence to the law and the religion of their ancestors. These youthful hostages were to be sumptuously main- tained at the public charge ; but Daniel and his com- panions, apprehensive of legal defilement, insisted on being supported on the meanest and simplest food, common pulse. On this coarse and ascetic diet, perhaps that of the Hebrew prophets, they throve, and became so well favoured as to do no discredit to the royal entertainment. When Nebuchadnezzar raised his golden image on the plain of Dura, which all men were to worship, the companions of Daniel, resisting the act of idolatry, were thrown into the fiery furnace, from whence they were miraculously delivered. Under a later monarch, who forebade any prayer to be offered, for thirty days, but to himself, Daniel, with the same boldness, refusing to suspend his petitions to the Almighty, was cast into thp den of lions whose mouths were closed n HISTORY OF THE JEWS. ag'ainst the man of God. But it was chiefly like his predecessor Joseyih, as interpreter of dream*, that Daniel acquired his higli dislmction. Twice he was summoned to this important office by Nebuchadnezzar; once when the unconscionable demand was made of the national interpreters, tliat they should expound a vision of which they did not know the substance : once Avhen the haughty monarch was warned of a dreadful malady (some kind of madness), by which his pride was to be humbled, when he should be expelled from human society, and eat grass like a beast of the field. On both occasions the Hebrew interpreter was equally successful. In the same manner he was called upon to expound the fatal handwriting on the wall of Belshazzar, on that memorable night when the human hand, during the sumptuous banquet, wrote upon the wall the mysterious words, MENE. MENE. TEKEL. UPHARSIN, interpreted by Da- niel that the kingdom was numbered and finished — Belshazzar weighed in the balance and found want- ing — his kingdom taken away, and g'iven to the, Medes and Persians. Like Joseph, Daniel became one of the viziers or satraps of the mighty empire, when it passed into the hands of the Medes and Persians. Nor was this rapid advancement of their countrymen — though the manner in which Daniel is frequently named by nis cotemporary Ezekiel, shows the pride and reve- rence with which the whole nation looked up to their distinguished compatriot — the onlj' ground of hope and consolation to the scattered exiles. Be- yond the gloomy waste of the captivity, their pro- phets had always opened a vista of long ages of more than their former happiness and glory ; but to which, their restoration to their own ru;h and plea- sant land was the first and preparatory promise. Jeremiah had limited the duration of the captivity tp seventy years : he had evinced his confidenci? TAKING OF BABYLON 9 In the certainty of his own predictions by one of the most remarkable examples of teaching by sig- nificant action, so common among the Hebrew pro- phets. In the time of the greatest peril he had pur- chased an estate at Anatlioth, and concealed the title-deeds with the greatest care, in order that they might come to light, for the benefit of his posterity, after the restoration of the Hebrew polity ; in which event he thus showed his own implicit reliance. When therefore they saw the storm bursting upon the haughty and oppressive Babylon — when the vast plains of Shinaar glittered with the hosts of the Medes and Persians ; and Cyrus, the designated de liverer, appeared at their head ; amid the wild tumults of the war, and the shrieks and lamentations of the captured city, the Jews, no doubt, were chanting, at least murmuring in secret, the prophetic strains of Isaiah or Jeremiah, which described the fall of the son of the morning, the virgin daughter of Baby- lon sitting in the dust, the ceasing of the oppressor, the ruin of the golden city. It is not necessary in relating this part of the Jewish history, to plunge into the intricate and in- extricable labyrinth of Assyrian history and chrono- logy. It is unimportant whether we suppose, with Prideaux and most of the earlier writers, that the fatal night which terminated the life of Belshazzar, witnessed the fall of Babylon, and that Darius the Mede was Cyaxares, the uncle of Cyrus : or, with Larcher, and others, that Belshazzar was over- thrown, and put to death, by a conspiracy within the city, headed by Darius, a man of Median extrac- tion ; and that from this Darius opens a new dynasty of Babylonian kings, which ended in the Persian conquest by Cyrus. At all events, the close of the seventy years' cap- tivity found Cyrus the undisputed monarch of all the territories, or rather of a more extensive and powerful empire, than that of Assyria ; and Daniel II.— ii lO HISTORY OF THF JEWS appears as high in the confidence of this wise and powerful monarch, as he had been in that of his predecessor Darius. For Darius knew too well the value of his wise and useful minister not to rejoice at his [ rovidential deliverj'^ from the den of lions; where, through the intrigues of his enemies, and the unalterable nature of the Median law, he had with reluctance condemned him. His providential deli- verance had invested Daniel in new dignity, and he reassumed his station among the pashas, or rather as the supreme head of the pashas, to whom the provinces of the vast Persian empire were com- mitted. Josephus attributes to Daniel, besides his religious and political wisdom, great skill in archi- tecture, and ascribes to him the building of the great Mausoleum at Ecbatana, or according to Jerom, at Susa, where the kings of Persia, and even the later Parthian kings, were interred. The national spirit was not extinguished in the heart of Daniel by all these honours ; no doubt through his influence, Cyrus issued out the welcome edict commanding the restoration of the exiled Hebrews to their native land ; perhaps the framing of the edict, in which the unity of the Godhead was recognised, may be referred to the Jewish minister, though it is by no means improbable that, at this period, the Persians were pure Theists. The numbers which assembled under Zerubbabel, (Shesh-bazzar,) the descendant of their kings, the grandson of Jeconiah; and Jeshua, the hereditary high priest, were 42,360: four out of the twenty-four courses of priests joined the returning exiles. The joyful caravan set forth, bearing the remaining sacred vessels of the temple which Cyrus had restored. The rest of their equipage is characteristically de- scribed as comprising servants and maids, singing men and mnging women, horses, iimles, camels, and asses. On tlieir arrival in their native land, they Were probably joined by (jreat numbers of the com- B.C. 535. J ItETURN UNDER ZERUBBABEXi. ll mon people. These, in some degree, made up for the loss of those recreants, who did not choose to abandon their dwelling's and possessions in Baby- lonia. Tlie first object was to restore the w-orship of God ; the altar was set up, the feasts re-establish- ed, and the first stone of tlie new temple laid among the joyful acclamations of the multitude, but the tears of the ancient men that had seen the Jirst house, who, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice. For how different was the condition of the Hebrew people, from that splendid period, when their king's ruled without rival from the Euphrates to the Mediterranean. The ports of the Red Sea did not now pour the treasures of India and Africa into their dominions ; the great caravans passed far beyond their borders. The mer- cantile Tyrians were, a« before, glad to exchange their timbers and stone and artisans for the com, wine, and oil of Palestine ; but still the chan{?[e from -the magnificent intercourse between Hira.n and Solomon, was abasing to the pride of Judaea. The 61,000 drams of gold, contributed by the heads of the captivity, are supposed to be Darics, which Pri- deaux calculates at something more than an English guinea ; these with 5000 pounds of silver, though a liberal sum in their present state, might raise a me- lancholy remembrance of the incalculable treasures which sheeted the former temple with gold. Nor would the royal order for assistance, contained in tlie edict of Cyrus, in any degree replace the un- bounded treasures accumulated by David and his son. The religious Jews deplored the still more important deficiencies of the new temple. The Ark Jhe prophetic Uiim and Thunmiim, the Shechinah or divine presence, the celestial fire on the altar, and the spirit of prophecy, though the last gift stiU lin- gered on the lips of Haggai and Zechariah, till it expired at a later period on those of Malachi. The temple was built, probably, on the old foundations. 1ritaiis made overtures to assist ill the great aalional worlc ; their proposal was peremptorily and contemptuously rejected. While the Hebrew writers unanimouslj'^ represent the Samaritans as the descendants of the Cuthajau colonists introduced by Esarhaddon, a foreign and idolatrous race, their own traditions derive their regular lineage from Ephraim and Manasseli, the eons of Joseph. The remarkable fact, that this people have preserved the book of the Mosaic law in the ruder and more ancient character, while the Jews, after the return from Babylonia, universally adopted the more elegant Chaldean form of letters, strongly confirms tlie opinion, that, although by no means pure and unmingled, the Hebrew blood still predominated in their race. In many other respects, regard for the sabbath and even of the sabbatic year, and the payment of tithes to their priests, the Sama- ritans did not fall below their Jewish rivals in attach- ment to the Mosaic polity. The later events in the history of the kings of Jerusalem, show that the expatriation of the ten tribes, was by no means com- plete and permanent ; is it then an unreasonable sup- position that the foreign colonists were lost in the remnant of the Israelitish people 1 and though, per- haps slowly and imperfectly weaned from their native superstitions, fell Ijy degrees into the habits and be- lief of their adopted country. Their proposition of uniting in common worsliip with the Jews, which there seems no reason to suspect of insincerity ; as at the same time, according to the account in Ezra, ' they seem to have acknowledged their impure de- scent, clearly evinces the prevalence of Israelitish feelings and opinions, over those of strangers and aliens from the blood of Abraham and the Mosaic constitution. It is remarkable that when the Sama- ritans are first named, they are called the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin ; an expression which seems NATIONAL CHARACTER. 13 io intimate some remains of the hostility toward* the rival kingdom of Israel, and the hated race of Ephraim ; against whom they were glad to have the additional charge of the contamination of their blood by foreign admixture. But whether or not it was l)ut the peqietuation of the ancient feud between thr two rival kingdoms; from this period the hostility of the Jews and Samaritans assumed its character of fierce and implacable animosity. No two nations ever hated each other with more unmitigated bitter- ness. With a .Tew, every Samaritan was a Cuthaean ; and a Cuthaean was a term expressive of the utmost scorn and detestation. Every thing a Samaritan ate or drank, or even touched, was as swine's flesh ; no Samaritan might be made a proselyte ; no Samaritan could possibly attain to everlasting life. The jealous and exclusive spirit, which induced the Jews to suspect, or at all events to repel the advances of their neighbours, if not their kindred, iS scarcely reconcileable with the mild and liberal rules of conduct towards the stranger resident in the land (from which the proscribed race of Canaan were alone exempted), contained in the Mosaic law, as well as in the prayer of Solomon on the dedica- tion of his first temple. Yet this was but one indi- cation of that singular alteration in the national character of the Jews, which displayed itself after their return from the captivity. Prone before, on every occasion, to adopt the idolatrous practices of the adjacent nations, they now secluded themselves from the rest of the world in proud assurance of their own religious superiority. The law, which of old was perpetually violated, or almost forgotten, was now enforced by general consent to its extreme point or even beyond it. Adversity endeared that, of which in prosperity they had not perceived tlie value. Their city, their native soil, their religion became the objects of the most passionate attach- ment. Intermarriages with foreigners, neither fop. t4 JltSTORY OF THE JEWS. bidden by the statute, nor by former practice, were Btrictly inhibited. The observance of the sabbath, and even of the sabbatical year, was enforced Avith rigour, of which we have no precedent in the earlier annals; even to the neglect of defence in time jf war. In short, from this period commences that ansocial spirit, that hatred towards mankind, and Want of humanity to all but their own kindred, with which, notwithstanding the extent to which they carried proselytism to their religion, the Jews are branded by all the Roman writers. Their opinions underwent a change no less important ; the hope of a Messiah, which had before prevailed but vaguely and indistinctly, had been enlarged and arrayed in the most splendid images by Isaiah, previous to the fall of the city; it was propagated, and even the time of his appearance declared, by the prophets of the exiles, Ezekiel and Daniel ; it sunk deep into the popular mind, and contributed, no doubt, to knit the undissoluble tie of brotherhood, by which the Hebrew people were held together more closely. National pride and patriotism appropriated not merely the lofty privilege of being the ancestors of the great deliverer, but all the advantages and glory, which were to attend his coming. In whatever form or character they expected him to appear, king, con- queror, or even God, in this the Jewish race agreed, that the Messiah was to be the king, the conqueror, the God of Israel. From this period likewise, the immortality of the soul, and the belief in another life, appear more dis- tinctly in the popular creed, from which they were never perhaps entirely effaced, but rested only on vague tradition, and were obscured by the more immediate hopes and apprehensions of temporal rewards and punishments, revealed in the law. But in the writings of tlie Babylonian prophets, in the rision of dry bones in Ezekiel, and the last chapter of Daniel, these doctrines assume a more important 6. O. 626. J SECOND TEMPLE BUILT. 16 place ; and from the later books, which are usually called the A{ ocrypha, these opinions appear to have entered fully into the greneral belief. They formed, as is well known, the distinction between the Pha- risaic sect, the great body of the people ; and the Sadducees, the higher order of freethinkers. In other respects, particularly in their notions of angels, who now appear under particular names, and form- ing a sort of hierarchy, Jewish opinions acquired a new and peculiar colouring from their intercourse with the Babylonians. The Samaritan influence at the court of Persia, prevented the advancement of the building, during the rest of the reign of Cyrus ; as well as that of Cambyses, and Smerdis the Magian, up to the second year of Darius Hystaspes. Josephus places with apparent probability, under the reign of Cambyses, sE formal representation made by the heads of the Samaritans, of the danger which would arise from permitting " the bad and rebellious city to be re- built." The views of Cambyses on Egypt, would give weight to this remonstrance ; as, at this junc- ture, it was manifestly dangerous to permit a strong and mutinous city, to be built directly on the road of communication between his line of military ope- ration, and his native dominions. On the accession of Darius Hystaspes, the pro- phets Haggai and Zechariah, strongly urged on Zerubbabel, the Chieftain of the people, to renew tlie work. The Persian pashas of the province, Tatnai, and Shethar-boznai, sent to the sovereign for instructions. Darius commanded the archives to be searched, in which the original edict of Cyrus was found. Darius, who, in all respects pursued the policy of the great founder of the monarchy, reissued, and confirmed the decree. Under the pro. tcetion of the Persian governors, the Jews pressed forward the work, and in the sixth year of Darius, the second temple, built on tfei" «»ld foundations, but 16 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. [ft.C. 483. of far le^s costly and splendid materials, was finally completed. The dimensions seem to have been the game with that of Solomon, except perhaps the height of the interior, whi(;h was greater, and the wanfof the lofty porch or tower. The feast of dedication was celebrated with all the joy and magnificence, which anempoverished and dependant people could display ; but what a falling-off in the national sacri- fice of 100 bullocks, 200 rams, 400 lambs, and 12 goats, for a sin offering, from the countless hecatombs of Solomon. The treasures of the national poetry alone were not exhausted : the hymns composed for the second dedication — probably the five last psalms in the collection, though they by no means equalled — ap- proached far nearer to the vigour and dignity of the earlier hymns, than either the temple itself to its prototjrpe, or the number and value of the sacrifices. The Jews enjoyed another kind of satisfaction ; their Samaritan adversaries were not merely frustrated in their opposition to the building of the temple, but obliged, by an imperial edict, to contribute to its completion. To the Jews the rest of the long reign of Darius Hystaspes passed away in uneventful prosperity : to that of his successor, Xerxes, we assign, with some of the most learned German writers, the remarkable history of Esther. The Ahasuerus of Scripture cannot be Darius Hystaspes ; nor do we trace the character of the mild and humane Artaxerxes Lon- gimanus in the capricious despot, who repudiates his wife because she will not expose herself to the public gaze in a dninken festival ; raises a favourite vizier to the highest honours one day, and hangs him the next ; commands the massacre of a whole peo- ple, and then allows them, in self-defence, to com- mit a horrible carnage among his other subjects. Yet all this weak and headstrong violence agrees «x!r'^v with the character of that Xerxes who B.C. 479. J ESTHER. !7 commanded tlie sta to be scourg-ed, because it broke down hi?; bri^lgp nvrv the Tlollespont; !"•- headed the engineers, because iheir work was swept away by a storm ; waiitonlv, and before the ryfs of the father, pni tw death tlie sons of his ultiest friend Pythias, who had contributed most spkmdidly to his armament ; sliamefully misused the body of the brave Leonidas; ar.d -after his defeat, Uke another Sardanapahis, gave hims(df up to sm-h vohiptuousness, as to issue an edict, offering a re- ward to the inventor of a new pleasure. The syn- chronisms, remarked by Eicldiorn, strongly confirm this view. In the third year of his reign, Ahasuerus summons a divan of all the great officers of the king- dom at Susa, whom he entertains and banquets 180 days. In his third year, Xerxes, at a arreat assem- ^ bly, deliberates and takes measiu-es for tlie subjuga- tion of Greece. In his seventh year, (B.C. 4T9,) Ahasuerus marries Esther. In liis seventh year Xerxes returns, discomlltcd, to Susa, and abandons himself to the pleasures of his harem. The imbe- cile facility with which Xerxes, according to He- rodotus, first gave up to his seductive mistress, Aitaynta, a splendid robe, tlie present of his queen ; and then, having made a rash promise at a banquet, yielded up the wife of liis brother Masistes, (tile mother of his mistress,) to the barbarous vengeance of his queen ; so precisely resembles the conduct of Ahasuerus, that it is impossible not to suspect we are reading of the same person in the Grecian and Hebrew annalist. The snnilaritv rf the nasnes Amestris, wife of Xerxes, and Esther, is likewise observable; and though Esther, at first, appears in an amiable light, by the account of her own coun- trymen ; yet the barbarous execution of the ten sons of Haman diminishes the improbability, that, through jealousy, and the corrupting influence of her station in the court of Xerxes, she might in later life have become as revengeful and sanguinary as the Anaes 18 HISTORY OP THE JEWS. [b.C. 479. tris of Herodotus. But wlioever was the Ahasue- riis (tl.e great !;!;.?). ilurin.T his r>iorn the Jewish nation was in danger of total extermination. At the gniat imperial banquet, wliere all the splendour of the kingdom was displayed, the sovereign com- manded the presence of his queen, Vashti. With a better sense of her own dignity, the queen refused to attend. The weak monarch was not merely irri- tated during his state of intox.cation ; but after he had returned to his sober reason, instead of honour- ing her higher sense of decency, retained his anger at the disobedience of his queen, degraded Vashti from her royal station, and sent out an edict, ludi- crous enough to modern ears, which enacted the implicit submission of all the females in the mo- narchy to the will of their husbands. After this a general levy of beautiful damsels was made, to sup- ply the seraglio of the king, out of whom he was to select his queen. Hadassah, or Esther, the cousin- german of Mordecai, a distinguished Jew, who had brought her up from her childhood, had tlie fortune *.o please the king ; she was put in possession of the royal apartments, and at a great festival proclaimed the Queen of Persia, her birth still remaining a secret. Among the rival candidates for the royal favour were Mordecai and Haman, said to be de- scended from the ancient Amalekitish kings. Mor decai had the good fortune to detect a conspiracy against the life of the king, but Haman soon out- stripped all competitors in the race of alvaneemeiU, Perhaps the great destruction in the families of the Persian nobility, particularly of the seven great hereditary counsellors of the kingdom, during the Grecian war, may account, if any cause is wanting besides the c.iprice of a despot, for the elevation of a stranger to the rank of first vizier. Mordecai alone, his rival, (for this supposition renders the whole history more probable,) refused to pay the ac- customed honours to the new favourite. Haman, B.C. 479.] ESTHER. If most likely secretly informed of his connexion with the queen, and fearing-, therefore, to attack Mordecai openly, determined to take his revenge on the whole J wish people. He represented them to the king as a dangerous and turbulent race ; and promised to obtain immense wealth, 10,000 talents of silver, no doubt from the confiscation of their property, to the royal treasury, which was exhausted by the king's pleasures, and by the Grecian war. On these re- presentations he obtained an edict for the general massacre of the Hebrew people throughout all the provinces of the empire, of which Judaea was one. The Jews were in the deepest dismay ; those in Susa looked to Mordecai as their only hope, and he to Esther. The influence of the queen might pre- vail, if she could once obtain an opportunity of softening the heart of Ahasuerus. But it was death, even for the queen, to intrude upon the royal pre- sence unsummoned, unless the king should extend his golden sceptre in sign of pardon. Esther trembled to undertake the cause of her kindred; but, as of Jewish blood, she herself was involved in the general condemnation. Having propitiated her God by a fast of three days, she appeared, radiant m her beauty, before the royal presence. The golden sceptre was extended towards her; not merely her life, but whatever gift she should de- mand, was conceded by the captivated monarch The cautious Esther merely invited the king, and Haman his minister, to a banquet. Haman fell into the snare ; and, delighted with this supposed mark of favour from the queen, supposed all impediments to the gratification of his vengeance entirely re- moved, and gave orders that a lofty gallows should be erected for the execution of Mordecai. The kin'j, ill the nieantim'^, during a sleapless night, had coiuin:iiided the chronicles of the kingdom to be read belbre him. The book happened to open at the relation of the valuable, but unrequited service of 20 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. [B C 479. Mordecai, in saving the king's life from a nonspi- racy within his own palace. The next morning Ahasuerus demanded from the obsequious minister, '* in what manner he might most exalt the man whom he delighted to honour ?" The vizier, appropriating to himself this signal mark of favour, advised that this highly-distinguished individual should be ar- rayed in royal robes, set on the king's horse, with the royal crown on his head, and thus led by one ol the greatest men through the whole city, and pro claimed to the people, as the man whom the king delighted to honour. To his astonishment and dis- may, Haman is himself commanded to conduct, in this triumphant array, his hated rival Mordecai. In terror he consults his wife, and the wise men as to his future course ; he is interrupted by a summons to the banquet of Esther. Here, as usual, the king, enraptured with his entertainment, offers his queen whatever boon she may desire, even to half of his kingdom. Her request is the deliverance of her people from the fatal sentence. The detection and the condemnation of the minister was the inevitable consequence. Haman, endeavouring to entreat mercy, throws himself upon her couch. The jea- lous monarch either supposing, or pretending to sup- pose, that he is making an attempt on the person of the queen, commands his instant execution ; and Haman, by this summary sentence, is hanged on the gallows which had been raised for Mordecai, while the Jew is ra'sed to the vacant vizieralty. Still, however, the dreadful edict was abroad : mes- sengers were despatched on all sides throughout the r( aim, which extended from India to Ethiopia, on horseback, on mules, on camels, and on drome- daries, permitting the Jews to stand on the defen- sive. In Susa they slew 800 of their adversaries; 73,000 in the provinces. The act of vengeance was completed by the execution of Haman's ten sons, who, at the petition of Esther, suffered the fate of B.C 458.] ESTHER. 2i their father. So great was the confusion and the terror, caused liy tlic dejjiv^e <■.'" roya! favour whirh Mordecai enjoyed, thit the whole nation became ob- jects of respect, and many of other extraction em- braced their religion. The memory of this signal t^eliverance has been, and still is, celebrated by the Jews. The festival is called that of Purim, because on that day Haman cast (Pur) the lot to destroy them. It is preceded by a strict fast on the 13th of llie month Adar (Februaiy and March) ; the 14th and 15th are given up to the most universal and un- bounded rejoicing. The Book of Esther is read in the Synagogue, where all ages and sexes are bound to be preserit ; and whenever the name of Haman occurs, the whole congregation clap their hands, and stamp M'ith their feet, and answer, "Let his memory perish." The reign of Artaxerxes, the successor of Xerxes on the Persian throne, was favourable to the Jews. In the seventh year a new migration took place from Babylonia, headed by Ezra, a man of priestly descent. He was invested with full powers to make a collection among the Jews of Babylonia for the adornment of the national temple, and to establish magistrates and judges in every part of Judaea. Many of the priesthood of the higher, and of the inferior orders, joined themselves to his party — singers, porters, and Nethinims. They arrived in safety, though without any protection from the royal troops, in Jerusalem, and were received with great respect both by the Jews and the Persian governors. The national spirit of Ezra was deeply grieved to find that, by contracting marriages with the adjacent tribes, not merely the commonalty, but the chief- tains and the priests themselves had contaminated the pure descent of the IsraelitisK race. By his in- fluence these marriages were generally cancelled, and the foreign wives repudiat'^i. StilJ the city of Jtrusalem was open and defenceless : the jealous 22 HISTORY OI THE JEWS [b.C. 449 policy of the Persian kings would not permit the Jews to fortify a luiutaiy post of such importance as their capital. On a sudden, however, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, Neliemiah, a man of Jewish descent, cup-bearer to the king, received a commission to rebuild the city with all possible expedition. The cause of this change in the Persian politics is to be sought, not so much in the personal influence of the Jewish cup-bearer, as in the foreign history of the times. The power of Persia had received a fatal blow in the victory obtained at Cnidus by Conon, the Athenian admiral. The great king was obliged to submit to an humiliating peace, among the arti- cles of which were the abandonment of the mari- time towns, and a stipulation that the Persian army should not approach within three days' journey of the sea. Jerusalem being about this distance from the coast, as standing so near the line of communi- cation with Egypt, became a post of the utnn)st im- portance. The Persian court saw the wisdom of intrusting the command of a city, and the govern- ment of a people always obstinately national, to an officer of their own race, yet on whose fidelity they might have full reliance. The shock, which the Persian authority had suffered, is still further shown by the stealth and secrecy with which Nehemiah, though armed with the imperial edict, was obliged to proceed. For the heads of the neighbouring tribes, the Samaritans, Ammonites, and Arabians, openly opposed the work. By night, and with their arms in their hands, the whole people of every rank and order laboured with such assiduity — one half working, while the other watched, and stood on their defence — that in incredibly short time, fifty- two days, the enemy, Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshern the Arabian, who had at first treated the attempt with scorn, saw the strong city of Jerusalem, as if by enchantment, girt with impregnable walls and B.C. 440./ NEHEMIAH. 23 towers, defyingf their assault, and threatenino' to bridle their independence. Neheinuih had to c.'i- tend not only with foreign opposition, but domestic treachery. Some of the Jewish nobles were in secret correspondence with the enemy, particularly with Tobiah the Ammonite; and the great measure by which the governor relieved the people from usurious burdens, though popular no doubt among the lower orders, by no means conciliated the more wealthy to his administration. The exaction of the Persian tribute pressed heavily on the mass of the people : to defray this charge the poor were obliged to borrow of the rich, who, in defiance of the Mo- saic law, exacted enormous usury. Nehemiah, by the example of his own munificence, and by hia authority, extorted in a public assembly a general renunciation of these claims, and a solemn oath of future conformity to the law. In the spirit of the iiiicient constitution he closed the sitting with this imprecation: — he shook, his lap, and said, "So God sh.ike out every man from his house, and from his labour, that performeth not this promise, even thus he ye shaken out and emptied." And all the con- gregation said " Amen !" and praised the Lord. Having thus provided for the outward security and inward peace of the people, and having solemnly dedicated the whU, Nehemiah left Hanani his brother, and Hananiah, as governors of Jerusalem, strictly enjoining them to keep the gates closed, ex- cept during the day, and returned to Persia for a short time, to report h's proceedings and renew his commission. On his return, which speedily fol- lowed, he took new measures to secure the purity of descent, now held of such high importance among ihe Jews. The genealogies of all the con- gregation were inquired into and accurately made out ; the number of genuine Israelites taken, which amounted to 42,360, with 7337 slaves, and 244 ■inifers of both sexes. All their st(»ck amounted 24 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. [b.C 44b (only) to 736 horses, their mules 245, camels 435, i:ss3s 1720. Su'-h \v:is the f;i!leii state of this onc« mighty and opulent nation. Yet still the contribu- tions to the temple were on a scale comparn lively munificent. Nehemiah himself, the leaders, and the body of the people, voluntarily offered a considera- ble sum in gold, silver, utensils for the service, and costly garments for the priests. There seems to have been much unwillingness in the body of the people to inhabit the city, where probably the police was more strict, the military duties more onerous, and in general more restraint, with less freedom and less profit, than in the cultivation of the soil. But the general security of the country, and most likely direct orders from the court of Persia, required tliat the capital should be well manned ; and accordingly every tenth man, by lot, was constrained to enroll himself among the citizens of Jerusalem. In the meantime Ezra, who had been superseded .n the civil administration by Nehemiah, had applied himself to his more momentous task — the compila- tion of the Sacred Books of the Jews. Much of the Hebrew literature was lost at the time of the Captivity ; the ancient Book of Jasher, that of the wars of the Lord, the writings of Gad and Iddo the Prophet, and those of Solomon on Natural History. The rest, particularly the Law, of which, after the discovery of the original by Hilkiah, many copies were taken ; the historical books, the poetry, in- cluf'ing all the prophetic writings, except those of Malachi, were collected, revised, and either at that time, or subsequently, arranged in three great divi- sions. The Law, containing the five Books of Moses ; the Prophets, the historical and prophetical books ; the Hagiographa, called also the Psalms, containing Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon. At a later period, probably in the time f Simon the Just, the books of Malachi Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther were added, and what B.C. 444.] nehemiaH. 26 is called the Canon of Jewish Scripture finally closed. It is most likely that from this time the Jews began to establish synagogues, or places of public worship and instruction, for the use of which copies of the sacred writings were multiplied. The law, thus revised and corrected, was publicly read by Ezra, the people listening with the most devout attention; the feast of Tabernacles was celebrated with considerable splendour. After this festival a solemn fast was proclaimed : the whole people, having confessed and bewailed their offences, deli- berately renewed the covenant with the God of their fathers. An oath was administered, that they would keep the law ; avoid intermarriages with strangers ; leither buy nor sell on tlie Sabbath ; observe the sabbatical year, and remit all debts according to the law ; pay a tax of a third of a shekel for the service of the temple ; and offer ail first fruits, and all tithes to the Levites. Thus the Jewish constitution was finally re-established. In the twelfth year of his ad- ministration Nehemiah returned to the Persian court. But the weak and unsettled polity required a prudent and popular government. In his absence affairs soon fell into disorder. Notwithstanding the remonstrances of Malachi, the last of the prophets, the solemn covenant was forgotten ; and on his re- turn, after a residence of some time in Persia, Nehe- miali found the High Priest, Eliashib himself, in close alliance with the deadly enemy of the Jews, Tobiah the Ammonite, and a chamber in the temple assigned for tlie use of this stranger. A grandson of the High Priest had taken as his wife a daughter of their other adversary, Sanballat. Others of the people had married in the adjacent tribes, had for- gotten their native tongue, and spoke a mixed and barbarous jargon ; the Sabbath was violated both by the native Jews and by the Tyriau traders, who sold their fish and merchandise at the gates of Jerusa- lem. Armed with the authority of a Persian satrap. Vol. 11.^(3 t6 HISTOKY OF THE JEWS. [b.C. 408 and that of his own munificent and concil atory cha- racter — for as g-overnor he had lived on a magnifi- cent scale, and continually entertained 150 of the chief leaders at his own table — Nehemiah n formed all these disorders. Among the rest he expelled from Jerusalem Manasseh, the son of Joiada, (who succeeded Eliashib in the high priesthood,) on ac- count of his unlawful marriage with the daughter of Sanballat the Horonite. Sanballat meditated signal revenge. He built a rival temple on the mountain of Gerizim, and appointed Manasseh High Priest ; and thus the schism between the two nations, the Jews and the Samaritans, was perpetuated for ever. The Jews ascribe all the knowledge of the law among the Sarniritans, even their possession of the sacred books, to the apostacy of Manasseh. The rival temple, they assert, became the place of refuge to all the refractory and licentious Jews, who could not endure the strict administration of the law in Judfea. But these are the statements of bitter and implacable adversaries, fairly to be mistrusted either as untrue, or as exaggerated. Still, from the build- ing of the rival temple, we may date the total sepa- ration of the two people, of which Samaria, how- ever, remained in comparative insignificance, while Jerusalem was destined to a second era of magnifi- cence and rum. During the great period of Grecian splendour in arms, enterprise, and letters, the Jews, in quiet, and perhaps enviable obscurity, lay hid within their native valleys. The tide of war rolled at a distance ; wasting Asia Minor, and occasionally breaking on the shores of Cyprus and Egj^Dt. The Grecian writers of this period seem quite unaware of the existence of such a people ; they lay entirely out of the line of maritime adventure : Tyre Jilone, on the Syrian coast, attracted the Grecian merchant. Nor is there any reason to suppose tliat the Jews of Palestine, who were now in their lowest state both B.C. 352.] ALEXANDKU ^7 as to numbers and opulence, had commenced theii mercantile career. The accounts of the intercouise of the earlier and later Grecian philosophers, Pytlia- goras and Plato, with the Hebrews, are manifestly fictions of the Alexandrian Jews, eagerly adopted and exagg-erated by the Christian Fathers. The Greeks little apprehended that a few leagues inland from the coast which their fleets perpetually passed, a people, speaking a laiigu:ige which they esteemed oarbarous, was quietly pursuing its rural occupa- tions, and cultivating its luxuriant soil, yet possessed treasures of poetry which would rival their own Pindar and Simonides, moral wisdom which might put to shame that of Plato ; a people who hereafter *vere to send forth the great religious instructers of the world. The provincial administration of the Persian governors exercised only a general super- intendence over the subject nations, and the internal government of Jerusalem fell insensibly into the hands of the High Priests. From the administration of Nehemiah to the time of Alexander the Great, one atrocious crime, coja- mitted in the family of the Higli Priest, appears the only memorable transaction in the uneventful annals of JudcEa. Eliashib was succeeded in the High priesthood by Judas — Judas by John. The latter, jealous of the influence of his brother Jesus with Bagoses, the Persian governor, and suspecting him of designs on the High priesthood, murdered him within the precincts of the sanctuary, Tlie Persian came in great indignation to Jenisalem, and when the Jews would have prevented his entrance into the temple, he exclaimed, " Am not I purer than the dead body of him whom ye have slain in the temple 1" Bagoses laid a heavy mulct on the whole people — fifty drachms for every lamb offered in sacrifice. At length the peace of this favoured district was interrupted by the invasion of Alexander. After t^ie demolition of Tyre, the conqueror marched ?8 HISTORY or THE JEWS. [b.c. 332. against Ga/a, which he totally destroyed. Either during the siccre of Tyre, or liis march against Gaza, the Jews no doubt made their submission. On this simple fact has been built a romantic ami picturesque story. While Alexander was at .tlie siege of Tyre, he sent to demand the surrender of Jerusalem. The High Priest answered that he had sworn fealty to Darius, and was bound to maintain his allegiance to that monarch. After the taking ol Gaza, the conqueror advanced against Jerusalem. Juddua, the High Priest, and the people were in the greatest consternation. But, in a vision, God com- manded Juddua to take comfort — to hang the city with garlands — throw open the gates — and go forth to meet the enemy, clad in his pontifical robes, the priests in their ceremonial attire, the people in white garments. — Juddua obeyed. The solemn procession marched forth to Sapha, an eminence, from whence the whole city and temple might be seen. No sooner had Alexander beheld the High Priest in his hya- cinthine robes, embroidered with gold, and with tlie turban and its golden frontal, than he fell prostrate and adored the Holy Name, which was there in- scribed in golden characters. His attendants were lost in astonishment. The Phcenieians and Chal- deans had been eagerly watching the signal to dis- perse the suppliants, and pillage the city. The Syrian kings, who stood around, began to doubt if he were in his senses. Parmenio at length de- manded why he, whom all the world worshipped, should worship the High Priest. " 1 worship," re- plied the monarch, " not the High Priest, bul his God. In a vision at Dios in Macedonia, that figure in that very dress appeared to me. He exhorted me to pass over into Asia, and achieve the conquest of Persia." Alexander then took the priest by the hand and entered the city. He offered sacrifice; and the High Priest communicated to him the pro- ohecies of Daniel, predicting that a Greek was to B.C 332. J AtEXANDfiH. 2 overthrow the Persian empire. Alexander, de lighted with his reception, offered to the Jews what ever gift they should desire. They requested th • freedom of their brethren in Media and Babylonia. They likewise obtained an exemption from tribute in the Sabbatical year. The difficulties and ana- chronisms of this whole story* have been exposed by INIoyle, and Mitford the Grecian historian ; and jnfortuiiately the Alexandrian Jews were so much interested in inventing or embellishing any tale which could honourably connect them with the great founder of that city, that an account, which has most probably passed through their hands, must be received with great mistrust. It is added, that the Samaritans petitioned for the same exemption from tribute in the Sabbatical year. Alexander hesitated. But some of the inhabitants of Samaria, having, for some unknown reason, risen against Andromachus, the Macedonian commander in Samaria, Alexander ordered the whole people to be expelled, and planted a Macedonian colony in their room. The Samari- tans retreated to Shechem, and hence they are called, in the book of Ecclesiasticus, the foolish people that dwell at Shechem. The insurrection and expulsion of the Samaritans are mentioned by Curtius. Of the former history, the chroniclers of Alexander are silent, excepting Justin, in a passage which it is fair to mention. That author says, that in many of the Syrian cities, the kings came out to meet and submit to Alexander, with sacred fillets on theii heads. Alexander is likewise stated to have trans- planted 100,000 Jews to his new colony in Egypt, and bestowed on them equal privileges and immu nities with the Macedonians. On the death of Alexander, Judaea came into the possession of Laomedon, one of his generals. On * For instance: — the High Priest refnses hisallcgiance to Alexanriti though aware that he is designated by God, in the prophecy of Danltl u the Destroyer of the Persian Empire. 30 HISTORY OP THE JEW9. [b.C. 532- his defeat, Ptolemy, the king of Egypt, attempted to seize the whole of Syria. He advanced against Jerusalem, assaulted it on the Sabbath, and met with no resistance, the superstitious Jews scrupling • to Anolate the holy day, even in self-defence. The conqueror carried away 100,000 captives, whom he settled chiefly in Alexandria and Cyrene. In a short time, following a more humane policy, he en deavoured to attach the Jewish people to his cause. enrolled an army of 30,000 men, and intrusted the chief garrisons of the country to their care. Syria and Jndiea did not escape the dreadful anarchy which ensued during the destructive warfare waged by the generals and successors of Alexander. Twice these provinces fell into the power of Antigonus, and twice were regained by Ptolemy, to whose share they were finally adjudged after the decisive defeat Df Antigonus at Ipsus. The maritime towns. Tyre, Joppa, and Gaza, were the chief points of conten- tion ; Jerusalem itself seems to have escaped the horrors of war. During this dangerous period Onias,the High Priest, administered the public affairs for twenty-one years. He was succeeded, the year after the battle of Ipsus, by Simon the Just, a pontiff on whom Jewish tradition dwells with peculiar attachment. His death was the commencement of peril and disaster, announced, say the Rabbins, by the most alarming prodigies. The sacrifices, which were always favourably accepted during his life, at his death became uncertain or unfavourable. The scape goat, which used to be thrown from a rock, and to be dashed immediately to pieces, escaped (a fearful omen) into the desert. The great west light of the golden chandelier no longer burnt with a steady flame ; sometimes it was extinguished. The g<\crificial fire languished ; the sacrificial bread failed, f ) as not to suffice, as formerly, for the whole ] 'iesthood. The founding of the Syro-Grecian kin>>-dom by B.C 226.] JOSEPH, SON OP TOBIAS. 31 SeLucus, and the establishment of Antioch as the capital, brought Jiidfea into the unfortunate situation of a weak province, placed between two great con- flicting monarchies. Still under the mild government of the (hst hrre Ptolemies, Soter, Philadelphus, and Euergetes, both the native and Alexandrian Jews enjoyed many marks of the royal favour; and while almost all the rest of the world was ravaged by war, their country flourished in profound peace. Towards the end of the reign of Euergetes, the prosperity of the nation was endangered by the indolence and misconduct of Onias the Second, the Higii Priest, the son of Simon the Just, who had succeeded his uncles, Eleazar and Manasseh, in the supreme au- thority. The payment of the customary tribute having been neglected, the Egyptian king threatened to invade the country, and share it among his soldiers. The High Priest being unable, or unwilling, to go to Egypt to answer for his conduct, his nephew Joseph was despatched on this delicate mission. Joseph with difficulty obtained money for his journey of some Samaritans. He travelled to Egypt in a caravan with some rich Ccelesyrians and Phoenicians, who were going to Alexandria to obtain the farming of the royal tribute. He caught from their conver- sation the sum they proposed to offer, and the vast profit they intended to make of their bargain. On his arrival at court, he made rapid progress in the royal favour. When the farmers of the revenue came to make their oflTers, they bid 8000 talents ; Joseph instantly offered double that sum. His sure- ties were demanded ; he boldly named the king and queen. Struck with the character of the man, the royal bondsmen testified their assent; and Joseph became farmer of the revenues of Judaea, Samaiia, Phoenicia, and Coelesyria, with a formidable body of tax gatherers, 2000 soldiers. By making one or two terrible examples, putting to death twenty men at Ascalon, and confiscating 1000 talents of their 32 HKTORY OP THE JEWS. [b.O, Sfl? property, and by the same severity at Scythopolis, Joseph succe(!ded in raising the royal revenue with great profit to himself. He continued to discharge his office with vigilance, punctuality, and prudence, * for twenty-two years. Nor does it appear that his measures were unjust or oppressive. His adminis- tration lasted till the invasion of Antiochus the Great. This enterprising monarch, not contented with wresting liis own territory of Ccelesyria from tlie power of Ptolemy, seized Judaea, but was totally defeated in a great battle at Raphia, near Gaza. After his victory, Ptolemy (Philopator) entered Jeru- salem. He made sumptuous presents to the temple, but pressing forward to enter the sanctuary, he was repelled by the High Priest, Simon, son of Onias. He is reported to have been seized with a super- natural awe and horror ; but from that time he enter- tained implacable animosity against the Jews, whom, it is said, he cruelly persecuted, as will hereafter be related, in Alexandria. During the monarchy of the next Ptolemy (Epiphanes), Antiochus again seized Coelesyria and Judaea. Scopas, general oi the Egyptian forces, recovered, garrisoned, and strengthened Jerusalem, which he ruled with an iron and oppressive hand. But being defeated near the sources of the Jordan, he was constrained to leave Antiochus undisputed master of the territory. The Syrian king was received as a deliverer in Jerusalem, and desirous to attach these valuable allies to his cause, he issued a decree highly favourable to the wliole nation, Antiochus afterward bestowed C(B- lesyria and Judaea, as the dowry of his daughter (Cleopatra, on the young king of Egypt, Ptolemy Epiphanes. Still, however, the revenues were to h'i shared by the two sovereigns. In what manner tlie king of Syria regained his supr-riority does not appear, but probably through the disorder into which the affairs of Egypt fell, at the close of tb^ --eign of B.C. 187.J HYRCANTS 33 Ptolemy Epiphanes, and during the minority of Ptolemy Philomel or. It was not, however, the tyranny of foreign sove- reigns, hut the unprincipled ambition of llieir own native rulers, that led to calamities little less dread- ful than the Babj'lonian captivity, the plunder and ruin of the holy city, the persecution, and almost the extermination of the people. By the elevation of Joseph, the son of Tobias, to the office of col- lector, or farmer of the royal revenue, as above related, arose a family powerful enough to compete with that of the High Priest. Joseph had eiglit sons ; the youngest, Hyrcanus, by his own niece, who was substituted by her father in the place of a dancer, of whom Josepli had become violently ena- moured, in Egj'pt. This niece he afterward mar- ried. Hyrcanus, being sent on a mission to congra- tulate Ptolemy Philopator on the birth of his son, got possession of all his father's treasures. By the magnificence of his presents, a hundred beautiful girls, and a hundred beautiful boys, which each cost a talent, and bore a talent in their hands, and by the readiness of his wit, he made as favourable an im pression in the court as his father had done before liim. On his return to Judaa, he was attacked by lis brothers, on account of his appropriation of his father's Egyptian wealth: two of them were slain in the affray. Hyrcanus then retreated beyond the Jordan, and became collector of the revenue in tliat district. On his father's death a great contest arose about the partition of his wealth ; the High Priest, Onias HI., took part with the elder brothers against Hyrcanus. He fled again beyond Jordan, built a strong tower, and committed depredations on the Arabians, probably tlie Nabatheans, who carried on a considerable commerce. Dreading, however, the vengeance of the king of Syria, he fell on his sword and slew himself. A feud in the mean time had arisen between Onias and Simon, according to con 94 HMTORT or THE JEWS [b.C 176 jecture the elder son of Jcseph, who held the offiee of governor of the tomple. The immediate cause of dispute, probably, related to the command over the treasury of the temple, in which Onias had per- mitted Hyrcanus to deposite part of his riches, and over which Simon, as collector of the royal revenue, might pretend to some authority. Simon fled to Apollonius, who governed Ctelesyria, under King Seleucus, and gave an account of incalculable trea- sures laid up in the Jewish temple. Heliodorus, the royal treasurer, was immediately despatched to take possession of this unexpected fund, so oppor- tunely discovered; for the finances of Seleucus were exhausted by the exactions of t'he Romans. The whole city was in an agony of apprehension, the High Priest seemed in the deepest distress, while the royal officer advanced to profane and pillage the temple of God. Suddenly a horse with a terrible rider, clad in golden armour, rushed into the courts, and smote at Heliodorus with his fore feet. Two young men, of great strength and beauty, and splen- didly attired, stood by the rider, and scourged the intruder with great violence. At this awful appari- tion the treasurer fell half dead upon the pavement, was carried senseless out of the precincts of the sanctuary, and only revived after the promise of the High Priest to intercede with his offended Deity. Although the Jews were too much delighted, and the Syrians too much terrified, to doubt the reality of this miracle, yet Simon, the adversary of the High Priest, was not only incredulous, but openly accused him of imposture. The factions grew moie turbulent, and murders having been committed by the party of Simr n, Onias went up to Antioch to request the interposition of the sovereign. Soon after his arrival, Antiochus, surnamed Epiphanes the Illustrious, or Epimanes the Madman, succeeded nis brother Seleucus on the throne of Syria. An- tiochus united the quick and versatile character oJ B.C. 175.] ANTIOCHUS EPIIHANE8. 35 a Greek, with the splendid voluptuousness of an Asiatic. At one time he debased the royal dignity by mingling with the reveis of his meanest subjects, si-ounng the streets in his riotous frolics, or visiting tlie lowest places of public entertainment, and the common baths ; or, like Peter of Russia, conversing with the artisans in their shops on their various trades. With still less regard to the dignity of his own character, he was fond of mimicking in public the forms of election to the Roman magistracies ; he would put on a white robe, and canvass the pas- sengers in the streets for their votes. Then, sup- posing himself to have been elected edile, or tribune, he would place his curule chair in the open market- place, and administer justice. A poor revenge against a people, before whose power he trembled ! On the other hand, the pleasures of Antiochus were those of a Sardanapalus ; and his munificence, more particularly towards the religious ceremonies and edifices, both of his own dominions and ol Greece, was on a scale of truly Oriental grandeur. For among the discrepances of this singular character, must be reckoned a great degree of bigotry and religious intolerance. The admirers of the mild genius of the Grecian religion, and those who sup- pose religious persecution unknown in the world till the era of Christianity, would do well to consider the wanton and barbarous attempt of Antiochus to exterminate the religion of the Jews, and substitute that of the Greeks. Yet the savage and tyrannical violence of Antiochus was, in fact, and surely we may say providentially, the safeguard of the Jewish nation from the greatest danger to which it had ever been exposed, the slow and secret encroachment of Grecian manners, Grecian arts, Grecian vices, and Grecian idolatry. It roused the dormant energy of the whole people, and united again, in indissoluble bonils, the generous desire of national independence, with zealous attachment to the national religion. 36 HISTORY OF THE JEVTS. [b.C. 171. It again identified the true patriot with the devout worsliipper. Joshua, or Jason, the brother of Onias, the High Priest, by the offer of 360 talents, bribed the hixurious, but needy sovereign of Syria, to dis- pla(;e his unoffending relative, and confer upon him- self the vacant dignity. Onias was summoned to Antioch, and there detained in honourable confine- ment. Joshua proceeded to strengthen his own interests by undermining the national character; he assumed a Grecian name, Jason ; obtained per- mission to build a gymnasium, to which he attracted all the youth of the city ; weaned them by degrees from all the habits and opinions of their fathers, and trained them in a complete system of Grecian education. He allowed the services of the temple to fall into disuse ; and carried his alienation from the Jewish faith so far as to send a contribution to the great games, which were celebrated at Tyre in honour of their tutelar deity, the Hercules of the Greeks. This last act of impiety was frustrated by the religious feelings of his messengers, who, instead of conferring the present on the conductors of the games, gave it to the magistrates to be employed in the service of their fleet. The authority of Jason was short-lived. He sent, to pay the tribute at Antioch, another Onias, (his own brother, according to Josephus, or the brother of Simon, the son ot Joseph, according to the book of Maccabees,) but who, in conformity to the Grecian fashion, had assumed the name of Menelaus. This man seized the opportunity of outbidding his employer for the high priesthood, and was accordingly substituted in his place. Menelaus, however, found the treasury exhausted by the profusion of Jason, and, in order to make gjod his payments at Antioch, secretly pur- Iciinod the golden vessels of the temple, which he sold at Tyre. The zeal of the deposed Onias was kindled at this sacrilege ; he publicly denounced the plunderer before the tribunal of Antioch. But B.C. 170 .J PERSECUTION BY ANTIOCHCS. 3*7 the gold of Menelaus was all-powerful among the officers of the Syriiin rourt. Oiiias fled to ;in asylum in the Dapliiie, near Antioch, but being per- suaded t(t come forth, was put to death by Androni- cus, whtim Menehius liad bribed. Yet the life of Onias had been so blameless and dignified, that even the profligate court and thoughtless monarch lamented his death. In the mean time a formidable insurrection liad taken place in Jerusalem. The people, indignant at the plunder of the temple, attacked Lysimachus, brother of Menelaus. who had been left in connnand, and, although he rallied a force of 3(KM) men, overpowered and slew him. Aniiochiis had now opened his campaign for the subpigation of Kg}'pt. Whde at Tyre, a deputation fniin Jerusalem came before him to complain of the tyranny of Menelaus. Menelaus contrived not merely that the embassy should have no effect, but the ambassadors themselves were murdered. Anti- ochus advanced the next year into Egypt : his career was victorious : the wliole country submitted. But a false rumour of his death having reached Pales- Ime, Jason, the dispossessed High Priest, seized the opportunity of revolt against his brother, took the city, shut up Menelaus in the castle of Acra, and began to exercise the most horrible revenge against the opposite party. The intelligence of the insur- rection, magnified into a deliberate revolt of the whole nation, reached Antiochus. He marched without delay against Jerusalem, took it without much resistance, put to death in three days' time 40,000 of the inhabitants, and seized as many more to be sold as slaves. Bad as this was, it was the common fate of rebellious cities : but Antiochus proceeded to more cruel and wanton outrages against the religion of the people. He entered every part of the temple, pillaged the treasury, seized a^ the sacred utensils, the golden candlestick, the table of showbread, the altar of incense ; and thus col- 38 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. [B.C. 168 lected a booty to the amount of 1800 talents. He theiicommandod ;i ome that it \v,is (he banner of the tribe of Dan, wliicli contained tlie three last letters of the names of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob : others that it was the personal appella- tion )f Judas, from a word sisjnifvinof a hamniei, like that of Charles IMnrlel, the hero of the Franks. Having- tried his soldiers by many gallant adven- tures, surprising many cities, which he garrisoned and fortified, Judas determined to meet the enemy m the field. Apollonius, the governor of Samaria, first advanced against him, and was totally defeated and slain. Judas took the sword of his enemy as a trophy, and ever after used it in battle. Seron, the deputy-governor of Ceelesyria, advanced to revenge the defeat of Apollonius, but encountering the enemy in the strong pass of Beth-horon, met with the same fate. The circumstances of the times favoured the noble struggle of Judas and his followers for inde- pendence. By his prodigal magnificence, both in his pleasures and in his splendid donatives and offerings, Antiochus had exhausted his finances. His eastern provinces, Armenia and Persia, refused their tribute. He therefore was constrained to divide his forces, marching himself into the east, and leaving Lysias, with a great army, to crush the msurrection in Judaea. The rapid pro'gress of Judas demanded immediate resistance. Philip, the Syrian governor in Jerusalem, sent urgent solicitations for relief. The vanguard of the Syrian army, amount- ing to 20,000, under the command of Nicanor and (■'orgias, advanced rapidly into the province : it was followed by the general in chief, Ptolemy Macron , their united forces forming an army of 40,000 foot and 7000 horse. In their train came a multitude of slave merchants; for Nicanor had suggested the policy of selling as many of the insurgents as they could take, to discharge the arrears of tiibute due 44 HISTORY OP THE JEWS [b J iSft to the Romans. Judas assembled 6000 men al MizptMi- therf thr>y fasti'd anrl prnvpd; and the relig-ious ceremony, performed in that unusual place, sadly rciniii.lpd thtMii of tlie desolate state of thi' holy city, the profanation of the sanctuary, tiie discon- tinuance of the sacrifices. But if sorrow subdued the tamer spirits, it infused loftier indiirnation and nobler self-devotion in the valiant. Judas knew that his only hope, save in his God, was in the en- thusiastic zeal of !iis followers for the law of Moses. In strict conformity to its injunctions, he issued out throuy-h his littU- army the appointed proclamation, that all who Jiad married wives, built houses, or planted vineyards, or were fearful, should return to their homes. His force dwindbd to 3000 men. Yet with this small band he advanced toward Em- mans, where the enemy lay encamped. Intelligence reached him that Gorg-ias had been detached with 5000 chosen foot and 1000 horse, to surprise him by night. He instantly formed the daring resolution of eludir.g the attack, by falling on the camp of the enemy. It was morning before he arrived; but, animating his men to the attack, he rushed down upon the Syrians, who, after a feeble resistance, fled on all sides. Judas was as wary as bold ; his troops as well-disciplined as enterprising. He restrained them from the plunder of the camp, till the return of Gorgias with the flower of the army, who came back weary with seeking the Jewish insurgents among the mountains, where they had hoped to sur- prise them. To their astonislunent they beheld their own camp in a blaze of fire. The contest was short, but decisive : the Syrians were defeated with immense loss. The rich booty of the camp fell into the hands of the Jews, who, with just retribution sold for slaves as many of the slave-merchants as they could find. The next day was the sabbath, a day indeed of rest and rejoicing. But success only excited the honourable ambition of the Maccabee. B.C. 1 00. J VICTORIES OF JUI>AS. 46 Hearing- that a great force was assembling beyond the Jordan under Timotheus and Bacchides, he crossed the river, and gained a great victory and a considerable supply of arras. Here two of the chief oppressors of the Jews, Philarches and Callis- thenes, perished ; one in battle ; the other burnt to death in a house, where he had taken refuge. Ni- canor fled, in the disguise of a slave, to Antioch. The next year Lysias appeared in person, at the head of 60,000 foot and 5,000 horse, on the southern frontier of Judaea ; having perhaps levied part of hia men among the Idumeans. This tribe now inha- bited a district to the west of their ancestors, the Edomites, having been dispossessed of their former territory by the Nabathean Arabs. Judas met this formidable host with 10,000 men ; gained a decisive victory, and slew 5000 of the enemy. Thus on all sides triumphant, Judas entered, with his valiant con- federates, the ruined and desolate Jerusalem. They jound shrubs grown to some height, like the under- wood of a forest, in the courts of the temple ; every part of the sacred edifice had been profaned ; the chambers of the priests were thrown down. With wild lamentations and the sound of martial trumpets they mingled their prayers and praises to the God of their fathers. Judas took the precaution to keep a body of armed men on the watch against the Syrian garrison in the citadel ; and then proceeded to instal the most blameless of the priests in their office, to repair the sacred edifice, purify every part from the profanation of the heathen, to construct a new altar, replace out of the booty all the sacred vessels, and at length to celebrate the feast of dedication — a period of eight days — which ever after was held sacred in the Jewish calendar. Ii was the festival of the regeneration of the people, which, but for the valour of the Maccabees, had almost lost its political existence. The re-establishment of a f*^erful state in Ju- 46 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. [b.C. 1 64 daea was not beheld without jealousy by the neigh, bouring tribes. But Judas, having strongly fortified the temple on the side of the citadel, anticipated a powerful confederacy which was forming against him, and carried his victorious arms into the territo- ries of the Idumeans and Ammonites. Thus dis- comfited on every side, the Syrians and their allies began to revenge themselves on the Jews who were scattered in Galilee and the Transjordanic pro- vinces. A great force from Tyre and Ptolemais ad- vanced into the neighbouring country. Timotheus, son of a former general of the same name, laid waste Gilead with great slaughter. Judas, by the general consent of the people, divided his army into three parts ; 8000 men, under his own command, crossed the Jordan into Gilead; 3000, under his brother Simon, marched into Galilee ; the rest, under Joseph the son of Zacharias, and Azarias, remained to defend the liberated provinces ; but with strict injunctions to make no hostile movement. The Maccabees, as usual, were irresistible : city after city fell before Judas and Jonathan. At length, having subdued the whole country, Judas found it prudent not to extend his kingdom to the bounds of that of David, and with that view removed all the Jews beyond the Jordan to the more defensible pro- vince of Judaea. Simon was equally successful in Galilee ; he drove the enemy before him to the gates of Ptolemais. But the commanders who were left at home, in direct violation of orders, undertook an ill-concerted enterprise against Jamnia, a seaport; were opposed by Bacchides, the most skilful of the Syrian generals, and met with a signal defeat. In the meantime the great oppressor of the Jews, Antiochus, had died in Persia. That his end was miserable both the Jewish and Roman historians agree. He had been repulsed in an assault on a rich and sumptuous temple in Persia, called by the Greeks that of Diana ; perhaps of the female Mithra B.C. 1 64. J SIEGE OF BETHStJRA 4*7 or the moon. Whether he had been incited by the desire of plunder, or by his bigoted animosity agaii'st foreign religions, does not appear; but at the same time he received intelligence of the dis- astrous state of his affairs in Palestine. Hastening homeward, he was se)2ed with an incurable disorder, ill a small town among the mountains of Paretacene. There, consumed in body by a loathsome ulcer, afflicted in mind by horrible apparitions and remorse of conscience, for his outrage on the Persian temple, sa3's Polybius — for his horrible barbarities and sa- crilege in Judsea, assert the Hebrew writers — died the most magnificent of the Syro-Macedonian monarchs. Lysias, who commanded in Syria, immediately Bet up a son of the deceased king, Antiochus Eupa tor, upon the throne ; Demetrius, the rightful heii ds son of Seleucus, being a hostage in Rome. The first measure of Lysias was to attempt the subjuga- tion of Judaea, where a strong party of the apostate Jews anxiously awaited his approach. The royal army formed the siege of Bethsura, a town on the Idumean frontier, which Judas had strongly fortified. Their force consisted of 80 or 100,000 foot, 20,000 horse, and 32 elephants. Bethsura made a valiant defence, and Judas marched from Jerusalem to its relief. The elephants seem to have excited great terror and astonishment. According to the Jewish annalist each beast was escorted by a thousand foot, splendidly armed, and 500 horse; each bore a tower containing 32 men; and to provoke them to fight, (hey showed them the blood of grapes and mulberries. The whole army, in radiant armour, spread over the mountains and valleys, so that the moxintains glis- tened therewith, and seevied like lamps of fire. Yet wherever Judas fought, the Hebrews were success- ful ; and his heroic brother, Kleazar, excited the ad- miration of his countiymen by rushing under an elephant, which he st;ibbed in the belly, and was crushed to death by its fall. Still Judas found him- 48 niSTORY OF THE JEWS. [b.c. 163 Belf obliged to retreat upon Jerusalem. Bethsura, pressed by famine, capitulated on honourable terms; and the royal army joined the siege of that part of the city, which was in the possession of .ludas. Jerusalem resisted all their assaults ; the Syrians began to suffer from want of provisions ; and intel- ligence arrived that affairs at Antioch demanded their immediate presence. A treaty was concluded, and Antiochus admitted into the city ; but in direct violation of the terms, he threw down the walls and dismantled the fortifications. Demetrius in the mean time, the lineal heir to the throne of Antioch, had escaped from Rome. After some struggle, he overpowered Lysias and Antio- chus, put them to death, and became undisputed master of the kingdom. The new king adopted a more dangerous policy against the independence of Judaea than the vast armies of his predecessor. The looser and less patriotic Jews ill-brooked the austere government of the Chasidim, who formed the party of Judas : many, perhaps, were weary of the constant warfare in which their valiant cham- pion was engaged. Menelaus, the renegade High Priest, had accompanied the army of Lysias, and endeavoured to form a faction in his favour : but, on some dissatisfaction, Lysias sent him to Berea, where he was thrown into a tower of ashes and suffocated. Onias, son of the Onias murdered by means of Menelaus, the heir of the priesthood, fled to p]gypt, and Alcimus, or Jacimus, was raised to the high priesthood. By reviving the title of the High Priest to the supreme authority, Demetriua hoped, if not to secure a dependant vassal on the government of Judaja, at least to sow discord among the insurgents. He sent Alcimus, supported by Bacchides, his most able general, to claim his dig- nity. The zealots f r the law could not resist the title of the High Priest. Jerusalem submitted. But no sooner had Alcimus got the leaders irto his BC. 162.] FALL OF JUDAS. 49 power than he bas-ely murdered sixty of them; Bacchides followed up the blow with great severi- ties in other parts. Still, no sooner had Bacchides withdrawn his troops, than Judas again took arms, and Alcimus was compelled to fly to Antioch. De- metrius despatched Nicanor, with a great army, to reinstate Alcimus. Jerusalem was still in the pos- session of the Syrians; and Nicanor attempted to get Judas into his power by stratagem, but the wary soldier was on hia guard. A battle took place at Capharsalama : Nicanor retreated, with the less of 5000 men, to Jerusalem, where he re- venged nimself by the g^-eatest barbarities : one of the elders, named Razi/, rather than fall into his hands, stabbed himself with his own sword; but the wound not proving mortal, he ran forth and de- stroyed himself by other means, too horrible to de- scribe. By these cruelties, and by a threat of burn- ing the temple and consecrating the spot to Bacchus, Nicanor endeavoured to force the people to surren- der their champion. All these treacherous and cruel means proving ineffectual, he was forced to revert to open war. A second battle took place, in which the superior forces of Nicanor were totally routed, and he himself slain. After this final vic- tory Judas took a more decided step to secure the independence of his country; he entered into a formal treaty of alliance with Rome. The ambi- tious Roman senate— steadily pursuing their usual policy, of weakening all the great monarchies of the world, by all means whether honourable or trea- cherous ; and ever, as Justin observes, ready to grant what did not belong to them — eagerly ratified the independence of Judfea, and received under their protection these useful confederates. Before, how- ever, the treaty was made known, the glorious ca- reer of the Maccabee had terminated. Demetrius sent Alcimus and Bacchides, with the whole force of his kuigdom, into Palestine. Judas was aban- VoL U -E fcO HISTORY OF THE JEWS. [b.C. 161 doned by all his troops, but 800 men, yet could not bo prevailed on to retreat. Tin nr.z discomfited one wing of the enemy's army, he fell nobly, as he had lived, the martyr, as the champion of his country. Among those lofty spirits who have asserted the liberty of their native land against wanton and cruel oppression, none have surpassed t?.e most able of the Maccabees in accomplishing a great end with inadequate means; none ever united more generous valour with a better cause. The faction of Alcimus now triumphed, the parti- sans of the Maccabees were oppressed, and the unrelenting Bacchides put to death the bravest of their adherents with the most cruel indignities. Jonathan, the brother of Judas, assembled a small force, and lay concealed in the wilderness of Te- koah, defended by tlie Jordan on one side, and a morass on the other. A third of this gallant race, John, had fallen in an affray with an Arab tribe, who surprised him while escorting some of their effects to the friendly Nabatheans. To revenge his death was the first object ; during a splendid marriage cere- mony, the Jews fell on the bride and bridegroom, with all their attendants, and put them to the sword. Soon after this they repelled an attack of Bacchides, with great loss, but finding their numbers unequal to the contest, they swam the river and escaped. Bacchides, to secure military possession of the coun- try, fortified and garrisoned all the strong towns. In the mean time, the unworthy High Priest, Alcimus, having begun to throw down one of the partition walls in the temple, was seized with a mortal dis- order, and died. On his death, Bacchides retired to Antioch, and Jonathan immediately broke out of his hiding-place ; but on the reappearance of Bacchides ^t the head of a considerable anny, he again took refuge in the wilderness ; where he kept up a desul- tory guerilla warfare, he himself hovering about the camp of Bacchides. while his brother Simon d3» B.C. 163.] JOTfATHAN, HIGH PRIEST. Si fended the strong post of Bethhasi. At length Bac- chides, either wearied of this inglorious and harass- ing campaign, perhaps by orders from his court, who began to tremble at the danger of oppressing an ally of Rome, entered into honourable terms of peace. Jonathan thus became master of Judaea; though Jerusalem, and many of the stronger towns, occu- pied by garrisons, either of Syrians or apostate Jews, defied his authority. A revolution in the kingdom of Syria gave him new strength and importance. An adventurer, Alexander Balas, announcing himself as the son of Antiochus Epiphaues, laid claim to the crown of the Seleucidae. Tlie Romans admitted his title, and Jonathan found himself courted by the two competitors for the kingdom of Antioch. Demetrius gave him power to levy forces, and yielded up all the hostages wliich remained in his hands. Jona- than seizedtheopportunityof making himself master of the city, though not of the fortress, of Jerusalem. But Alexander outbid his rival ; he offered the high priesthood exemption from all tribute, from customs of salt and from crozen taxes, the third part of the seed and half of the fruit of the trees ; the surrender of all prisoners, not merely protection in their religion, but the town of Ptolemais, and other donatives for the expenses of the temple, and for the building and repairs of the city. Jonathan immediately assumed the pontifical robe, and in his person commenced the reign of the Asmonean princes. The impostor, Alexander, met with the greatest success ; defeated and slew Demetrius; mounted the tiirone of Syria; and received the daughter of the king of Egypt in marriage. Jonathan, who appeared at the Aveddi«g, was received with the highest honours that the court could bestow. These distinctions were not thrown away on a useless or ungrateful ally. Apollonius, the general of young Demetrius, who laid claim to his father's crown, was defeated by Jonathan ; the victorious High Priest stormed Jt)i»pa, took Azotus S2 HISTORY OP THE JEWS. [b.C. 146 and there destroyed the famous temple of Dagon. The reign of Alexander Balas was short, he was overthrown hy his father-in-law, Ptolemy, against » whose life he had conspired, and Demetrius, sur- named Nicator, obtained tlie throne of Syria. Jona- than seized the opportunity of laying siege to the citadel of Jerusalem, the opposite faction endea- voured to obtain the interference of Demetrius, but Jonathan, leaving his troops to press the siege, went in person to the court in Antioch. He was received with great honour, and a treaty was concluded, still more advantageous to his power than that with Alexander Balas. In return, a bodj- guard of 3,000 Jews saved Demetrius from a dangerous conspiracy, and suppressed a turbulent sedition in Antioch. The conspiracy took its rise in the claims of Antiochus, son of Alexander Balas, who was supported by Try- phon, an officer equally crafty and ambitious. But the good understanding between Demetrius and Jonathan did not last long, and no sooner was the support of his powerful vassal withdrawn, than the Syrian king was constrained to fly and yield up the throne to his rival, young Antiochus. Jonathan was treated with great distinction by the new sove- reign, Antiochus Theos ; he was confirmed in his dignity as High Priest. Simon, his brother, was appointed captain general of all tlie country from the ladder of Tyre to tlie river of Egypt. The activity of Jonathan mainly contributed to the security of Antiochus. He gained two signal victories over the armies in the service of Demetrius, strengthened many of the fortresses in Judaea, and renewed the treaty with Rome, when his prosperous career was suddenly cut short by treachery. Tryphon, the officer, who had raised the young Antiochus to the throne, began to entertain ambitious views of sup- planting him. The great obstacles to his scheme were the power and integrity of Jonathan. With insidious offers of peace, he persuaded Jonathan tc B.C. 144. J SIMON, HIGH PRIESl. 63 dismiss a large army which he had assembled to assist Antiochus, aii'i allured him within the walls of Ptolemais, with a few followers, under pretence of surreiidcrin'^ to him the town. He then suddenly closed the gates, took Jonathan prisoner, and poured his troops over the great plain of Galilee. The Jews were struck, but not paralyzed, with conster- nation. Another of the noble raceof M-ittathias remained, and Simon was immediately invested with the command. The crafty Tryphon began to nego- tiate : he offered to yield up Jonathan at the price of 100 talents of silver, and two of his children, hos- tages for his peaceable conduct. The money and the hostages were sent, but the perfidious Tryphon refused to surrender Jonathan. The two armies wat('hed each other for some time. The Syrians being prevented by a heavy fall of snow from re- lieving their garrison in the fortress of Jerusalem, Tryphon having first put to death the brave Jona- than, hasted into Syria, where he treated the unhappy Antiochus with the same treachery and atrocity. Simon recovered the body of his brother, who was interred at Modin in great state ; a sepulchre, with seven pillars, for the father, mother, and five Mac- cabean brethren, was raised on an eminence ; a sea- mark to all the vessels which sailed along the coast. Simon openly espoused the party of Demetrius against Tr}^"phon, and received from that monarch a full recognition of the independence of his country. Instead, therefore, of interfering in foreign affairs, .le directed his whole attention to the consolidation and internal security of the Jewish kingdom. He sent an ambassage, which was honourably received at Rr me, fortified Bethsura, on the Idumean frontier, and jppa, the great port of Judaea; reduced Gazara; and at length having made himself master of the 'brtress in Jerusalem, not merely dismantled it, but, with incredible labour, levelled the hill on which it stood, so that it no longer commanded the hill of the 54 HISTORY OP ^»rti JEWS. [b.c. 139-135 temple. Simon executed the law with great impar- tiality and vigour; repaired the temple, restored the sacred vessels ; and the wasted country began, under his prudent administration, to enjoy its ancient fer- lity. In the picturesque language of their older poets, the historian says, The ancient men sat all in the streets, communing together of the wealth of the land, and the young men put on glorious and warlike ap- parel. To secure the alliance of the Romans, the great safeguard of the new state, he sent a golden shield, weighing 1,000 pounds, to Rome. In the mean time, Demetrius, the rightful sovereign of Syria, had been taken prisoner in an expedition against the Parthians ; and Antiochus Sidetes, his brother, levied an army to dispossess the usurper and murderer, Tryphon. In a short time he gained the superiority in the field, and besieged Tryphon in Dora ; Simon openly espoused his party ; but Anti- ochus considered his assistance dearly purchased at the price of the independence of Palestine, and above all the possession of the important ports of Gazara and Joppa. Athenobius, his ambassador, sent to demand tribute and indenmification, was struck with astonishment at the riches and splendour of Simon's palace; and on the Jewish sovereign refusing all submission, and only offering a price for the pos- session of Joppa, Antiochus sent his general, Cen- debus, to invade the country. Simon, now grown old, intrusted the command of his forces to his sons, Judas and John Hyrcanus. They, havhig defeated Cendebus, and taken Azotus, returned crowned with victory. But the Maccabean race seemed destined to perish by violence. Ptolemy, son of Abubus, the son-in-law of Simon, under a secret understanding with Antiochus, king of Syria, formed a conspiracy to usurp the sovereignty of Judaea. At a banquet in Jericho, he contrived basely to assassinate Simon and his elder son; and at the same time endeavoured to surprise the younger, John, in Gazara. But John «.C. 135.] HYRCAKUS, HIGH PRIKST. 65 inherited the vigour and ability of his family; he eluded the danapr, anjiear^^d in .Tenisalem, and \vh« unanimously proclaimed the High Priest and ruler of the country. His first measure was to march against Jericho to evenge the base murder of his father; but Ptolem) had m his power the mother and brethren of Hyrcanus. He shut himself up in a fortress, and exposed his captives on the walls, scourging them, and threatening to put them to death. The noble-minded woman exhorted her son, notwithstanding her ow-n danger, to revenge his father's murder: but Hyrcanus hesitated; the siege was protracted; and, at length, according to the improbable reason assigned by Josephus, the year being a sabbatic year, entirely raised the siege. Ptolemy fed to Philadelphia, of his subsequent fate we know nothing. The rapid movements of Hyr- canus had disconcerted the confederacy between the assassin and Antiochus. Still, however, the Syrian anny overran the whole country, Hyrcanus was besieged in Jerusalem, where he was reduced to the last extremity by famine. But Antiochus proved a moderate and generous enemy; on the feast of Tabernacles, he conceded a week's truce, fur- nished the besieged with victims for sacrifice, and finally concluded a peace, of which the terms, though hard, were better than Hyrcanus, in the lo^> condition to which he was reduced, could fairly expect. The countrj' was to submit to vassalage under the kings of Syria, tribute was to be paid for Joppa and other towns held by grants from the pre- decessors of Antiochus, and Jerusalem was dis- mantled. Four years after, John Hyrcanus \yas summoned to attend his liege lord on an expedition into Parthia, under the pretence of delivering Deme- trius Nicator, brother of the king, fonnerly possessor of the crown, and long a captive in Parthia. Hyr- anus returned before the defeat, which lost Anti- us his throne and life. Demetrius escaped and 66 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. [b.C. 130 renovered the throne of Anl'ioeh. But Hj^rcamis- seized the opportuuitj' of throvviiia- off the yoke o* Syria, and the Jewish kingdom rcassumed its inde- pendence, which it maintained, until it iVli under tlie Roman dominion. The Sj'rian king-dom heina; dis- tracted by rival competitors for the throne, the pru- dent and enterprising Hyrcanus lost no opportunity of extending his territory and increasing his power. He took Samega and Medaba, in the Transjordanic region. But his greatest triumph, that which raised him the highest in the opinion of his zealous coun- trymen, was the capture of Sichem, and the total destruction of the rival temple on Gerizim. It was levelled to the earth, not a vestige remained. For two hundred years this hated edifice had shocked the sight of the pious pilgrim to .lerusalem; now the temple of Jerusalem resumed its dignity as the only sanctuary where the God of their fathers was worshipped, at least within the region of Palestine. The Samaritan temple had always seemed a usur- pation upon the peculiar property of the Jewish people in the universal Deity ; now they were again undisputed possessors, as of the Divine presence, so they conceived of the Divine protection. Yet, at a more remote distance, another temple had arisen, which excited great jealousy in the more rigid. This was in Egypt, where in fact another nation of Jews had gradually grown up. On the capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, a great number of Jews, under Gedaliah, fled to Egypt. Alexander is reported to have encouraged their set- tlement in his new city of Alexandria by privileges which put them on the same footing with the Mace- donians. Ptolemy, founder of the Egy])to-Grecian kingdom, transported from Judaea 30,000 families. Bome he settled in Gyrene, most in Alexandria. During the oppressions of the Syrian kings, many, envying the peaceful and prosperous state of their orethren in Egypt, abandoned Judaea and took refuge B.C 149. I ALEXANDRIAN JEWS. 57 ander the protection of the Ptolemies, who, either as nseful subjects;, or never entn-ely abandoning their ambitious views on Palestine, uniformly endeavoured to secure the attachment of the Jews. Under the .eign of Ptolemy Philometor, as has been stated, Onias, (son of that Onias who was murdered by Menelaus) tlie rightful heir of the high priesthood, fled into Egypt. He rose high in favour with the king and his queen, Cleopatra ; and, being thus de- prived of his riglitful inheritance, he conceived the design of buihhng a temple for the use of the Egyp- tian Jews. The king entered into his views, whether to advance his popularity with his Jewish subjects, or to prevent the wealth, which as tribute or offering to the temple, flowed out of his dominions to Jerusalem. He granted to Onias a rained temple in Leontopolis, in the Heliopolitan nome, and a tract of land for the maintenance of the worship. Both temple and domain remained unviolated till the reign of Vespasian. Onias reconciled his countrymen to this bold innovation by a text in Isaiah (xix. 18, 19). In this passage it is predicted that there should be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt; according to the interpretation of Onias, the very place M'as designated. That which in our trans- lation appears as "the city of destruction," was interpreted, perhaps not inaccurately, the City of the Sim (Heliopolis). Thus then the .Tews of Alexan- dria had divine authority for their temple, and unquestionably the legit. mate High Priest as their officiating minister. The Aramean Jews looked on their Egyptian brethren with assumed contempt, but inward jealousy; perhaps the distance only pre- vented a feud, almost as deadly as that with the Samaritans. Alexandria being the retreat of Gre- cian learning, tlie Jews turned their attention to lite- rature, and even to philosophy. But in some respects they were in an unfortunate situation, with great temptations and great facilities to substitute 66 flISTORT OF THE JEWS. [b.C. 149 fiction for truth. They were pressed on all sides, by Egyptians, by Greeks, and by the Aramean Jew. The former denied their antiquity as a nation, and reproached them with the servitude and base con- i]ition of their ancestors in Egypt, which they grossly exaggerated; the Greeks treated their national literature with contempt; the rigid Jews could not forgive their adoption of the Greek lan- guage and study of Greek letters. The strange legend about the origin of their version of the Scrip tures, commonly called the Septuagint, evidently originated in their desire to gain a miraculous sanc- tion for their sacred books, and thus put them in some degree on the same footing with the originaJ Hebrew Scriptures. This work, which probably was executed at different periods, by writers of various abilities and different style, was reported by a certain Aristeas to have been the work of seventy- two translators, deputed by the grand Sanhedrin, at the desire of Ptolemy Philadelphus, who were shut up in separate cells, and each rendered the whole work, word for word, in the same language. The romantic history of the persecution of the Alexan- drian Jews, someiunes called the third book of the Maccabees, was apparently compiled with a similar design, to show that they had been exposed, on account of their religion, to equal barbarities with their brethren, endured them with equal courage, and were delivered in a manner equally miraculous. Ptolemy Philopator (or Ptolemy Physcon) for it is not easy to fix a period for the legend, had deter- mined on the extermination of the Jews, unless they would apostatize from their religion. Only 300 con- sented to this base compliance, the rest vere shut up in the Hippodrome to be destroyed bj /Elephants. The king being engaged in a drunken revel, the Jews remained a whole day expecting, /et boldlj determined to endure, their miserable faie. WheD the elephants were let loose, thev refused to 2.sssJ B.C. 109.] HYRCANrs INVADES SAMARIA. 69 the Jews, but turned all their fury on the spectators, on whom they conimitfed fricrl^tful ravagfs. We have mentioned these fads as illustrating the cha- racter of the Alexandri-an Jews; we pass unwillingly over their controversies with the Egyptians and the Greeks, and the curious ur.xon of Grecian philosophy with the Jewish religion, which prevailed in their schools, as these subjects belong rather to the his- tory of Jewish literature than that of the Jewish people. The Alexandrian Jews mingled in all the transactions, and attained the highest honours of the state. Onias, who built the temple during the pon- tificate of Jonathan, filled the most eminent offices in tlie state and in the army; and at a later period we shall find Chelcias and Ananias, two Jews, com- manding the armies of Cleopatra. "WTiile Egypt and Syria were desolated by the crimes and the contentions of successive pretenders to their thrones, the state of Judaea enjoyed pro- found peace under the vigorous administration of Hyrcanus. Having destroyed Sichem, he next turned his forces against Idumea, subjugated the country, compelled the ancient rivals of his subjects to submit to circumcision, and to adopt the Jewish religion: and so completely incorporated the two nations, that the name of Idumea appears no more in history. Hyrcanus maintained a strict alliance with the Romans, and renewed a treaty, oflfensive and defensive, against their common enemies. In the twenty-sixth year of his reign he determined to reduce the province and city of Samaria to his authority. He intrusted the command of his army to his sons, Aristobulus and Antigonus. The Samaritans implored the protection of Antiochus Cyzicenus, then king of Damascus, who marched to their relief, but suffeied a total defeat by the brothers. In conjunction with 6000 Egj^ptian allien Antiochus made a second attempt to rescue this province from the power of the Jews, but with no 60 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. [b.C. 108. better success. Samaria fell after an obstinate re- sistance of a whole year; one of the Syrian gene- rals betrayed Scyth'opolis and other towns to the Jews, and thus Hyrcanus became master of all Sa- maria and Galilee. The city of Samaria was razed, trenches dug, (the hill on which it stood being full of springs,) and the whole site of the detested city flooded and made a pool of water. But though thus triumphant abroad, Hyrcanus, at the end of his reign, was troubled by serious dissensions at home. Two great religious and political factions divided the state— those of the Pharisees and Sadducees. No part of Jewish history is more obscure than the origin and growth of these two parties. The Mac- cabees had greatly owed their success to the Cha- sidim, or righteous. The zeal, and even the fana- ticism of this party, had been admirable qualities in the hour of trial and exertion. Austerity is a good discipline for the privations and hardships of war. Undaunted courage, daring enterprise, contempt of death, fortitude in suffering, arose directly out of the leading religious principles of this party — the as- surance of Divine protection, and the certainty of another life. Their faitii, if it led them to believe too much, and induced them to rc^ceive the traditions of their fathers, as of equal authority with the written law and authentic history, made them be- lieve only with the stronger fervour and sincerity all the wonders and glories of their early annals ; wonders and glories which they trusted the same Power, in whose cause, and under whose sanction they fought, would renew in their persons. Even their behef in angels, celestial, unseen beings, who ever environed them, to assist their arms and dis- comfit their enemies, contributed to their confidence and resolution. In this great conflict the hero and the religious enthusiast were one and the same. But those qualities and principles, which made tliem such valiant and active soldiers in war, when the B.C. 108 ] PHARISEES AND SADDUCEES. 6\ prde of success, and conscious possession of power were added, tended to make them turbulent, in- tractable, and domineering- subjects in peace. Those who are most forward in asserting- their liberty do n< i.e. 86.] DEATH OP ALEXANDER 67 Arabia. The Jews seized the opportunity to rise in rebellion, and for six years the country suffered all the horrors of civil war. Alexander at first met with great success ; but when he endeavoured to bring the mutineers to terms, they cried out with one voice, that they would yield only on one condi- tion, that he would put himself to death. At length, pressed on all sides, the insurgents demanded the assistance of Demetrius Euchserus, one of the kings of Syria. Alexander, always unfortunate in battle, was routed, with the loss of all his 6000 mercena- ries, and many other of his troops. He fled to the mountains ; but a sudden revulsion of popidar feel- ing took place in his favour, and he found himself at the head of 60,000 men. Demetrius retreated, and Alexander, master of the whole country, besieged his enemies in Bethome, took the city, and marched to Jerusalem in triumph. His vengeance was signal and terrible. He publicly crucified 800, and slew their wives and children before their faces. From this atrocity he was named the Thracian. Of the disaffected, 8000 abandoned the city ; but, under his iron sway, the whole country remained at peace during the rest of his reign. His foreign policy at this period was equally vigorous, and the kingdom of the Jews at his death comprehended the coast from the tower of Straton to Rhinocorura, Idumea, Samaria, and considerable provinces to the east of the Jordan. On the fourth year, after his triumph over the insurgents, Alexanmple of the Lord ! the Tem- ple uf the Lord'" and excited a strong enthusiasm against the alien from the blood of Israel. The appointment to the office of High Priest caused the greatest embarrassment. The nation would never S4 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. [b.C. 36. have endured the usurpation of that office by an Iduniean stranger. Hyrcanus, the old patron of the Herodian family, returned from his honourable cap- tivity in Parthia; he was received with every mark of outward respect by Herod, but the mutilation of his ears by Antigonus disqualified him for reinstate- ment in his office. Herod invited an obscure indi- vidual of the lineage of the High Priest, Ananel, from Babylon. Alexandra, the widow of that gal- lant Alexander, the son of Aristobulus, who was executed by Scipio, beheld this choice with secret indignation. She was a high-minded and ambi- tious woman ; the marriage of her daughter Mari- amne to Herod, aggravated rather than palliated the indignity ol excluding her son, the rightful heir of both the Asmonean families, from the priesthood Unscrupulous as to her means of vengeance, she sent the pictures of her two children, a son and daughter, both of exquisite beauty, to Antony, in order, by this unnatural and odious measure, to work on the passions of the voluptuous Triumvir. Herod was seized with apprehension, changed at once his policy, displaced Ananel, and installed the young Aristobulus in the pontificate. But mistrust and hatred had taken too deep root. Alexandra was detected in a secret correspondence with Cleopatra ; and a plan which she had formed to fly with her son to the court of Egypt, was only disconcerted by the excessive vigilance of Herod. Worse than all this, when the lovely boy of seventeen, the heir of their rightful princes, appeared before the assembled nation at the feast of Tabernacles, in the splendid costume of the High Priest, and performing his solemn office with the most perfect grace, the popu- lar feeling was too evident to be mistaken. Herod saw that his own suspicions were sadly verified, he had raised up a dangerous rival to his power in the young Asmonean. He dissembled his jealousy, and joined in the general admirition; but, contriving B.C. 34.] HEKOd's visit to stark ANTONY. 85 shortly after to remove the youth to Jericho, he caused him to he dro^viio;! by his cM'^ipanions wli'io Dathing in apool. He assuinud greiit i(rief on the mehiucholy event, aii'l atlcnipted to divert the popu- lar indi<^nation by a splendid funeral. Bat the peo- ple were not deceived, .siil] less the heart of the bereaved and wretched parent. Alexandra sent in- telligence of the murder to ('leopatra, who espoused her cause with the warmest interest of a woman and a mother; not without isome secret suggestion from her ambition, wlui-h iiad already begun to look towards .fudtea as a valuable province of Egypt. Antony was at the height of his devotion to the lux'urious (jueen: the rain of Herod seemed inevita- ble. With his characteristic boldness he deter- mined to try ilie efievt of his personal presence, which might awaken early friendship, and give weiglit to those more powerful arguments, the im- mense bribes, witli wliich he hoped to secure his ( ause. He left Jerusalem under the government of his uncle Joseph; he intrusted to his care not merely his interests, but his incomparable Maria nuie. He went, certainly, to danger, perhaps to deatli, and, with a strange jealousy, he could not endure that any one should possess his wife even after his death, least of all the licentious Antony. He left a secret charge with Josepli, that if he should fail in his mission, Mariamne was to be immediately put to death. During his absence, the incautious Jose])li betrayed this secret order to Mariamne ; her inothei excited her to revenge. A sudden rumour spread abroad that Herod had been slain by Antony. Alexandra and Mariamne began to take immediate measures for securing the authority, but intelligence of an opposite nature frustrated their plans. On the return of Herod, his sister Salome, wounded at the haughtiness with which she had ever been treated by the proud Asmonean princess, endea- voured to poison his muid with suspicions of his 86 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. [b.C. 31. wife, whom she accused of too intimate correspond, eiice with Joseph l!ie ^rovcnior. A'et the beauty ol Mariamne, once seen, overpowered every emotion but that of unbounded love Unhappiiy, m me transport ot tender reconciliation, Marianme asked whether if he had really loved her, he would have given that fatal order for l\er death. Herod sprang from her arms in fury. The betrayal of this secret warranted his worst suspicions ; it could not have been yielded up but at the price of her honour. He would have slain her on the spot, but her beauty, even then, disarmed him : his whole vengeance fell on Joseph and Alexandra. The first he executed, the second he imprisoned with every mark of insult. Cleopatra, in the mean time, having been unable to extort the gift of Judaea from her paramour, was obliged to content herself with the balsam gardens near Jericho. On her return from accompanying Antony in his campaign to the Euphrates, she en- tered Jerusalem, and Herod was in as great danger from her love as from her hate. Whether from prudence or dislike, he I'epelled her advances, and even entertained some thoughts of delivering both himself from a dangerous neighbour, and Antony from a fatal and imperious mistress, by her assas- sination. His friends dissuaded him from the hazard- ous measure. A short time after, he found himself engaged in a war, which he entered into with the ostensible design of enforcing Cleopatra's right of tribute ovei Malchus, king of Arabia. By comply- ing with the wishes of Antony on this point, the dexterous politician escaped taking any prominent part in the great war between the eastern and western world, which was to award the empire to Antony or Octavius. In his first invasion of Arabia he was unsuccessful, and met with so signal a defeat, that he was constrained to change the war into one of sudden irruptions into the border of the enemy, without risking a battle A more tremendous blow B.O-30.] HEROD S VISIT TO CJ3SAR 87 fell on Judaea, — an earthquake, which threw do^vn many cities and dostroyed 30,000 lives. The Aral';" seized the opportunity of this disaster, and put the Jewish ambassadors to death; but this conduct enabled Herod to rouse the national spirit, and tne Arabians, defeated with the loss of 5,000 men, were besieged in their camp. Many surrendered from want of water; the rest made a desperate but fatal sady, in which 7,000 more perished. Still, though not personally engaged in the battle of Aitium, Herod had reason to apprehend the tri- umph of Octavuis Caesar. Having secured every thing at home, he determined to meet the youthful conqueror at Rhodes. While one remnant of the Asmonean race survived, his throne was less secure; and the old Hyrcanus, now eighty years of age, at length paid the last penalty for having unhappily been born to a lofty station, for which he was unfit. The documents in the royal archives of Herod, accused the poor old man of having been persuaded, by his intriguing daughter Alexandra, into a trea- sonable correspondence with the Arabian king; other accouius ascribe the invention of the plot to Herod. At all events, it vv as fatal to Hyrcanus, who thus closed a life of extraordinary vicissitude, borne with constitutional indolence, by a violent death. This done, Herod committed the government to his brother Pheroras ; sent his mother, sister, and chil- dren to Masada ; and committed Mariamne and her mother to the charge of his faithful parti'-ans, Soe- mus and Joseph, in the fortress of Alexandrion, with the same extraordinary injunctions which he had before left, that, in case of his death, Mariamne should be despatched. He then set sail for Rhodes. He appeared before the conqueror, without the dia- dem, but with all the dignity of an independent sovereign. He addressed him in a speech, which, disdaining apology, enlarged on his obligations, and avowed his attachment, to Antony He declared 88 HISTORY 0» THE JEWS [b.O. 29. that, as a friend, he had given him the best advice euch advice as might have made him again formi- dable to Caesar ; he liad begged hiin to put Cleopatra to death, and vigorously resume the war. "Antony," he pursued, "adopted a counsel more fatal to him- self, more advantageous to you. If, then, attach- ment to Antony be a crime, I plead guilty ; but if, having thus seen how steady and faithful I am in my friendships, you determine to bind me to your fortunes by gratitude, depend on the same firnmess and fidelity." This lofty tone and generous senti- ment won the kindred heart of the arbiter of the world's destinies. C?esar commanded the dignified suppliant to resume the diadem, treated him with great distinction, and Herod returned to Judaea, to the admiration of his partisans, and the terror of his enemies, thus constantly breaking forth with greater splendour from every transient cloud of danger. Caesar passed from Rhodes to Asia Minor ; thence through Syria to Egypt. Herod met him at Ptole- mais, made him a present of eight hundred talents, and, by the splendour of his entertamment, and the provisions with which he furnished his army, still further conciliated his favour. After the con- quest of Egypt, Octavius restored to him the part of his own territory formerly bestowed on Cleopatra, with Gadara, Hippo, Samaria, and the maritime towns of Joppa, Anthedon, Gaza, and the towet of Slrato. Thus, abroad, success seemed to wait on all the designs of Herod: the neighbouring kings might admire and envy the good fortune, or ratlier the consummate ability, with which he extricated him self from all his difficulties, and continued advancing in the career of prosperity and power ; but at home the most miserable peasant might compassionate the wretchedness which filled his palace with dis- tension, crime, and bloodshed. The magnificence of Herod's public lift is strangely co it^asted with h.r. 29.] DEATH or ullriamvm 8$ the dark tragedy of his domestic history. Mariamne had again extorted the fatal charge intrusted to iSoemus ; and indignant at the jealous determination of her husband, that she should not survive him, she met him on his retuni with repulsive indifference, and even with undissembled dislike. Herod strug- gled between his love and his indignation ; till one day, instead of submitting to his caresses, in the height of her passion she reproached him, in termg of the utmost bitterness, with his barbarous conduct to her relations. The envious Salome watched ever\' opportunity of inflaming the resentment of her brother ; and suborned his cup-bearer to accuse Mariamne of having bribed him to administer a poi- sonous philtet, or love-potion, to his master. Herod commanded her favourite eunuch, to whom all her secrets were intrusted, to be put to the rack. The tortured man denied all knowledge of the poison, but exclaimed, that the conduct of his mistress was entirely owing to the information she had received from Soemus. Furious at this new proof of hei infidelity, he ordered Soemus to be despatched at once, and summoned Mariamne before a tribunal of judges, who were too much in dread of his power not to pass the sentence of death. Still Herod hesi- tated ; he had no immediate intention of proceeding further than imprisonment; but his mother and sister so worked on his moody and violent temper that he at length issued out the fatal orders for her execution. To the horror of the spectators, her mother Alexandra assailed the wretched Mariamne, as she went to death, with a violent invective against her ingratitude to so gentle and aflfectionale a hus- band, loudly declaring that she deserved the fate she was about to suffer. The queen passed on in silence with the dignity of conscious virtue ; though deeply wounded at this disgraceful and hypocritical conduct of her mother, who thus sought to avert the suspicions of Herod from herself, and to sav* II.— H 90 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. [b.C. 26 her own life at the sacrifice of her daughter's honour, she would not condescend to betray her emotion. She met her death with the calm intre- pidity of iiniocence, and died worthy of the noble house of which the last blood flowed in her veins. .She was a woman of unrivalled beauty and a haughty spirit : unhappy in being the object of pas- sionate attachment, which bordered on frenzy, to a man who had more or less concern in the murder of her grandfather, father, brother, and uncle, and who had twice commanded her death in case of his own. Strange conflict of duties ! who shall decide, what ought to have been her feelings and her conduct? All the passions, which filled the stormy mind of Herod, were alike without bound : from violent love, and violent resentment, he sank into as violent re- morse and despair. Everywhere, by day and night, he was haunted by the image of the murdered Ma- riamne ; he called upon her name ; he perpetually burst into passionate tears. In vain he tried every diversion, — banquets, revels, the excitement of so- ciety. A sudden pestilence broke out, to which many of the noblest of his court and of his own personal friends fell a sacrifice ; he recognised, and trembled beneath the hand of the avenging Deity. On pretence of hunting, he sought out the most me- lancholy solitude, till the disorder of his mind brought on disorder of body, and he was seized with violent inflammation and pains in the back of his head, which led to temporary derangement. In this state he lay at Samaria. The restless Alexandra immediately began to renew her intrigues ; but his partisans sent intelligence to him, and she was at length consigned to execution. Herod slowly recovered from his malady, but it left an indelible gloom upon his mind ; and his stern temper, instead of being softened by calamity, seemed to have acquired a fierce and insatiable propensity to cruelty and bloodshed. His next victim v«« B.C. 26.] Herod's kxitt::ttioxs. PI Costobaras, an Idumean, the husband of his sister Salome, whom she, in defiance of the law, !uid divorced; and, throuj^h her machinations, the unfor- tunate man was involved in the guilt of a pretended conspiracy, and convicted of the '•oncealment ol some of the Asmonean partisans. He was put to death witli many other men of rank and distinction. From these horrible scenes we may turn with satis- faction to the peace and happiness of the country, and the liberality and magnificence of Herod's pui)i'ic administration. Yet Herod either did not under- stand, or more probably suspected as adverse to his interests, the strong and distinctive principles of the national character. Outwardly professing the utmost respect for the religion of his subjects, he introduced public exhibitions and spectacles of every kind, as if to reconcile the people by degrees to foreign usages, and so break down the wall of par- tition which separated them from other nations. He built a theatre within the walls of .Jerusalem, an amphitheatre of immense size without. He cele- brated quinquennial games on a scale of unrivalled splendour; invited the most distinguished profi- cients in every kind of gymnastic exercise, in chariot racing, boxing, and every kind of musical and poetic art ; oflfered the most costly prizes ; and even introduced the barbarous spectacles of the Romans, fights of wild beasts, and combats of wild beasts with gladiators. The zealous Jews looked on in amazement, and with praiseworthy though silent abhorrence, at these sanguinary exhibitions, so contrary to the mild genius of their great law- giver's institutions. But when Herod proceeded to adorn his theatre with representations of the vic- tories of Caisar, and set up, as trophies around it, complete suits of armour which had been taken in his wars, the people broke out into a violent tumult, supposing that images were concealed within these 92 HISTORY OF THE JEWS [b.C. 25-4 panoplies. To appease the general dissatisfaction, Horod commanded one of thom to be taken to pieces 111 the sight of all the people ; and when a bare peg of wood appeared within, their dis(;ontent and anger turned to laughter and ridicule. But still a stern and dangerous enthusiasm prevailed among all who were zealously attached to the institutions of their ancestors. Ten men bound themselves by a solemn vow to assassinate the innovator in the scene of his delinquency: one of them was blind, yet, though he could not assist in the execution, he was deter- mined to share in the peril of the enterprise. They entered the theatre with daggers under their cloaks, but the vigilant police of Herod were on their guard, he received intimation and returned into the palace. The men were apprehended, and instead of denying, boldly avowed and justified their design. They endured the most ignominious torture, but died firm and undaunted to the last. The informer, being dis- covered, was torn to pieces by the populace ; and though Herod with incredible pains detected and punished the ringleaders in this affray, he felt the insecurity of his government and even of his life, rerticularly in Jerusalem. Actuated by his fears as well as the magnificence of his disposition, he built a strong and splendid palace on the hill of Sion, rebuilt as a fortress the palace of Baris, which com- manded the temple, and called it Antonia. Still further to secure himself against the turbulent dis- position of the capital, he determined to found otlier cities which might be more at his devotion. They would serve the double purpose of controlling the country as strong military posts, and affording him a retreat, on an emergency, from the disaffected metropolis. With this view he built citadels, as Gaba in Galilee, and Heshbon in Peraea. The strongest measure was the rebuilding Samaria, which he did on a scale of great magnificence and h.C 24.] HEROD's MtNlFICBNC*. 09 strength, and peopled it partly with his soldiers, partly with the descendants of the old Samaritans, who hoped to see their temple likewise restored. But Herod did not neglect more noble and kingly means of regaining the lost affections of his sub- jects. A long drought, followed by unproductiye seasons, involved not merely Judaea, but the neigh- bouring countries likewise, in all the horrors of famine, and its usual consequence — a dreadful epi- demic pestilence. The little com that remained, rotted, so that there was not enough seed to crop the ground. Herod instantly opened his treasures, secured a vast importation of grain from Egypt, and made constant distributions, both of food, and of clothing. 50,000 persons are said to have been maintained at his sole expense, and he even furnished corn for seed to the neighbouring inhabitants of Syria, so that the fame of his munificence not merely caused a strong reaction in his favour among his own subjects, but secured him a high degree of popularity with all the bordering states. This great expenditure seems by no means to have exhausted the revenues of Herod. He still indulged in his sumptuous passion for building. Having married a second Mariamne, the daughter of Simon, an obscure individual of priestly lineage, whom he appointed High Priest, he chose the spot on which he had de- feated Antigonus. about seven miles from Jerusalem, 'as the site of a new fortified palace in his usual style of architecture. It stood on the gentle slope of a mound raised by human industry. The ascent was by a iiundred steps to an enclosure of circular towers, within which were courts, ascending to the palace, which stood like a citadel above the rest. A town rai)idly grew around the base of the hill. Water was brought by costly aqueducts from a great distance. Thi's, terrible to his adversaries, generally couiw 94 HISTORY OP THE JEWS. [b.C. 22. teous, affable, and bounteous to his countrymen and to strang-ers, securing his interests with Rome and Its rulers by the most costly adulation, Herod steadily pursued his policy of counterbalancing, by a strong Grecian party, the turbulent and exclusive spirit of his Jewish subjects. More completely to secure this object, he determined to found a powerful city, chiefly colonized with Grecians, and dedicated to the name of his great Roman protector. Samaria he had already called Sebaste (the August); the new city was to take the name of Caesarea. He chose a maritime situation, for the advantage of com- merce, and may have thought of uniting in his new city the wealth of ancient Tyre with the greatness of Jerusalem. There was a small town called the tower of Straton, midway between Joppa and Dora. It possessed a haven, like all the rest on that coast dangerous on account of the violent south-western winds, against which they had no protection. He first formed a strong mole or break-water, by sinking stones fifty feet long, eighteen wide, and nine deep. On this arose a pier two hundred feet wide, defended by a wall and towers. The entrance to this great artificial haven was from the north ; and a vast fleet could thus ride in perfect safety in a sort of double harbour. All round, ran a noble quay or esplanade, and, probably, under this, were arched buildings for the entertainment and residence of mariners. Above, the city rose like an amphitheatre in a uniform line of sumptuous palaces. The subterranean arches, for drainage and other purposes, were on so great a scale that Josephus says there was as much building below ground as above. In the centre stood a great temple dedicated to Caesar, with two colossal statues, one of Rome, the other of Caesar. A theatre and amphitheatre, th-i customary ornaments of a Grecian city, were not forgotten. Caesarea was twelve yearg before it was co)npleted. H.C. 22.] HEROD ATJD AUOTTSTOT. 96 Thus Judaea was fast sinking into a province of the Romau empire; and Herod, instead of head of the Hebrew religious republic, became more and more on a level with the other vassal kings of Rome. His elder sons by Mariamne, Alexander and Aristo- bulus, were not brought up in Jewish tenets or cus- toms, but sent to Rome for their education, where they were received into the palace of Augustus, and treated with great care and distinction. Nothing could exceed the estimation in which Herod stood, both with the emperor and his favourite, Agrippa. Caesar was said to assign Herod the next place in his favour to Agrippa; Agrippa to esteem Herod higher than any of his friends, except Augustus. Whenevereithervisited the eastern provinces, Herod was the first to pay his homage. To see Agrippa he sailed to Mytelene, and afterward entertained Augustus himself in Syria. On one occasion, when Agrippa was engaged in war near the Bosphorus, Herod suddenly appeared with a large fleet, and through all the campaign assisted him with his per- sonal support and advice. Herod took advantage of this alliance to enlarge his dominions. A district to the east of the sea of Genesareth was farmed by a certain Zenodorus. This man maintained a suspicious connexion with the freebooters, who dwelt in the mountain caves of Trachonitis. The whole province was made over to Herod, who, with his customary rigour and severity, suppressed and hunted down the robbers. Zenodorus, and some of the Gadarenes, who complamed of oppression, laid their grievances first before Agrippa, afterward be- fore Augustus himself; but found their ears closed against all representations to the disadvantage of Herod. Part of this district was created into a teirarchate for his brother Pheroras. At Paneas, near the fountains of the Jordan, where Caesarea Philipni afterward stood, was built a temple of white marble to the honour of Caesar. 96 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. [b.C. 19 But the higher Heiod advanced in the gcod graces of the Romans, by these costly and enduring marks of his adulation, the lower he sank in the good will of his jealous Jewish subjects. They suspected him, not without reason, of a fixed design to hea- thenize their nation and country. Neither his muni- ficence m diminishing their annual tax one-third, nor his severities, could suppress their deep though secret murmurs. He exercised a stern and vigilant police, interdicted all fraternities and assemblies, occasionally surprised the most disaffected, and hurried them to the Hyrcania (his Bastile), whence they never returned. He was even said to walk the streets in disguise, to detect secret conspiracies, and form a judgment of the popular feeling; at one time he had determined to exact a general oath of alle- giance, but the stricter and more powerful of the Pharisees, and the Essenes, an ascetic fraternity, openly refusing compliance, he thought it better to urge the matter no further. At length he determined on a measure, which he hoped would at the same time employ the people, and ingratiate himself with all classes, the rebuild ing the temple in its former pride and magnificence. The lapse of five hundred years, and the sieges which it had undergone, as it was the great military post of the nation, had much dilapidated the struc- ture of Zorobabel. But the suspicious Jews beheld the work of demolition commence with the utmost jealousy and apprehension, lest, under pretence ot repairing, the king should destroy entirely their sanctuary of their God. The prudence of Herod calmed their fears ; he made immense preparations before he threw down the old building: the work proceeded with the greatest regularity, and the na- tion saw with the utmost pride a new fabric of more regular and stately architecture crowning the brow of Moriah with its glittering masses of w/^He mar B.C 17.j THE soys OF MATITAMNE 9' ble and pinnacles of gold. Yet even while the lom- pie was proceecliiiT, Herod ni;untained his douttle character; he presided at the Olympic games, made magnificent donations for their support, and the Jewish monarch was nominated perpetual president of this solemn festival of Greece. On the other hand, Agrippa, on an excursion into Juda>a, during which Herod showed him all his great works, oifered one hundred oxen in the temple, and feasted the whole people. Biit the declining days of Herod were to be dark- ened with a domestic tragedy, as melancholy aud awful as those of his earlier life. His sumptuous palaces were again to resound with strife, mourn- ing, and murder. Never was an instance in whi(;h the heathen might recognise so distinctly their avenging Nemesis ; or those of purer faith the pro- vidence of a just and holy God, making cruelty its own avenger, and leaving crime to work its late, though natural consequences, horror, ruin, and deso- lation. It might have seemed, that the spirit of the injured Mariamne hovered over the devoted house, and involving the innocent as well as the guilty in the common niin, designated the dwelling of her murderous husband as the perpetual scene of misei-y and bloodshed. On the return of Alexander and Aristobulus, the two sons of Mariamne, to Jerusa- lem, they were received, notwithstanding their Roman education, with general enthusiasm. The grace and beauty of tneir persons, their affable manners, above all the blood of the ancient Asmo- ncan princes, which flowed in their veins, rendered them objects of the deepest interest to the whole Hebrew nation. Herod married them : Alexander to Glaphyra, the daughter of Archelaus, king of Cappadocia ; Aristobulus to Mariamne, the daughter of Salome. Notwithstanding this, the envious mind of Salome, the sister of Herod, sickened at theii 58 HISTORY OP THE JEWS. [b.C. 13-2 praises. Both her conscience, and that of her brother Pheroras, repmarhed thorn with tli"ir share in the murder of Manamne ; they apprehended direct vengeance, on the accession of the young prince;^. The youths themselves, perhaps, spoke without much discretion or reserve about their mother's fate ; and rumours, aggravated by Salome and her party, began to spread abroad that they announced them- selves as her future avengers. For three years these insinuations made no deep impression on the mind of Herod, who was justly proud of the popularity of his sons ; but while he was absent with Agrippa, in his war near the Bosphorus, during which period he obtained for the Jews of Asia Minor a ratification of all their privileges, which the Greeks had en- deavoured to wrest from them ; these sinister re- ports began to obtain much strength and consist- ency, and consequently more credit with the suspi- cious father. Herod resorted to a most dangerous measure, in order to subdue the pride of his sons, and make them more entirely subservient to his will. He sent for his elder son, Antipater, whom he formerly had by Doris, the wife whom he divorced to marry Mariamne, and set him up as a sort of counterpoise to the popularity and hopes of Alexan- der and Aristobulus. The dark, designing, and unscrupulously ambitious Antipater entered mto all the plots of Salome and Pheroras; and, as Hercd had permission from Rome to bequeath his crown ♦o whichever of his sons he chose, he lost no oppor- tunity of alienating his father's affections from the sons of Mariamne. Herod, to place him more on a level with his rivals, introduced him to Agrippa, and sent him in the suite of his powerful friend to Rome. From Rome the artful youth steadfastly pursued, by means of letters, his insidious designs, till the mind of Herod was so inflamed, that he de- termined to accuse his sons before the tribunal of B.C. lO.j ANTIPATIR 99 Augrustus The king of Judsa and the two royal youths appeared before the emperor at Aquileia. Herod opened the charge by accusing them of un- natural obstinacy and disobedience, and of entering into criminal practices against his life. Shocked at this dreadful charge, the youths stood silent, unable to exculpate themselves, without criminating their jealous and cruel father. Their situation, and still more their si'ence, and the modest defence, into which they at length entered, excited the deepest mterestin their favour; and Augustus, with that temperance and moderation which distinguished all his actions after he became emperor, succeeded in reconciling the father to his children. Herod re- turned with them to Jerusalem. Still, however, in- fatuated in favour of Antipater, he declared him his heir ; in default of his issue, the succession was to pass to the sons of Marianme. A short and deceit- ful peace ensued, during which, Herod, having finished his splendid city of Caesarea, solemnly dedicated it, at a great festival, to the emperor, and instituted quinquennial games to his honour. He founded at the same time the towns of Antipatris, Cypron, and Phasaelis ; and built a lofty tower in Jerusalem, called likewise after the name of his elder brother Phasael. Before long, the domestic dissen- sions broke out anew with greater violence. Anti- pater, sometimes insidiously exculpating, sometimes artfully accusing his brothers, kept the mind of Herod in a continued fever of suspicious excite ment. The king's own favourite brother, Pheroras increased his wretchedness. He had become so nifatuated with the love of a female slave, as to refuse the hand of one of Herod's daughters. Not long after, on the offer of another daughter, Phero- ras consented to break off his connexion with the slave. But before the espousals, he again changed his niind, and rpfused to conclude the marriage iOO HISTORY OP THE JEWS. [b.C. 9 Pheroras was a still worse enemy to the peace ol Herod. He instilled into the mind of Alexander, that his father secretly cherished a guilty passion for his wife Glaphyra. Alexander boldly ques- tioned Herod about this scandalous imputation. •iPheroras, to avoid the fury of his justly offended brother, laid the plot to the instigation of Salome, who vindicated herself with great energy. Yet these two dangerous inmates for some time lost their influence in the court. But the wily Anti- pater still remained; the sons of Mariamne were every day accused of new plots ; sometimes with perverting the eunuchs who held the chief offices about the royal person, from whom they were said to have discovered the secret and feminine artifices which Herod used, to disguise the advance of old age ; sometimes with designing the death of their father; or with a design of flying to Rome, or with entering into treasonable correspondence with the Parthians. Night and day these charges were re- peated; the whole court became a scene of gloom, suspicion, and distrust. Friend shrunk from friend; every society swarmed with spies; men accused each other, from personal and private grounds of animosity. Sometimes their evil practices recoiled on their own heads ; when the evidence was insuf- ficient, Herod, disappointed of his victims, wreaked his vengeance on the accusers. Those who fre- quented the presence of the sovereign, were suspected of sinister designs ; those who stood aloof, were self-convicted of disloyalty. Whoever had at any time shown marks of favour or attach- ment to the suspected sons of Mariamne, though his own most firm and steadfast friends, fell into dis- grace. At length, all the confidential slaves of Alexander having been put to the rack, some kind of evidence was wrung from their extorted con- fessions, and the unhappy youth committed to prison B.C. 8 7. J BANDITTI DEFEATED BY HEROD. 101 and loaded with chains. Here he adopted a straiijre and desperate iiiciisurc ; he s.;nt fi i;r papers to liis father, filled with the most extravagant and impro- bable treasons, in all of whieh he avowed his parti- cipation, but implicated Salome, Pheroras, and all the most influential and faithful ministers of his father. Herod was worked up to a piteh of frenzy, persons of all ranks were daily seized, and eiiher put to the torture, or executed at once. At lenfrth Archelaus, king of Cappadocia, the father-in-law of Alexander, arrived at the court of Jerusalem. By first dexterously humourino; the frenzy of Herod, and pretending- to enter into his suspicions ; afterward by arguing dispassionately the improbability of the accusations, he succeeded in reconciling the father and son. and Alexander was reinstated in freedom and favour. At this period Herod was not v/ithout anxiety arising from foreign disturbances. With all his vigour and severity he had never entirely suppressed the banditti of the Trachonitis. Encouraged by the secret protection of the Arabs, this lawless race connnenced new depredations. Obodes vvas at that time king of Arabia Petrea, but all the authority was in the hands of Syllfeus. This Syllabus had at oiie time proposed to marry Salome, the sister of Herod ; but the abjuration of his religion being de- manded as the price of the connexion, he broke off the match, declaring that he should be stoned by the Arabians for such a compliance. The troops of Herod pursued the banditti into the dominions ol Obodes, destroyed Repta, their strong hold, and dis- comfited an Arabian force which espoused their party. This was represented by Syllojus, at Rome, as a wanton and unprovoked aggression upon the kingdom of Arabia. The credit of Herod began to waver; but he immediately despatched the eloquent Nicolaus of Damascus (an historian whose con- 10 J HISTORY OF THE JEWS. [b.C. 5 temporary life of Herod 's unfortunately lost) to the Roman Court, aivi thro-.igh his address the cause assumed a better aspect, and was finally settled not only to his exculpation, but to his honour. Augus- tus had even determined to confer on Herod the kingdom of the Nabathean Arabians : but the dread- ful dissensions of his family, which had again broken out with greater fury than ever, induced the cautious emperor at least to delay his munificent intention. Antipater, Salome, and Pheroras, had again obtained the ear of Herod. He wrote to Rome the most dreadful charges against the sons of Mariamne ; and Augustus, after endeavouring to sooth the mad- dened spirit of the father, consented that the sons should be brought to trial at Berytus. Saturninus and Volumnius, the governors of Syria, presided in the court. The only fact which was clearly proved against them was a design of flying beyond the power of their suspicious father; but so strong were the charges, and so vehement the exertions of Herod, who acted as his own advocate, examining witnesses, and reading documents with the strongest and most violent emphasis, that a verdict of con- demnation was at length extorted from a majority of the council. The unhappy youths, who had not been permitted to make their defence, awaited theii doom in silence. Yet still Herod wanted courage to execute his own barbarous design. The whole people, particularly the army, looked on in deep but suppressed interest, till one Teron, a gallant soldier, openly expressed the general feeling in the presence of the monarch. His interference turned out, eventually, fatal to himself and to the sons of Mariamne. He was accused of having tampered with the barber of Herod against his life ; and Alex- ander was implicated as privy to the crime. The Hon of the barber to save his father's life, confirmed the accusation. Teron was put to death on the B.C. 6.] TREAt.TIKEY OF ANTIPATER. 103 »pot, and the final order issued that Alexander and his brother should be straiigfled at Sebaste. Eit};( r on this or on some similar occasion, his imperial protector, Augustus, uttered this bitter sarcasm — that he had rather be one of Herod's swine than one of his sons. The crime did not remain long unavenged ; it recoiled with dreadful force against almost all who •were implicated. The low-born wife of Pheroras had connected herself with the Pharisaic party; and when, on the refusal of 7000 of this faction to take an oath of allegiance to Augustus and to Herod, they were heavily fined, she discharged the whole of the mulct. "Rumours began to spread abroad of prophecies, which declared that God in- tended to transfer the government of his people from the line of Herod to that of Pheroras. Phe- roras was commanded to separate himself from his wife, to whom all these intrigues were attributed. He refused, and lost all the favour with which he had been once regarded by his brother and bene- factor. Yet, when a short time after he fell ill, and lay on his death-bed, the kindly feelings of Herod revived, and he visited him with fraternal tender- ness. On the death of Pheroras suspicions began to arise that his malady was not in the course of nature : two of his freednien openly charged his wife with having poisoned him. Herod ordered a strict investigation of the transaction : in the pro- cess a darker and more horrible secret came to light. Antipater, the beloved son, for whom he had im- brued his hands in the blood of his own children — Antipater, the heir of his kingdom, was clearly proved to have conspired with Pheroras to poison his old and doting father, and thus to secure and ac- celerate his own succession. The wife of Pheroras acknowledged the whole plot, and declared that the affectionate conduct of Herod to Pheroras, on hh 104 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. [b.C. 5 deatli bed, had melted the heart of the fratricide who had commaiidt^d her to tlirow into the fire the subtle poison which had already been prefared. His wife, Mariamne, daughter of Simon the Hitrh Priest, was implicated in the conspiracy : he repu- diated her immediately, deposed her father, and ap- pointed Mattathias to the high priesthood. Anti- pater was at Rome , and the horror-stricken Herod dissembled his detection of the conspiracy ; yet still obscure intimations spread abroad, which, however, did not reach the ears of Antipater. Triumphing m the success of his intrigues and the unbounded promises of support which he had purchased at Rome — confident in his speedy if not immediate in- heritance of the throne — in all the pride of success- ful guilt, and the malignant assurance that his rivals were entirely removed by death, Antipater landed at Caesarea. The once-crowded port seemed a solitude ; no acclamations rose around him, no de- putations waited upon him at his landing; the few people who met turned aloof, or looked on as if they now dared to hate him undisguisedly ; every one seemed in possession of some fearful secret, of which he alone was ignorant. It was too late to fly: he was constrained to dissemble his terrors, and proceed to Jerusalem. There he was immedi- ately summoned before the tribunal of Herod, who sat with Varus, the Roman governor of Syria, for his assessor. The proofs of his guilt were full and conclusive : he was condemned without the least hesitation. Herod, already afflicted by his last mortal malady, delayed the execution, but in the mean time made his final alterations in his will. He bequeathed the kingdom to Antipas, passing over Archelaus and Philip, who were supposed to be implicated in the conspiracy of Antipater. He left splendid bequests to Caesar, to his wife Julia, tc her sons, his friends, and even his freedman. Thus B.C. O.J DISEASES OF HEROD. MM the ^reat and magnificent Herod lay, afflicted in body by the most painful and loathsome malady, tormented in mind by the ingratitude of his favourite sen — perhaps with remorse for the murder of those of Mariamne. His last hours were still further im- bittered by the turbulence and disaffection of his subjects. Among the innovations of Herod nothing offended the eyes of the zealous Jews more than a large golden eagle, which he had placed over the great gate of the temple. Some daring and enthusiastic youths, instigated by two celebrated teachers, named Judas and Matthias, conspired to tear down the offensive emblem. On a rumour of Herod's death, they put their design in execution. Being apprehended, they boldly justified their conduct. Herod at first assumed something like moderation: he assembled the chiefs of the people, reproached them with the ungrateful return which they made for his munificence in rebuilding the temple, which the Asmonean princes had left in decay; and only displaced Mattathias, the High Priest, who was sus- pected to have encouraged the enterprise. The most criminal of the actual assailants and their teachers were burnt alive. But now the disorder of the king made sensible progress ; a slow fire seemed creeping through all his vital parts : he had a rabid appetite which he dared not gratify on account of internal ulcers, and dreadful pains, particularly in the colon. Dropsical symptoms appeared in his feet, which were swoln, and exuded. Ulcers, which bred worms, preyed on the lower region of his belly and the adjacent parts. His breathing was difficult : and violent spasms, which seemed to give him un- natural strength, convulsed his frame. He sought relief from the warm bituminous baths of CallirlKje, but r^-tunied to Jericlio without improvement. There the frenzy of his malady working on the r.— I 106 HISTORY OP THE JEWS JBO. 4. natural sternness of his disposition, he is said to have imagined a kind of testamentary cruelty, almost too horrible to be believed : he determined to extort a universal mourning for his death from the reluctant people. He commanded some of all the chief families in Judaea to be seized, shut up in the Hippodrome, and strictly enjoined his sister Salome that, immediately he expired, the guards should be let loose, and an unsparing massacre commence. Thus a wide, and general, and heart- felt wailing would spread throughout all the land with the news of his death. But the dying requests of kings proverbially fail of their accomplishment, and, happily for human nature, this sanguinary injunction was disregarded. Among these atrocities of the later days of Herod, what is called the Massacre of the Innocents (which took place late in the year before, or early in tlie same year with, the death of Herod, four years before the vulgar era of Christ,) passed away un- noticed. The murder of a few children, in a small village near Jerusalem, would excite little sensa- tum among such a succession of dreadful events, except among the immediate sufferers. The jea- lousy of Herod against any one who should be bom as a King in Judata — the dread that the high religious spirit of the people, might be re-excited by the hope of a real Messiah — as well as the summary manner in which he endeavoured to rid himself of the object of his fears, are strictly in accordance with the relentlessness and decision of his chara(;ter. At length, just before his death, the ratification of the sentence against Antipater arrived from Rome. It found Herod in a paroxysm of torment so great that he had attempted to lay violent hands on him- self. The rumour of his death induced Antipater to make a desperate attempt to bribe the keeper of his prison This last offence was fatal. Herod just B.C. 4. J DEATH OF HEB )9. 107 raised himself up in his bed to give the mandate for his execution, and t'l^^ii fell b;i'-1< — had only lane once more to remodel his will ; and thus, dispensing death on one hand, and kingdoms on the other expired 108 HISTORY OF THE ( 109 ) BOOK XII. THE HKRODfAN FAMILY. Mrehtlaus — Roman Governors — Pontius Pilate — Herod Antnml Philip — Accession of Caligula — Agrippa — Persecutions in ^Uaatt' dria — Philo — Babylonian Jews — Jigrippa King. The executioner had made frightful ravages in the family of Herod ; but still a powerful, if united, race survived. Ten wives of Herod are mentioned in history. The Jirst, Doris, the mother of Anti pater the last and the only unpitied victim of his veng-cance. The second, Mariamne, the Asmonean princess, the mother of the unfortunate Aristobulus and Alexander, and of two daughters, Salampsio and Cypros. Aristobulus, by Bernice his cousin, left four children — 1, Herod Agrippa, who became distinguished at a later period— 2, Herodias, infa- mous for her divorce of her first husband, her uncle Philip, and her incestuous marriage with Herod Antipas — 3, Aristobulus — 4, Herod. The third wife of Herod the Great was Mariamne, daughter of iSimon the High Priest, the mother of Herod Philip. The name of Herod Philip was effaced from the will of his father, on account of his mother's supposed connexion with the conspiracy against his life. The fourth, a niece by the brother's side ; the fifths a niece by the sister's side, whose names do not appear, and who had no issue. The sixth, Malthace, a Samaritan, the mother of — 1, Archelaus — 2, Herod Antipas — 3, Olympias. It was among this family that his dominions were chiefly divided. The seventh, Cleopatra of Jerusalem, the mother of— i. Hi'i-od— 2, Philip, Tetrarch of Trachoniiis. The eighth, Pellas, the mother of Phasaelis. The nintkj Phedra, mother of Roxana. THe tenth, Elpis, th^ mother o<" Salome. 110 HlSfORV OF THE JEWS. [b.C 4 The will of Herod had designated the sons of Malthace as his successors. To Herod Antipai were assigned Galilee and Peraea — to Archelaus, Idumnea, Samaria, and Judaea. Archelaus at once assumed the direction of affairs in Jerusalem. The funeral of his father was the first object of his care. The lifeless remains of Herod seemed to retain his characteristic magnificence. The body was borne aloft on a bier, which was adorned with costly pre- cious stones. The linen was of the richest die; the winding-sheet of purple. It still wore the dia- dem, and, above that, the golden crown of royalty — the sceptre was in its hand. The sons and relatives of Herod attended the bier. All the military force followed, distributed according to their nations. First his body-guard — then his foreign mercenaries, Thracians, Germans, Gauls — then the rest of the army, in war array. Last came five hundred of his court-officers, bearing sweet spices, with which the Jews embalmed the dead. In this pomp the pro cession passed on, by slow stages, to the Herodium, a fortified palace about twenty-five miles from Jericho. Archelaus, according to Jewish usage, mourned for seven days ; but rumours were industriously propagated by his enemies, that, while he wore the decent garb of sorrow during the day-time, his nights were abandoned to revelry, and to the most undis- guised rejoicing among his own private friends. At the end of this time, he gave a splendid funeral banquet to the whole people, and then entered the temple in great pomp amid general acclamations ; and, taking his seat on a golden throne, delivered an address to the multitude. His speech was concilia tory and temperate. He alluded to his father's oppressions — thanked the people for their loyal re- ception — promised to reward their good conduct — but declined assummg the royal diadem till his fatlrVs testament should be ratified at Rome. The B.C. 4.] ACCESSION OF ARCIIELATJS. Ill people vied with each other in the vehemence of tlieir applause, but their acclaniations were mingled with demands by no means so acceptable to the royal ear. Some called for a diminution of the public burden ; others for the release of the pri- soners, with whom Herod had crowded the dun- geons ; some more specifically for the entire aban- donment of the taxes on the sale of commoc.ities in the markets, which had been levied with the utmost rig-our. Archelaus listened with great affability, promised largely, and, having performed sacrifice, retired. While he was preparing for his voyage, the zea- lous party which had been concerned in the demo- lition of the Eagle, collected their strength. They bewailed with frantic outcries the death of Matthias, the teacher, and his seditious pupils, w^ho had even been deprived of the rites of burial by the unrelenting rigour of Herod — and no unintelligible execrations against the deceased monarch were mingled with their lamentations. They demanded the summary punishment of all who had been employed in the recent executions, the expulsion of the High Priest, and the substitution of one more legally appointed. Archelaus attempted to allay the tumult by concili- atory measures. He sent officer after officer to sooth, to expostulate, to admonish, to threaten. Argument and menace were alike unavailing. The clamorous multitude would listen to neither, and the sedition grew every day more alarming. The dan- ger was more urgent on account of the approaching Passover, which assembled the Jews from all quar- ters of the country, and even strangers from the most remote parts of the world. If it was difficult at any time to keep the fanatical multitude of .leru- salem in check, it was still more so, when this formidable addition was made to their numbers. The leaders of the faction held their meetings in the temple itself, where they were abundantly sup- 112 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. plied with provisions by their friends, who did not scruple to beg in their behalf. It was high time to interfere, and Archelaus sent a centurion with a band of soldiers to disperse the multitude, to apprehend the ringleaders, and bring them before his tribunal. They arrived while the sacrifice was offering. The zealots inflamed the multitude, who attacked the soldiers, many of whom were stoned ; the rest, with the centurion, made their escape, but with great difficulty, and dreadfully maimed. This done, the sacrifice quietly proceeded. Archelaus found it necessary, if he would not at once throw up all his authority, to act with greater vigour. He gave orders for a large body of troops to advance. The cavalry cut off the strangers from the provinces who were encamped without the city, from the zealots who occupied the temple. The multitude fled on all sides; those of Jerusalem dispersed; the strangers retreated to the mountains ; 3000 were slain. Arche laus issued a proclamation, commanding all the strangers to return to their homes ; they obeyed with reluctance, and, to the universal horror, the great national festival, thus interrupted, was not concluded. Archelaus set out for Rome, accompanied by Nicolaus of Damascus, and many of his relatives, all with the ostensible purpose of supporting his claim to the throne, some with the secret design of thwarting his advancement. Among the latter was Salome, the false and intriguing sister of Herod. At Caesarea he met Sabinus, the Procurator of Syria, who was hastening to Judaea, in order to make himself master of the treasures left by Herod, and to obtain military possession of the country, by seizing the fortresses which that king had built. Through the interference of Varus, the prefect of Syria, Sabinus agreed to suspend his march, to leave Archelaus in possession of the treasures, and to undertake no measure till ihe arrival of an edict AKCHELAUS IN ROME. US from Rom 3. But no sooner had Archelaus set sail, and Varus returnod to Antiocti, than Sabinus marched to Jerusalem, seized the palace, sum- moned the keepers of the treasures to render up their accounts, and the military officers to cede the fortresses. All, however, remained faithful to their charge, and refused to comply without direct orders from Rome. Archelaus had to encounter a formidable opposi- tion to his attainment of the royal dignity, not merely from tne caprice or pride of the Emperor, but from intrigues set on foot in his own family. His younger brother, Herod Antipas, arrived in Rome to maintain his own pretensions to tlie crown, grounded on a former will of Herod, made, as his party asserted, when his father was in a saner state of mind than at his decease, and in which he was named first. His mother Malthace, Salome his aunt, Ptolemy the brother of Nicolaus of Damascus, a great favourite with his father, and Irenaeus, a man of great elo- quence and ability, espoused the party of Antipas. Augustus appointed a solemn hearing of the cause, and in that haughty spirit which delighted in dis- playing kings publicly pleading for their thrones before the footstool of Roman subjects, appointed Cains, the son of Agrippa, and his own daughter Julia, afterward noted for her profligacy, to preside on the occasion. Antipaler, the son of Salome, conducted the cause of Herod Antipas. He in- sisted on the former will of Herod — accused Arche- laus of assuming the crown without the sanction of the Emperor — of unseemly rejoicings at the death of his father — and of wanton acts of tyranny against the people — urging and aggravating the dreadful slaughter during the tumult of the Pass- over. The eloquent Nicolaus of Damascus main- tained tlie cause of Archelaus with his accustomed ability. The Emperor took time to delioeiate on his judgment 114 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. [b.c4 While these affairs were pending- at Rome, intel- li^-ence arrived ihnt Jndxi wn? in a state of insur- rection. The rapacity aaid insolence of Sabinus had exasperated the people, already in a state of tumultuary excitement. Varus advanced to Jeru- salem, seized the ringleaders, and re-established order— but unfortunately left Sabinus behind him to maintain the peace, the sole object of tliis un- scrupulous commander was to find an opportunity and excuse for seizing the tempting treasures of this opulent city, as well those left by Herod, as the more inestimable riches contained in the temple. All his acts tended to goad the people to insur- rection. The Pentecost drew on, and the Jews gathered together from all quarters with the deliberate inten- tion of wreaking their vengeance on Sabinus. From both the Galilees, from Idumaea, from Jericho, and from the provinces beyond Jordan, vast multitudes came crowding mto the city. One party encamped in the circus to the south, one occupied a position to the north, another to tlie west of the temple; and thus shut up the single legion of Varus in the Palace. Sabinus sent pressing messages to Varus for relief. In the meantime he himself, for with more than Roman rapacity he does not seem to have possessed Roman valour, ascending the lofty tower of Phasaelis, gave orders to his troops to make a desperate sally, and force their way to the temple. The Jews, though repelled by the disciplined valour of the legionaries, fought with courage, and, mount- ing on the roofs of the cloisters or porticoes which surrounded the outer court of the temple, annoyed the assailants with stones, javelins, and other mis- siles. The Romans at length set fire to the cloisters, the roofs of which were made of wood, cemented with pitch and wax; and the whole maguificent range became on*; immense conflagration : the Sliding melted, the columns fell, and all the Jews ADVENTURERS IN ARMS IN ALL QUARTERS. 115 upon the roof were either crushed to death among the blazing niins, or lay victims to the unrelenting fury of the enemy : some of the more desperate fell on their own swords : not one escaped. But the riames could not repress the daring- rapacity of the Uoman soldiery : they broke into the temple, plun- dered on all sides, and even seized the sacred treasures, from which Sabinus secured the greater part of 400 talents ; the rest was secreted by the pillagers. Maddened with this outrage, the bravest of the Jews assembled from all quarters, besieged the palace, but offered Sabinus his life if he and his legion would evacuate the city. Many of Herod's soldiers deserted to the Jews ; but, on the other hand, two distinguished officers, Rufus, the com- mander of Herod's cavalry, and Gratus, the captain of his infantry, with 3000 Samaritan troops, joined Sabinus. The Jews pressed the siege with vigour, and began to mine the palace ; at the same time urging Sabinus to quit the city, and leave them to their own government ; but Sabinus would not trust their faith. The whole country was in tlie same dreadful state of anarchy. The severe military police of Herod was now withdrawn or suspended, on account of the uncertainty of the succession. The Romans exercised all the oppression without affording the ; protection of despotic sovereignty : and at the period when the nation was in the highest state of excite- ment — some looking forward, with sober patriotism, to the restoration of their national independence — others, of more ardent zeal, to the fulfilment of their national prophecies in the person of some mighty conqueror, the fame of whose destined birth at this period prevailed, according to the expression of the Roman histori-.tn, throughout all the East, — the whole country was without any regular govern- ment; adventurer after adventurer sprang up in every quarter, not one of wliom was too base or too 118 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. desperate to assemble a number, either of danng robbers or deluded fanatics, around his standard Two thousand of Herod's troops having' been dis- missed, spread ever Judaea, subsisted on plunder, and besieg-ed Achiab, a cousin of Herod, who took refuge in the mountains. One Judas, son of Hezekias, a noted captain of banditti, surprised Sepphoris, seized the treasures, and plundered the armory, from wnich he supplied his followers, who became the terror of the district. Simon, a slave of Herod, a man of great personal strength and beauty, had the audacity to assume the diadem. He plundered the palace in Jericho, and several of the other royal residences ; his followers burnt that of Betharamp- tha, near the Jordan. He was at length attacked by Gratus, taken in a ravine, and beheaded. Another adventurer, Athronges, a common shepherd, with his four brothers, men of extraordinary personal strength and courage, collected a predatory band, and waged open war both against the Romans and the royal party. Athronges also assumed the dia- dem. He had the boldness to attack a Roman co- hort, which was escorting a convoy of provisions and arms, near Emmaus. One centurion and 400 men were killed ; the rest escaped with difficulty, leaving the dead on the field of battle. Nothing could exceed the rapacity and cruelty of this band. They were not subdued till long after, when one brother having been slain in battle by Gratus, the other in a conflict against Ptolemy, and the eldest taken, the youngest, who survived, broken in spirit, and finding his troops dispersed, surrendered to Archelaus. In consequence of urgent entreaties from Sabi- nus. and dreading the peril in which his legion was placed. Varus, the Prefect of Syria, assembled at Ptolemais the two legions remaining in Syria, and four troops of horse, with some allies from Berytus, and some Arabian bands. Part he sent forward DECREE OF AFGrSTITS. 117 mto Galilee ; they recovered and burnt SepphoriB, and subdued the whole distrii^t. With the rest he advanced in person to Samaria, which had taken no part in the late insurrections. His Arabian allies committed dreadful depredations, burning anc ravaging on all sides : he himself gave orders foi the burning of Emmaus, in revenge for the loss ol the cohort defeated by Athronges. On his approach to Jerusalem, the forces from the country broke up their siege of Sabinus and dispersed : the inhabit- ants submitted, and laid the whole blame of the insurrection on the strangers. Sabinus, ashamed of meeting Varus, stole away to the coast, and took ship for Rome. Varus spread his troops over the country, and seized the notorious ringleaders in the recent tumults ; 2000 were crucified, the rest par- doned. Finding, however, tliat the rapacity of his own forces, particularly his Arabian allies, from their hatred of Herod, increased the mischief, he dismissed the latter, and advanced only with his own force on a body of 10,000 men, which ap- peared in arms on the borders of Idumaea. These insurgents were persuaded by Achiab to surrender: the leaders were sent to Rome for trial ; a general amnesty was granted to the rest. Augustus treated the criminals with lenity, excepting those who were related to the house of Herod, whom he ordered to be put to death for their unnatural hostility to the head of their own family. In the meantime the great decision which was to award the dominions of Herod remained in suspense. A deputation of 500 Jews arrived at Rqme, to peti- tion for the re-establisliment of their ancient con- stitution, and the total suppression of the kingly government. They were joined by 8000 of their countrymen, resident in Rome. An audience was granted, in which they enlarged on the oppressions, cruelties, summary executions, and enormous taxa- tions of the elder Herod, The whole Herodiai* 118 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. [b.C. 3 family now found it expedient to give up their dis- sensions, and unite their cominou interest. Herod Philip arrived at the same time to support his own claims. At length the imperial edict appeared : it con- firmed for the most part the will of Herod. Arche- laus was appointed to the sovereignty of Judaea, Idumaea, and Samaria, under the title of Ethnarch ; that of king was reserved as a reward for future good conduct. Herod Antipas obtained Galilee and Peraja ; Philip — Anranitis, Trachonitis, Paneas, and Batanea. The Samaritans were rewarded for their peaceable behaviour by the reduction of one quarter of their tribute. The chief cities of Archelaus were Jerusalem, Sebaste (Samaria), C-Esarea, and Joppa. Gaza, Gadara, and Hippo, as Greek towns, were added to the prefecture of Syria. The annual revenue of Archelaus was 600 talents. The be- quests of Herod to Salome were confirmed ; and in addition she obtained the towns of Jamnia, Azotus and Phasaelis, and a palace in Ascalon : her yearly revenue was sixty talents. The wealth, left to Augustus, he distribnted, chiefly as a dower, to two unmarried daughters of Herod, whom he united to two sons of Pheroras. He retained nothing except some magnificent plate, as a memorial of his friend. At this juncture an impostor made his appearance, who assumed the name of Alexander, the murdered son of Mariamne. So like was he in person to that ill-fated youth, and so well had he been tutored by an unprincipled adventurer, who was intimately ac- quainted with the court of Herod, that wherever he went, in (Jrete and xMelos, where a number of Jews resided, he was received with all the attachment which the nation felt to the race of their Asmonean princes: he was liberally furnished with money, and boldly set out for Rome to demand his inherit ance. The Jews crowded forth to meet him, and escorted him into the city with loud ac^clamations A.C.7.] ARCHELAUS DEPOSED AKD BANISHED. 119 Celadus, one of the Emperor's freedmen, who had been familiarly acciuainted witli the sons of Mari- amne, was sent to investigate the case : he was im- posed ujion like the rest. Not so Augustus him- self, who, on sending for the false Alexander, ob- served that his hands were hard and horny, and that hi3 whole person wanted the delicacy and softness of the royal youth. Still both he and his tutor sup- ported a strict cross-examination, till at length Augustus himself led the youth aside, and promised to him a free pardon if he would confess the im- posture. The vouth, either supposing himself de- tected, or awedby the imperial presence, acknow- ledged the deception ; and Caesar, seeing that he was of a strong and muscular make, ordered him as a rower to his galleys. His instructer was put to death. Archelaus (B.C. 3) assumed the dominion of Judaea, and governed with great injustice and cruelty. Such is the unanimous report of all his- torians, confirmed by his condemnation, after a solemn hearing before Augustus. Yet few facts have transpired by which posterity may judge of the equity of the sentence. He displaced Joazar from the pontificate, and substituted his brother Eleazar. Eleazur in his turn was supplanted by Jesus, son of Siva. The unlawful marriage of the Ethnarch with Glaphyra, the daughter of Archelaus, king of Cap- padocia, and widow of his brother Alexander, and his divorce of his own wife, Mariamne, gave great offence to his zealous subjects. He repaired the palace at Jericho with great magnificence, and paid much attention to the cultivation of the palm-trees in the neighbourhood. Such are the barren inci- dents of a reign of nine years; at the end of which Archelaus was hastily summoned to Rome, while sitting at a banquet. His cause was formally heard, his brothers as well as his subjects being his ac- cusers. He was banished to Vienne. in Gaul ; his 120 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. estates confiscated, and Judaea reduced to a Rom&u province. Thus the sceptre finally departed from Judah: the kingdom of David and Solomon — of the Asmonean princes and of Herod, sank into a district, dependant on the prefecture of Syria, though administered by its own governor, a man usually of the equestrian order. At this period of the Jewish history, when the last semblance of independence passed away, and Judaea became part of a Roman province, it may be well to cast a rapid view over the state of the people, and their more important existing institu- tions. The supreme judicial authority was exercised by the Sanhedrin, the great ecclesiastical and civil council. The origin of this famous court is involved in obscurity. The Jews, it has been observed, took pride in deducing its lineal descent from that esta- blished by Moses in the wilderness. The silence of the whole mtervening history to the captivity, has been considered fatal to these lofty pretensions. Others date its origin from the captivity: others again from the reorganization of the Jewish polity by the Maccabees. The Sanhedrin consisted of seventy-one persons, partly priests, partly Levites, partly elders. The High Priest, whether of right or not is much disputed, usually sat as president: he was entitled Nasi, or prince. At his right hand sat the Ab-beth-Din, the father of the council, or vice-president: on his left, the Wise Man, perhajts the most learned among the doctors of the law. The constitution of the rest of the council, and their mode of election, are involved in much obscurity. The qualifications of a member of this court, ai stated by the Jewish writers, are curious. " They must be religious, and learned in arts and languages. Some added, in their fanciful attachment to the number seventy, that they must understand seventy languages ! They must have some skill in physict THE BAKHEDRIN. 121 Anthmetic, astronomy astrology, and be acquainted with what belonged to magic, sorcery, and idolatry, that they may know how to judge of them. They must be without maim or blemish of body ; men of years, but not extremely old, because such are com- monly of too great severity ; and they must btfatheit of children, that they might be acquainted with ten- demess and compassion.''^ The council sat in the form of a semicircle round the President, whose place was between the Ab- beth-Din and the Wise Man. At each end was a secretary; one registered the votes of acquittal — the other of condemnation. At first the Sanhedrin sat in a room in the cloister of the court of the Israelites, called Gazith. They afterward removed successively to other places. The proper period of sitting was all the time between the morning and evening service. The Sanhedrin was the great court of judicature : it judged of all capital offences against the law : it had the power of inflicting punishment by scourging and by death. Criminals capitally condemned were executed in four different ways ; by strangling, burning, slaying with the sword, and by stoning. The Great Sanhedrin was a court of appeal from the inferior Sanhedrins of twenty-three judges, established in the other towns. The Sanhedrin was probably confined to its judi- cial duties — it w-as a plenarj' court of justice, and no more — during the reigns of the later Asmonean princes, and during those of Herod the Great and nis son Archelaus. To the despotism of the two latter there was no check, except an appeal to Rome. When Judaea became a Roman province the Sanhe- drin either, as is more likely, assumed for the first time, or recovered its station as a kind of senate or representative body of the nation ; possessed itself of such of the subordinate functions of the govern- ment as were not actually admmistered by tlie II — K 122 HISTORY OF THE JEWS Roman procurator ; and probably, on account of the frequent changes in the person of the High Priest, usurped, in some degree, upon his authority. At all ■ events, they seem to have been the channel of ■ intercourse between the Roman rulers and the body of the people. It is the Sanhedrin, under the name of the chief priests, scribes, and elders of the people, who take the lead in all the transactions recorded in the gospels. Jesus Christ was led before the Sanhedrin, and by them denounced before the tri- bunal of Pilate. Whether they had lost or retained the power of inflicting capital punishment, has been debated with great erudition ; and, Ime similar ques- tions, is still in a great degree uncertain. The body of the people, at least all above the lowest order, seem to have addicted themselves to one or other of the two great prevailing sects — the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The multitude, though not actually enrolled among the former, were entirely under their sway, and zealously adhered to their faction. In all places of pubhc resort the Pharisees were always seen with their phylacteries, or broad slips of parchment, inscribed with sentences of the law, displayed on their foreheads and the hems of their garments : even in the corners of the public streets they would kneel to pray ; and in the temple or synagogues they chose the most conspicuous stations, that their long devotions might excite the admiration of their followers. They fasted rigor- ously, observed the sabbath with the most scrupu- lous punctuality, and paid tithes even upon the cheapest herbs. In private societies they assumed the superiority to which their religious "distinction seemed to entitle them; they always took the highest places. But their morals, according to the unerring authority of Jesus Christ, were far below their pre- tensions : they violated the main principles of the law, the justice and humanity of the Mosaic institu- tions, while they rigidly adhered to the most minute SADDtTCEES — HERODIANS. 123 particulars, not merely of the law itself, but of tra- dition likewise. Still they were the idols of the people, who reverenced them as the great teachers and models of virtue and holiness. The Sadducees were less numerous and less influential : for, besides the want of this popular display of religion, they were notoriously severe in the execution of the national statutes. Denying all punishment foi crime in a future life, their only way to discourage delin- quency was by the immediate terrors of the law ; and this they put in force, perhaps with the greater rigour, because their disbelief of future rewards and punishments was represented by their enemies as leading necessarily to Hhe utmost laxity of morals. This effect it would probably have on many of the weak or licentious : but the doctrine of the Sad- ducees, which fully recognised the certain punish- ment of guilt in this world by Divine Providence, is not justly chargeable with these consequences. It is singular that this notorious severity in the admuustration of the law is strongly exemplified in the Christian history. The first persecution of the apostles took place when the Sadducees were in possession of the high priesthood, and probably formed a majority of the Sanhedrin ;* and the High Priest who put James to death, was, in all proba- bility, of that sect. Besides these two great sects, there was a con- siderable party attached to the persons of the He- rodian family; who probably thought it the best interest of the country to remain quietly under the government of native princes, and the protection of the Roman emperors. This faction most likely comprehended what may be called the Grecian party ; rather inclined to Grecian habits and cus- toms, than strongly attar hed to the national insti- tutes and usages. \t a considerable distance from the metropolis, • Acts, V. 17 124 MWTORY OP THE JEWS. m some highly cultivated oases ami J the wilder- ness on the shores of the Dead Sea, were situated the chief of the large agricultural villages of the Essenes. According to Philo their number wa» about 4000. Almost in every respect, both in their rules and in the patient industry with which they introduced the richest cultivation mto the barren waste, the Essenes were the monastic orders of the Jews. Among groves of palm-trees, of which, ac- cording to the picturesque expression of Pliny, they were the companions, and amid fertile fields won from the barren wilderness, they passed their rigid and ascetic lives. They avoided populous cities not from hatred of mankind, but from dread of their vices. In general, no woman was admitted within their domains. Some of the inferior communities allowed marriage, but only associated with their wives for the procreation of children; the highei and more esteemed societies practised the most rigid celibacy, and entirely forswore all communi- cation with the other sex. Wonderful nation, says the Roman naturalist, which endures for centuries, but in which no child is ever born. They were recruited by voluntary proselytes, or by children whom they adopted when very young, and educated in their discipline. Among the Essenes all pleasure was forbidden as sin ; tlie entire extinction of the passions of the body was the only real virtue. An absolute community of goods was established in their settlements : even a man's house was not his own ; another person might enter and remain in it as long as he pleased. The desire of riches M'as proscribed; every lucrative employinent, commerce, traffick, and navigation were forbidden. They nei- ther bought nor sold ; all tliey had was thrown into a common fund, from which each received the necessaries of life; but for charity, or for the assist- ance of the poor or the stranger, they might draw as largely as they would on this general ••evenue. THE ESSENES. 126 They were all clothed alike in white garments, which they did not change till they were worn out; they abhorred the use of oil ; if any one were anointed against his will, he scrupulously cleansed himself. Their lives were regulated by the strictest forms ; they rose before the sun, but were forbidden to speak of any worldly business, and devoted all the time till break of day to offering up certain ancient prayers, that the sun might shine upon them. After this they received their orders from the superior, and went to work, according to his commands, at the labour or craft in which they were skilled ; but their artizans might only work on articles used in peace, by no means on swords, arrows, or military weapons ; though they carried arms, when they tra- velled, to defend themselves against robbers. Having worked till the fifth hour, eleven o'clock, they assembled for refreshment. First, however, they washed, and put on a linen garment ; they then went into a room which no one might enter who was not of their sect. After that they entered the common refectory as if it were a sacred place; there in silence waited till grace was said; then each received his portion, from the baker and the cook, of bread, salt, and hyssop ; another grace closed the meal : then, putting off their sacred garment, they returned to their toil till evening, when they again assem- bled to supper. No noise or tumult was heard; they spoke only by permission and in turn ; on other occasions if ten were met, one could not speak without the consent of the nine. In company they were to avoid spitting either before them or to the right hand. They observed the sabbath with the strictest precision, not even lighting a fire, or per- forming the necessities of nature. At all other times they concealed their excrements with scrupu- lous care, digging a pit a foot deep, lest the holy light should be defiled. They then washed them- selves with great care. On the sabbath they all J 126 HISTORY tiP THE JEWS. met in theii synagogfiies, where the elders inter- preted the satred writings, explaining them chiefly by parables. fn their religious opinions they differed from their • (mntrymen ; though they sent their gifts to the (pmple, they offered no sacrifices there. They were strict predestinarians. They believed that the body was mortal, the soul immortal: that the soul, emanating out of the noblest and purest air, is imprisoned in tlie body, where it is subjected to severe trials : when released from its corporeal bonds, it escapes as it were a long servitude, and soars back rejoicing to its native element. They believed, with the Greeks, in a delightful region beyond the ocean, in which the souls of the good dwelt for ever. There rain, and snow, and parch- ing heat were unknown, but the air was continually refreshed Avith balmy and gentle breezes from the sea. The souls of the wicked were doomed to a cold and gloomy place of everlasting punishment. They were great students of their sacred books, and especially of the prophetic writings. Many were endowed, according to Josephus, with that gift. They studied likewise the nature and cure of dis- eases, and the medicinal properties of herbs and minerals. Their morals were rigid in every respect. They were bound, by solemn vows, to worship Mod and to be just to men ; to keep inviolable faith; if intrusted with authority, to abstain from all wrong Hiid from splendid apparel; to love truth and hate liars ; to communicate only to the members of the so'.'iety the tenets of the sect; to preserve their sacred doctrinal books, and the names of the angels. Tliey paid the highest veneration to age: many of itieni, from their temperate habits, lived to more linn 100 years. They abstained from all oaths, cuMsidering an oath as bad as perjury. They ab- horred slavery, as an infringement of the natural liberty of men. In their civil constitution, they THE E8SE?iES. 1 2t were all equ^i, as regards their rights, but divided mto four classes ; of which the superior class looked down so much on those beneath them, that, if touched by one of a lower order, they were defiled, anl washed themselves. Tliore were Rewards who managed the common stt)ck, and officers who took care of all strangers who might enter their towns. No one was ad- mitted into the society without the strictest proba- tion ; the proselyte received a small pick-axe, linen ganiients, and a white dress, and so commenced his year of novitiate. After having given satisfactory proof of continence and temperance for that period, he was admitted to closer intimacy, and to wash in the holy water: yet for two years longer he re- mained on trial, and only at the end of that time was admitted to the common refectory. Whoever was guilty of anj' great crime was expelled from the society — a fearful doom ! for having sworn that he would receive no food but from his own sect, the outcast fed, like a beast, oii«the grass of the field, till at length he perished with hunger. Sometimes, if at the last extremity the criminal showed sincere repentance, he was readmitted, from compassion, within the society. But this awful fate was inflicted with great reluctance ; for justice was administered with the utmost care; and no verdict could be given unless a hundred were present; it was then usu- ally irrevocable. The Essenes were cruelly persecuted by the Romans, who probably entered their country after the capture of .Tericho. They were tortured, racked, had their bones broken on the wheel, in order to compel them to blaspheme their lawgiver or eat for- bidden meats. They did not attempt to appease their tormentors; they uttered no cry, they shed no tear; and even smiled in tlie worst agony of torment; and in steadfast reliance on the immortality of their souls, departed, rejoi<'ing, from life. These were 128 HISTORY OF THE JEWS [A C. 8 usually called practical Essenes ; there was another class in Esypt, called the Therapeutae or Contem- plative. These were mystics; but they will come more closely under our consideration when we enter into the history of the several Jewish settlements in foreign countries. Tiie origin of this singular people, the Essenes, ig involved m obscurity. Some have deduced them from very high antiquity, but without the slightest ground for their ojjinion : others derive them from the Rechabites, mentioned in the hitter period of the monarchy. In some respects they may seem to have been formed in imitation of the schools of the prophets, some of which, if not all, bound them- selves to a severe and abstemious life ; and not only does Josephus inform us that many of the Essenes pretended to the gift of prophecy, but we meet with Essene prophets in several parts of the later Jewish history. The main principles of their teaets seem evidently grounded on that wide-spread Oriental philosophy, which, supposing matter either the creation of the Evil Being, or itself the Evil Being, considered all the appetites and propensities of the material body in themselves evil, and there- fore esteemed the most severe mortification the per- fection of virtue. The reverence for the names of thi^ angels points to the same source, and there is one ambiguous expression in the account of Jose- phus, which, taken literally, would imply that they worshipped the sun. Oa this complete alteration in the civil state of Juper cro^'u on liis li(!ad, and a cane in his hand fur a sceptre; b<)\s with sticks for halberds went before him to repre- sent his body-guard ; and, to complete the parody on the royal state of Agrippa, some did him homage, some presented petitions, some nddressed him on affairs of state, and called him l)y a word which sig- lified " Lord" in the Syrian language. Flacciis, though outwardly he showed all possilile respect to Agrippa, secretly connived at their iiisuhing {)r()- ceedings, and even fomented them. Tins, however, is the most improbable part of Philo's story, for if it was the main object of Flaccus to secure the favour of Caligula, no man of !us prudence would unneces- sarily have offended his acknowledged friend and favourite. Agrip[ja, probably, soon withdrew from the inhospitable city, bearmg with him a decree of the .Tews, in whicii they offered to Caligula all tlie honours compatible with their law. This decree Flac- cus had promised to forward, but had treacherously v^'ithholden from the knowledge of the Emperor. Encouraged by the apparent counivance of tlie pre- fect, the Greek faction assembled in the theatre, and demanded with loud crses, that the statue of the Emperor should be placed in all the .Jewish proseuchae, their oratories or places of prayer. They then proceeded to carry their own demands into exe- cution; they cut down the trees which surrounded those picturesque places of worship, burnt some, profaned the rest by erecting images within them; n the most considerable they determined to place a 11— M 146 HISTORY or THE JEWS. preat statue in a chariot drawn by four horses. Not Having- a chariot rrndy, t^ify sr^izerl an old one which had brfore belonged to Cleopatra, an ancestress of the celebrated Eg-i'plian queen of that name. A few days after their oratories had thus been violated, Flaccus issued an edict, in which the Jews were called strano-ers; thus depriving them at once of their boasted rights of citizenship. Philo would persuade us that the Jews had not given the slightest provocation, and bore all these repeated outrages with the utmost meekness. This is not probable ; and the next measure of the governor seems as if it had been intended to separate the two conflicting parties ; and so secure the peace of the distracted city. Alexandria was divided into five quarters, named from the first five letters of the alphabet. Two of these were entirely peopled by Jews, and many of them dwelt scattered about in the other three. They were ordered to retire into one of these districts, which was so much too small to contain them, that they spread about upon the sea shore, and in the cemeteries. The vacant houses in the quarter from which they had retired were pillaged by the mob; the magazines and shops which were shut on account of a general mourning for Drusilla, the Emperor's sister, were broken open; the goods openly shared in the market place. Philo com- plains that great distress was caused by the pledges being taken away from the brokers, vvhenre it ap- pears that the Jews had already taken up the })ro- fession of money-lenders. But this was not the worst. Cooped up in one narrow quarter of the city they began to suffer dreadfully from the heat and unwholesomeness of the air. Pestilential dis- orders broke out. and though the year was plentiful, Ihey sufferr^'l nil the miseries of famine, foi they were almost hcsi^gpd in their quarter. Those who ventured out into the market were robbed, insulted, tnaltniated, pursued with sticks and stones. Blood- MASSACRE OF THE JEWS 147 shed soon ensued, many were slain with the sword ; others trampled to death, some, even while alive, were dragged by their heels through the streets^ when dead, their bodies were still dragged along till they were torn to pieces, or so disfigured that they could not be distinguished, if at length recovered by their friends. Those who strayed out of the city to breathe tfie purer air of the country-, or the strangers who incautiously entered the walls to visit and re- lieve their friends, were treated in the same way, and beaten with clubs till they were dead. The quays were watched, and on tlie landing of a Jewish ves- sel, the merchandise was plundered, the owners and their vessel burnt, their houses were likewise set on fire, and whole families, men, women, and chil- dren, burnt alive. Yet even this was a merciful death compared with the sufferings of others. Some- times from want of wood, they could collect only a few wet sticks, and over these, stifled with smoke, and half consumed, the miserable victims slowly expired. Sometimes they would mock their suf- ferings by affected sorrow, but if any of their own relatives or friends betrayed the least emotion they were seized, scourged, tortured, and even crucified. During all these horrible scenes, Flaccus, who could at once have put an end to the tumult, looked on in calm indifference. He now, according to his accuser, openly took part against them. He sent for the principal Jews, as if to mediate an accommodation, in reality only to find new pretexts for cruelty. The Jews had their Alabarch or chief magistrate, and their council or senate. Flaccus ordered thirty-eight of the most distinguished mem- bers of this body to be seized, bound them as crimi- nals, and, although it was the emperor's birthday, a day of public rejoicing, they were brought into the theatie, and publicly scourged with such cruelty tliat many of them died instantly of the blows, others, shortly after, of the mischiefs they receited. It 48 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. was thought ail aggravation of this cruelty, that as there were different kinds of flagellation according to the rank of the criminal, these distinguished men were condemned to that usually inflicted on the hasest. Those who escaped with life, were thrown into prison ; others of this miserable race were seized and crucified. It was the morning spectacle of the theatre to see the Jews scourged, tortured both with the rack and with pulleys, and then led away to execution; and to this horrible tragedy immediately succeeded farces and dances and othei theatrical amusements. Women were occasionally seized, and exposed to the public view — sometimes female peasants were taken for .Tewesses, when dis- covered they were let go; if any doubt remained, swine's flesh was brought and the women com- manded to eat ; those who complied were released, those who refused, treated with every kind of in- dignity. As if to justify these cruelties by an apparent dread of insurrection, Flaccus sent a centurion^ Castus, to search all the houses of the Jews for concealed arms. The search was conducted with the utmost rigour, even the women's apartments ransacked, but no weapon was found more dan- gerous than common knives used for domestic purposes. At length tlie hour of retribution arrived ; all the •attempts of Flaccus to secure the favour of Caligula were unavailing; a centurion, Bassus, was sent to arrest him. Bassus proceeded, not with the bold- ness of a messenger armed with an imperial edict but as if he had to surprise an independent sovereign in the midst of loyal subjects; it seems to warrant a suspicion, either that Flaccus entertained some design of revolting, or at least, that his popularity at Alexandria was so great as to render his capture difficult and dangerous. Bassus arrived at night, landed secretly, and found that Flaccus was abroad. DEATH OF FLACCUS. 143 at a banquet g'iven by one Stephanio, a freedman of Tiberius. One of liis foWowfis mingled with tha guests, and finding- tlrat the governor was only at- tended by eight or ten slaves, Bassus surrounded the chamber with his soldiers, and displayed the imperial edict. Flaccus at oiute saw his fate, and was led away without resistance. It was the feast of Tabernacles: but the sad and persecuted Jews had little inclination for the usual joy and merri- ment of the season. When the rumour of the ap- prehension of Flaccus spread abroad, they supposed it to be a deception intended to tempt them to re- joicings, which would be cruelly revenged. When the intelligence was confirmed, they began to praise God, and during the whole night the people were occupied in hymns and songs of thanksgiving. The wrath of heaven, as they believed, now pursued the miserable Flaccus, he had a tempestuous voyage , en his arrival at Rome, he was accused by Lampo and Isidore, two men of the basest character, his property was confiscated, and he himself banished first to (Jyara, an island in the JEgean Sea, prover- bial for the hard fate of those who were exiled to its shores. By the interest of Lepidus he obtahied a commutation of this punishment, and was sent to Andros, wliere he arrived after a disastrous voyage, and after having been an object of contempt or com- miseration in the various towns through \vlii( h he passed. Philo asserts that he was haunted by bitter remorse for his cruellies towards the Jews. He was soon after put to death by order of Caligula. Thus Philo describes the persecutions of the Jews in Alexandria, and the conduct of Flaccus, but it may be justly suspected that both the sufter- mgs and the peaceful disposition of his countrymen are highly coloured; and in the charac-terand motives of Flaccus there appears so much inconsistency, as cerpetually to remind us that we are reduced to fol 150 HISTORY OP THE JEWS. low the narrative of an advocate, not that of a dis- passionate historian. A deputation from each of the parties in Alexan- dria, arrived in Rome, to lay the whole history ol the late disturbances before the emperor. At the head of the Grecian party was Apion, a man of eloquence, and a determined enemy to the Jews; on the other side appeared Pliilo, the author from whose writings the recent account has been ex- tracted, a man of rank, for he was tlie brother of the Alabarch, and of unquestioned ability. The recep- tion which the Jewish party met with at first was apparently flattering ; Philo alone apprehended an unfavourable event. They presented a memorial, which the Emperor seemed to receive with gayety and urbanity. They then followed the court to Puteoli : their great object was to obtain tlie security of their Proseuchae from being desecrated by images. These oratories tliey possessed in every city where they resided. While they were discussing their hopes of succeeding in this great object of their mis sion, suddenly a man rushed in witli a pale and dis ordered countenance, and communicated the dread- ful intelligence, that an edict had been issued to place the statue of the Emperor within the temple of Jerusalem. The mad vanity of Caligula had been irritated by the resistance of the Jews in Alexandria ; other cir- cumstances, combined with evil counsellors, made him determine to triumph over what he considered the disloyal obstinacy of this self-willed people. Capito, a receiver of revenue in Judaea, at first a very poor man, had grown rich in his employment, and apprehended that complaints of his exactions might reach the ear of the Emperor. He determined therefore, that his accusers should appear in an un- favourable light, and, to this end, he persuaded certain Greeks, who lived mingled with the native population in Jamnia, to build a miserable altar o/ AliKkJLNDRIA:^ DEPUTIES BEFORE CALIGULA. 151 brick in honour of Cains. The Jews, as he expected rose and demolished tlie iltar; they then carried their complaints before C'apito himself, who seized the opportunity of representing the affair in Rome, as an act of wanton and unprovoked sedition. The evil counsellors of Caligula, were Helicon, an Egyptian, a slave by birth, a buffc>'.'M by occu- pation; and Apelles,* a tragic actor, ol'l?.scalon, in Syria. Both these men were born and brought up in hostility to the Jewish race. By their advice the fatal mandate was issued, that a gilded colossal statue of Caligula should be placed in the Holy of Holies, and that the temple should be dedicated to Caius, liie present and younger Jupiter. The execution of the ('(lift was intrusted to P. Petronius, M'ho was appointed to suc(;eed Vitellius as prefect of Syria. But before we describe the attempt to enforce this edict in Palestine, it may be well to anticipate the fate of the Alexandrian deputation, which is related by Philo, and is curiously characteristic both of the Emperor and of tlie estimation in which the Jews were generally held. After a long and wearisome att(!ndaiice, the deputies were summoned to a final audience. To judge so grave a cause, as Philo complains with great solemnity, the Emperor did not appear in a public court, encircled by the wisest of his senators ; the embassy was received in the apartments of two contiguous villas in the neigh- bourhood of Rome, called after Lamia and Maecenas. The bailiffs of these villas were commanded at tlie game lime to have all the rooms thrown open for tlie Emperor's inspection. The Jews entered, made ? profound obeisance, and saluted Caligula as Augus- • If Apelles was instrumental In this transaction, he met with jurt though horrible retribution. Suetonius relates, thai as he waa staridin!; with CaliRiila near a statue of Jupiter, the Eiiii)eror suddenly asked bim which of the two was the greater. Apelles hfsiiaied, atwl ('aligula ordered him to be scourged with the utmoHt violence, praising the sweet- DcMOf his voice all the time that ho was siiriekiiig in liis agony 152 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. tus and Emperor — but the sarcastic smile on the fi'-e of Cains ^ave thnm little Inipe of success. " You are then," he said, sliowing iiis teeth as he spoke, "those enemies of the gods who alone refuse to acknowledge my divinity, but worship a Deity whose name you dare not pronounce" — and here, to the horror of the Jews, he uttered the awful name. The Greek deputies from Alexandria, who were present, thought themselves certain of their triumph, and began to show their exultation by in- sulting gestures ; and Isidore, one of the accusers of F'laccus, came forward to aggravate the disobe- dience of the Jews. He accused them of being the only nation who had refused to sacrifice for the Emperor. The Jews with one voice disclaimed the calumny, and asserted that they had three times offered sacrifice for the welfare of the Emperor — and indeed had been the first to do so on his ac- cession. " Be it so," rejoined the Emperor, " ye have sacrificed ^or me, but not to me." The Jews stood aghast, and trembling. On a sudden, Caius began to run all over the house, up stairs and down stairs ; inspecting the men's and the women's apart- ments ; finding fault, and giving orders, while the poor Jews followed him from room to room, amid the mockery of the attendants. After he had given his orders, the Emperor suddenly turned round to them : " Why is it that you do not eat pork ]" The whole court burst into peals of laughter. The Jews temperately replied, that different nations have dif- ferent usages : some persons would not eat lamb. " They are right," said the Emperor, " it is an insi- pid meat." After further trial of their patience, he demanded, with his usual abruptness, on what they grounded their right of citizenship. They began a long and grave legal argument ; but they had not proceeded far, when Caius began to nm up and down the great hall, and to order that some blinds, of a kind of transparent stone, like glass, which admit- PETROMUS. lb J ted the li^ht, and excluded the heat and air, should be put up ag-ainst the windows. As he left that room, he asked the Jews, with a more courteous air, if tliey had any thing- to say to him ; they beg^an again their harang-ue, in the middle of which ho started away into another chamber, to see some old paintings. The Jews at length were glad to retreat, and felt happy to escape with their lives. Caius gave them their dismissal in these words : " Weil, after all, they do not seem so bad; but rather a poor foolish people, who cannot believe that I am a god." The instructions to Petronius, the Syrian go- vernor, were distinct and precise ; he was to place the statue of Caligula in the temple of Jerusalem at all hazards. He was to withdraw, if necessary, the two legions which were usually stationed on the Euphrates. Yet he was too prudent and humane not to hesitate; he called a council, where the bigoted attachment of the Jews to their temple, and their formidable numbers both in Judaea and other countries, were discussed. But it was unanimously agreed that the mandate of the Emperor was impe- .ative; and Petronius issued out orders to the Si- don ian workmen to make the statue. He then col- lected his troops, and went into winter-quarters at Ptolemais. He had made known to the priests and rulers of the Jews the designs of the Emperor; but hio sooner had the intelligence spread, than many flliousands of the people assembled from all quarters, without distinction of rank, age, or sex. They covered the country for a great distance like a vast cloud ; they were unarmed and defenceless : many of them were clad in sackcloth, and had ashes on their heads — and every mark of the deepest mourn- ing. \11 with one voice declared their steadfast and deliberate resolution to sacrifice their lives, rather tlian consent to the profanation of their temple Petronius sternly rebuked them, and insisted on his own obligation to fulfil the positive commands of 164 fllSTOKt or THE JEWS. his sovereign. They answered, that they were as niucli bound to respect the ordinances of their God — that no fear of death would induce them to the violation of their law — that they dreaded the wrath of their God more than that of the Emperor. Petronius shrunk from the horrible task of com- menting a war of massacre and extermination foi such an object ; and in order to obtain more certaiii information on the state of the country, he left his troops at Ptolemais, and himself, with some of his more distinguished officers, moved to Tiberias. Here many of the rulers, and the people by thou- sands, crowded again into his presence. Once more Petronius urged the power of the Romans, the posi- tive mandate of the Emperor, and the uniform obe- dience of all other nations. The Jews replied with entreaties and supplications, that he would not think of violating their sanctuary with the images of man. " Are ye resolved then," said the Roman, " to wage war against your Emperor ?" " We have no thought of •ar," they replied unanimously; "but we will submit to be massacred rather than infringe our Iriw" — and at once the whole body fell with their faces to the earth, and declared that they were ready to offer their throats to the swords of the soldiery. For forty days this scene lasted : it was the time for sowing; and the whole land remained uncul- tivated, Aristobulus, the brother of Agrippa — Helcias, called the Great — and others of tne most distinguished men of the nation — appeared before Petronius, and remonstrated with him on the im- policy of reducing a flourishing province to a desert, i'rom which no tribute could be drawn. The people, they urged, were obstinately determined not to till the soil, and would betake themselves to robbery ; so that it was impossible to calculate the dreadful results of his persisting in the odious measure. Thev entreated that he would forward their repre- PETKo>'rrs. 155 ■cntations to Calijsnila, in hopes that the Emperor mijjht yet be persuaded to reloiit. The humane Petronius, after holding a council with his friends, determined to risk the wrath of the Emperor, rather than deluge the whole country with blood. According to one account, he deter- mined not to forward the petition of the Jews, but to delay, under the pretence of allowing time for the statue to be finished ; and to represent the incon- venience of permitting the province to remain un- cultivated, more particularly as the Emperor and the court were about to visit Alexandria. But whatever turn he gave to the affair in his despatches to Rome, he assembled the people at Tiberias — declared his determination to suspend the execution of the decree till he should receive further instruc- tions — and promised that he would use all his m- terest to obtain the total repeal of the edict. F2 well knew the danger to which he exposed himsel. by his disobedience to the imperial decree ; but he was willing to stand the hazard, in order to preserve the .Jewish people from the horrors of war. lie exhorted them in the mean time to disperse peacea- bly, and betake themselves to their usual occupa- tions and to the tillage of their lands. The season had been uncommonly sultiy ; the customary rams had not fallen. But scarcely had Petronius ended his speech, than the day, which had been till then serene, became overcast, and the showers began to fall. The people saw the mark of the divine ap- probation with unmingled satisfaction ; Petronius himself is said to have been greatly struck by this singular coincidence. The Jews, however, owed their security rather to the interest of their king, than to the humanity of the prefect. Throughout ihe history of the whole preceding transaction, our two authorities, Philo and Josephus, have differed in many most import- ant particulars. It is scarcely possible to reconcile 156 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. 'Ipspatf'TOP of Petronius threvc Caligula into one of liis most violent paroxysms oi fury. Before he had recovered, Agrippa entered, and from his fiery eye and disordered counten-mce, apprehended that something was wrong. Caligula suddenly turned upon him, and broke out into the bitterest reproaches against his countrymen for their obstinate resistance to his will. The Jewish prince was so appalled, that he trembled in every limb ; he fainted away; and would have fallen to the ground, but that his attendants caught him, and removed him from the imperial presence. Till the next even- ing he remained without giving signs of life and consciousness. At length he opened his eyes, and then fainted again. The third day he came to him- self, and inquired with a shudder whether he was still in the dreaded presence of the Emperor. His attendants urged him to rise, to bathe and take re- freshment ; he refused all sustenance, except some flour and pure water. He then sat down, and wrote a long letter to Cains; but that which is extant in Philo's work displays too much of the Alexandrian orator to induce us to suppose it genuine. Such is the narrative of Philo — that of Josepiuis is more creditable to the character of the king. Agrippa having entertained Caligula at a banquet so sumptu- ous as to excite astonishment even in that age of prodigal luxury and magnificence, the Emperor offered to grant any request that he miglit make. Agrippa, with a feeling worthy of one who had the blood of the Asmoneans in his veins, instead of demanding an accession of wealth or territory, im- mediately petitioned for the repeal of the fatal edict. The wounded pride of Caligula struggled hard with his attachment to Agrippa, and with the shame of forfeiting the imperial word, which he had given with so much publicity. At last, however, he re- lented, and the fatal decree was suspended. At *he A.O 32.] BABYLONIAN JEWb. 157 same time the disobedience of Petronius was not to be pardoned. A letter was written, in which he was accused of having preferred the bribes of the Jews to his allegiance to his sovereign ; and he was commanded to prepare himself, as about to undergo the most exemplary punishment. But this letter was accidentally delayed, and the news of Caligula's death reached Petronius first. If Philo is to be credited, this event was equally fortunate for the Jewish nation ; for Caligula, with his customary irresolution, repented of his lenity, and ordered a colossal statue of bronze to be cast, which he in- tended, when he should arrive at Alexandria, where he was to be solemnly inaugurated as a god, to have placed by stealth in the temple of Jerusalem. It might seem as if the skirts of that tremendous tempest, which was slowly gathering over the native country and the metropolis of the Jewish people, broke, and discharged their heavy clouds of ruin and desolation successively over each of the more considerable, though remote, settlements of the devoted people. The Jews of Babylonia had now their turn. There is something very remarkable in the history of this race, for the most part descend- ants of those families which had refused to listen to the summons of Zorobabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah, and to return to the possession of their native lands. It was, perhaps, natural that men born in a foreign region, and knowing the lovely land of their ances- tors only by tradition, or by the half-forgotten de- scriptions of their departed parents, should hesitate to abandon their houses, their fields, and their posses- sions, in the hospitable country, to which their fathers had been transported by force, but where they them- selves had become naturalized. But the singular part of theii history is this, that though willing aliens from their native land, they remained Jews in cha- racter and religion ; they continued to be a separate people, and refused to mingle themselves up with 158 HISTORY OK THE JEWS. [a.C. 3t the populaUon of the country in which they were domiciliated. While those who returned to Pales- tine were in danger of fonning a mixed race, by 'ntermarriag-es with the neighbouring tribes, which it required all the sternest exeroise of authority in their rulers to prevent, the Babylonian Jews wer« still as distinct a people as the whole race of Israel has been since the final dispersion. They adhered together, though wanting as well the bond of perse- cution, as the deep religious hope of restoration to the promised land in more than their ancient glory , for this hope was obviously not strong enough to induce them to avail themselves of the present op- portunity of return at the price of their possessions in the Median dominions. Nor did they, like the Jews of Alexandria, become in any degree independent of the great place of national worship ; they were as rigid Jews as if they had grown up within sight of the temple. They still looked to the Holy of Holies at Jerusalem as the centre of their faith ; they regu- larly sent their contributions to its support. The passionate attachment to their native country gave place to a more remote, though still profound, attach- ment to the religious capital of their people. The temple became what the Caaba of Mecca is to the Mahometans, the object of the profoundest reverence, and sometimes of a pious pilgrimage ; but the land of their fathers had lost its hold on their affections ; they had no desire to exchange the level plains of Babylonia, for the rich pastures, the golden corn- fields, or the rocky vineyards of Galilee and Judaja. This Babylonian settlement was so numerous and flourishing, that Philo more than once intimates the possibility of their marching in such force to the assistance of their brethren in Palestine, in case the Roman oppression was carried to excess, as to make the fate of the war very doubtful. Their chief city, Nearda, was strongly situated m a bend of the river Euphrates, which almost surrounded ti>^ own. POOL OF HEZEKIAH. JERUSALEM ASSINAI AND AXILAI 169 Heie, in a place impregnable to the Parthian rob- bers, the Jews of Mesopotamia had made a sort oi treasury, in which they laid up the tribute of two drachms a head, which was received for the service of the temple, and at stated intervals transferred to Jerusalem. In this city were two orphans, named Asinai and Anilai, who had been bred up as weavers, probably of tliose rich stuffs for which Babylonia was so loner celebrated. On some ill-usage from the master-manufacturer, they fled to a low district between two branches of the river, where there were rich meadows, and a place where the shep- herds used to lay up their stores for the winter. There a number of indigent and discontented youths gathered around them, and they became the captains of a formidable band of robbers. They built a strong fortress, secured by the marshes around, and levied tribute on the shepherds, whom, however, they defended from all other assailants. The Sa- trap of Babylon determined to suppress them, and seized the favourable opportunity of the Sabbath for his attack. Asinai happened to be reposing among' a number of his followers, whose arms lay scattered around: he suddenly exclaimed, " I hear the tram- pling of horses ; it must be more than a troop of wild ones in their pastures, for I hear likewise the jingling of the bridles." Spies were sent out, and the whole band determined to sacrifice their respect for the Sabbath to their self-preservation. They attacked and defeated their assailants with great slaughter. Artabanus, the King of Parthia, heard with admiration of their extraordinary valour, and sent to offer terms of accommodation. Anilai was sent to the court, where the king pledging his per- sonal honour for their security, Asinai was persuaded to follow him. The king paid them great honour, admired their singular personal strength and activity, and refused all the secret solicitations of his officers .o rid himself by treachery of such dangerous men. 160 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. He even appointed Asinai to the supreme command ill Babylonia, with strict injunctions to suppress all robbers. Asinai conducted himself with equal vigour and prudence, and rose to the highest degree of wealth and power. But wealth and power led to their usual consequences, insolence and injustice. A.nilai became enamoured of the wife of a Parthian chieftain, whom he excited to hostihties, and slew. This woman, to the great offence of the Jews, ad- hered to the Parthian religion. The Jews strongly urged on the brother, Asinai, the imperative neces- sity of preventing this breach of the law in his own family. Asinai at length strongly remonstrated with his brother, and insisted on the dismissal of the woman. His remonstrances were fatal to himself; for the Parthian woman, apprehending some further exercise of authority, poisoned Asinai; and thus the supreme authority passed into the hands of Anilai. Anilai, with equal bravery, but far less prudence and virtue than his brother, attacked the territory of Mithridates, a Parthian chieftain of the highest rank, and connected by marriage with the king, surprised him by an unexpected attack on the Sabbath, and took him prisoner. Contrary to the advice of his more desperate associates, he refused to put him to death, and released him. The royal wife of Mithri- dates, furious at the disgrace, instigated her hus- band to revenge; and they assembled considerable forces. Anilai, disdaining to rely on the strength of his marshes, advanced a great way into the plains, where his troops suffered grievously from want of water. In this state they were attacked by Mithridates, and totally defeated. But desperate adventurers flocked from all quarters to the standard of Anilai; his losses were speedily restored, and he waged a marauding war, and carried fire and sword into the Babylonian villages. The Babylonians sent to Nearda, the chief settlement of the Jews, to demand the surrender of Anilai. Those \r Nearda HASSACKE OF THE T?AT?yLOMAX JKWS. 161 were unable or unwilling to comply with this ordor. At length the BiiSvlnniaiis surprised the camp of the robber, when his soldiers were sunk in debau';htry and sleep, slew the whole band and Anilai himscdf. The Babylonians were not content with ven- geance against the offenders, but began to commit dreadful reprisals on tlie whole Jewish population. The Jews, unable to resist, fled in great numbers to Seleucia: six years after, many more took refuge from a pestilence in the same city. Seleucia hap pened to be divided into two fa(-tions ; one of thc- Greeks, the other of the Syrians. The Jews threw themselves into the scale of tiie Syrians, who thus obtained a superiority, till the Greeks came to terms with the Syrians; and bolii parlu-s agreed to fall upon the unhappy Jews. As many as 50,000 men were slain. The few who escaped fled to Ctesiphon. Even there the enmity of the Seleucians pursued them ; and at length the survivers took refuge in their old quarters, Nearda and Nisibis. The assassination of Caligula delivered the Jews within the Roman dominion from their immediaie danger; and delayed the fatal hour which his mad- ness seemed rapidly hastening. Agrippa was in Rome at that critical period, and, during the confu- sion which ensued, he sustained an important part. His conduct was honourable to his feelings, as well as to his address and influence. He alone paid the last honours to his murdered friend. He then be- came mainly instrumental in the peaceful re-esta- hlishment of that order of things which, however different from what an ardent lover of the old Roman liberty might have desired, was perhaps the best which the circumstances of the times would admit. He persuaded the Senate to abandon their unavailing resistance to the infuriated soldiery; reassured the weak and unambitious spirit of Claudius; and at the same time dissuaded him from taking those violent measures against the S«^'iate, to which the army 1L--N 162 HISTORY OP THE JEWS. [a.C. 41 were urging him, and which would have dehiged Rome with blno'l. His services were amply repaid by the gratefui emperor. Agrippa received the investiture of all the dominions which belonged to the Great Herod. Judaea and Samaria were reunited with Galilee, Peraea, and the provinces beyond Jordan, in one kingdom : Abilene, the district at the foot of Antili- banus, was added. Herod, his brother, received the kingdom of Chalcis. This donation of the Jewish kingdom was made with the utmost publicity : the edict which announced it contained a high eulo- gium on Agrippa; and the act was registered on a brass tablet, in the Capitol. A treaty was formally concluded between the Emperor and Agrippa, in the Forum. The death of Caligula was the signal for new commotions in Alexandria. The Jews attempted to recover their former rights. Claudius issued a tem- perate edict, favourable to the Jewish inhabitants of that city, and confirming their privileges. This was followed by a second general decree, which secured the freedom of religious worsliip to the Jews, througliout the empire: at the same time they were admonished to behave with decency to the religions of other people. Under this decree the inhabitants of Dora were condemned, by Petronius, for wan- tonly insulting a Jewish synagogue, by placing a statue of Claudius within its walls. Agrippa returned to his kingdom in great splen- dour. He displayed the greatest respect for the national religion; he hung up in the temple the golden chain which Caligula had bestowed upon him, as a memorial of the protection of Almighty Providence. He observed the Mosaic law with great exactness ; offered sacrifice every day ; and ab- stained from every legal impurity. In all other respects Agrippa aimed at popularity: he remitted the house tax of the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Yet A.C. 41.] AGRIPPA, KlJfO. 163 the sterner zealots looked on with jealousy; and while he was absent at Caesarea, one Simon assem- bled a number of the people ; accused him of vio- lating the law, probably on account of his fondness for theatric exhibitions, and demanded his exclusion from the temple. Agrippa sent for him to Caesarea; placed him bv his side in the public theatre, and mildly inquired whether he saw any thing contrary to the law. Simon was silent ; upon which Agrippa dismissed him without molestation. The conduct of Agrippato Silas, one of his steady tollowers, though more severe, can scarcely be con- sidered as an exception to the general mildness of his disposition. Silas had steadfastly adhered to his fortunes, and received as a reward the command of his forces. But presuming on his services, he was perpetually reminding the king of his former low condition. His insolence at last provoked Agrippa to dismiss him from his employment, and imprison him. Once he relented ; but the intractable Silas treated his overtures with the utmost arrogance ; and Agrippa left him in confinement. Agrippa ex- ercised his supreme authority in Jerusalem by con- tinually displacing the High Priest. He first deposed Theophilus, son of Annas, and substituted Simon, named Cantherus, son of Boethus. Afterward he offered the dignity to Jonathan, son of Annas, who declined it, and his brother Mathias was appointed. Before the close of his reign he degraded Mathias, and substituted Elionaeus, son of Simon Cantherus. Agrippa inheriied the magnificent taste for build- ing which distinguished the elder Herod. At Be- rytus, a city which he highly favoured, he built a splendid theatre, where the most costly musical exliihitions were displayed; and in an amphitheatre in the same city, two troops of gladiators, malefac- tors, of 700 each, were let loose upon each other; and thus horribly fulfilled the sentence of the law In Jerusalem he commenced a more useful work. To the north of the city, a new suburb, called Beze.- 1 64 HISTORY OP THE JEWS. [a C. 44 tha, had grown up : this he encircled with a wall and was proceediiig to strengthen the whole line ol the city fortifications. But Vibius Marsus, who had succeeded Longinus as Prefect of Syria, beheld this proceec^, ng- with great suspicion; and, on account of his r presentations at Rome, Agrippa thought it prudent to desist from the work. Marsus watched all the motions of the Jewish monarch with the same jealousy. Agrippa, probably with an innocent view of displaying his magnifi- cence, assembled five kmgs at a great entertainment n Tiberias; Herod, king of Chalcis, his brother; Antiochus, king of Commagene ; Cotys, king of the Lesser Armenia ; Sampsigeranus, king of Emesa ; and Polemon, king of Pontus. Marsus arrived at tlie same time : and Agrippa, out of respect, went forth to receive him; the imperious Roman sent orders to the several kings to withdraw themselves into their own territories. Agrippa was greatly offended ; and sent a letter to Claudius, earnestly entreating the recall of Marsus. Unhappily, besides his splendour, munificence, and conformity to the law, Agrippa sought other means of ingratiating himself with his Jewish sub- jects, the persecution of the unoffending Christians. He put to death James, the brother of St. John, and threw St. Peter into prison. Having completed a reign of three years over the whole of Palestine, Agrippa ordered a splendid fes- tival at Cffisarea, in honour of the Emperor. Mul- titudes of the highest rank flocked together from all quarters. On the second day of the spectacle, at the early dawn, the King entered the theatre in a robe of silver, which glittered with the morning rays of the sun, so as to dazzle the eyes of the whole assembly, and excite general admiration. Some of his flatterers set up a shout — " A present God." Agrippa did not repress the unpious adula- tion, which spread through the theatre. At that moment he looked uP> and saw an owl perched HATRED OF THE TROOPS TO AGRIPPA. 165 over his head, on a rope. The owl had once been to him a bird of (rood omen. While he was ir; chains at Rome, a fellow-prisoner, a German, hau aufriired, from tlie appearance of one of these birds, his fntnre splendid fortnne; but he had added this solenm warning, that when he saw that bird an-ain, at the height of his fortune, he would die williin five days. The fatal omen, proceed^: Jos'^'plius, pierced the heart of the King; and with deep me- lancholy he said, " Your God will soon suffer the common lot of mortality." He was immediately struck, in the language of the sacred volume, by an angel. He was seized with violent internal pains, and carried to his palace. There he lingered five days in extreme agony ; being " eaten of worms," the cause of his intestine disorder. He died in the forty-fourth year of his age, having reigned seven years over part of his dominions, three over the whole of Palestine. He left one son, Agrippa ; an elder, Drusus, had died in his infancy; and three daughters, Berenice married to his brotlier Herod, king of Chah-is; Mariamne, and Drusilla. The inhabitants of Sebaste and Caesarea, probably the Greek party, and particularly his own soldiers, expressed the most brutal exultation at the death of Agrippa. They heaped his memory with re- proaches, took the statues of his young daughters, carried them to some brothels, and there placing them on the roof, treated them with every kind of mdignity. They then made a great feast, to cele- orate the departure of the King. Claudius heard with great indignation of this ungrateful conduct, and ordered the cohorts in Sebaste and Caesarea to oe removed into Pontus, and their place to be filled oy drafts from the legions in Syria. Unhappily this purpose was not executed. The troops remained, with this sentence of disgrace rankling in their hearts, and exasperating them to still greater ani- mosity towards the wliole Jewish nation ; a chief cause, Josephus adds, of the subsequent disasters BOOK xm. THE ROMAN GOVERNORS. Ckigpins nAtft Tiberius Jilexander — Ventidius Cumanus — Felix — Porcius \**»'—J]lbinus — Oessiiis Florns — Commencement of tkl Revolt — The T^alots — Manahcvi — Massacre of the Jews in the Pro- vinces — Advance and Defeat of Cestiui Oallus. At the decease of Herod Agrippa, his son, who bore the same name, was seventeen years old. He was considered too young- to bear the burden of royalty ; and Juda;d relapsed into a Roman province. Cassius Longinus was appointed to the Presidency of Syria. Cuspius Fadus was sent as Governor of Judaea. Fadus administered his office with firm- ness. He found a civil war disturbing the district beyond the Jordan. The inhabitants of Per^a, on some boundary dispute, had attacked the Philadel- phians. Fadus seized three of the ringleaders ; executed one, named Hannibal, and banished the rest. The easy yoke of Agrippa had permitted the robbers, who perpetually rose up to waste this fer- tile country, to gain head. Fadus made them feel the vigour of the Roman arm : he cleared the whole country of their bands, and put to death Ptolemy, a noted captain, who had committed great excesses against the Idumeans and Arabians. Apprehending, it may seem, that the High Priest possessed too much independent authority, Fadus proceeded to revoke the edict of Vitellius, by which the custody oi the pontifical robes had been surrendered. He commanded that they should be replaced in the gar- rison of Antonia ; and Longinus himself appeared in Jerusalem, with a considerable force, to overawe all resistance. The Jews appealed to the Empeior IZATES. IGT ivho, at the earnest entreaty of young' Agrippa, is- «ued an imperial mandate in favour of the Jews. \t the same time Herod, li^inorof Clialcis, petitioned, md obtained the sovereigntj' over the temple, and he power of nominating the High Priest. He dis- .'laced Cantherus, who had regained the olTice, and appointed Joseph, son of (Jamith. This was the second year of a grievous famine, - which for several years preva ied in Judaea. The ' metropolis derived great advantage from the bounty of a royal proselyte, Helena, the queen of Adiabene, a district beyond the Tigris. She imported vast quantities of corn from Alexandria, and dried figs from Cyprus, which she distributed among the lower orders. Her son, Izates, who had likewise adopted the Jewish faith, sent great sums to Jerusalem, for the same charitable purposes. Helena was both the wife and sister, according to the ancient Persian usage, of Monobazus, king of Adiabene. Izates was the favourite son of that monarch, who, apprehen- sive of the jealousy with which he was looked on by his brothel s, sent them to Abennerig, king of Characene, a district on the Persian gulf, whose daughter he married. In that comniercial district there was a Jew merchant, named Ananias, who was accustomed to have free ingress into the women's apartments, probably for purposes of traffick ; and there seized every opportunity of teaching the religious tenets of the Jews. Izates became a convert ; and, by a singular coincidence, his mother, Helena, at the same time adopted the same opinions. On the return of Izates to Adia- bene, his father made him governor of a district named Carrhae, in which, according to tradition, the remains of Noah's ark were still to be seen. On the death of his father, Helena had the address to secure the succession to the throne for Izates. Hia brother, Monobazus, assumed the crown till he should arrive ; and the rest of the monarch's sons 168 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. by different mothers, were thrown into prison, and were even in danfj-'r of their li\ es. Immediately that Izates appeared, Monobazus abdicated his sovereignty; Izates expressed great indignation at the imprisonment of his brethren. Izates was so ardent a convert that he insisted on undergoing cir- cumcision : his prudent preceptor, Ananias, for fear lest the unpopularity of the measure should make the king odious to his subjects, and himself thus be exposed to personal danger, dissuaded him from his design. But a more zealous Galilean insisted that the honour of God was concerned ; and the monarch immediately, to the great alarm of Ananias, sub- mitted to the rite. Izates was a king of great prudence and resolution. By his moderation and address he reinstated Artabanus, king of Parthia, on his throne, from which he had been driven by his own satraps ; and dissuaded his son, Bardanes, from entering into a war with the Romans. Bar- danes immediately declared war on Izates ; but he was set aside by his own subjects. The king's brother, Monobazus, and the chief satraps of the kingdom, endured for some time, but with great reluctance, the yoke of a sovereign who had aposta- tized from the national religion. They first con- spired with Abiah, an Arabian king, to invade Adia- bene; but Abiah was defeated with great loss. Af- terward they had recourse to Vologeses, king of Parthia ; but his invasion was arrested by a rebel- lion among his own dependants. On the death of Izates, who wore the crown for twenty-four years, his remains, and those of his mother Helena, were transported to Jerusalem, and buried in a splendid cemetery, which remained till the time of Jerome. Before the recall of Fadus, the peace of the country was disturbed by an impostor, named Theu- das, who gave himself out as a prophet, and gained a great number of proselytes. Multitudes thronged forth with all their possessions to the banks of the A.C 4 8. J VENTimUS CUMANUS. 169 Jordan, which Theudas asserted that, like Joshua of old, he would divide in the midst, and carry them llirough in triumph. Fadus, with his usual vigi- Uince, seized the impostor, cut off his head, and sent It lo Jerusalem. 'I'o Fadus succeeded Tiberius Alexander, an apos- tate Egyptian Jew, the son of Alexander, the Ala- barc-h of Alexandria, and nephew of the celebrated Philo. The only act recorded of his short govern- ment was the crucifixion of James and Simon, two sons of Judas the Galilean, who had attempted to disseminate the dangerous doctrines of their father. Notwithstanding, however, the famine, by which the land was still afflicted — the seditious tenets ol the Galilean rebels — and the government of an apostate, which must have been singularly odious to the zealous Jews, the province continued in peace until the arrival of Ventidius Cumanus, to supersede Alexander. At this time Herod, king of Chalcis, died, having once more changed the High Priest, and substituted Ananias, son of Nebid, for Joseph, the son of Ca- mith. He left sons ; particularly Aristobulus, after- ward appointed by Nero to the kingdom of Lesser Armenia; but the kingdomof Chalcis, and the sove- reignty of the temple, were assigned to young ,Agrippa, who assumed the title of kmg. i During the government of Cumanus, the low and sullen murmurs which announced the approaching eruption of the dark volcano now gathering its strength in Palestine, became more distinct. The people and the Roman soldiery began to display mutual animosity. To preserve the peace during the crowded festivals in Jerusalem, the Romans mounted a guard in the Antonia and in the adjacent cloister. One of these soldiers, to show his con- tempt for the religious rites, indecently exposed his person. The furious populace not only vented their rage on the offender, but uttered the most violent II.— 170 HISTORY OF THE JE'-VS [a B. 51 reproaches against Cumanus himself. The govemoi immediately ordered his whole forces into the An- tonia. The affrig-hted people fled : the narrow st-reets were choked ; and aO,000 perished. The sacrifice was suspended, and the whole city given up to wailing and lamentation. This disturbance was scarcelf^ appeased, when another succeeded. Near Bethhoron, about twelve miles from Jerusalem, a party, half insurgents and half robbers, attacked in the public road Stephanas, a slave of the Emperor, and plundered his baggage. Cumanus sent a troop of soldiers, to plunder the neighbouring villages, and seize the chief persons in them. During this scene of pillage, a soldier found a copy of the law of Moses, and tore it to pieces, uttering the most offensive blasphemies. The Jews sent a formal deputation before Cumanus to com- plain of the insult ; Cumanus, by the advice of his friends, ordered the soldier to execution. The animosities of the populace and the Roman soldiery were not the only conflicting elements in this distracted country. The jealousies of the na- tives began again to break out. The way by which the Jews of Galilee went up to the temple, led through the territory of Samaria. The Samaritans waylaid and slew many of them. Cumanus, bribed ■oy the Samaritans, refused to take cognizance of any complaints. The Jews, headed by two valiant robber chieftains, took up arms, and set fire to some of the Samaritan villages. Cumanus marched against them ; and, with the aid of the Samaritans, defeated them. Jerusalem was in an uproar, and, but for the authority and influence of the chiefs, the whole people would have risen in insurrection. Clad in sackcloth, and with ashes on their heads, the priests and rulers passed through the streets, entreating the insurgents to lay aside their arms, lest they should bring fire and sword on the city, and ruin on the temple. With difficulty the tumult A.C 55.] CtAUDIUg FELIX, 171 was allayed in Jerusalem. But the whole country was in a state of confusion. The Samaritans c;'r- ried their complaints before Ummidius Quadratub, Prefect of Syria. The Jews pleaded the wanton aggression of the Samaritans, and their bribery of Cumanus. Quadratus deferred his judginent, till a short time after, having investigated the affair on the spot, he condemned the Samaritans ; but put to death, as seditious persons, all tlie Jews taken by Cumanus. He then removed his tribunal to Lydda, where he received information that a certain Dortus and others had openly exhorted insurrection against the Romans. He ordered the four ringleaders to be crucified ; and sent Ananias, the High Priest, with Annas, the captain of the temple, in chains, for trial at Rome. At the same time Cumanus, and Celer, his military tribune, were also sent to Rome to answer for their conduct before the Emperor. From Lydda, Quadratus moved to Jerusalem, and finding peace entirely re-established, he returned to Antioch. Great interest was made at Rome by Cumanus, Celer, and the Samaritan party; but the influence of Agrippa, then at Rome, predominated. Cumanus was banished ; Celer sent to Jerusalem, to be dragged publicly through the streets and beheaded the ringleaders of the Samaritvuis were put to deatli. In evil hour for himself and for his country, Jona- than, who had succeeded to the High-Priesthood, Exerted his influence to obtain the appointment ol governor of Judaea for Claudius Felix, brother of Pal- las, the freed-slave and all-powerful favourite of the , Emperor. According to Tacitus, who is quite at vari- ance with the Jewish historian, Felix was already in Palestine, as independent governor in Samaria, where he had inflamed the civil commotions, and ought to have appeared with Cumaiuis as a criminal before the tribunal of Quadratus ; but Quadratus, dreading his interest at Rome, placed him by his own side on 172 HTSTOEY OP THE JEWS ♦he seat of justice. Bom a slave, Felix was magni- firent in his prnflig-ary. He had three wives, all of royal blood. One of these was the beautiful Dru- sifla, the daughter of King Agrippa I., whom, by the aid of Simon, a magician (by some, though impro- bably, supposed the Simon Magus of the Acts), he had seduced from her husband, Aziz, king of Emesa. Aziz had carried his complacency so far as to sub- mit to circumcision in order to obtain the hand of Drusilla, who now gave up her religion to marry Felix. Felix administered the province with the authority of a king, and the disposition of a slave. Supported by the interest of Pallas, says Tacitus, he thought he might commit all crimes with impu- nity. The land was full of armed robbers, who wasted the country. Felix at first proceeded with vigour and severity against them; but afterward, for his private ends, entered into a confederacy with some of the most daring. The High Priest, Jonathan, assuming the privilege of a friend, like the Christian Apostle, would reason with him on temperance and righteousness. His remonstrances, if at the time they produced the same effect, ami made Felix tremble, were fatal to himself. Felix, weary with his importunity, entered into a secret conspiracy with some of the Sicarii, or assassins, the most extravagant of the school of Judas the Galilean. These were men, some fanatics, some unprincipled desperadoes, who abused the precepts of the Mosaic law, as authorizing the murder of :.ll on whom they might affix the brand of hostility to their country and their God. Having bribed Dor.is, the intimate friend of Jonathan, through liis means F'elix sent a party of these wretches hito the temple. Witli their daggers under their cloaks, they mingled with the attendants of the High Priest. They pre- tended to join in the public worship, and suddenly struck dead the unsuspecting pontiff, who lay bleed- ing on the sacred pavement. From this period. A.C 52.] DEATH OF CLAtTDICS. 173 says the indig-nant Josephus, God hated his guilty cjty, and disdaiiiincr any longer to dwell in his con- taminated temple, brought the Romans to purify with fire tlie sins of the nation. The crime remained unrevenged and unnoticed. The assassins, imboldened by their impunity, car- ried on their dreadful work. No man was secure. Some from private enmity, others on account of their wealth, as they pursued their peaceful occu- pations, were struck dead by men who passed by, apparently unarmed, and as peacefully disposed as themselves. Even the temple was not a place of safety ; the worshipper did not know but that the man who knelt by his side was preparing to plunge his dagger to his heart. Such was the state of the city; the country was not much more secure. The robbers multiplied, and grew more bold. Nor were these the worst; in every quarter arose impostors, and pretenders to magic, who, asserting their miraculous powers, led the people into desert places, and harangued them on the impiety of obedience to the Roman govern- ment. Felix in vain scoured the country with his horse ; as fast as some were seized and crucified, others arose, and the fanatical spirit of the people constantly received new excitement. The most formidable of these men, was a Jew of Egyptian birth. He assembled in the desert, probably that ot Quarantania, between Jerusalem and Jericho, as many as 30.000 followers. He led them to the Mount of Olives, and pointing to the city below, assured them that its walls would fall down and admit his triumphal entrance. Felix marched out to attack him : the Egyptian escaped ; but many of his followers were killed, and many taken, the resl dispersed. In the meantime Claudius died, having promoted Agrippa from the kingdom of Chaleis to the more extensive dominion — the Tetr^o-chate of Philip, 174 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. * A.C. 63 Gaulonitis, Trachonitis, Batanea, and Paneas, to which were afterward added part of Galilee and Peraea. On the whole, the government of Claudius was favourable to the race of Israel ; but rather as Bibjects of his friend Agrippa, than as Jews. At Mie time he closed their synagogues, and expelled them from Rome — probably on account of some tumult caused by their persecutions of the Chris- tians. Agrippa appointed Ismael, son of Fabi to the pontificate, vacant since the death of Jonathan — though in this interval, probably, a kind of illegi- timate authority had been resumed by that Ananias, son of Nebid, who had been sent in chains to Rome by Quadratus, and had been released through the influence of Agrippa. It was that Ananias who commanded St. Paul to be struck, when he was ad- dressing the people. St. Paul either did not know, or did not recognise his doubtful title. Up to this period, according to the representation of the Jewish annalist, the pontificate had remained almost entirely uncontaminated by the general license and turbulence which distracted the nation. The priests were in general moderate and upright men, who had endeavoured to maintain the peace of the city. Now the evil penetrated into the sanc- tuary, and feuds rent the sacred family of Levi. A furious schism broke out between the Chief Priests and the inferior priesthood. Each party collected a band of ruffians, and assailed each other with vio- lent reproaches, and even with stones. No one interfered to repress the tumult; and the High Priests are said to have sent their slaves to levy by force the tithes which belonged to the inferior priest- hood, many of whom in consequence perished with hunger. Even the worst excesses of the Sicarii seem to have been authorized by the priesthood for their twn purposes. The forty men who, with the connivance of the priests, bound themselves by a vow "o assassinate *t. Paul, if not of the frater- DISTURBANCES IN C^SAREA. 175 riity, recognised the principles of that sanguinary crew. It was in Caesarea that the events took place which led to the final rupture with Rome. This magnificent city had rapidly risen to a high degree of wealth and populousness. It was inhabited by two races — the Syrian Greeks, who were heathens, and the Jews. The two parties violently contended for the pre-eminence. The Jews insisted on the foundation of the city by Herod their king, and on its occupying the site of the old Jewish town called the tower of Straton; the Greeks appealed to the statues and temples which Herod himself had erected, which clearly proved that Caesarea was intended for a Pagan city. The feud became gra- dually more fierce ; tumults and bloodshed dis- turbed the streets. The more aged and prudent of the Jews could not restrain their followers. The Jews were the more wealthy; but the Roman sol- diery, chiefly levied in Syria, took part with their countrymen. The officers attempted, but in vain, to keep the peace ; and when Felix himself came forth to disperse a party of Jews, who had got the better in an affray, they treated his authority with contempt. Felix commanded his troops to charge them. The soldiery were too glad to avail them- selves of the signal for license ; many of the Jews fell, many were seized, and some of the more opu- lent houses plundered. After the recall of Felix, a deputation of each party was sent to Rome, to lay the whole case before the Emperor. The Jews brought heavy charges against Felix, but the power- ful protection of his brother Pallas, who was high in favour with Nero, secured his impunity. The Greeks, by a large bribe to Burrhus, who had been the preceptor of \ero, obtained a decree which de- prived the Jews of the rights of equal citizenship. This decree still further inflamed the contest. The Greeks became more and more msulting ; the Jews more and more turbulent. 178 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. [a.( 60. In the rest of the province the adm-inistration of the ri^id but upright Porcius Festus caused a short interval of comparative peace. Festns kept down all the bands, whether we are to call them, robbers or insurgents, and repressed the Sicarii. His sol- diers put to death an impostor who had led multi- tudes into the desert. At this period King Agrippa resided in Jerusalem, in the palace of the Asmonean princes, which stood on the cliff of Mount Sion, towards the temple. In front of this was the Xystus, an open colonnade, which was connected by a bridge with the temple. Agrippa reared a lofty building in this palace, which commanded a beautiful prospect of the whole city, particularly of the temple courts. Reposing on his couch he might see the whole course of the religious ceremonies. The priesthood were indignant at the intrusion, and hastily ran up a wall, on the western side of their own court, by which they intercepted not merely the view of the king, but that of the Roman guard which was mounted in the outer western portico. Agrippa and Festus ordered the demolition of this wall. The Jews demanded per- mission to appeal to Nero ; Festus consented, and a deputation of ten, headed bylsmael, the High Priest, and Hilkiah, the keeper of the treasury, set off to Rome. There they obtained the interest of Poppea, the profligate empress of Nero, whom Josephus de- scribes as devout, as if she had been inclined to the Jewish religion : if so, she was no very creditable proselyte. Through her interest the wall was per- mitted to stand, but the High Priest and treasurer were detained at Rome. Agrippa seized the oppor- tuni.y of appointing another High Priest — Joseph, named Cabi, son of Simon Cantherus. Soon after, he degraded Joseph, and appointed Annas, the fifth son of Annas, in Jewish estimation the happiest of men, for he himself had been High Priest, and had seen his five sons and his son-in-law, Caiaphas, sue- A.C. 62.] KING AGRirrA II. 177 cessively promoted to that dignity. Annas united himself to the sfct of the Sadrlucees, if he did not inherit those doctrines from his father. The Sad- ducees were noted for their rig'id administration of the law ; and while the plaee of tlie Roman govercnr was vacant, he seized the opportunity of putting to death James the Just, and others of the Christians at the feast of the Passover. But the act was un- popular, and Agrippa deprived him of the priesthood, and appointed Jesus, son of Damnai. Unhappily for this devoted country the upright Festus died in Judaea, and Albinus arrived as his successor. With the rapacious Albinus, every thing became venal. At first he proceeded with severity against the rob- bers, but in a short time began to extort enormous ransoms for their freedom. This was little better than to set a premium on robbery and assassination. In the meantime the taxes were increased, and the M'asted country groaned under the heaviest burdens. Two men alone grew rich amid the general distress, the Roman governor and Ananias, formerly Higli Priest, who, keeping both Albinus and the High Priest in pay, committed all kinds of outrages, seizing the tithes of the inferior priesthood, who were again so reduced that many of them died of famine. Ananias was too wealthy a prize to escape the robbers who infested the country. In the open day, and at the time of a festival, they seized the scribe of Eleazar, captain of the guard, who was pro- bably the son of Ananias, carried him off, and de- manded as a ransom the release of ten of their companions, who were in prison. Ananias per- suaded Albinus, no doubt by a great bribe, to com- ply. Encouraged by this success, whenever any one of the assassins was taken, they seized one of the dependants on Ananias, and demanded an ex- change. Agri])pa, as if he foresaw the approaching danger, began to prepare a place of retreat. He enlarged 178 HISTORY OF THE JEWS the city of Oaesarea Philippi, (Paneas,) and called it NWonias; but his fbi«f pxnonditnre was made at Berytus, where he built a tlieatre, and at great cost provided for the most splendid exhibitions. He likewise distributed corn and oil ; collected a iioble gallery of statues, and copies from the antique; in short he transferred to that city the chief splendour of his kingdom. This liberality to a foreign city was highly unpopular at Jerusalem ; the degrada- tion of Jesus, son of Damnai, and the appointment of Jesus, son of Gamaliel, increased the general discontent. Each of these rival High Priests had his party, who attacked each other in the streets ; in short, every one who had wealth or power assem- bled his armed adherents ; Ananias, as the richest, got together the strongest band ; and two relatives of Agrippa, Saul and Costobar, appeared at the head of their own followers, plundering on all sides with out scruple. Albinus aggravated the mischief. Having heard of his intended recall, he brought forth all the malefactors, who crowded the prisons, exe- cuted the most notorious, but allowed all the rest to pay their ransoms. Thus the prisons were empty, but the whole province filled with these desperate ruffians. The completion of the works in the tem- ple added to the multitude of the idle and unem- ployed — eighteen thousand workmen were dis- charged. The more prudent of the people dreaded the letting loose this vast number of persons, with- out employment, on society; and with no less fore- thought they apprehended the accumulation of vast treasures in the temple, which had hitherto been for the most part profitably einployed on the public buildings, and would now serve no purpose, but to excite the rapacity of the Romans. They petitioned that the eastern gate might be raised to a greater degree of magnifi(;en(!e. Agrippa, who was in- trusted by the emperor with the command over the temple, refused, but permitted them to pave the A.C. 45.] GESSIUS FIiORUS. 179 city with stone. He afterward deposed Jesus, son of Gamaliel, and appointed Matthias, the last legiti- mate High Priest of Jerusalem. Nothing was wanting to fill the measure of cala- mity which this fruitful and once happy land was to exhaust, but the nomination of a governor, like Gessius Florus, who made the people look back with regret to the administration of the rapacious Albinus. Albinus at least dissembled his cruelties and exac- tions. Relying on the protection of the empress, who was attached to his wife Cleopatra, by long friendship and kindred disposition, Florus made an ostentatious display of his oppressions. Without compunction, and without shame, as crafty as he was cruel, he laid deliberate schemes of iniquity, by which at somr distant period he was to reap his har- vest of plunder. He pillaged not only individuals, but even communities, and seemed to grant a gene- ral indemnity for spoliation, if he was only allowed his fair portion of the plunder. Many villages and towns were entirely deserted, the inhabitants left their native country to fly beyond the reach of his administration. Cestius Gall us, a man of a con- genial spirit, commanded in Syria. The fear of Florus, as long as Cestius remained in Syria, pre- vented the Jews from appealing to his tribunal ; they would not have been suffered to arrive there in safety. But when Cestius, during the days pre- ceding the Passover, visited Jerusalem, three mil- lions of suppliants, that is the whole population assembled for the great aimual feast, surrounded him, and entreated his interference. Florus stood oy the side of Cestius, turning their complaints into ridicule. Cestius, however, promised that he would use his interest with Florus to treat them with greater moderation, and Florus, without furtlier reproof, was permitted to escort his colleague in iniquity, on his way to Antioch, as far as Caesarea. In the mean time wild and awful prodigies, thus 180 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. [a.C. 65. the Jewish annalist relates, had filled t ae timid with apprenensions of the approaching desolation. But the blind and desperate multitude neglected all these signs of Almighty wrath. A comet, which had the appearance of a sword, hung above the city for a whole year. While the people were assembled at the feast of unleavened bread, at the sixth hour of the night, a sudden light, as bright as day, shone about the altar and the temple, and continued for about half an hour. A cow led forth to sacrifice, brought forth a calf. The inner gate on the eastern side of the temple was made of brass and of such immense weight, as to require twenty men to close it in the evening. It was fastened by strong iron bolts, let into the stone door posts. Suddenly this gate flew open, and it was with much difficulty that the assembled guard could close it. This the vul- gar considered a good sign, as indicating that God had opened the gate of blessing, but the wise more sadly interpreted it as a manifest sign of the inse- curity of the temple, and that it prefigured the opening of the gate of the holy place to the enemy. A few days after this festival, a still more incredible circumstance occurred. Such, says Josephus, as would appear a fable, had it not been attested by eyewitnesses, and justified by the subsequent events. Before sunset, chariots and armed squadrons were seen in the heavens; they mingled, and formed in array, so as to seem to encircle the city in their j-apid and terrific career. And on the Pentecost, when the priests on duty entered by night into the temple, they said that they heard a movement and a noise, and presently the voice as it were of a great host, which said, " Let us depart hence." But more alarming still! while the city was yet at peace and in prosperity, a countryman, named Jesus, son ol Ananus, began suddenly to cry aloud in the temple-— A voice from the east ! a voice from the west .' a voice from the four 'vuinds ! a voire against Jerusalem and A.C. 65.] PRODIGIES. 181 against the .mple ! a voice against the c riJegrooini and the brides .' u vaice ogcinsi the Zihole people ! l):'.y and night in the narrow streets of the city lie went along repeating these words with a loud voics. Some of the leaders seized him, and had him severely beaten. He uttered no remonstrance, no entreaty for mercy, he seemed entirely regardless about his own person, but still went on reiterating his fearful burthen. The magistrates then appre- hended him, and led him before Albinus, the Roman governor ; there he was scourged till his bones could be seen, he uttered neither shriek of pain, nor prayer for mercy, but raising his sad and broken voice as loud as he could, at eveiy blow cried out, Wo, wo to Jerusalem. Albinus demanded who he was, and whence he came ] he answered not a word. The Roman at length supposing that he was mad, let him go. All the four years that intervened before the war, he paid no attention to any one, and never spoke, excepting the same words. Wo, wo to Jerusa- lem. He never cursed any one who struck him, nor thanked any one who gave him food. His only answer was the same melancholy presage. He was particularly active during the festivals, and then with greater frequency, and still deeper voice, he cried. Wo, wo to the city and to the temple. At length, during the siege, he suddenly cried out. Wo, wo to myself ' and was struck dead by a stone from a baiista. It is not improbable that the prophecies of the approaching ruin of Jerusalem, disseminated by the Christians, might add to the general apprehension Mingled as they were with the mass of the people, their distinct assurances that their divine teacher had foretold the speedy dissolution of the state, could scarely remain unknown, especially when, in obedience to'the command of Christ, they abandoned Jerusalem hi a body, and retreated to Pella, a town beyond the Jordan. 182 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. There was another sign, which might have given warning to the political s;igacity or to the humanity of the Romans, upon the nature of the approaching conquest, as showing how immense a population they were thus driving to desperation, and what horrible carnage would be necessary, before they could finally subdue the rebellious province. When Cestms Gallus was at Jerusalem, at the time of the Passover, he inquired the number of Jews present from all quarters. The priests counted the lambs sacrificed, and found 255,600. None but Jews and iliose free from legal impurities might sacrifice. Reckoning at a low average of ten to each lamb, the numbers were 2,556,000. Josephus supposes that three millions would not have been an hnmoderate calculation. The fatal flame finally broke out from the old feud at Caesarea. The decree of Nero had assigned the magistracy of that city to the Greeks. It hap- pened that the Jews had a synagogue, the ground around which belonged to a Greek. For this spot the Jews offered a much higher price than it was worth. It was refused, and to annoy them as much as possible, the owner set up some mean shops and buildings upon it, and rendered the approach to the synagogue as narrow and difficult as he could. The more hotheaded of the Jewish youth interrupted the workmen. The men of greater wealth and influence, and among them, John, a Publican, collected the large sum of eight talents, and sent it as a bribe to Florus, that he might interfere and stop the building. Florus received the money, made great promises;, and immediately left Cagsarea for Sebaste, in order to leave full scope for the riot. On the following day, a sabbath, while the Jews were crowding to the synagogue, a man overset an earthen vessel in the way, and began to sacrifice birds upon it. It has been conjectured that this was a particularly offen- sive jest. The heathens generally represented the TC:>IULT AT JERUSALEM ' 83 orig'in of the Jews as having: been expelled from Egypt as a race of lepers, and siii -3 birds weie ihe first sacrifice appointed in cases of leprosy, it was most likely meant to g-all the old wound. However that may be, the more violent Jews, furious at the affront, attacked the Greeks. The Greeks were already in arms, waiting for this signal for the affray. Jucundus, the governor, attempted in vain to appease the tumult, till at length, the .lews being worsted, took up the books of their law, and went away to Narbata, about 1^ miles distance. John, the Pub- lican, with twelve of the highest rank, went to Samaria to Florus, entreated his assistance, and modestly reminded him of the eight talents he had received. Florus threw them into prison with every mark of indignity. The news of this outrage and injustice spread to Jenisalem ; the city was in a state of violent ex- citement. It was the deliberate purpose of Florus to drive the people to insurrection, both that all in- quiry into his fonner oppressions might be drowned by the din of war; and that he might have better opportunities for plunder; he seized this critica moment to demand seventeen talents from the sacrea treasury under pretence of Caesar's necessities. The people assembled around the temple with the loudest outcries. The name of Florus was passed from one to another with every epithet of hatred and con- tempt. Some carried about a basket, entreating alms for the poor beggar, Florus. iVeglecting en- tirely the tumult in Csesarea, Florus advanced with all the force he could collect against Jerusalem. To h's disappointment, the people, instead of maintain- ing their serlitious demeanour, endeavoured to excite his clemencvbythe most submissive and humiliating conduct. They crowded forth, received his army with acclam It ions, and hailed the Procurator him- self as a public benefactor. But Florus was too keen sighted to be imposed upon by these unmerited /84 HISTORY OF THE JEWS [16 May, marks of popularity. He chose to remember nothing bat the insults and contumely willi which his name had been treated. He sent forward Capito with fifty horse, commanding the people to disperse ; they obeyed, and, retreating to their houses, passed the night in trembling expectation of his vengeance. Florus took up his quarters in the Palace. In the morning his tribunal was erected before the gates. The High Priest, and all the leaders of the people (probably the Sanhedrin) were summoned to attend. Florus demanded the surrender of all those who had insulted his name, and added, if the heads of the people refused or delayed, he should proceed against them as responsible for the offence. The priests represented the general peaceable disposition of the city, and entreated his forbearance, throwing the blame on a few hotheaded youths, whom it was mi- possible to detect, as all had repented, and none would confess their guilt. At these words Florus broke out into the most violent fury, lie gave the signal to his troops to plunder the upper market, and put to death all they met. The soldiery were but too ready instruments of his cruelty. They cleared the market, they broke into the houses, pillaged them, and put to death the inhabitants. The narrow streets were crowded with fugitives; many who escaped the sword, were trampled to death. Unof fending citizens were seized, carried before Florus, scourged, and crucified. Of men, women, and chil- dren, for neither age nor sex were spared, there fell that day 3600. Florus paid no regard to the sacred rights of Roman citizenship; some freemen of the first distinction, for many of the Jews had attained even the equestrian rank, were scourged and exe- cuted with their meaner countrymen. Agrippa was absent in Egypt, but his sister Be- renii;e was in Jerusalem, in pursuance of a religious vow. She sent repeated messages to Florus, en- treating him to stay the fury qf his soldiers ; and A.O. 66.] PAOIFIOATION 185 even herself, in her penitential attire, with her hair shorn and with naked feet, stood before his tribunal. The Roman was deaf to her entreaties; he had no ear but for the accounts of the wealth, which was brought in, every hour, in great masses. Even in the presence of Berenice, her miserable countrymen were scourged and hewn down. She, herself, was obliged to take refuge in one of tlie royal residences, and dared not go to rest, lest the soldiers should force their way through her feeble guard. The next day multitudes assembled in the scene of the massacre, the upper market-place ; and among the wailings for the dead, were heard but half sup- pressed execrations and menacf^s against the cruel Florus. The chief heads of the city with the priests were in the greatest alarm, they tore their robes, rushed among the people, addiessed them indivi- dually with the most earnest entreaties not again to provoke the anger of the governor. The popu- lace, partly out of respect, paitly out ol fear, quietly dispersed. Florus and his satellites alone were grieved at this pacification; he determined, if possible, to renew these profitable tumults. He sent for the priests and leaders, and commanded them, as the last proof of their submission, to go forth and receive with the utmost cordiality, two cohorts of troops who were advancing from Caesarea. The priests assembled the people in the temple, made known the orders ot Florus, and exiiorted them to obedience. The more turbulent did not disguise their seditious intentions. Then, all the priesthood, the Levites, the musicians and singers in their sacred vestments, fell upon their knees and supplicated the people, that they would not bring down certain ruin on the whole city, or give excuse to the rapacious j)luiKierer to profane the iioly place, and pillage the sacred treasures of God. The priests of the highest rank, with robes rent, and ashes on their heads, went about, calling on the roost II.— P 186 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. influential by name, and urgnig- with the most solemn vehemence, that however degrading the submission to the commands of Florus, it was a trifling- saeri- ,»fice, if it might avert the desolation of the city, and all the horrors of war . that it would be the height of madness to allow themselves to be borne away by a few of the factious, or misguided populace, whom they, the rather, ought to overawe with their au- thority. They succeeded in allaying, for the time, the en- raged multitude, the more turbulent were silenced, as menaces were mingled with entreaties ; and the chief priests led forth tlie whole populace in peace- ful array. The procession, in obedience to their admonitions, welcomed the cohorts with apparent gladness. The cohorts, who had received their secret instructions from Florus, advanced in sullen silence, not condescending to return the greetings. The more violent Jews tooli fire, and broke out into audible imprecations against Florus. The troops turned upon them ; struck them with their staves ; the horsemen rode over them, and trampled them down ; many were bruised, many wounded. At the gates there was a violent rush to obtain entrance. Those behind pressed on those before ; the horse- men came trampling on, and forcing their way through the dense mass ; numbers fell, pushed down by their own people, or under the hoofs ol the horses ; their bodies were so crushed and mangled, that when they were taken up for burial, they could not be distinguished by their friends. The soldiery still kept on, advancing, and driving the multitude before them, or riding over them all through the suburb of Bezetha. Tlieir object was to press forward and gain possession at the same time of the Antonia and the temple. At tliis moment Florus sallied from the Palace, and attempted to force his way to that part of the castle, which joined the temple, but without success. For the people CONFLICT IN JERCSALEM. Hi'i bIoir side, and assisted in cancelling their debts by de- stroying the records. This measure was as polili ; as it was daring, it annihilated, at one blow, the i n • fluence of the wealthy, who being generally tb'ir creditors, the poorer people, before this, had been entirely in their power. Some of the priests a i i heads of the people concealed themselves in t'lt? sewers ; others, for the time more fortunate, secuied the upper towers of the palace, and closed the gates. Among the latter were Ananias and his brotlcr ITezekiah, and those who were obnoxious as havi i.f l)een deputed to Agrippa. Flushed with their vir - tory, the insurgents retired to rest. The next day they attempted a much more daniij? (Uiterprise. A feeble garison still held the impor- tant fortress, the Antonia, which, if better rnann;?.!, might long have resisted the attacks of undisci- plined soldiers. In two days the insurgents carrnd this citadel, put the garrison to the sword, and burnt the keep. They then turned against the palace, where the miserable remaiiis of the rov il party had taken refuge. They divided themselvea mto four troops, and made a simultaneous attempt MANAnEM. 193 to sirale tlie walls. The few deferiders, distracted by these separate attarks, dared not venture on a sally, but contented themselves with striking down the assailants as they climbed singly up the battle- ments. Many of the insurgents fell. Niglit and day the conflict lasted ; the besiegers expecting that the royal troops would speedily be reduced by famine — the besieged that their tumultuary assail- ants would grow weary of the attack. In the mean time a new leader arose, who had hereditary claims on the ardent attachment of the Zealots. Judas, the Galilean, had been the first who had openly declared the impiety of owing any king but God, and had denounced the payment of tribute to Caesar, and all acknowledgment of foreign authoritA'. as treason against the principles of the Mosaic constitution. These doctrines, after having long fermented in secret, and only betrayed them- selves in local tumults, or temporary insurrections, were now espoused, as it were, by the whole nation. Judas himself, not long after his outset on his career, and his two ekler sons, during the government of Tiberius Alexander, had fallen martyrs to their opinions. All eyes were now turned on Manahem, a younger son, who they hoped would maintain the lofty principles of his father with better success. Manahem suddenly appeared in the conquered for- tress of Masada, piundered the armoury of Herod, and, girt with a resolute and confident band, ap- proached Jerusalem. The gates flew open, and he entered the city as in royal pomp ; he was admitted at once as the captain of their forces, and gave orders to press the siege of the palace. The palace still bravely held out ; the assailants had no batter- ing engines ; and, when they attempted to mine the walls, they were beaten down by stones and javelins from above. They beyan therefore a mine at a considerable distance, and w'aen tliey got under one of th^ towers, they carried in a great quantity of 194 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. wood and set it on fire. The flames caught the timbers of the fouadatioas, and the tower fell with a tremendous crash. The insurgents were already rushing to the assault, when tliey found themselves checked by a second wall, which the besieged had built within. During this consternation of the as- sailants, the garrison sent to demand terms. The insurgents readily granted safe passage to the troops of Agrippa and to the Jews, who marched out, leaving the few Roman soldiers in the most despe- rate condition, without a hope of cutting their way through the countless multitudes of their assailants, and, even if they should submit, to the disgrace of surrendering on conditions, almost certain that the conditions would not be kept. They retreated to the three strong towers which Herod had built, and called Hippicos, Phasaelis, and Mariamne. Mana- hem and his followers broke into the palace, slew the few who had not made good their retreat, plun- dered the baggage, and set fire to their encampment. The following m(u-ning Ananias was discovered, with his brother Hezekiah, in an aqueduct leading to the palace. They were put to death without remorse. The towers were surrounded, so as to prevent any chance of escape. M uiahem grew in- toxicated with success ; he already assumed all the state of a king, and maintained his authority with the most unsparing bloodshed. The death of Ana- nias was an unpopular measure — but probably this, as well as other sanguinary acts, might have been pardoned; but Eleazar did not patiently endure that the supreme authority, for which he liad so subtly plotted, and so resolntely dared, should thus be wrested at once from his hands. His partisans began to murmur, that they had only changed a Roman tyrant for one home-born; that Manahem, though he had no claim or title to this superiority, had insolently gone up to worship in the temple, in royal attire, and surrounded by his guards The SURRENDER OF THE ROMAN GARRISON. 195 populace rose on the side of Eleazar, and began to stone the adherents of Manahem. His followers fled. Many were slain outrisjht, many in places of concealment. A few with Eleazar, tlie son of Jair, a relation of Manahem, made good their retreat to Masada. Manahem himself was taken, having fled to a part of the city called Ophlas ; he was dragged forth, and put to death with great cruelty. Many of his partisans, one Absalon in particular, shared his fate. Thus fell Manahem, who, if he had united discretion with his courage, might have given the insurgents what they felt the want of during the whole war — an acknowledged leader, who might have concentred the resources, and consolidated the strength of the revolt. Many of the populace had taken part against Manahem, in hopes that by his death the tumult might be suppressed ; but this was not the intention of Eleazar and his party. They pressed vigorously the siege of the towers. At length Metilius, the Roman commander, found himself constrained to demand terms. The garrison offered to surrender on condition that their lives were spared; their arms and every thing else were to be at the mercy of the conquerors. The treaty was accepted, and solemnly ratified. Gorion, son of Nicomedes — Ananias, son of Sadoo — and Judas, son of Jona- than, on the part of the insurgents— swore to the execution of the conditions. Metilius led out his soldiers. While they retained their arms, no move- ment was made ; directly they had piled their swords and bucklers, the followers of Eleazar fell upon and slew them, unresisting, and wildly appealing to the faith of the treaty. All fell, except Metilius, who had the un-Roman baseness (the word may be ex- cused) to supplicate for mercy, and even agreed to submit to circumcision. After this treacherous and horrid deed, the last faint hope of accommodation was quenched, as it were, in blood. The more mode 196 HISTOU^ OF THE JEWS rate foresaw the inevitable ruin; thoy did not con- ceal their profound sorrow ; the whole city, instead of resounding with triumph, was silent, dejected, .and melancholy. It was an aggravation of the ^general terror and depression, that this a'irocious> massacre was perjjetrated on a Sabbath ! On that very day and hour, by a coincidence which Josephus considered providential, a dreadful retribution for the crimes of their countrymen was, as it were, pre-exacted from the Jews of Caesarea. The Greeks, now tolerably certain that to satiate their own animosity would be to please rather than offend the Romans, or perhaps under secret in- structions from Florus, suddenly rose, and massa- cred the Jews almost to a man : — in one hour, 20,000, an incredible number ! were said to be killed. Not a Jew appeared in Cresarea. The few who fled were seized by Florus, and sent to the galleys. By this act the whole nation was driven to mad- ness. Committed by the enormities of their brethren in Jerusalem — thus apparently proscribed every where else for slaughter — they determmed, if man- kind thus declared war upon them, to wage unre- lentmg war upon mankind. They rose, surprised, and laid waste all around the cities of Syria, Phila- delphia, Sebonitis, Gerasa, Pella, (where probably as yet the Christians had not taken refuge,) and Scy'thopolis. They made a sudden descent upon Gadara, Hippo, and Gaulonitis ; burned and destroy- ed many places, and advanced boldly against Cedasa, a Tyrian town, and the important places of Ptolemais and Gaba, and even against Caesarea itself. Sebaste and Ascalon offered no resistance — at least to their inroad on their territory ; Anthedon and Gaza they razed to the ground. The hamlets around these cities were pillaged, and an immense slaughter took place. The Syrians took the alarm ; and either for secu- rity, or out of old animosity, committed dreadful M.15SACRE OF THE JEWa IN SYRIA. 197 havoo on the Jewish iiilialvtants of their towns. Every city was, -as it were, divided into two hosiile eainps. The great object was to anticipate the work of carnage. The days were passed ia mutual slaughter, the nights in nuitual dread. All agreed thatlhe Jews were to be put to the sword without mercy — but how to treat the numerous proselytes to Judaism 1 Should they respect their Syrian blood, or punish their conformity to the Jewish faith? Th- fatal wealth of the Jews even then, as in after ages, was at once their pride and their ruin. Many were put to deathfromthe basest motives of plunder ; and lie who could display the greatest heap of Jewish spoil, was considered a hero. The streets were strewn with unburied bodies — aged men and infants — women witli the last covering of modesty torn off; the whole province bewailing the present calamities, and trembling with foreboding apprehen- sions of still worse. So far the Jews had confined their attacks to foreign troops or settlers; but making an inroad into the domain of Scythopolis, they met with un- expected resistance from the Jewish inhabitants, who had taken arms with those of Syrian race, and united with them in defence of their common terri tory. But the Scythopolitans mistrusted their fidelity, and, dreading lest they should make com- mon cause with the assailants during the attack desired them to retire with their families into at adjacent grove. Suspecting no danger, the Jews ai, once complied, and two days they remained in quiei, encamped under the trees. The third night the per- fidious Scythopolitans attacked them unawares, put them all to the sword, and seized all their property. Thirteen thousand perished. This barbarous act clearly proved to all the Jews, that no course re- mained but to make common cause with their revolted countrymen. A particular incident which occurred during this massacre was well suited to 198 HTSTOnv OF THF. JEWS. spread from mouth to mouth, as a tale which might excite the reveng-eful spirit of the most lukewarm, and drive the most cautious to iusurrection, as his last hope. There was a certain Simon, the son ot Saul, a Jew of distinction in Scythopolis, \v)io, during the Jewish attack upon the city, had fought against his countrymen with the most Consummate bravery. He had slain many, and broken squad- rons by his single strength. On that fatal night, when the Scythopolitans surrounded their Jewish brethren, he saw that all resistance to such num- bers was vain. He cried aloud — " Men of Scytho- polis, I acknowledge the justice of the penalty I am about to pay for having wielded arms against my countrymen, and put my trust in you. Tlie blood of my own brethren calls for vengeance. It shall be satisfied ; but no enemy, like you, shall boast of my death, or insult my fall," He then with wild and glaring eyes looked round on his family. He had a wife, children, and aged parents. He first seized his father by the hoary hair, and pierced him with his sword; his mother next willingly bared her bosom to the blow. Then fell his wife and children, who crowded round him, eager to die by his hand rather than by that of the enemy. Last of all, he mounted upon their bodies, so as to make himself as conspicuous as possible, and drove his sword into his entrails. The rest of the Grecian cities followed the ex- ample of Scythopolis. In Ascalon 2500 were put to the sword, in Ptolemais 2000, and as many thrown into prison. In Tyre many were killed ; in Hippo and Gadara they put to death the most dangerous, and tlirew the rest whom they suspected into prison. Of the Syrian cities, Antioch, Sidon, and Apamea, alone showed real humanity, and forbade the death, or even the imprisonment, of their Jewish fellow- citizens. In these towns, indeed, the Jews were less numerous, and therefore less formidable ; ret COMMOTIO^'S IN ALL QUARTERS. 1 39 the exception is not the less honourable to the in- habitants. Tlie citizens of Geraza not merely ab- stained from injuring those wiio remained in their fitv, but escorted those who chose to leave it, into the mountains. The dominions of Agrippa were not without disturbance. Agrippa himself had g-one to Antioch to Cestius Gallus, and left the administra- tion of his kingdom to Varus, a relation of Soemus, the Tetrarch of the district about Lebanon. It happened that Philip, the son of Jacimus, the com- mander of Agrippa's troops in Jerusalem, had escaped the massacre committed by the partisans of Manahem. He was concealed for four days by some relatives, Babylonian Jews, then at Jerusa- lem. On the fifth, by putting on false hair, he escaped, and arrived at length at a village of his own near the fortress of Gamala. There, while he was thinking of summoning his friends, he was seized with a fever, and, as he lay ill, he sent letters to the children of Agrippa and to Berenice, an- nouncing his escape. Varus was jealous of the influence of Pliilip with Agrippa. He accused the bearer of forgery, and declared that Philip had certainly perished at Jerusalem. A second mes- senger arrived, and him also Varus made away with; for a report had reached him from Cassarea, that Agrippa had been put to death by the Romans, on account of the revolt of his countrymen, and he began to entertain hopes, being of royal blood, that he might secure to himself the vacant kingdom. He intercepted, therefore, all communication from Philip, and, to ingratiate himself with the Caesa- reaiis, he put to death many Jews. He then deter- mined to make an attack on Ecbatana, or Bathuri — a town probably in Batanea. With this view he sent twelve Jews of Csesarea to accuse them of meditating an insurrection against Agrippa, and to lemand seventy of the chief citizens to answer the barge. The Cassarean Jews found the town per 200 HISTOKY OF THE JEWS. fectly quiet, and the seventy citizens were sent with tlie utmost readiness. Varus, without trial, ordered them all to be put to death, and advanced upon the town. One, however, had escaped, and gave the alarm. The inhabitants immediately seized their arms, leaving their great possessions in flocks and herds, and fled to the fortress of Gamala. Thence they sent to Philip, entreating him to come to their assistance. On his arrival, there was a general out- cry that he should put himself at their head, and instantly lead them to battle against Varus and the Greeks of Caesarea. The more prudent Philip restrained their impetuosity, and by his influence preserved the peace of Gamala, and kept the whole district faithful to the Romans till the commence- ment of the war. Agrippa sent to supersede Varus ; his great connexions rendered it dangerous to inflict a more severe punishment. The Alexandrian Jews were not exempt from the general calamities of the nation ; but they are less worthy of compassion, as they seem in a great de- gree, by their own tui-bulence and rashness, to have brought the persecution upon their own heads. At a public assembly of the Alexandrians, to despatch an embassy to Nero, many of the Jews, whether to maintain a contested right or not, thronged into the amphitheatre with the Greeks. An outcry imme- diately arose against the intruders, as enemies and spies. They were attacked ; some were killed in their flight: others were taken, and dragged along as if to be burnt alive. The whole Jewish popula- tion rose, and at first assailed the Greeks with stones. They then surrounded the amphitheatre with lighted torches, and threatened to burn the whole assembly to a man. They would have executed their purpose, but for the immediate intervention of Tiberius Alex- ander, the governor — the same who had before governed in Judaja, and was by birth a Jew — the nephew of Philo. Alexander acted with h'lmane TtMULTS IN ALEXANDRIA. 201 consideration; he sent for the more influential of the Jews, ordered them to put an end to the affray, and warned them against bringing the Roman sol- diery upon their heads. The more seditious mocked at his admonitions, and heaped personal abuse upon his name. Alexander immediately ordered his troops out; besides liis two legions he had 5000 soldiers, recently come from Libya. He gave them leave not merely to kill, but also to pillage and burn houses. The troops immediately forced the Delta, the quarter in which the Jews lived. The Jews made resistance ; but once routed, the slaughter was horrible. The houses were stripped, or set on fire full of inhabit- ants, who had taken refuge in them ; neither age nor sex was spared : the whole place was like a pool of blood : 50,000 bodies were heaped up for burial. The few who remained sued for mercy. Alexander gave the signal for the cessation of the carnage; and such was the influence of the commander, and the discipline of the troops, that he was instantly obeyed by the soldiery. The more vindictive ani- mosity of the Alexandrian po{)ulace was not so easily arrested; they could only be dragged by force from the dead bodies. In Palestine one thing only was wanting to plunge the whole nation headlong into the revolt. They had already to stimulate them, on one hand, the remembrance of the galling oppression of their suc- cessive governors — the desperate conviction that tlipy were already committed by the events in Jeru- salem—the horrible proofs that in every city every man's hand was armed against them, and every heart steeled against their sufferings : on the other, tlie bold md lofty tenets of Judas the Galilean, in whose sense their older sacred scriptures might be made to speak Mathout much violence of interpreta- tion—the universal belief in the immediate coming 3f the triumphant Messiah, which was so widely 11.— Q 202 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. diffused as to be mentioned by Suetonius and by Tacitus as a great cause of the war, — all these mo- tives could not but operate in a most powerful man- ner. That which was wanting, was a bright gleam of success, to break the gloom that lowered all round the horizon, and animate the timid and desponding with the hope of possible victory. This was given by the imbecility of Cestius Gallus, the prefect of Syria. Cestius had under his command the 12th legion, complete in its numbers, about 4200 strong : besides these he had 2000 picked men ; six cohorts of foot, about 2500; and four troops of horse, about 1200. Of allies, he had from Antiochus 2000 horse, and 3000 foot, all archers; from Agrippa as many horse, but less than 2000 foot ; Sohemus followed with 4000 more, a third of which were horse, the rest archers. With this army, of nearly 10,000 Roman troops, and 1.3,000 allies, Cestius advanced to Ptolemais. Many volunteers crowded forth from the Syrian cities ; and Agrippa and Sohemus attended on his march. His first exploit was against the town of Zebulon, called Andron, which divided the terri- tory of Ptolemais from the Jewish province of Upper Galilee. The inhabitants fled to the mountains. The city, in which was abundance of wealth and provision, was pillaged by the soldiers ; and its noble buildings, said to be as handsome as those of Tyre, Sidon, or Berytus, were burned to the ground. After having wasted the adjacent district, Cestius returned to Ptolemais. The Syrians, particularly those of Berytus, Imgering behind to plunder, the .Tews rose upon them, and cut off about 2000. Cestius advanced to Caesarea: from thence he sent forward part of his army to Joppa, with orders, if they could take the city, to garrison it ; if the inhabitants were prepared for resistance, to awaii the arrival of tlie rest of the army. Part marcned inland, part by the sea coast. They found the city open ; the inhabitants neither attempted to fly nor THE JEWS ATTACK CEST1T7S. 203 to resist. They put them all to the sword, and pil- laged the town. The mimber slain was 8500. With the same savage cruelty the cavalry wasted Narbatene, a district near Caesarea; killing, and plundering, and burnino-, on all sides. Cestius sent G alius, the commander of the twelfth legion, into Galilee, with sufficient force to subju- gate that province. Sepphoris opened its gates : the other cities followed tlie example of the capital. The insurgents fled to a mountain opposite to Sep- phoris, called Asamon. There, favoured by the ground, they at first made a gallant resistance, and killed 200 of Gallus's men ; at length the Romans gaining the upper ground, and surrounding them they were broken and dispersed: 2000 were slain. Gallus having subdued the province, returned to Caesaria. Cestius advanced to Antipatris, dispersed a small band at the tower of Apheck, and burned their camp. From Antipatris he marched to Lydda, which was deserted, the inhabitants having gone up to Jeru- Balem for the Feast of Tabernacles. Fifty men, wno came forth to meet him, were put to death ; the city burned. He then ascended the hills near Beth- horon, and encamped at Gabao, fifty stadia, rather more than six miles, from Jerusalem. No sooner did the Jews hear that the war was approachmg their gates, than they flew to arms; they broke off the festival ; they paid no more respect to the Sab- bath. It is possible, they called to mind that it was near this very place, in the passes aliout Beth- horon, that, in the days of old, the Lord cast down great stones on the Canaanitcs, when, as their histo- ries declared, the sun stayed his course at the com- mand of Joshua. In the same mountain country, Judas, the Maccabean, had discomfited the immense army of Nicanor. Now they poured forth by thou- sands ; they fell upon the Roman van ; broke it ; and rushing in, began so great a slaughter, that if the 204 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. horse and some light troops had not made a circuit, aiir] charged them in tlie rear, the whole army of Ctjslius might have buen destroyed. Notwithstand- ing this advantage, they retreated; having killed 515, of whicli 400 were horse. Their own loss was but twenty-two. Their most distinguished men in the battle were strangers; Monobazus and Oene- dieus, relations of the King of Adiabene; Niger, ol Peraea; and Silas, a Babylonian, who had qinticd the service of Agrippa. The .lews made good tlieir retreat ; and as the Romans ascended the hill of Bcthhoron, Simon, son of Gioras, a man who will afterward make an eminent figure in the historv, hung on their rear, and cut off their stragglers, ;i:.i beasts of burthen, many of which he carried sale to the city. Cestins remained quiet for three days, the .lews keeping v/atch on the hills, waiting for his troops to move. At this juncture Agrippa deter- mined to make a last effort to avert the war. He sent a deputation to persuade his ( onntrymen to sur- render, offering, in the name of Cestins, an amnesty for all that had passed. The leading insurgents dreaded tlie effect of these proposals on the people. They suddenly attacked tlie deputation; slew one, named Phoebus, wounded the other, Borcaeus, with sticks and stones ; and drove back those who ap- peared to take any interest in their fate. Cestius seized the opportunity of this dissension to advance on .lerusalem : he encamped at Scopas, within seven stadia, not quite a mile, to the north of the walls. Tiiree days he suspended his attack, in hopes of receiving an offer of surrender : in the meantime his horse scoured the villages around for provision and forage : on the fourth the Romans advanced to the attack. The insurgents had not oidy to repel the enemy, but to watch a formidable party wiihin the walls, whom they suspected of being but mkewarm Ml the cause. They were struck with consterna- tio.; at the order and discipline of the Roman army. NOV 5.] CESTirS ATTACKS THE rF.MPLE 205 as it came slowlv on to the attack. They aban- doned the outer walls ; and fled into the temple and the other fortified places within the city. Cestius f)assed thronoh the new s'.ihurb of Bezetha, and burned it as he proceeded : he then advanced against the upper city, and encamped opposite to the palace. Had he then nished at once to the assault, the city would have fallen. But, as Josephus asserts, with no ^eat probability, the general, Tyrannius Priscus, r.nd^several of the commanders of cavalry, bribed by Florus to prolong the war, dissuaded him from the attack. It is more probable that he entertained hopes of the surrender of the city by means of a powerful party within the walls ; for many of the chief per- sons, at the persuasion of Ananus, the son of .lona than, invited Cestius to continue the attack, and pro- mised to open the gates. But the irresolute Cestius, either from anger or mistrust, delayed and lost time. The conspiracy was detected by the insurgents; Ananus and his followers were thrown headlong from the walls; the rest were assailed with stones, and driven to their houses. The war faction manned all the towers, and beat down w^th missiles all who approached the walls. For five days the Romans made only uncombined and desultory attacks : on the following, Cestius, with the flower of his army and his archers, made a vigorous assault on the north side of the temple. The Jews defended them- selves from the cloisters witk the most resolute valour; continually repulsed the enemy; till at length, galled by the showers of missiles, the Romans recoiled. But they retreated to make a more dangerous attack. They formed what was called a testudo : those in the van fixed their shields firmly against the wall ; the next rank did the same ; till the shields, fitting over each other like the shell of a tortoise, formed an iron penthouse over their 206 HISTORY Oil THE JEWS. [nOV. 6, V heads, under which the soldiers began to mine the walls, and attempted to set fire to the gates. The besieged were in the most dreadful conster- nation ; many endeavoured secretly to make their escape from the devoted city. The peaceful party took courage, and began to muster in considerable force, in order to open the gates, and admit Cestius as their deliverer. A short time, an hour or less, might have made the Romans masters of the city: " but God, I conceive," says the Jewish historian, " on account of our sins, abhorring his own sanc- tuary, would not permit the war to end thus." Cestius, ignorant of the state of affairs within the town, both of the despondency of the insurgents and the strength of the Roman party, suddenly called off his troops ; and, to the universal surprise, re- treated entirely from the city. The insurgents passed at once from the lowest depression to the wildest courage : they sallied from all quarters, and cut off many stragglers, both horse and foot. Ces- tius passed the night in his former encampment, at Scopos (the watch-tower). On the following day he continued to retire. The further he retreated, the more bold became the enemy : they harassed his rear; coming along cross roads, they took his files in flank. The Romans dared not turn to make head ; for they thought that countless multitudes were pouring behind them ; and while the heavily- accoutred legionaries continued their slow and sul- len march, the light-armed Jews flew about with the utmost rapidity ; assaulting, retreating ; now on one side, now on the other ; dashing down where they saw an opening, and starting off when they met re- sistance. The road was strewn with the dead; every one who, for an instant, quitted the ranks, was cut off. Nor did the loss fall only on the com- mon soldiers. Priscus, the captain of the sixth le- gion; Longinus, a tribune, and jEmilius, a prefect of horse, were slain ; till at length, with great losi RKTREAT OF CESTirS. 20t c* men, and still more of baggage and mimitions, the army readied its former quarters at Gabao. There, with his usual irresolution, Cestius lost two days in inactivity: the third day, when he saw the whole country in arms, and the Jews swarming on all the heights, he determined on retreat. That he might retire with greater expedition, he commanded the soldiers to throw away every thing that might impede their march. All the mules and beasts of burthen were killed, except those which bore arrows and the military engines ; the latter, he apprehended, might be of future use, and dreaded lest they should fall into the hands of the enemy. The Romans then entered the fatal pass down to Bethhoron. The Jews, who had preserved some respect for their close and serried ranks while they were in the open plain, no sooner saw them entan- gled in the defile, than they attacked them on all sides : some hastened to block up the outlet of the pass ; some from behind drove them headlong down the ravine: at the end of the defile, incalculable multitudes showered darts upon them, till the whole squadron seemed clouded over with missiles. The legionaries stood wavering, uncertain how to act. The cavalry were in a still more perilous condition : they could not form in ranks ; the steep sheer sides of the mountains were impracticable for their horses. At one moment they found themselves on the verge of frightful precipices, hanging over rugged, and, it seemed, bottomless ravines. Flight and resistance wore alike hopeless : they began to utter wild cries of despair, and to groan aloud in the agony of their hearts : the shrill battle-cry of the Jews answered ; their savage shouts of exultation and fury rang from rock to rock. The whole Roman army must have fallen, had not night come on, which enabled the greater part to make its way to Bethhoron ; while the Jews crowned every hiU« p'»H blocked uj> every oass around. St>8 HISTORY OF THE JEWS, [NoV. 8. Cestius, despairing of being able openly to force his way, began to think of securing his personal safety by flight. He selected four hundred of his bravest men, distributed them about the defences of the camp, with orders to mount guard ; and in the _ inoniing to display all their ensigns, that the Jews niiglit suppose the whole army was still stationary. He then retreated in silence thirty stadia, not quite four miles. At the break of day, the Jews disco- vered that the camp was deserted : enraged at the manoeuvre, they rushed to the assault, and slew the four hundred to a man. They then pursued Cestius with the utmost rapidity. The Romans, who had got the start of several hours during the night, has- tened their retreat, which bore every appearance of a rout. All the military engines, the catapults, bat- tering-rams used in besieging cities, were aban- doned, and fell into the hands of the Jews; who afterward employed them with dreadful effect against their former masters. The conquerors continued the pursuit as far as Antipatris ; and at length find- ing that they could not overtake them, they turned back to secure the engines, strip the dead, and col- lect their immense booty. With hymns of victory they re-entered the capital ; having suffered hardly any loss on their own part, and having slain of the Romans and their allies 5300 foot, and 380 horse. The Roman arms had not received so disgraceful an affront, nor suffered so great loss, since the defeat of Varus in the forests of Germany; and this not by a fierce and unconquered people, among woods and morasses never before penetrated by civilized man ; but in a province which had long patiently endured the Roman yoke, and had received for its sovereigns either native kings or foreign prefects with the humblest submission to the imperial will I. 209 ) BOOK xrv. PREPARATIONS KOR THE WAR yi$piisian- Josepkus — Jlffuirs »/ Galihe — John of Oischala -.^ffairk of hrufalem — Jinnnus the Chief Priest — Simon, .■ion of Gioras — Battles near Ascaluu. JuD.cA was now in open rebellion against Rome. Jt -was a mad and desperate revolt, for to declare war ag-ainst Rome, was to defy the whole force of the civilized world. The insurgents neither had, nor could hope for allies ; the rest of the Roman provinces were in profound peace, and little likely to ansM'er the call or follow the example of a people they despised, in assertion of their independence. In Europe the only unsubdued enemies of the Ro- mans were the wild tribes in the north of Britain, or in the marshes of Germany. In Asia, the only inde- pendent kingdom, the Parthian, was not a state to make a war of aggression. Philo, in his oratorical invective against Caligula, threw out hints of the formidable numbers of his countrj'men in Babylonia, and of the multitudes who were scattered throui^h- out almost all the cities in the eastern dominions of Rome. But the foreign Jews, though, as Josephus hints in one place, solicited by ambassadors, either took no interest in the fate of their countiymen, or were too sadly occupied in averting the storm of public detestation from their own heads, or in be- wailing its consequences, in the unprovoked carnage of their own friends and families.* They were * Immedialely on the defeat nf Cestiiis, the inhabitniits of Daiiias- cus haiitpned lo wreak their venKi-aiice on the Jewish residents. The> were obUged to proceed wiih ranilon, I'nr fear of their wive?, whc IT— R 210 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. trembling- in the agony of personal apprehension, oi gnthpring- up for Inirial the bodies of their murdered countrymen. The state of the country- offered scarcely bettei grounds for any reasonable hope of permanent re- sistance. The fortified places were not all in the power of the insurgents : they had no organized or disciplined force ; no warlike engines, except those captured from the enemy; no provisions of any kind for a long war. Worse than all, they were divided among themselves. In every city there was an interested, or a timid, or a prudent party, anxious to purchase peace at any cost. They had no ac- knowledged leader. The representative of the He- rodian house, Agrippa, openly espoused the Roman party. The rest were either undistinguished as sol- diers, or strangers, and robber chieftains. Their oidy trust was in their own stubborn patience and daring valour, in the stern fanaticism with which they looked upon themselves as the soldiers of their God, and in the wild hope that heaven would work some miraculous revolution in their favour. Yet, however frantic and desperate the insurrec- tion, why should the Jews alone be excluded from that generous sympathy, which is always awakened by the history o"f a people, throwing off the galling yoke of oppression, and manfully resisting to the utmost in assertion of their freedom ■? Surely if ever people were justified in risking the peace of their country for liberty, the grinding tyranny of the suc- cessive Roman Procurators, and the deliberate and systematic cruelties of Florus, were enough to have maddened a less high-spirited and intractable race into revolt. It is true that the war was carried en with unexampled atrocity ; but on the other hand, insurrectionary warfare is not the best school for tcere almost nil attaihrd to the Jiwisk religion I At last they contrived to take thi'iii at aflvaiiiace, iu some confined space, and, attacking then* unarined, massacied ]0.000 COXSlDERATIO>S ON THE WAR. 211 nsi- dered the capital of Galilee. He had meditate;! the attack on the Sepphorite district, but as yet had only carried his plundering bands into the lands of Ga- dara, and Hippos. Josephus, after settling affairs at Sepphoris, went to Bethmaus, within half a mile of Tiberias. He sent for the senate, who came readily to parley with him ; he opened his commission from the Sanhedrin at Jerusalem, and demanded the de- molition of a palace built by Herod the Tetrarch, and adorned with " graven images" of living crea- tures. The party of Agrippa opposed this mea- sure; but the war-faction, headed by Jesus son oi Saphia, were ready for any work of destruction Besides, they were not a little tempted by the hope of plunder, for the roof of the palace was gilded. They proceeded to plunder the furuiture, and then to burn the palace to the ground. Flushed with their success they rose on the Syrians, massacred all they could find, and at the same tnne seized the opportunity of revenging themselves on all their fellow-citizens who had been their enemies before the war. Josephus seems to have been anxious to remain on terms with Agrippa. He assumed great indig- nation at the plunder of the palace, of which he had authorized the demolition, gathered up the wrecks of the furniture, consisting of candlesticks of Co- rinthian brass, royal tables, and uncoined silver, and committed them to the custody of Capellus, the head of Agrippa's party. Josepluis then proceeded to Gischala. At the commencemejit of the msurrec- tion, John had rather inclined to the Roman faction. Upon this the inhabitants of Gadara, Gebara, Sogana, and other towns, had assaulted and burnt Gischala. John, however, had rallied his foices, recovered the JOHN OF GISCHALA 22 1 town, and fortified it more strongly than before. As yet Jolin and Josephus were on good terms. Jn?ephus admired the activity of John, and John \v;is anxious to obtain every possible advantage from llie governor of the province. He first proposed to Josephus that he might be permitted to carry off large quantities of corn stored up by the Romans in upper Galilee ; the sale of this, he stated, would en- able him to complete his fortifications. Josephus finswered that he should keep that corn either for the Romans, the owners, (a suspicious answer!) or for the use of the province intrusted to him by the San- hedrin of Jerusalem. John then demanded and ob- tained a monopoly of oil sold in Syria. For the Jev s in the Syrian towns would not use the unclean oil prepared by the heathen, and were obliged to rbtain it from their own country. John drove a thriving trade ; for four Attick drachms he bought four measures of oil, which he sold again at the same sum for half a measure. This money he em- j loved in undermining the power of Josephus, and industriously propagated reports, which accused him of intending to betray the province to the Romans. Vhether or not the suspicions of John had any sub- staiitial grounds, strong circumstances combined to throw a shade on the popularity of Josephus. Cer- tain youths of a village called Dabarittae, in the great plain, waylaid and plundered Ptolemy, the agent of k:n<'; Agrippa. Wuh their spoils, consisting of em- broidered robes, silver vessels, and six hundred pifi es of gold, they went to Josephus, then at Tari- chta. Josephus rebuked them for the robbery, and coiiimltled the property to the custody of one of the cliicf citizens of Tarichea, to be restored to the owi'crs. The robbers, deprived of their booty, raised loud outcries against the governor, whom they accused of being in a treasonable league with the king. One hundred thousand armed men assem- bled (^Josephus is somewhat prone to large numbers) 222 HISTORY OF THE JEHU'S and thi onged the circus of Tarichea ; some c; .ed out to depose, some to burn him. With this intent they surrounded liis house, all his friends, except four, fled; Josephus suddenly awoke from skep, he was • neither confounded by the noise of his assailants, nor the desertion of his friends. He rent his robes, poured ashes on his head, with his hands behind him, and his sword suspended around his neck, he went out to face the tumult. The Taricheans were moved with compassion : the ruder countrymen continued their clamour, ordered him to bring forth the plun- der, and confess his treasons. Josephus answered with an effrontery and readiness of falsehood which miglit have done credit to his mendacious rival John of Gischala. " Men of Tarichea, ye are quite in error if ye suppose that I kept these treasures with any design of restoring them to king Agrippa. The fact is, that seeing the walls of your town in a ruin- ous and dismantled state, I have kept them to be spent in fortifying your loyal city." This bold address threw the Taricheans, to the number of 40,000, on his side. The strangers, particularly those of Tiberias, contiiuied the tumult for some time, but at length sullenly withdrew, with the ex- ception of 2000, (600) of the most desperate. These men, when Josephus retired again to rest, sur- rounded his house and threatened to break down the doors. Josephus had recourse to a stratagem, still more daring. He mounted the roof of the house, and making a sign that he wished to address them, he began with saying that from the height he could not distinguish their demands, but if they would de- pute some of their leaders, he was ready to treat with them. No sooner were those few admitted, than he ordered them to be dragged into the inner part of the house, and scourged tJl their bowels were laid open. The mob began to grow impatient, when the doors were opened, and tl eir leaders were turned out among them, in this blo(Kiv and nangled JOSEPHrS ESCAPES FROM IIBERLAS. 223 State. The mob, supposing that he would not have ventured on such a step, without a great force con- cealed, dispersed in consternation.* The secret enemy of Josephus, John of Gischala, had prompted this outrage, but as there was no open breach be- tween them, John, pretending to be ill, sent to de- mand permission to visit Tiberias, for the benefit of the warm baths in that city. There, partly by per- suasion, partly by bribes, he induced the inhabitants to renounce their allegiance to the governor. Silas, who commanded in the city under Josephus, sent immediate intelligence of the state of affairs. Jose- phus travelled night and day, and suddenly appeared m Tiberias. John, pretending that he was confined to his bed, excused himself from paying his respects to the governor. Josephus assembled the people of Tiberias in the circus. He had begun to address them, when he was suddenly interrupted by a loud outcry from the spectators ; turning round, he saw a band of armed men, with their swords drawn, who were placed by John to assassinate him, he leaped from his rostrum, which was about six feet high, rushed to the beach, seized a boat, and with two of his followers pushed out into the lake and escaped. His soldiers, in the meantime, attacked the band of John, but Josephus, apprehensive of a civil war, sent orders to his troops to abstain from bloodshed, and resisted all the urgent entreaties of his other Galilean friends, who were eager to make an exam- » This transaption, as indeed the whole narrative of his administra tion in Galilee, is related with such extraordinary variations in the lif*" of Joscphns, and in the history of the Jewish war, as to leave a very unfavonrahle im|iresslon, if not of the writer's veracity, at least of his accuracy. It is impossible to keep the same order of events, and in ttiit alfair the War cives the number of armed men at 2000, the Life at 6U0. In the former, those admitted into ilie house are called the mo'e di- uffocated those within, or forced them to make their way out. At this moment Josephus remembered his dream, which had so precisely foretold all the calamities of the Jews, and all which was to happen to the future emperor of Rome. Now, Josepnus was an adept in the interpretation of dreauu ; as a SPEECH OF JOSEPHUS. 266 pHest he had deeply studied the prophecies of the Holy Books. He was suddenly, and doubtless, most opportunely, seized with divine inspiration, which inwardly assured him, that it was the will of Heaven that his country should fall, and Rome triumph, and he himself save his life. So, if he passed over to the Roman party, he would do so, not as a renegade, but as an obedient servant of God. Saying; this withm himself, he consented to the terms of Nicanor. But, unhappily, a new difficulty occurred. However satisfactory to his own con- science this determination of humbly submitting to the will of God, the companions of Josephus were not religious enough to enter into his motives. They reproaclied him with the vulgar desire of saving his life, and of cowardly defection from the laws of his country. They reminded him of his own eloquent exhortations to despise death in such a noble cause ; exhortations with which so many had generously complied. They intimated somewhat plainly, that they would assist his failing patriotism, and enable him to obtain all the honours of martyrdom ; in short, that their hands and swords were ready to enable him to die, not as a renegade, but as the chieftain of the Jews. At the same time they showed their zealous mterest in his character by surrounding him with drawn swords, and threaten- ing to put him to death if he stirred. Josephus was in great embarrassment, for he felt that it would be impious resistance to the will of God, if he sho^ild thus submit to die. He began (in his own words) to philosophize to them. It is not very probable, that at this perilous instant, Josephus should have the self-command to make, or his fierce assailants the patience to listen to, a long set speech ; but his oration, as it stands in the hisiory, is so curious, that we must insert the chief topics on which he dwelt. " Why, my friends," he began, " should we be so eager for self-murder 1 why should we aepa* 266 HISTORY OP THE JEWS. rate associates so dear to each other as the soul and body. It is noble to die in war, true ; but according to the legitimate usag-e of war, by the sword of the enemy. If I had supplicated for mercy, I should have deserved to die, but if the Romans freely ofter to spare us, why should we not spare ourselves ? For what have we been fighting all this time 1 — to save our lives ; and now we are to be such fools as to throw our lives away. It is noble, indeed, to die for our liberty, yes, in battle : — that man is equally a coward who fears to die when death is necessary, and he who chooses to die when there is no neces- sity. Why do we refuse to surrender 1 In fear lest the Romans should kill us ; and therefore we would kill ourselves. In fear lest we be made slaves 1 at present, indeed, we enjoy great liberty !" He then entered at large into the commonplace arguments against self-murder ; the disgrace of abandoning the helm when the bark is in danger ; the natural fond- ness of all animals for life, and their aversion to death ; above all, the sin of throwing away the most precious gift of God. " Our bodies are mortal, and made of perishable matter ; but the soul is immortal, as a part of the Divinity it dwells within our bodies. He is base and treacherous who betrays that with vvliich he is intrusted by man, how much moi« he wlio basely gives up the precious trust which God has confided to him. We punish slaves, even if they desert the service of a cruel master, yet we have no scruple to desert the service of a good and merciful Deity. Know ye not, that those who de- part this life according to the law of nature, and pay the debt when it is demanded by God, obtain everlasting glory 1 their houses and families pros- per; their souls remain pure and obedient, and pass away to the holiest mansions in heaven; from whence, m the revolution of ages, they again take up their dwelling in pure bodies. But for those who havf. madly lifted their hands against »Hir own DAI«0£HOUS SITUATION OF JOSKPHUS 257 Hves, the darkest pit of hell receives their souls, and God avenges their crime upon their children's children. Hence God and our wise lawgiver have enacted a severe punishment against the suicide his body is cast forth at sunset without burial ; the guilty hand, which dared to separate the soul from the body, is cut off." (Here Josephus seems to have calculated on the ignorance of his audience and boldly ingrafted a Grecian superstition on the Mosaic law) : he concluded with protesting that he had no thought of deserting to the ranks of the Romans, but that he rather looked forward to their putting liim to death, in which case he should die gladly, having affixed the stain of the basest trea- chery on the enemy. But, unfortunately, these subtle arguments, these sublim:^ doctrines, and mag- nanimous sentiments, were lost on the dull ears of the obstinate Galileans; they only became more enraged ; they ran at him with their swords ; they reproached him with his cowardice, and every one of them stood ready to plunge his sword to his heart. He stood, like a wild beast at bay, constantly turn- ing to the man that was rushing at him ; one he called familiarly by his name ; another he looked sternly at, as if he were still his commander ; here he clasped a hand, there he entreated ; at all events determined to save his life, if possible. At length nis distress so wrought upon them, that some out of respect, some out of attachment, perhaps some out of contempt, dropped their swords ; those of not a few, he says, fell out of their hands, others were quietly returned into their sheaths. The wily leader marked his time, and had a stratagem ready on the instant. " If we must die, then, let us not die by our own, but by each other's hands. Let us cast lots, and thus fall one after another, for if the rest perish, it would be the deepest disgrace for me to survive." They all readily agreed, thinking that Josephus would inevitably share their fate. How 268 HISTORY OF THE JEWS the lots were cast, we are not informed, or whethei among- his other soldierlike and noble Qualities, the worthy.omrriaridfcrimuscnnesKii) 'n«!f':gT.:-Cy:-..aiiu-, !jui a' so nappened fby good fortune or the will of Providence) tnat they all, one after another, as the lots came up, offered their breasts to the sword. Josephus found himself left, with one other, to the last. Not in the least inclined that the lot should fall on himself, and with a nice and scrupulous reluctance to imbrue his hands in the blood of a fellow-creature, Josephus persuaded this man to accept of the offered terms ; and so they both came out tog-ether, leaving their dead friends in the cavern. Nicanor immediately led him to Vespasian. The Romans crowded from all parts to see this redoubted chieftain. A great rush and uproar ensued. Some were rejoicing at his capture, others threatening him with vengeance ; all pressing forward to get a sight of him ; those who were at a distance cried out that he should be put to death; those near him were seized with admiration and remembrance ol his noble actions. Not one of the officers, who had been most furious against him, but inclined to mercy directly they saw him, particularly Titus, who was struck with his dignified fortitude, and vigour of manhood : he was thirty years old at the beginning- of the war. The influence of Titus was of great weight with Vespasian to dispose him to lenity ; the [)risoner was ordered to be closely guarded, with the design that he might be sent to Nero at Rome. Josephus instantly demanded to be admitted to a private conference with Vespasian. All, excepting Titus and two friends, retired. Josephus assumed at once the air and language of a prophet : b so- lemnly protested that nothing would have t( ?npted him to avoid the death which became a noble Jew, but the conviction th'dt he was a messenger of God, to announce to Vespasian that he and his son would sneedily assume the imperial dignity : " Send me chakauter of josephus. 269 not to Nero : bind me. and keer. me in fha'^^. 3«^ "'Oiii <•'«/:: priSv^-.o. , lur soon m'iu tnou oe me sove- reign lord of eartli and sea, and of the whole human race." Vespasian naturally mistrusted the adroit flatterer; but, before long', permitted himself to be fully persuaded of his prophetic character. Josephus appealed to the inhabitants of Jotapata, whether he had not predicted the taking of the city, and their own capture at the end of forty-seven days. The captives, who could only have been women, as all the men were put to the sword, readily avouched his stoiy : and the prophet, though still kept in chains, was treated with great distinction, and re- ceived presents of raiment and other valuable donatives. This is a strange adventure. It is impossible not to admire the dexterity with which the historian extricates himself from all his difficulties of situa- tion, which, however highly coloured, must have been one of the greatest peril. What secrets that dark cavern may have concealed, can never be known; but we should certainly have read with deep interest the account of these transactions, and indeed of the whole Galilean administration of Jo- sephus, in the work of his rival, Justus of Tiberias, unhappily lost. But, after every deduction for his love of the marvellous, and the natural inclination to paint higlily where he was the hero of his own story, the valour and skill displayed in the defence of Jotapata, and the singular address with which he insinuated himself into the favour of Vespasian and his son, give a very high Impression of the abilities of Josephus. As to the sincerity of his belief in his own inspiration, it would more easily have obtained credit, if he had displayed himself, on other occasions, either more scrupulous or less addicted to stratagem. The prediction itself was far from requiring any great degree of political sagacity. It wes impossible to suppose that the 260 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. bloody Nero would be allowed to burden the throne much longer ; the imperial family was all but extinct. The empire would, in all probability, fall to the lot of the boldest and most ambitious of the great mili- tary leaders, among whom Vespasian stood, if not confessedly the first, yet certainly with few compe- titors, in the first raiiK. It was therefore no very bold hazard to designate him as the future soveitign: at all events, and perhaps Josephus looked no fur- ther, the prediction served his immediate turn ; and, if it had not eventually proved true, yet the life of the prophet was secure, and his history, if ever written, might have preserved a prudent silence with regard to a prediction which the event had not justified. The progress of this year's campaign was not according to the usual career of the Roman arms : a powerful army had marched to subdue a rebel- lious and insignificant province ; two months had nearly elapsed, and they were little beyond the frontier. Now, however, they proceeded with greater rapidity. Vespasian returned to Ptolemais, from whence he marched along the coast to Csesa- rea. The Greek inhabitants of that city had now, by the massacre of their Jewish competitors, the whole region at their command. They threw open their gates, went forth to receive the Romans with the loudest and m.ost sincere demonstrations o; joy ; for their vengeance was not yet satiated with Jewish blood. They sent a petition for the execu- tion of Josephus ; but Vespasian did not condescend to reply. He took possession cif Caisarea, as pleasant winter-quarters, for two of his legions; for though very hot in summer, the climate oi Ceesarea was genial in winter : he fixed on Scytho- polis for the station of the other legion, the fifteenth. Cestius Cta.lus, during his flight, had abandoned Joppa. A strong body of insurgents had collected from all quarters, and taken iiossession of the towp, TAKiwn nr JOPPA ?6" 1 where they had built a ^eai number of barks, with which they madfi piratical excursions, and plundered all the rich men-luuit vessels which traded betweL;n Syria, Phoenicia, and Egypt. Vespasian sent a considerable force against this city. The troops reached Joppa by night ; and, the walls being un guarded, entered at once. The inhabitants made no resistance, but fled to their ships, ;ind moored for the night out of the reach of the enemies' darts and arrows. Joppa is a bad harbour : the shore is steep and nigged, forming a kind of semicircular bay, the extreme headlands of which approach each other. These headlands are formed by pre- cipitous rocks and breakers, which extend far into the sea : when the north-wind blows, there is a tremendous surge, which makes the port more dan gerous than the open sea. In the morning this wind, called by the sailors of Joppa the black north- wind, began to blow furiously : it dashed the ships against each other, or against the rocks. Some endeavoured to push to sea against the swell ; for they dreaded alike the lee-shore breakers and the enemy : but all these, unable to stem the rolling of the swell, foundered. The rest the wind drove to- wards the city, which the Romans would not let them enter. The shrieks of the men, the crashing of the vessels, made an awful din : many were drowned; many were seen swimming on broken pieces of wreck ; many, to escape drowning, fell on their own swords. The whole shore was strown with mutilated bodies ; those who struggled to the beach were slain by the Romans : 4200 lives were lost. The Romans razed the city, but garrisoned the citadel, lest it should again become a nest of pirates. At first vague rumours of the fall of Jotapata reached Jerusalem : not a man had escaped to bear the fatal intelligence. But bad tidings are apt to travel fast ; and, as is usual, when the truth became 262 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. knjwn, it was accompanied with many circum- stances of falsehood. .Tosrphiis was said to have fallen ; and all Jerusalem united in lamenting- his loss : his death was a public calamity. There was scarcely a family which had not to deplore some private affliction ; they bewailed those who had been their guests (probably at the great festivals), or re- lations, or friends, or brothers ; but all deplored Josephus. For thirty days, wailings were heard in the city ; and musicians were hired to perform funeral chants. When, however, the news arrived that Josephus was not merely alive, but treated with distinction by Vespasian, sorrow gave place to the fiercest indignation. By some he was called a dastard, by others a traitor; his name was exe- crated ; and to their motives for fierce and obsti- nate resistance to the Romans was added an eager desire to revenge themselves on the apostate. But they were yet left for some time to exhale their fury in words, and display their bravery, not against the enemy, but against each other. Vespasian — whether his army had been too se- verely handled at Jotapata, or whether, as is pos- sible, he wished, in case any effort should be made at Rome to rid the world of the tyrant, to find him- self at the head of a powerful and unbroken force — turned aside from the direct road of victory, and declined to advance upon the rebellious capital. He accepted the invitation of Agrippa, who earnestly solicited his presence, in order that he might make a splendid display of his devotion to the Roman cause, and, by the fear of the Roman anns, quell the spirit of revolt in his own dominions. From Caesarea by the Sea, he passed to Caesarea Philippi, where the army reposed for twenty days. Tarichea and Tiberias, though on the western coast of the Lake of Genesareth, belonged to the dominions of Agrippa. Evident symptoms of insurrection ap- Deared in both these cities Titus was ordered to SURRENDER OF TIBERIAS. 263 concentrate all the forces on Scythopolis, which is at no great distance from Tiberias : there \' espasian met liim ; and they advanced to a place on an eminence, within half a mile of Tiberias, named Sennabris. From thence he sent forward a decu- rion, named Valerian, witli fifty horse, to exhort the inhabitants to surrender; for the people were peacea- bly disposed, but forced into war by a small turbu- lent party. Valerian, when he came near the city, dismounted, that his troop might not appear like a body of skirmishers ; but before he could utter a word, the insurgents, headed by Jesus, the son of Saphat, charged him with great fury. Valerian, though he might easily have dispersed them, had no orders to figlit ; and, astonished at the boldness of the Jews, fled on foot, witli five of his companions. The captured horses were led m triumph into the city. The Senate of Tiberias took the alarm, and fled to the Roman camp : they entreated Vespasian not to act precipitately against a city almost entirely disposed to the Roman interest, and not to visit the crime of a few desperate insurgents on the unof- fending people. Vespasian had given orders for the plunder of the city ; but partly in compliance with their supplication, partly from respect for Agrippa, who trembled for the fate of one of the fairest towns in his dominions, he accepted their submission, rhe insurgents, under Jesus, fled to Tarichea. The people opened their gates, and received the Romans with acclamations. As the entrance to the city was loo narrow for the army to march in, except in very slender files, Vespasian commanded part of the wall to be thrown down ; but he strictly prohibited all plunder or outrage against the inhabitants ; and, at the intervention of Agrippa, left the rest of the wall Stan. ling. Not only the insurgents from Tiberias, but fioni all the adjacent country, assembled in Tarichea. which likewise stood, south of Tiberias, on the sb"v 264 HISTORY OP THE JEWS. of Genesareth. This beautiful lake has been com- pared by travellers with that of Geneva. In those days the shores were crowded with opulent towns, which lay imbowered in the most luxuriant orchards, for which the whole district was cele- biated. Such was the temperature of the climate that every kind of fruit-tree flourished in the hig-hest perfection — nuts, which usually grow in a colder climate, with the palm of the sultry desert, and the fig- and olive, which require a milder air. " Nature," says Josephus, " is, as it were, ambitious of bring- ing together the fruits of different climates, and there is a strife among the seasons of the year, each claiming this favoured country as their own: for not only do fruits of every species flourish, but continue to ripen ; the grapes and figs for ten months, other kinds throughout the year. The water of the lake is remarkably salubrious, milder than that of fountains, and as cool as snow. It abounds in fish of several kinds, peculiar to its waters." This lake had been the chief scene of the miracles and preaching of Jesus Christ. Its blue and quiet waters were now to be broken by other barks than those of the humble fishermen who spread their nets upon its surface ; and to reflect, instead of the mul- titudes who listened to the peaceful teacher, the armour of embattled squadrons and the glittering pride of the Roman eagles. Tarichea had been carefully fortified by .tosephus ; not indeed so strongly as the more important town of Tiberias, but still every part that was not washed by the lake had been surrounded with a strong wall. The in- habitants had a great number of vessels in their port, in which they might escape to the opposite shore, or, if necessary, fight for the naval command of the lake. The Romans pitched their camp under the walls ; but while they were commencing their works, Jesus, at the head of the Tiberians, made a vigorous sally, dispersed the workmen, and when SIEGE OP TARICHEA. 265 the legionaries advanced in steady array, fled back without loss. The Romans drove a »arge party to their barks : the fugitives pushed out into the lake, but still remained within the range of missiles, cast anchor, and drawing up their barks, like a phalanx, began a regular battle with the enemy on the land. Vespasian heard that the Galileans were in great force on the plain before the city. He sent Titus with 600 picked horse to disperse them. The num- bers were so immense that Titus sent to demand further succours ; but before they arrived, he deter- mined to charge the enemy. He addressed his men, exhorting them not to be dismayed by num- bers, but to secure the victory before their fellow soldiers could come up to share their glory. He then put himself at their head, and his men were rather indignant than joyful at beholding Trajan, at the head of 400 horse, make his appearance in the field. Vespasian had likewise sent Antonius Silas with 2000 archers to occupy the side of a hill opposite to the city, in order to divert those who were on the walls. Titus led the attack, the Jews made some resistance, but, oveipowered by the long spears and the weight of the charging cavalry, gave way, and fled in disorder towards Tarichea. The cavalry pursued, m.aking dreadful havock, and en- deavoured to cut them off" from the city. The fugitives made their way through by the mere weight of numbers. When they entered the city, a tremendous dissension arose. The inhabitants, anxious to preserve their property, and dismayed by their defeat, urged capitulation. The strangers steadily and fiercely refused compliance. The noise of the dissension reached the assailants, and Titus immediately cried out, " now is the time for a resolute attack, while they are distracted by civil discord." He leaped upon his horse, dashed into the lake, and, followed by his men, entered the city. Consternation seized the besieged, they stood still. 266 HISTORY OF THE JEWij not attempting resistance. Jesus and his insurgent* at the alarm fled with others towards the lake, and came right upon the Romans. They were killed endeavouring to reach the shore ; the inhabitants without resistance ; the strangers fighting gallantly, for the former still cherished a hope that their well- known peaceful disposition might obtain them mercy. At length Titus having punished the ring- leaders, gave orders that the carnage should cease. Those who had before fled to the lake, when they saw the city taken, pushed out to sea as far as pos- sible. Titus sent information to his father of this signal victory, and gave orders that vessels might instantly be prepared to pursue the fugitives. When the vessels were ready, Vespasian embarked some of his troops, and rowed into the centre of the lake. The poor Galileans in their light fishing boats could not withstand the heavy barks of the Romans, but they rowed round them, and attacked them with stones — feeble warfare, which only irritated the pur- suers ! for if thrown from a distance they did no damage, only splashing the water over the soldiers or falling harmless from their iron cuirases ; if those who threw them approached nearer, they could be hit in their turn by the Roman arrows. All the shores were occupied with hostile soldiers, and they were pursued into every in'et and creek, some were transfixed with spears from the high banks of the vessels, some were boarded and put to the sword, the boats of others were crushed or swamped, and the people drowned. If their heads rose as they were swimming, they were hit with an arrow, or by the prow of the hark ; if they clung to the side of the enemy's vessel, their hands and heads were hewn off. The few survivers were driven to the shore, where they met with no more mercy. Either before they landed, or in the act of landing, they were cut down or i^erced through. The blue waters of the whole ^ake were tingecJ with blood» CRUELTY OF VESPASIAN 261 and its clear surface exhaled for several days a fetid stream Tho shores were strown with wrecks of boats and swollen bodies that lay rotting in the sun, and infected the air, till the conquerors them- selves shrunk from the effects of their own barba- rities. Here we must add to our bloody catalogue the loss of 6:;00 lives. These, however, were the acts of an exasperated soldiery against enemies with arms in their hands. But Vespasian tarnished his fame for ever, by an act at once of the most loathsome cruelty and deli- berate treachery. After the battle, his tribunal was erected in Tarichea, and he sat in solemn judgment on those of the strangers who had been taken cap- tives, and had been separated from the inhabitants of the city. According to his apologist, Josephus, his friends encircled the seat of justice, and urged the necessity of putting an end to these desperate vagabonds, who, having no home, would only retreat to other cities, forcing them to take up arms. Ves- pasian, having made up his sanguinary resolution, was unwilling to terrify the inhabitants of Tarichea by commanding the massacre in their streets ; he feared that it might excite insurrection : nor did he wish the whole city to be witness of his open viola- tion of that faith which had been pledged when they surrendered. But his friends urged that every act was lawful against the Jews, and that right must give way to the expediency. The insurgents re- ceived an ambiguous assurance of amnesty, but were ordered to retreat from the city only by the road to Tiberias. The poor wretches had implicit reliance on Roman faith. The soldiers immediately seized and blockaded the road to Tiberias ; not one was allowed to leave the suburbs. Vespasian in person pursued them into the stadium ; he ordered 1,200 of the aged and helpless to be instantly slain, and drafted off 6,000 of the must able-bodied to be sent to Nero, who was em{)loyed in a mad schema 268 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. [Sept. 8 of digging througli the Isthmus of Corinth: 30,400 were sold as slaves, besides those whom he be- stowed on Agrippa, who sold his portion also. The greater part of these, if we may believe Josephus, were desperate and ferocious ruffians, from Tracho- nitis, Gaulonitis, Gadara, and Hippos, men who sought to stir up war, that they might escape the punishment of the crimes they had committed during peace Had they been devils, it could not excuse the base treacheiy of Vespasian. This terrible example appalled the whole of Gali- lee, and most of the towns capitulated at once to avoid the same barbarities ; three cities alone still defied the conqueror, Gamala, Gischala, and Itaby- rium, the city which Josephus had fortified on Mount Tabor. Though the inhabitants of Gamala, situated on the side of the lake of Genesareth, opposite to Tarichea, at no great distance from the shore, might have inhaled the tainted gales, which brought across the waters the noisome and pestilential odours of the late massacre, though probably some single fugitive may have escaped, and hastening to the only city of refuge, have related the dreadful particulars of those still more revolting deeds which had been perpetrated in the stadium of Tarichea; yet Gamala, proud in the impregnable strength of its situation, peremptorily refused submission. Gamala was the chief city of Lower Gaulonitis, and belonged to the government of Agrippa. It was even more inacces- sible than .Totapata. It stood on a long and rugged ledge of mountains, which sloped downward at each end, and rose in the middle into a sudden ridge, like the liump of a camel, from which the town had its name of Gamala. The face and both sides of the rock ended in deep and precipitous chasms or ra- vines ; it was only accessible from behind, where it joined the mountain ridge. On this side a deep ditch had been dug right across, so as to cut off all approach. The houses rose on- above another on. SIEGF OF GAMALA. 269 the steep declivity o^ the hill, and were cro\^ ded very thick and rlnpe. Thewliole city seemed as if hanging on a sharp precipice, and threatening con- stantly to fall and crnsh itself. It hiclined to the south, but on the southern crag, of immense heigiit, was the citadel of the town, and above this was a precipice without a wall, which broke off sheer and abrupt, and sank into a ravine of incalculable depth. There was a copious fountain within the M"all<. This impregnable city, Josephus had still further strengthened by trenches and water-courses. The garrison was neither so numerous nor so brave as that of Joiapata, but still confident in the unassail- able position of their city. It was crowded with fugitives from all parts, and had already for seven months defied a besieging force, whif*h Agrippa had sent against it. Vespasian marched to Emmaus, celebrated for its warm baths, and then appeared before Gamala. It was impossible to blockade the whole circuit of a city so situated. But he took possession of all the neighbouring heights, particu- larly of the moimtain which commanded the town. He then took up a position behind and to the east of the city, where there was a lofty tower. There the fifteenth legion had their quarters, the fifth threw up works opposite to the centre of the citj", the tenth was employed in filling up the ditches and ravines. Agrippa ventured to approach the walls to persuade the inhabitants to capitulation. He was struck by a stone from a sling, on the right elbow, and carried off with all speed by his fohowers. This insult to the native king exasperated the Roman soldiery. The embankments were raised with great expedi- tion by the skilful and [iractised soldiers. Directly they were ready, the engines were advanced. Chares and Joseph commanded in the city; they had some misgivings of the event, for they were but scantily supplied with provisions and water, still, however, they manned the wall boldly, and for some f70 HISTORY OP THE .IKWS time vigorously resisted the engineers, who were fixing the machiiu-s; Imt, at leni