Jofeph defeated and killed. Galilee and Idu maa reco vered by Herod. Herod's Signal vic tory over Antigonus; marriage with Ma riamne. Herod beheges Je rufalem. he was then encamped upon, the enemy furprised and de feated him, after a noble defence, in which himself was killed by Pappus the Roman general. Antigonus caufed his head to be cut off, and carried in triumph with him; but his brother Pheroras redeemed it at the price of fifty talents. The confequence of this defeat was, the total revolt of Galilee, where the wealthieft of Herod's party were barbaroufly flung, in great numbers, into the lake of Tiberias. Idumæa was alfo on the point of revolting, when Herod appeared at the head of a fresh army, and in a little time reduced thofe two provinces again. His army ftill increasing, and Macheras ftoutly defending himself against Antigonus, a battle was foon fought between the two antagonists, wherein Herod gained a complete victory, and made a horrid flaughter of the enemy: Pappus being found among the dead, he ordered his head to be cut off, and fent to Pheroras. His eagerness to revenge his brother's death, made him purfue his flying enemy with fuch uncommon celerity, that, had he not been prevented by a violent ftorm, he might have gone ftraight to Jerufalem, and have taken it with eafe. Antigonus was, by that time, fo reduced, that he was upon the point of abandoning the capital; but now winter coming on, and the foldiers being unable to bear the fatigues of a siege, Herod put them into winter quarters, and began to make preparations for opening it in the beginning of fpring. Meanwhile he went to Samaria, and confummated his marriage with Mariamne, whom he had betrothed four years before. By this time he had got a reinforcement of thirty thousand men; and Sofius had been sent to his affiftance, at the head of eleven legions and fix thousand horfe, befides fome auxiliary troops hired from Syria. By this numerous army Jerufalem was invefted. The befieged, on the other hand, were no lefs numerous, and refolute for a vigorous defence, the city being filled with Jews, who flocked thither from all parts of the kingdom. They annoyed the befiegers by frequent fallies, in which they deftroyed great quantities of their provifion and forage. But on the fortieth day of the fiege, the Romans, in fpite of the ftout refiftance from within, found means to fcale the outward wall; and on the fiftieth they got within the second, when fome of the galleries about the temple being fet on fire, Herod threw all the odium of it on Antigonus. The lower city being taken, the be Antiq. & Bell. Jud. ubi fupra. fieged betook themselves to the higher, and to the temple, where they fuffered very much through famine, it being the fabbatic year. However, they built a new wall inftead of that which was beaten down, countermined the enemy, and fought fometimes above and fometimes under-ground, with more despair than courage. At length, Takes it by after a long and clofe fiege, Herod finding them as form. obftinate as ever, ordered a general affault to be made, which both his and the Roman troops performed with fuch vigour, that they forced them at length to furrender (L). Herod. The Romans, having dispersed themselves through all the quarters of the upper city, made a terrible flaughter of the Jews, and plundered and ravaged every habitation. The very fanctuary was in danger of undergoing the fame fate, had not Herod prevented it, partly by intreaties, and partly by mere force. He fent, at the fame Saved time, a fevere meffage to Sofius, complaining, that if from dethis plunder and butchery was not stopped, the Romans ftruction by would leave him king only of a bare wilderness; that, as for himself, he should look upon his fuccefs as the greatest misfortune that could befal him, if it must be attended with the profanation of that facred place, the access to which was permitted to none but the Jewish priests. Sofius answered, that he did not well know how to forbid his troops plundering a place that had been taken by affault; fo that Herod faw himfelf under a neceflity of faving both temple and city from all further devastation, by a large donative out of his own coffers. 2311. Ante Chr. 37. Thus was Jerufalem taken, after a fiege of fix months; Yr. of Fl. 2nd with its surrender, ended the reign of the Afmoneans, which had continued a hundred and twenty-nine years, from Judas Maccabeus to Antigonus, the laft male of that race who bore the regal title. Sofius, having presented a Antigonus crown of gold to the temple, left Jerufalem, and con- put to veyed Antigonus in chains to Antony, by whom he was, death. at the earnest folicitations of Herod, put to a fhameful death, in the third year of his reign . d Jofeph. Antiq. lib. xv. cap. 1. Bell. Jud. lib. i. cap. 13. Vid. & Uffer. fub. A. M. 3967. (L) Antigonus came down from a tower, which he had defended as long as he could, threw himself at Sofius's feet, and in the most abject and SECT. SECT. V. The Hiftory of the Jews from Herod to the Birth of Herod's THE cruel be ginning. The causes of it. Oppreffon of the Antigonians. Cruel watchfulness over them. HE reduction of Jerusalem, and the death of Antigonus, having fixed Herod upon the Jewish throne, he was foon obliged to employ his thoughts on two important concerns; the one to replenish his coffers, exhausted by the large fums with which he had been forced to buy the friendship of the Roman generals; the other was to fupprefs the oppofite faction, which, in fpite of his rival's ignominious death, retained an invincible attachment to the Afmonean family, and an irreconcileable hatred to his own. Thefe points, which could not be attained without a great deal of oppreffion, and much bloodshed, we must look upon as the main fprings of all his actions, and the caufes of his uneafy reign. Being poffeffed of that metropolis, he caufed all the gold, filver, and other valuable things he found in it, to be carried into his own palace, by which rapine he amaffed immediately an immenfe treafure; but as a great part of it had been promised to the Romans, and was actually given to them, he reimbursed himself by the forfeiture of the eftates of the Antigonian faction, caufing the wealthieft of them to be feized, and forty-five of the principals to be put to death (M). Such was his jealoufy in this refpect, that he caufed guards to be planted at their gates, to examine, as they were carrying them to their graves, whether they were really dead, and whether any riches were conveyed off with their bodies; in which cafe they were feized upon, and fent into his treasury. Upon the whole, his neceffities and profufion were fo great, that he fpared no extortion to fupply them; infomuch that this being the fabbatic year, in which there was neither planting nor fowing, and all the country having been terribly plundered and ravaged, both before and during the fiege, nothing less than a grievous famine was expected all over the land. • Antiq. lib. xv. cap. 1. (M) Herod, however, fpared that very Sameas, who had appeared the most intrepid a gainst him at his trial before the fanhedrim; as well as Pollio, another learned and va Bell. Jud. lib. i. cap. 13. luable Jew, who had been a great partizan for Hyrcan againft him: and these were not the only inftances of Herod's clemency. Herod then in Herod had ftill another rival left, who, though at a Jealousy of great distance from him, and kept, as it were, a prisoner Hyrcan, in Parthia, did not fuffer his mind to be at eafe. This Parthia. was Hyrcan, the depofed king and high-prieft, whom Pacorus had carried thither in chains. But when Phraartes came to be informed of his high birth and dignity, he generously took off his chains, and permitted him to live in Babylon, where he was highly refpected, not only by the great number of Jews, who dwelt in that city, but likewife by all thofe that lived beyond the Euphrates, who looked upon him as their rightful prince and high-prieft. Their veneration for him was raifed ftill higher, when they understood that Herod had filled the pontifical chair with an old acquaintance of his own, named Ananel, a defcendent of one of those priestly families that settled at Babylon after the captivity, and whom that politic prince caufed to be fetched from thence, merely on account of his meannefs and obfcurity; that, being without friends or interest in Judæa, he might be contented with his facerdotal function, without interfering with the royal prerogative. there. Hyrcan might then have thought himself happy in his That ponexile, being thus refpected by the Parthian king, and by tiff's hap-. all the Jews of the difperfion; yet fuch was his love for piness his country, or rather his fatal confidence in the new Jewish monarch, that, as foon as he heard of his being on the throne, he conceived a great defire of spending the remainder of his life at Jerufalem. His friends, to whom he communicated his thoughts, tried in vain to diffuade him from it, by representing to him the folly and hazard of putting himself in that monarch's power, efpecially fince he could hardly expect greater honour or happinefs at Jerufalem than he enjoyed at Babylon. But Perfuaded Herod plied him with repeated invitations, and even fent to return Santacalla as his ambaffador, with prefents to the Par- into Juthian king, entreating him to allow the pontiff to return to Judæa f. dæa. Yr. of Fl. 2313 Ante Chr. 35. In the midst of these transactions Herod was not a little disturbed with domeftic jars. Alexandra, the daughter of Hyrcan, and mother of Ariftobulus and Mariamne, a woman of a haughty fpirit, could not bear, with any patience, to fee an obfcure Babylonish priest preferred be- Herod's dofore her fon to the pontifical dignity, from which Hyrcan mestic jars. was now disabled by the lofs of his ears. She was ever VOL. III. f Antiq. lib. xv. cap. 2. expoftu expoftulating with him on the injury done to her fon, and infifting that the pontifical dignity belonging, in right of fucceffion to him alone, as being defcended by father and mother from Alexander Jannæus, none but he ought, in juftice, to be invefted with it. But Herod, conscious that the young prince had an equal right likewife to the regal dignity, which he now ufurped from him, was afraid to grant her the one, left she should find fome means in time of feizing upon the other. His refufal induced her to write to Cleopatra, not doubting but her intereft with Antony might greatly influence that general in favour of her fon. It was impoffible for her to carry on that correfpondence fo clofely, but Herod had fome intimation of· it; and, fearing the worft from thofe two intriguing princefles, he was forced for the prefent to confent to have Ariftobulus Ananel depofed, and Ariftobulus invested with that digmade high- nity, pretending that he had only given it to the former, till the latter was come to be of an age to perform the functions. prieft. Alexandra confined. This condefcenfion of Herod, backed with fo plaufible excufe, wrought a kind of reconciliation between them; but which was nothing lefs than fincere on either fide, efpecially on Herod's, who ftill fufpected the intrigues of the mother, and the merit of the fon, whofe high birth, and virtues, joined to a graceful perfon, attracted the eyes and hearts of the whole Jewish nation. Upon fome pretence, therefore, he quarrelled with Alexandra, forbad her to meddle with any public affairs, and at last caused her to be confined to her palace, and to be closely watched. In the mean time, Cleopatra having fent her Invited by Cleopatra. and her fon an invitation to come to Egypt, she was easily perfuaded to accept it, fince fhe could now only look upon herself as Herod's prifoner, from whose jealousy she had every thing to fear. The difficulty was, how to conceal their flight from his watchful fpies: fhe intrufted her defign only to two faithful fervants, one of whom was to procure her a fhip to cary them off, and the other to provide two coffins, one for her fon, and the other for herself, to convey them in that manner to the fhip. But one of the two fervants inadvertently mentioned the matter to a third, whom he thought to have been in the fecret, who. immediately took hold of this opportunity to ingratiate himself with Herod, and made a full difcovery of the defign. Herod ftayed only till the mother and fon were conveyed fome part of the way in their coffins, and then caufed them to be arrested, and brought back. His fear, however, Her frata be gem rayed. |