A HISTORY OF NEW TESTAMENT TIMES IN PALESTINE 175 BC-70 AD

CHAPTER X

HEROD I AND THE CHANGE OF DYNASTY

(40—1 BC)

The good fortune of Herod was, however, about to suffer an eclipse. The favors which he and Phasaelus received from the Romans had been from the start distasteful to the leading men of the Pharisees, and the treatment accorded their deputations by Antony, as well as the new taxes laid by the luxurious conqueror, had naturally increased their discontent. When, therefore, during Antony’s stay with Cleopatra in Egypt (40 BC), Antigonus once more attempted to get possession of the throne by the aid of the Parthians, whom he won over by the promise of 1000 talents and 500 women, he found many sympathizers in Judea. The Parthian invasion consisted of two detachments. One under Pacorus, son of the Parthian king, marched along the maritime plain, and the other under the satrap Barzatharnes, through the interior. The first attack of Antigonus was with a small force of Parthian horsemen and Jews from the neighborhood of Carmel upon the king’s palace in Jerusalem, but was unsuccessful. Thereupon he waited in the vicinity of the city, keeping up desultory fighting until Pentecost, hoping that he might then gather recruits from those who came up to attend the feast. In this he was successful, and soon had a large force behind him. Yet he seems to have preferred treachery to fighting. Through his request the commander of the Parthian troops (whose relations with Antigonus were not known to Herod and his brother) was allowed to enter the city and hold a conference with Phasaelus and Hyrcanus. Despite the warning of Herod, he persuaded them to go to the commander of the main body of invaders in Galilee. By him they were treacherously thrown into chains. Shortly after Phasaelus beat his brains out, and Hyrcanus was carried as a captive to Babylon, after his ears had been cut off, that he might never again be high priest. The Parthians then plundered Jerusalem and neighboring portions of Judea, finally leaving Antigonus to reign as king and high priest (40-37). In the meantime Herod, having been warned by Phasaelus, fled by night with a considerable force, expecting to find asylum at Petra with the Arabian king Malchus, whom he had previously aided. When, however, he started for Petra, he was met by messengers telling him not to proceed farther, as Malchus would not receive him. Thereupon he determined to go to Egypt, and thence to Rome.

Nothing could be more dramatic than the events of the next few weeks. Herod arrived at Pelusium and persuaded the naval officers to take him to Alexandria. Cleopatra heard of his arrival and endeavored to persuade him to spend the winter with her as commander of an expedition she was fitting out. But not even she and the danger of winter travel could stop him. After a terrible passage he arrived at Rhodes, only to find the city in ruins and no vessel to carry him to Rome. He built (or at least equipped) a three-decked ship, besides restoring the city during his delay. At last he arrived at Brundusium, and travelled post-haste to Rome and Antony. His purpose in thus seeking aid at Rome was to get the young Aristobulus, grandson of Hyrcanus II and brother of Mariamme, appointed king, doubtless that he might repeat the career of Antipater. But when he had made his complaint and given the necessary bribes, Antony and Octavius preferred to appoint Herod himself king, because of his evident capacity to protect the frontier against the Parthians and persuaded the Senate to act accordingly. The next day, the first of his reign, Herod was feasted by Antony, and within a week after his arrival in Italy was sailing back to Palestine, a king in search of his kingdom (40 BC).

Conquest of Galilee

In the meantime Antigonus had assumed the high-priesthood with the royal title, and the Parthians had been driven from Syria by Ventidius, the legate of Antony, southward into Judea, whither he followed them ostensibly to relieve Joseph (whom his brother Herod had left in charge of his family at Masada) from danger from Antigonus. In reality, Ventidius did little except mulct Antigonus of large sums. Accordingly, when Herod arrived at Ptolemais, he found that the entire work of putting down his rival was to be his, and even in this he was handicapped by the fact that Silo, the lieutenant of the legate, was soon afterward bribed into inactivity by Antigonus. Yet he began the work of conquering his country. The Galileans joined him in considerable numbers, and what with them and other Jewish forces, as well as Roman and mercenary troops, he was soon in a position to march south. Joppa was seized and garrisoned, his friends in Masada were at last relieved from the peril of their position, the fortress of Thresa was captured, and then Herod moved upon Jerusalem. Here Silo made it impossible for him to enter vigorously upon a siege, and, despite his utmost efforts, Herod was unable to prevent the Roman forces from going into winter quarters. Thereupon, in an exceptionally severe winter, he sent his brother Joseph to conquer Idumea, while he himself recovered Galilee. Samaria seems to have offered no resistance to his claims, for he left his family within it. In Galilee he found his chief opponents in the robbers who inhabited the caves at Arbela, near the Sea of Galilee. At first Herod was unable to subdue them, but later let his soldiers down in great boxes and baskets from the top of the cliffs, and so destroyed them in their very caves. As a punishment for their defection he also laid upon the cities a fine of 100 talents. A little later, after the defeat of the Parthians by Ventidius, Antony ordered Machaeras with a considerable force to go to the aid of Herod. Again, however, Antigonus succeeded in bribing the Roman commander, but prevented his entering Jerusalem. Herod none the less visited Antony, who received him with great honor, and after the surrender of Samosta, gave him two legions.

This visit of Herod to Antony, however, nearly cost him his kingdom. For during his absence Joseph allowed himself to be surprised during harvest at Jericho, and together with a large portion of his troops was killed. This defeat was the signal for widespread revolt against Herod. Galilee rose and drowned his officers in the lake, and a large part of Judea also became seditious. Herod received news of these misfortunes while in Daphne, near Antioch, and marched at once against Antigonus at the head of a legion and eight hundred auxiliaries. His first attack upon Galilee was not successful; but upon the arrival of a second legion from Antony he was able to march upon Jericho. There he hospitably received the principal men of the country and beat back an attack of the enemy, and shortly afterward defeated Pappus, a general of Antigonus. After this success, all Judea, with the exception of Jerusalem, fell into his hands, and as soon as spring came he began the siege of the capital, three years after he had been appointed king. So assured did his success now seem, that in the midst of the siege he was married to Mariamme, the daughter of Alexander, the son of Aristobulus II, and on her mother’s side the grand­daughter of Hyrcanus II—one of the most beautiful women of her day, and to whom Herod had been for several years betrothed.

Capture of Jerusalem

Shortly after his marriage, Herod was reinforced before Jerusalem by Sossius and the main army of Antony. With eleven legions of infantry, six thousand horse, and a considerable force of auxiliaries, it was only a question of time before Jerusalem should fall into his hands. Yet the forces of Antigonus fought desperately, and it was not until five months after the beginning of preparations that Antigonus yielded, threw himself on his face at the feet of Sossius and begged for mercy. The Roman insulted him, called him ‘Antigone’, and threw him into chains. In the meantime the Roman soldiers pillaged the city, slaughtering all whom they met, until Herod succeeded in saving the inhabitants from utter destruction by promising his allies enormous rewards. When Sossius left, he carried with him Antigonus as a prisoner, intending to take him to Antony, who in turn proposed to take him to Rome to grace his triumph. But Herod feared the result of allowing him to go to Rome, and by a large gift persuaded Antony to have him beheaded, according to Strabo it being the first instance in which the Romans had executed such a sentence upon a king. Although the Asmonean family still existed in the persons of Hyrcanus II, his daughter, and grandchildren, Herod had now no rival claimant for the throne. The Asmonean dynasty was at an end, and their “Mayors of the Palace” were installed as their political successors.

It was no ordinary man that thus came to the Judean throne, at last forever separated from the high-priesthood. For if Herod is at times the “splendid Arab” of Renan, the slave of conspirators in his women’s quarters, he is at others the astute ruler able to keep in check a headstrong people and maintain the friendship of Augustus, a builder of cities, a Roman man of the world, and the indispensable guardian of the Arabian frontier. As king, he was one of a large number of semi-dependent “allied kings” (reges socii), who might not even use the royal title without the consent of Rome. Their powers varied considerably, but in general were only sufficient to enable them to be inexpensively serviceable to the Empire. Their rights were not always, if commonly, based upon treaties, and thus both within and without the Empire their position was in some respects not unlike that of the mediaeval vassal. They were not always obliged to pay tribute, but were expected to furnish military aid whenever it was needed. Gifts were also expected. Allied kings had the right of coining money—in Herod’s case restricted to copper. Military power was likewise given them, but a too elaborate military establishment was liable to cause suspicion. In fact, the entire relation of these kings to the Empire was not unlike that of the German princes to Napoleon I. If the ‘allied king’ kept order within his territory and on the frontier, he was shown plenty of respect; but if he proved inefficient, he was pretty sure to be deposed, even if his territory was not made a part of a province.

King Herod

The reign of Herod is of less historical than biographical interest. After he had once gained undisputed possession of Judea, there could be little constitutional change, and even the disproportionate importance sometimes given a country by a desperate war was denied Judea. Yet so astute a ruler as he proved to be, could not fail to leave some impression upon the state. In the management of the foreign relations of Judea he barely missed greatness. Thrust in between uneasy border chiefs and the Roman Empire, a king over a people that, except for brief intervals, always hated him, he was yet so consummate an opportunist as to win and hold the favor of successive rivals. In fact, the only enemy whom he failed either to placate or to worst was Cleopatra of Egypt, especially dangerous because of her influence over Antony and her determination to get possession of the palm groves of Jericho as well as the surrounding region of the Jordan valley. His reign was of national significance also, not only because of the increased size of his kingdom, but also because of the rapid increase of Hellenism in the country. Unlike that of the days of Antiochus IV, however, this later Hellenism seems to have affected Jewish religious life but little within Palestine itself. Heathen cities grew more prosperous and the heathen population of the land increased. Jerusalem itself had its theatre, amphitheatre, and games. The more pious Jews held themselves aloof from these surroundings, but none the less the new factors were to prove of considerable importance in political affairs, and if we may judge by the events of 66 AD, the increased hatred of the Gentile was accompanied by an equally strong hatred of the Jew.

Shammai and Hillel.

But doubtless most important of all the national results of Herod’s reign was the consolidation of Pharisaism. At the outset, the Pharisees seeing in him the enemy of Antigonus and Sadduceeism had favored Herod, and their two leaders, Pollio—possibly the celebrated Abtalion—and his pupil, Shemaia, had advised Jerusalem to open its gates to him. Herod’s wholesale massacre of the Sadducean aristocracy and his reorganization of the Sanhedrin under Pharisaic influence, confirm this opinion. It was under Herod, also, that the two best-known Jewish rabbis taught. Of these two really great men, Shammai is represented as the sterner and more uncompromising; Hillel the gentler and more liberal. Yet this difference was rather with the refinements of the Law. As regards its ethical content they were at one. Shammai bade his disciples “make the study of the Law a decided occupation, promise little and do much, and receive every one with kindness”; while no Jewish teacher has left so many profound ethical sayings as Hillel. “Do not to others what thou wouldst not have done to thyself. This is the principal commandment; all others are the development of that one”. “He who wishes to raise his name, lowers it; he who does not seek the Law, does not deserve to live. He who does not progress in learning retrogrades; he who uses the crown of the Law for his own ends, perishes” —these are but two of his sayings. Under Hillel, also, the confused exegetical method of the earlier scribes was systematized and reduced to seven rules; while his practical sagacity appeared when, as president of the Sanhedrin, he procured the passage of a law regulating the cancellation of debts in the sabbatical year, which was proving injurious to business enterprise.

The reign of Herod not only saw both Pharisees and Sadducees withdraw from political life; it saw the latter utterly stripped of political significance. Obscure men from Babylon and Alexandria were elevated to the high-priesthood, and the office itself came wholly within the control of the new king. At the very beginning of his reign, Herod broke the power of the old Sadducean aristocracy by executing forty-five of its most wealthy members and confiscating their property, and as a result throughout his life he was free from any danger from that quarter.

But beyond these limits the reign of Herod has small historical significance, and its interest lies in those personal affairs so minutely copied by Josephus from the king’s historiographer, Nicholas of Damascus.

Safe from any serious opposition from the nation, Herod was rich in rivals in the members of the Asmonean house, Hyrcanus II, his daughter Alexandra, and her children Aristobulus and Mariamme, his own wife. The first attitude of Herod toward these members of his family was altogether friendly. He had always been on good terms with the old Hyrcanus, and at the beginning of his reign induced him to return from Babylon. On his arrival in Jerusalem, Herod received him with distinction, gave him the most honorable seat at banquets, called him father, and in every way possible endeavored to replace him in his old position. High priest, Hyrcanus could not be because of the loss of his ears, and Herod accordingly appointed his friend Ananel, an obscure Jew from Babylon, to the office. Herod’s mother-in-law, Alexandra, however, a scheming, selfish woman, took it ill that her son Aristobulus should not have been chosen to succeed his grandfather and uncle, and immediately began to intrigue with Cleopatra in hopes of Antony’s support. The means she chose to bring her ends to pass were worthy of the age, the woman, and the man, but proved ineffectual. Herod, nevertheless, judged it politic to reinstate the Asmonean family in the high-priesthood, and after deposing Ananel, appointed Aristobulus.

But although apparently reconciled, Herod and Alexandra were really struggling for the control of the state. Herod’s suspicions, aroused by a knowledge of this fact, were deepened by Alexandra’s attempt to escape with Aristobulus to Cleopatra, his implacable enemy, and after he saw the enthusiasm aroused by the bearing and beauty of Aristobulus as he officiated at the Feast of Tabernacles, he judged it no longer safe to allow the boy to live. Shortly after the feast, Aristobulus was drowned, apparently accidentally, while he was bathing in one of the fish ponds of his mother’s palace at Jericho, and Ananel once more became high priest. Alexandra never doubted Herod’s complicity in her son’s death, and succeeded in having the king brought to trial before Antony, who just then came to Laodicea on the Syrian coast. Herod went with trepidation, leaving his uncle, Joseph, in charge of the state and the royal household, with orders to kill Mariamme in case he should not return. This genuinely barbarian foresight was to bring Herod even more deeply into trouble with his wife and mother-in-law. On his return, his sister Salome, who was madly jealous of the Asmonean women, accused Mariamme of unfaithfulness. His suspicion was strengthened by Mariamme’s reference to his secret orders to Joseph, and in a rage of jealousy he executed Joseph, put Alexandra under guard, and all but killed Mariamme.

Herods’ war with Arabia

During the latter part of the supremacy of Antony and Cleopatra, Herod was forced to pay rental, not only for Jericho, but also for Arabia, a fact that plunged him at one time into the greatest danger. The Arabian king refused to pay the proper tribute, and Herod undertook to enforce his demands, but Herod’s was utterly defeated, and for some time was unable to gather any considerable army or carry on anything beyond guerilla war. It was not for several months, indeed until after the battle of Actium, that he was able to bring the Arabians again into subjection.

The victory of Octavius at Actium might easily have ended Herod’s career. He had been the friend of Antony, and indeed had been prevented from sending him troops only because Cleopatra had judged it more prudent to send him against the king of Arabia, that the two kings might mutually weaken one another. But with a daring amounting to genius, Herod rushed to the help of Didius, the governor of Syria, in his attack upon a band of Antony’s gladiators; had the aged Hyrcanus II executed on an highly improbable charge of conspiracy; committed Mariamme to the care of one Sohemus, with the same command as that he had previously given Joseph; and went to meet the new master of the republic. When brought into the presence of Octavius, Herod laid aside nothing of royal state except his diadem, told of his services to Antony, boasted that he had not deserted him, and finally left it to Octavius to say whether or not he should be allowed to continue as a servant of Rome. Octavius saw the value of the man, reestablished him as king, and after the two had visited Egypt together, gave him back Jericho, and also added to his territories the cities of Gadara, Hippos, Samaria, Gaza, Anthedon, Joppa, and Strata’s Tower.

But again Herod was to be tormented by quarrels among the women of his family. Salome and Cypros, stung by the contempt of Mariamme, waited only an opportunity to cause her downfall. The moment came when, after a year of stormy life, Herod was finally driven furious by his wife’s contempt and reproaches. Then again did Salome accuse her of infidelity, and in a paroxysm of rage and jealousy Herod ordered (28 BC) Mariamme to execution. Alexandra, in an Mariamme attempt to preserve herself, flooded her daughter with taunts and insults, but the proud and beautiful woman met her death without even a change of color—a worthy descendant of her house.

No sooner was his wife dead than Herod became insane with grief. He gave up the administration of the state, commanded his servants to act as if Mariamme were still alive, plunged into all sorts of excesses, and, if the rabbinical legend is to be believed, kept Mariamme’s body by him, preserved in honey. So critical did his condition become that, in anticipation of his death, Alexandra undertook to seize the kingdom for herself and her grandsons; but her efforts were reported to Herod, and he promptly had her executed (28 BC). Thereupon he seems to have partially recovered; but throughout his life he was subject to attacks of melancholy during which he was blood­thirsty and tyrannical. Three years later, again at the instigation of Salome, who had married Costobar, he sought out and executed the sons of Babas, the last representatives of the Asmonean house, together with Costobar himself, who had offered them an asylum for twelve years. After this he was without rivals, except those of his own family.

The succeeding period of twenty years furnishes little to relate except a record of lavish building, the story of new domestic tragedies and growing Pharisaism. Its earlier and happier portion was taken up with Herod’s efforts to imitate Augustus as a builder. He had early rebuilt the citadel of the temple, renaming it, in honor of his friend Antony, Antonia, and later he added a theatre and an amphitheatre as well as impregnable towers at Jerusalem. He celebrated games every fourth year in honor of Augustus, and hung up various inscriptions and trophies in his honor. This Roman zeal of their king, together with his constant innovations, aroused the more fanatical Jews to desperation, and a conspiracy was formed to kill Herod. It was betrayed, and its members were executed. It showed Herod, however, the danger that lay in his position and he immediately began to fortify and garrison various parts of the country in readiness for a revolt. Sebaste, Caesarea, Gaba in Galilee, and Heshbon in Perea were among the military posts he thus established, while he also built castles in other parts of the country, like Herodium southeast of Bethlehem, (Frank Mountain), and Herodium in Arabia, or rebuilt Asmonean strongholds that had been dismantled, like Alexandrium, Machaerus, Masada, and Hyrcania. In the case of Sebaste and Caesarea, he built really magnificent cities, the ruins of the former even today being considerable. Caesarea, in building which twelve years were spent, became the most important seaport south of Ptolemais, and boasted huge moles, quays, towers, sewers, temples, colonnades, palaces, as well as an amphitheatre, a theatre, and a hippodrome. Like Sebaste it was named in honor of Augustus, whose temple high above the city commanded the entire region. Nor did his passion for building stop with military necessities. In the Jordan valley he built the cities of Antipatris and Phasaelis, named in honor of his father and unfortunate brother, and a citadel at Jericho, which was named for his mother, Cypros. In the maritime plain he rebuilt Anthedon and named it Agrippaeum, in honor of his friend Agrippa, while he also erected temples, colonnades, or other public buildings in most cities he visited, but especially in Antioch, Rhodes, Nicopolis, Chios, Ascalon, Tyre, Sidon, Banias, Byblus, Berytus, Tripolis, Ptolemais, Damascus, Athens, and Sparta.

Herod’s Hellenism

Herod’s regard for heathen customs, displayed in much of this building, is also evidenced by the games he established at Caesarea and Jerusalem, by his gifts toward maintaining the Olympic games, and by his choice of Greeks to administer his affairs and to act as tutors for his sons. He is even said to have studied Greek philosophy under Nicholas of Damascus, his littérateur and orator. At the same time he followed the customs of Rome by building himself a strongly fortified palace in the Upper City at Jerusalem, in laying out parks, and breeding pigeons.

At the same time that he was thus winning popularity in the Greek world, Herod did not cease to be a king of the Jews. His internal improvements were worthy of the man he copied. The water supply of Jerusalem was improved, the robber bands of Trachonitis were controlled by three thousand Idumean colonists, the miseries of famine were alleviated by public works employing fifty thousand men, and aid was given to other sufferers until even the royal plate was sold. Twice did he reduce the taxes, once in 20 BC by a third, and once in 14 BC by a fourth. In addition, the country was kept in peace, robbers were everywhere attacked, the frontier was rigorously guarded. So successful was he in his administration that Augustus gave him successively Trachonitis, Auranitis, Batanea, and the tetrarchy of Zenodoms, which included Banias, while his brother Pheroras was appointed tetrarch of Perea, and the procurator of Syria was ordered to consult with the king in all important matters.

Such good administration won him also the favor of the people. If they murmured somewhat at his lavish devotion to heathen life, they appreciated the regard for their prejudices concerning graven images shown in his coins and buildings, as well as the political necessity under which he was placed. Even more did they appreciate the substantial aid that such friendship enabled Herod to gain for the Jews, not only in Judea but in the Dispersion. The Pharisees themselves might praise a ruler who respected their opinions, paused to prove the absence of impiety in trophies, demanded circumcision of a suitor for his sister’s hand, scrupulously observed the sanctity of the temple and its courts, and whose accusers before Agrippa and Augustus were the Arabians and the heathen citizens of Gadara. Even his enemies could plead little against him beyond severity in the interests of order, and the most fanatical must have honored a ruler who excused many of their scribes from taking an oath of allegiance, and who especially honored the Essenes. It is true, on the other hand, that he had greatly weakened the Sanhedrin by the massacre of its Sadducean members with which he began his reign, but there is no good reason for doubting that it continued both as a sort of Pharisaic academy whose decisions were final in matters of religion, and as a court before whom Herod himself could cite the unfortunate Hyrcanus II. Even if he removed and appointed the high priests arbitrarily, his action was offset by the magnificent temple which in 20 BC he began to erect in place of the one ascribed to Zerubbabel, as well as by the regard for the priests as a class he exhibited during the eighteen months of its building, and his own observance of the building’s sanctity.

The last years of Herod

But whatever popularity such facts as these imply, was lost during the last years of Herod’s life. Again family troubles aroused the worst side of his nature, and his family and the Pharisees alike suffered. As he grew older, he grew less tolerant of his people’s prejudices. Understand them he most certainly did; but either confidence in his own power, or some insanity resulting from his domestic tragedy, led him repeatedly to irritate and enrage them in a way altogether impossible for him during his better years. It is in these later years that one must seek the obscure beginnings of that Zealot party which was later to prove so terrible an agent of revolt. Unlike the Essenes, the Zealots seem to have sprung directly from the Pharisees, from whom they came to differ largely in this one respect: despairing of any Messiah, and impatient for the coming of the kingdom of God, they tired of faith and patience and looked to revolution. Patriotism with them was synonymous with action. They would “see the judgments and all the curses of their enemies”. It is their spirit that appeared in the group of three thousand Pharisees who refused to take the oath of allegiance to Herod and the emperor, and it is easy to see members of the party also in the mob of fanatics under the two rabbis, Judas and Mattathias, who tore down the eagle Herod had carved over the entrance to the temple.

But apart from his growing severity toward his people, Herod’s last years were full of misery. The absence of any clear law governing succession to the throne, and the consequent opportunity for plots and counter-plots in favor of some one of the king’s numerous sons, doubtless explain much of the tragedy that marked these years, but along with them must be placed the character of Herod himself. The mad determination not to surrender his throne before his death; the fierce suspicion that, first aroused by treachery among them he loved best, embraced an ever-increasing number of those nearest him; the tyrannical control of his people; all sprang from a character as unrestrained in its passions as in its energies.

His difficulties with his family were of long standing, but became acute when in order to curb the arrogance of Alexander and Aristobulus, his sons by Mariamme, he caused his eldest son Antipater to be brought from Galilee, where he had been living in semi-banishment. The two young men, proud of their Asmonean descent, bore their disgrace ill, and soon became indiscreet, even if not disloyal in speech. The situation was complicated by the enmities and jealousies of the various women in the royal household— Salome, the king's sister, Glaphyra, the wife of Alexander, Berenice, the daughter of Salome, the wife of Aristobulus, and the various wives of Herod himself, while through it all ran the poisonous influence of Antipater, set upon the death of the sons of Mariamme.

The storm broke first in BC 12, and Herod then took Aristobulus and Alexander to Rome, to accuse them before the emperor, but Augustus had brought about a reconciliation. Two years later, certain eunuchs, under torture, confessed that Alexander had made contemptuous remarks about Herod, and even was plotting with his brother Aristobulus against him. Herod at once arrested Alexander, tortured and killed his friends, and, as Alexander, doubtless in hopes of Roman interference, endeavored to incite him to greater madness, became almost insane with fear and suspicion. Yet just when affairs were most desperate, the father-in-law of Alexander, Archelaus of Cappadocia, could bring about a reconciliation between the father and son by feigning to malign Alexander. Herod’s fatherly instincts were yet too strong to endure such an attack upon the child of Mariamme, and he restored Alexander to favor, showering Archelaus with all sorts of presents! For a few months the family lived in peace. Herod was engaged in punishing a wily Arab who had defaulted payment on some bond, and, thanks to this rascal’s monetary influence at the imperial court, found himself in disfavor with Augustus. So far did the misunderstanding go that the emperor wrote Herod that “whereas of old he had treated Herod as his friend, he should now treat him as his subject”. But even while affairs were in this condition the brothers were again accused of treason, and when, through the efforts of Nicholas of Damascus, Herod was restored to favor, Augustus gave him full power to deal with his sons as he saw fit. A few weeks later they were tried and condemned before a court at Berytus (Beirut) and (BC 7) strangled at Sebaste. Thereupon Antipater, in complete control of his father, went to Rome to await the old king’s death.

But the fearful drama was not yet complete. Herod turned fiercely upon the Pharisees, and was engaging in something like persecution, when, thanks to the revelations of Salome, he suddenly discovered the true character of Antipater. He ordered him back to Judea, had him tried, condemned, and imprisoned. Later, again with the consent of Augustus, he had the wretch executed. Ten days later he himself died, dividing his kingdom among three of his sons: Archelaus, to whom he gave Judea, with the title of king; Herod Antipas, to whom he gave Galilee and Perea, with the title of tetrarch; and Philip, to whom he gave the northeastern districts, also with the title of tetrarch. He had reigned thirty-seven years.