MEANWHILE the friendship between Octavius and Antonius had at length been broken, and the whole East rang with preparations for the coming contest between the triumvirs for the supremacy of the world. Herod raised a body of troops to assist Antonius, but the latter declined his aid, and being thus excused taking any prominent part in a doubtful struggle, he turned his arms against Malchus, king of Arabia. The artful designs of Cleopatra had involved him in this war. Already mistress of Cœlesyria, and of the palm-groves around Jericho by the concessions of her Roman lover, she cast longing eyes upon Judæa also. The Arabian king, emboldened by the rupture between the Roman triumvirs, had withheld the payment to her of his annual tribute, an insult which Antonius directed Herod to avenge. Seeing her opportunity, she urged Herod to embark in the war, hoping if he was successful to become mistress of Arabia, if unsuccessful, of Judæa.
But the Jews were exceedingly unwilling to undertake a war against a nation with whom they had no quarrel, and Herod was defeated in the first campaign with great loss. His troops were still more unwilling to engage a second time, but fortune came to his aid. A sudden earthquake convulsed the cities of southern Palestine, and destroyed in one day upwards of 30,000 of the inhabitants. Taking advantage of the consternation thus caused, the Arabs slew the Jewish ambassadors who had come to treat of peace. News of this treachery roused once more the martial spirit of the nation, and enabled Herod to win a signal triumph over his foes, and to reduce the country to subjection.
On his return from this expedition he received intelligence that his patron Antonius had been defeated in the decisive battle of Actium, B.C. 31, and had left the supremacy of the world to his rival Octavius. His first impulse was to urge the triumvir to seize Egypt, and put to death Cleopatra, the faithless cause of his misfortunes. But the infatuated Roman, rejecting this advice, followed his enchantress to Alexandria. There twelve months afterwards, deserted by his troops, and unable to come to any terms with Octavius, he fell upon his sword, and Cleopatra, rather than grace a Roman triumph, applied the fatal asp to her breast.
Herod’s fate once more seemed to tremble in the balance. But, equal to the emergency, he provided with characteristic energy and boldness an escape from his embarrassments. He first resolved to put Hyrcanus out of the way, as the last remnant of the Asmonean dynasty, and on a charge of a treasonable correspondence with the king of Arabia, dragged him before the Sanhedrin, and caused him to be executed. He next resolved to make a personal appeal to Octavius, and before he left sent his mother, sister, and children to Masada, and placed Mariamne in the fortress of Alexandrium, under the custody of faithful adherents, Soemus the Ituræan, and Joseph his steward, again enjoining that, in the event of his death, Mariamne should be instantly dispatched.
Then setting out for Rhodes he appeared before Octavius without the diadem, but with all the spirit and dignity of a king, and addressed him in a speech of the utmost freedom98. He did not in the least disguise his friendship for the late triumvir. He had given him, he said, the best advice in urging him to put Cleopatra to death, and prosecute the war with vigour. But Antonius had rejected his counsels, and pursued a course ruinous to himself and beneficial only to his rival. If Octavius, seeing the steadiness of the speaker’s friendship towards his late foe, would honour him with his confidence, he might count on being served with the same steadiness and the same fidelity. His frankness completely won over the arbiter of the world, who restored to him the diadem, treated him with the greatest distinction, and assured him of his friendship and confidence99.
Thus successful beyond his utmost expectations, Herod returned to Jerusalem. But the secret orders entrusted to the guardian of Mariamne had been again disclosed, and she met his greeting with coldness and aversion, and reproached him bitterly with the murder of her grandfather Hyrcanus. Herod’s anger was deeply roused, but for the present other and more public duties demanded his attention. Bent on the invasion and conquest of Egypt, Octavius passed through Syria and arrived at Ptolemais. Thither Herod went to meet him, presented him with 800 talents, and supplied provisions in great abundance for his troops. This still further conciliated the Roman’s favour, and on his return from Egypt, where the suicide of Antony and Cleopatra removed all obstructions to the reduction of the country to a Roman province, he not only conferred upon him the territory around Jericho, which had been ceded to the late Egyptian queen, but reannexed to his dominions the cities of Gadara, Hippo, and Samaria, together with the maritime towns Gaza, Joppa, and Strato’s Tower100, B.C. 30.
But these successes did little towards compensating the Jewish king for the loss of the affections of Mariamne, who persisted in rejecting his caresses, and reproaching him with his cruelty towards her family. At this juncture the envious Salome suborned the royal cupbearer to accuse the queen of having bribed him to poison his master. This new accusation filled Herod with such rage that he ordered Mariamne’s favourite eunuch to be put to the rack. The wretched man denied all knowledge of the plot, but confessed that the secret orders given to Soemus had excited the queen’s hatred and disgust. Furious at what he deemed a second proof of her infidelity, Herod directed that Soemus should be instantly executed, and arraigned Mariamne before a tribunal of judges on a charge of adultery. The judges, too terrified to do any thing but obey his bidding, pronounced her guilty, and sentenced her to death. But though he had procured her condemnation, the tyrant shrunk from proceeding to her execution. His mother and sister, however, suffered him to have no rest, and so worked upon his feelings that at length he signed the fatal order for her execution, and Mariamne was led forth to die, B.C. 29.
But now a reaction set in. The terrible reality of the deed, combined with a sense of his own loss, so wrought upon his feelings, that he became the victim of the most violent remorse. “Everywhere, day and night, he was haunted by the image of the murdered queen; he called upon her by name; he perpetually burst into passionate tears; he ordered his servants to bring Mariamne to him, as though she were yet alive. In vain he tried every diversion,—banquets, revels, the excitements of society. A sudden pestilence breaking 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 melancholy solitude, till the disorder of his mind brought on a disorder of body, and he was seized with violent inflammation and pains in the back of his head, which led to temporary derangement101.”
After lying in this state for some time in his palace at Samaria, he was at length partially restored to health, and came forth gloomy, stern, revengeful, more ready than ever to resort to cruelty and bloodshed. Alexandra was his first victim. Taking advantage of his malady she had again renewed her intrigues, and tried to gain possession of Jerusalem. She was now executed, together with Costobaras, governor of Idumæa and Gaza and husband of Salome, who was accused of harbouring some of the Asmonean dynasty, with many others of rank and influence102.
Meanwhile, B.C. 27103, the senate of Rome had conferred upon Octavius the title of Augustus, the august, the divine, and soon in every part of the empire temples began to rise in honour of the divinity of the Emperor. Herod resolved not to be behindhand in adulation towards his patron, and, all being now dead who had any claims to the crown, he devoted himself to the introduction of foreign customs into the country. Though fully aware of the intensely national feelings of his subjects, he resolved to lose no opportunity of breaking down the wall of partition between them and the surrounding nations.
He introduced, therefore, public exhibitions and spectacles of all kinds; erected a theatre within, an amphitheatre without, the walls of Jerusalem; instituted quinquennial games, which were celebrated on a scale of the most lavish magnificence; invited to his capital the professors of every kind of gymnastic exercises, and did not even shrink from exhibiting in the city of David shows of gladiators and combats with wild beasts.
The stricter Jews regarded with horror those innovations, but their indignation knew no bounds when, for the purpose of celebrating the victories of Octavius, he set up in his theatre complete suits of armour captured during the imperial wars. Nothing could persuade them to believe that these trophies did not conceal heathen images, and it was only when they had been taken to pieces, and the bare peg of wood exposed underneath, that their suspicions were removed. This raised a laugh, but the deepfelt exasperation of the majority was not removed. At length ten men formed a conspiracy to assassinate the king as he entered the theatre. The plot was betrayed, and they were put to death with the most cruel tortures. The people, sympathising with their sufferings, seized the informer who had betrayed the secret to Herod, tore him to pieces, and flung his flesh to the dogs. This roused the king in his turn to retaliate, and seizing the ringleaders he put them to death, together with their families, B.C. 25.
These risings, however, convinced him that his life was insecure, and he had recourse to various measures of precaution. He erected a palace on the impregnable hill of Sion; restored and enlarged the Baris, and named it Antonia, after his former patron. At the same time he rebuilt and founded various cities to serve as military ports and retreats on occasions of danger, such as Gaba in Galilee, and Heshbon in Peræa. Samaria also, which had been destroyed by John Hyrcanus, once more rose from its ruins, was surrounded with a wall, strongly fortified, and peopled with 6000 veterans devoted to the king’s interests. A temple also was erected within it, dedicated to the occupant of the imperial throne, in whose honour the city also was now called Sebaste, the August104.
But Herod105 further resolved that his kingdom should have a naval harbour and a maritime city, whereby he might communicate more securely with the western world. A convenient point along the inhospitable coast-line of Palestine offered itself at a spot called Strato’s Tower, situated about 30 miles south of Mount Carmel, and 70 miles north-west of Jerusalem, on the line of the great road from Tyre to Egypt. To protect the shipping from the violent south-west winds, which blew along the coast, it was first necessary that a breakwater should be constructed. Accordingly enormous stones were sunk in deep water to form a mole 2000 feet in length. This supported a pier, 200 feet wide, defended by a wall and towers, and formed a sort of double harbour equal in size to the Piræus at Athens, and surrounded with broad landing wharves. The entrance was from the north, so that a vast fleet could ride at anchor with perfect safety. Above the harbour rose the city, built on the Greek model with a forum and amphitheatre, and called, in honour of the king’s friend on the imperial throne, Cæsarea. Upwards of 12 years were spent in the erection of this important maritime city106.
THUS Judæa seemed to be sinking more and more into the form of a Roman province, while Herod rivalled the other vassal kings of Rome in subservience to the master of the world. It was a saying that Cæsar assigned to him the next place in his favour to Agrippa, while Agrippa esteemed Herod higher than all his friends, except Augustus107. The three vied with one another in mutual courtesies, and whenever either Cæsar or Agrippa visited the Eastern provinces, the Jewish king was sure to be first to pay his homage, and to assist with his personal support and advice.
In return for these attentions the Roman emperor was profuse in his concessions. When Herod sent his two elder sons by Mariamne, Alexander and Aristobulus, to Rome for their education, he received them into his palace and treated them with the utmost care and distinction108. Moreover, besides the large addition he had already made to Herod’s territories, he now conceded to him the district east of the Lake of Gennesaret, known as Trachonitis, with Batanæa and Auranitis, and afterwards appointed him procurator of the province of Syria, and with such authority, that his colleagues in command could take no step without his concurrence109. At the same time a tetrarchy was conferred on his brother Pheroras, and in memory of these concessions, Herod erected a splendid temple of white marble at Paneas, near the sources of the Jordan, and dedicated it to his benefactor110.
But while the Jewish king was on terms of such intimate friendship with his imperial patron, his relations with his own subjects were far from satisfactory. In spite of the profuse liberality with which he had poured forth the contents of his treasury, and even parted with the silver plate of his table to satisfy their wants during a severe famine, B.C. 25, in spite also of his munificence in diminishing a third of the annual taxation, the murmurs of the populace against his rule could not be restrained.
Strong as was the party which favoured his designs and approved his policy, the majority of the nation regarded with undissembled suspicion and mistrust his numerous innovations, and the introduction of foreign rites and customs. In vain he forbade any assemblages of the citizens for feasting or deliberation; in vain he kept himself informed through his spies of all who disapproved of his government, threw them into prison, and sometimes punished them with death; in vain he tried to compel all his subjects to take an oath of fidelity towards himself and his dynasty; he could not control the opposition of the powerful Pharisaic faction111, or check the general feeling of disaffection.
At length, B.C. 20, he determined on a measure which he trusted might have the effect at once of giving employment to large numbers, and winning the favour of the nation. He resolved to rebuild the Temple.
Since the construction of the second Temple by Zorobabel that structure had suffered much from dilapidation, and bore unmistakeable traces of the assaults of various armies. The evident need, therefore, of renewal, induced the king to hope that no obstacle would be put in the way of his design. But on laying his project before the assembled people, he found that it was regarded with little favour and greater suspicion112. Under pretence of rebuilding, many believed he really intended to destroy their national sanctuary.
Great caution was therefore needed, and everything was done that could be devised to allay the popular mistrust. Vast preparations were made before a single stone of the old building was removed, and two years were spent in bringing together all the materials; 1000 waggons were constructed for the purpose of bearing stones for the building, and upwards of 10,000 of the most skilful workmen, superintended by 1000 Levites, who had been taught the arts of carpentry and stone-cutting, were employed on the works113.
In the 20th year of Herod’s reign, or B.C. 18, the erection of the new structure began. The foundations of the Temple of Zorobabel were removed, and on those laid by Solomon the new pile arose, built of hard white stones of enormous size. The Porch, Holy Place, and Holy of Holies, were completed in a year and a half114; the rest of the pile, with the courts and cloisters, in eight years more, so as to be fit for the actual services of religion, but the whole structure was not finally completed115 till A.D. 65116.
On the highest level of the rocky platform stood the Temple itself, divided as in the days of Solomon, and covered with plates of gold, which shone like a meteor under the rays of the sun, so that the eye could hardly bear to rest upon them. Twelve steps below was a second level, occupied by the Court of the Priests, with the Great Laver, and the Altar of Burnt-offering. Three flights of steps below this was the Court of the Israelites, with the houses of the priests, the various offices, and hall of the Sanhedrin. Fourteen steps more led down to the Court of the Gentiles, which was hardly regarded as a part of the Temple, and was open to men of all nations and became a kind of exchange and market-place.
While the Sanctuary had been left to the care of the priests, Herod exhausted all his taste on this Court of the Gentiles. “Cloisters ran round the wall on the inner side, sustained on rows of columns exquisitely wrought, the capitals being ornamented with the acanthus and waterleaf, as in the famous Tower of the Winds. West, north, and east these columns were in three rows; on the south they were in four. The floor made a shaded walk, like the colonnade in Venice, and the roof an open walk like the gallery of Genoa. The pavement was inlaid with marbles of many colours. Leading into this Court from the city and the country were many noble gates; one of these on the Eastern side, facing the Mount of Olives, was called Solomon’s Porch, and a second near by it was called the Beautiful Gate117.”
Immediately after the completion of the Sanctuary, which was commemorated with lavish sacrifices and splendid feasts118, Herod set out for Rome, to bring back his sons Alexander and Aristobulus. On his arrival in the imperial city119, he was received by Augustus with every mark of regard, and returned with his two sons apparently in the spring of the year B.C. 15. During the autumn his friend Agrippa visited Judæa120, and Herod shewed him his new cities, Sebaste and Cæsarea, and the fortresses of Alexandrium, Herodium, and Hyrcania. Then conducting him to Jerusalem, he entertained him at a sumptuous banquet, while the people welcomed the great minister of Augustus with acclamations, and Agrippa offered a sacrifice of 100 oxen in the Temple, and feasted the subjects of the Jewish king at a splendid entertainment.
BUT the return of the young princes, Alexander and Aristobulus, from Rome was the signal for a scene of bloodshed, still more awful than that which had darkened the beginning of Herod’s reign.
The monarch married them, Alexander to Glaphyra, daughter of Archelaus, king of Cappadocia; Aristobulus to Berenice, the daughter of his sister Salome121. The grace and beauty of the young men, added to their descent through their mother from the great Asmonean house, made them objects of the utmost interest to the people, and they were regarded as the future rulers of Palestine.
The popular favour, however, which they thus attracted, aroused the keenest hatred of Salome and Pheroras. Conscious of the part they had played in the execution of Mariamne, they looked with dismay at the future elevation of the young princes. Taking advantage, therefore, of some incautious expressions they chanced to let fall respecting the execution of their mother, they began by circulating rumours that the young men were bent on avenging their mother’s death, and bore no goodwill towards the king. For some time Herod refused even to listen to these rumours. But before long they acquired fresh strength and consistency, and to check their pride, he sent for Antipater, the son of his first wife Doris, and set him up as a foil to the aspirations and popularity of Alexander and Aristobulus122.
Salome had thus a ready tool for prosecuting her cunning designs, and as Herod had permission from Augustus to appoint whom he pleased as his successor, the two together bent all their efforts towards alienating him from the sons of Mariamne.
In the beginning of B.C. 13, the king went to join Agrippa at Sinope, and attended him through Paphlagonia, Cappadocia, Phrygia, and Ionia, to Ephesus. On this occasion he introduced Antipater to his powerful friend, and sent him in his train on a visit to Rome, with many costly presents and an introduction to Augustus. Even at Rome the crafty Idumæan did not remit his machinations against his rivals, but in every letter to his father dropped something to the discredit of the sons of Mariamne, veiling his real designs under pretence of great anxiety for Herod’s security.
By these artful means the suspicions of the king were at length raised to such a pitch, that he resolved on formally accusing his sons before the tribunal of Augustus. Accordingly, B.C. 11, he conducted them to Rome, and in the presence of the emperor charged them with designs upon his life. Augustus perceived that the accusation rested only on hearsay and suspicion, and after hearing the case succeeded in reconciling the young men to their father, and the three, accompanied by Antipater, returned to Jerusalem apparently on terms of amity and goodwill.
On regaining his capital, Herod convened an assembly of the people, introduced to them his three sons, and formally announced his design that they should succeed him in the order of their birth, first Antipater, then Alexander, and lastly Aristobulus123. But this arrangement was satisfactory to no one. The sons of Mariamne were indignant that the right of primogeniture should have been confined to Antipater, while Antipater was indignant that they should obtain honours even second to his own124.
While the jealousies in the royal household were thus for a short time hushed, the building of the new and magnificent city of Cæsarea was completed, B.C. 10. This event was celebrated with an imposing ceremonial, with shows, games, exhibitions of gladiators, and sumptuous entertainments, to which the wife of Cæsar herself contributed largely125. Other cities now arose in honour of different members of Herod’s family. Antipatris126, between Cæsarea and Lydda, preserved the name of his father Antipater; Cypron, near Jericho, of his mother Cyprus; Phasaelis, in the plain near the same city, of his brother Phasael.
But soon the quarrels in the royal household broke out afresh. With a strange lack of caution, the sons of Mariamne again indulged their dissatisfaction by the use of intemperate language, which the artful Antipater managed to report to Herod, exaggerated or distorted, as best suited his purpose. Knowing not whom to trust, the king had no rest night or day. At length he ordered some of the confidential slaves of the young princes to be put to the torture, and they, to obtain relief from their agony, made false declarations respecting Alexander, who was immediately flung into prison and loaded with chains.
There the wretched young man had recourse to a strange expedient. He sent four papers to his father, in which he accused himself of all kinds of treasonable practices, but added that Pheroras, Salome, and several of the king’s most intimate friends, were his accomplices. The whole court was now a scene of suspicion and distrust. Herod knew not which way to look or whom to believe. In a state of phrenzy he day after day caused persons of all grades to be apprehended; some of these he executed; others he tortured to compel them to confess, and with such severity that several of them died under the hands of their tormentors. In the midst of these troubles, Archelaus, king of Cappadocia, and father-in-law of Alexander, arrived at Jerusalem, and succeeded in obtaining his release, and restoration to Herod’s favour.
But the lull was only temporary. A few months had barely elapsed before Salome and Pheroras, regaining all their old ascendancy, poisoned the king’s mind with suspicions. Unable to trust any one around him, Herod once more had recourse to Augustus, and poured forth the bitterest complaints against the sons of Mariamne. In reply, the emperor advised him to summon a council of sovereigns at Berytus127, with Volumnius and Saturninus the prefects of Syria, and formally arraign the young men before them.
Acting on this advice, Herod thereupon summoned a council of princes. Upwards of 150 met together, and before them he pleaded his own cause, examined witnesses, read documents, and accused his sons with the utmost vehemence. After hearing the charge, Saturninus expressed himself in favour of mercy; Volumnius and the majority for condemnation. For a short time Herod appeared to hesitate, but the malice of Salome eventually had its reward, and the young men were strangled at Sebaste128, B.C. 6.
But they had scarcely perished before Herod found himself exposed to a far more terrible danger. Pheroras had married a slave, who attached herself to the powerful Pharisaic party. For the second time the king ordered the members of this influential sect to take the oath of allegiance to Augustus and himself. Upwards of 600 positively refused, and were sentenced to pay heavy fines. These the wife of Pheroras instantly liquidated out of her own property, and the Pharisees, grateful for such kindness, began to whisper that God intended the kingdom for her and her husband129.
Salome announced these signs of disaffection to Herod, who instantly executed the ringleaders of the Pharisees, and ordered Pheroras to put away his wife. This his brother absolutely declined to do, and retired to his own tetrarchy in Peræa, while the wily Antipater contrived to get himself summoned to Rome.
Shortly afterwards Pheroras sickening, Herod came to visit him, and on his death gave him a magnificent funeral. He was scarcely buried before rumours of foul play were bruited about. To ascertain their truth, Herod ordered a strict examination of the female slaves of his brother’s wife, and under the agonies of torture a horrible secret came to light.
Antipater, for whom Herod had strangled the sons of Mariamne, whom he had designed as his successor, had been associated with Pheroras in a plot against his life, and his brother’s widow was in possession of a subtle poison, with which it had been intended to take him off on the first opportunity. Thereupon she was examined, acknowledged her guilt, and immediately after flung herself from the roof of the house. The fall, however, was not fatal, and being brought before Herod, she recounted the whole history of the plot, adding that his kindness to her husband on his death-bed had caused him to relent, and he had bidden her fling the poison into the fire. This she had done, and had reserved only a small portion, which was now produced130.
Just at this juncture, a freedman of Antipater’s arrived from Rome, with letters for the king, accusing Archelaus and Philip of disaffection towards their father. The man was instantly placed upon the rack, and confessed that he had brought another phial of poison, which he was to entrust to Pheroras, in the event of the first not proving successful. The proofs of this dark treachery being thus complete, Herod wrote to Antipater requesting his instant return, and at the same time gave orders that the roads should be strictly guarded, and that not a word should be allowed to drop respecting what had transpired at Jerusalem.
Triumphing in the success of his base intrigues, and confident of his succession to the throne, Antipater had already set out, and arrived at Celenderis in Pamphylia. News of the death of Pheroras had reached him at Tarentum, and excited some misgivings, but, contrary to the advice of many of his friends, he continued his journey and entered the port of Cæsarea.
Here his fears were still more excited. The crowded harbour appeared like a solitude. Not a soul approached to salute or congratulate him on his return. The few who did meet him turned aside, or looked on, as if they now dared to shew the hatred they had long borne towards him. Every one seemed in possession of some dark secret, of which he alone was ignorant131.
Dissembling, however, his fears, he pressed on, for it was too late to fly, and reaching Jerusalem, hurried to his father’s palace. At the gates his retinue was denied entrance, and with Herod he found Quintilius Varus the prefect. Advancing to salute the king, he was angrily repelled, informed of the charge against him, and told that his trial would take place on the morrow before the prefect.
Accordingly, on the next day the accusers appeared. The evidence of his guilt was conclusive. The cup of poison was brought in, and a criminal under sentence of death being ordered to drink it, expired on the spot. Antipater was condemned and placed in bonds, but Herod delayed the execution of the sentence, till the will of Augustus could be ascertained.
By this time the king was 70 years of age, and being seized with a severe illness, removed for the sake of change of air to Jericho, and resolved to make the final alterations in his will. Passing over Archelaus and Philip, whom Antipater had accused of disaffection, he nominated Antipas as his successor in the kingdom, and bestowed rich donations of money and lands upon Salome, and other members of his own family.
But during his absence fresh symptoms of disaffection appeared amongst his subjects. Of all his numerous innovations, none had irritated the Jews more than the placing of a large golden eagle, the emblem of Roman power, over the principal gate of the Temple. Two of the most learned rabbis, Judas and Matthias, resolved to have it removed. Accordingly they instigated some daring and fanatical youths to take down the offensive symbol. Emboldened by a sudden rumour of the death of Herod, the young men lowered themselves by ropes from the roof, and cut away the eagle with hatchets. They could never have hoped to execute so daring a deed with impunity, and being apprehended and brought before Herod, boldly avowed their guilt, and gloried in the success of the feat. Dissembling his anger, the king assembled the chiefs of the nation at Jericho, and reproaching them bitterly for their ingratitude after all the favours he had bestowed upon them, ordered the instigators of the deed to be burned alive132.
In the meantime his disorder had made rapid progress. A slow fire seemed to consume his vital parts. His appetite became ravenous, but he dared not gratify it on account of dreadful pains and internal ulcers, which preyed on the lower parts of his body. Moreover his breathing became difficult, and violent spasms convulsed his frame, and imparted supernatural strength to his limbs133. But in spite of these accumulated sufferings he still clung to life, and cherishing hopes of recovery caused himself to be conveyed across the Jordan to Callirrhoë134, hoping to obtain relief from its warm bituminous baths. Arrived there, the physicians advised that he should be fomented with warm oil. For this purpose, he was lowered into a vessel filled with that fluid, when his eyes relaxed, and he suddenly fell back as if dead. Roused, however, by the cries of his physicians, he revived, and was conveyed back to Jericho, where, as if defying death, he devised a new atrocity. Knowing the joy his death would cause, he gave instructions that the men of distinction from every town in Judæa should be assembled in the hippodrome, and secretly confided to Salome his pleasure that they should be butchered immediately upon his decease, that thus his funeral might at least be signalized by a real mourning.
He had scarcely given these orders, when his messengers returned from Rome, and announced the ratification of the sentence against Antipater. Instantly the tyrant’s desire for life revived, but being as quickly followed by a sudden racking pain, he called for an apple and a knife, and in an unguarded moment tried to stab himself. He might have succeeded had not an attendant seized his hand. The clamour that followed reached the ears of Antipater, who was in bonds in a neighbouring apartment. Thinking his father was dead, he made a desperate effort to escape by bribing his guards. Informed of this Herod instantly ordered a spearman to dispatch him on the spot. Antipater having thus paid the penalty of his life of treachery, the king once more amended his will, nominated his eldest son Archelaus as his successor to the throne, and appointed Antipas tetrarch of Galilee and Peræa, Herod Philip tetrarch of Auranitis, Trachonitis, and Batanæa, and Salome mistress of Jamnia and some other towns. Five days more of excruciating agony remained to the tyrant, and then he expired135, after a reign of 34 years.