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But when Caesar and Antony had slain Cassius near Philippi, and Caesar
was gone to Italy, and Antony to Asia, amongst the rest of the cities
which sent ambassadors to Antony unto Bithynia, the great men of the Jews
came also, and accused Phasaelus and Herod, that they kept the government
by force, and that Hyrcanus had no more than an honorable name. Herod
appeared ready to answer this accusation; and having made Antony his
friend by the large sums of money which he gave him, he brought him to
such a temper as not to hear the others speak against him; and thus did
they part at this time.
However, after this, there came a hundred of the principal men among
the Jews to Daphne by Antioch to Antony, who was already in love with
Cleopatra to the degree of slavery; these Jews put those men that were the
most potent, both in dignity and eloquence, foremost, and accused the
brethren. 17
But Messala opposed them, and defended the brethren, and that while
Hyrcanus stood by him, on account of his relation to them. When Antony had
heard both sides, he asked Hyrcanus which party was the fittest to govern,
who replied that Herod and his party were the fittest. Antony was glad of
that answer, for he had been formerly treated in an hospitable and
obliging manner by his father Antipater, when he marched into Judea with
Gabinius; so he constituted the brethren tetrarchs, and committed to them
the government of Judea.
But when the ambassadors had indignation at this procedure, Antony took
fifteen of them, and put them into custody, whom he was also going to kill
presently, and the rest he drove away with disgrace; on which occasion a
still greater tumult arose at Jerusalem; so they sent again a thousand
ambassadors to Tyre, where Antony now abode, as he was marching to
Jerusalem; upon these men who made a clamor he sent out the governor of
Tyre, and ordered him to punish all that he could catch of them, and to
settle those in the administration whom he had made tetrarchs.
But before this, Herod and Hyrcanus went out upon the sea-shore, and
earnestly desired of these ambassadors that they would neither bring ruin
upon themselves, nor war upon their native country, by their rash
contentions; and when they grew still more outrageous, Antony sent out
armed men, and slew a great many, and wounded more of them; of whom those
that were slain were buried by Hyrcanus, as were the wounded put under the
care of physicians by him; yet would not those that had escaped be quiet
still, but put the affairs of the city into such disorder, and so provoked
Antony, that he slew those whom he had in bonds also.
Now two years afterward, when Barzapharnes, a governor among the
Parthians, and Paeorus, the king's son, had possessed themselves of Syria,
and when Lysanias had already succeeded upon the death of his father
Ptolemy, the son of Menneus, in the government [of Chalcis], he prevailed
with the governor, by a promise of a thousand talents, and five hundred
women, to bring back Antigonus to his kingdom, and to turn Hyrcanus out of
it. Pacorus was by these means induced so to do, and marched along the
sea-coast, while he ordered Barzapharnes to fall upon the Jews as he went
along the Mediterranean part of the country; but of the maritime people,
the Tyrians would not receive Pacorus, although those of Ptolemais and
Sidon had received him; so he committed a troop of his horse to a certain
cup-bearer belonging to the royal family, of his own name [Pacorus], and
gave him orders to march into Judea, in order to learn the state of
affairs among their enemies, and to help Antigonus when he should want his
assistance.
Now as these men were ravaging Carmel, many of the Jews ran together to
Antigonus, and showed themselves ready to make an incursion into the
country; so he sent them before into that place called Drymus, [the
woodland 18
] to seize upon the place; whereupon a battle was fought between them, and
they drove the enemy away, and pursued them, and ran after them as far as
Jerusalem, and as their numbers increased, they proceeded as far as the
king's palace; but as Hyrcanus and Phasaelus received them with a strong
body of men, there happened a battle in the market-place, in which Herod's
party beat the enemy, and shut them up in the temple, and set sixty men in
the houses adjoining as a guard to them. But the people that were
tumultuous against the brethren came in, and burnt those men; while Herod,
in his rage for killing them, attacked and slew many of the people, till
one party made incursions on the other by turns, day by day, in the way of
ambushes, and slaughters were made continually among them.
Now when that festival which we call Pentecost was at hand, all the
places about the temple, and the whole city, was full of a multitude of
people that were come out of the country, and which were the greatest part
of them armed also, at which time Phasaelus guarded the wall, and Herod,
with a few, guarded the royal palace; and when he made an assault upon his
enemies, as they were out of their ranks, on the north quarter of the
city, he slew a very great number of them, and put them all to flight; and
some of them he shut up within the city, and others within the outward
rampart. In the mean time, Antigonus desired that Pacorus might be
admitted to be a reconciler between them; and Phasaelus was prevailed upon
to admit the Parthian into the city with five hundred horse, and to treat
him in an hospitable manner, who pretended that he came to quell the
tumult, but in reality he came to assist Antigonus; however, he laid a
plot for Phasaelus, and persuaded him to go as an ambassador to
Barzapharnes, in order to put an end to the war, although Herod was very
earnest with him to the contrary, and exhorted him to kill the plotter,
but not expose himself to the snares he had laid for him, because the
barbarians are naturally perfidious. However, Pacorus went out and took
Hyrcanus with him, that he might be the less suspected; he also 19 left
some of the horsemen, called the Freemen, with Herod, and conducted
Phasaelus with the rest.
But now, when they were come to Galilee, they found that the people of
that country had revolted, and were in arms, who came very cunningly to
their leader, and besought him to conceal his treacherous intentions by an
obliging behavior to them; accordingly, he at first made them presents;
and afterward, as they went away, laid ambushes for them; and when they
were come to one of the maritime cities called Ecdippon, they perceived
that a plot was laid for them; for they were there informed of the promise
of a thousand talents, and how Antigonus had devoted the greatest number
of the women that were there with them, among the five hundred, to the
Parthians; they also perceived that an ambush was always laid for them by
the barbarians in the night time; they had also been seized on before
this, unless they had waited for the seizure of Herod first at Jerusalem,
because if he were once informed of this treachery of theirs, he would
take care of himself; nor was this a mere report, but they saw the guards
already not far off them.
Now as Pacorus and his friends were considering how they might bring
their plot to bear privately, because it was not possible to circumvent a
man of so great prudence by openly attacking him, Herod prevented them,
and went off with the persons that were the most nearly related to him by
night, and this without their enemies being apprized of it. But as soon as
the Parthians perceived it, they pursued after them; and as he gave orders
for his mother, and sister, and the young woman who was betrothed to him,
with her mother, and his youngest brother, to make the best of their way,
he himself, with his servants, took all the care they could to keep off
the barbarians; and when at every assault he had slain a great many of
them, he came to the strong hold of Masada.
Nay, he found by experience that the Jews fell more heavily upon him
than did the Parthians, and created him troubles perpetually, and this
ever since he was gotten sixty furlongs from the city; these sometimes
brought it to a sort of a regular battle. Now in the place where Herod
beat them, and killed a great number of them, there he afterward built a
citadel, in memory of the great actions he did there, and adorned it with
the most costly palaces, and erected very strong fortifications, and
called it, from his own name, Herodium. Now as they were in their flight,
many joined themselves to him every day; and at a place called Thressa of
Idumea his brother Joseph met him, and advised him to ease himself of a
great number of his followers, because Masada would not contain so great a
multitude, which were above nine thousand. Herod complied with this
advice, and sent away the most cumbersome part of his retinue, that they
might go into Idumea, and gave them provisions for their journey; but he
got safe to the fortress with his nearest relations, and retained with him
only the stoutest of his followers; and there it was that he left eight
hundred of his men as a guard for the women, and provisions sufficient for
a siege; but he made haste himself to Petra of Arabia.
As for the Parthians in Jerusalem, they betook themselves to
plundering, and fell upon the houses of those that were fled, and upon the
king's palace, and spared nothing but Hyrcanus's money, which was not
above three hundred talents. They lighted on other men's money also, but
not so much as they hoped for; for Herod having a long while had a
suspicion of the perfidiousness of the barbarians, had taken care to have
what was most splendid among his treasures conveyed into Idumea, as every
one belonging to him had in like manner done also. But the Parthians
proceeded to that degree of injustice, as to fill all the country with war
without denouncing it, and to demolish the city Marissa, and not only to
set up Antigonus for king, but to deliver Phasaelus and Hyrcanus bound
into his hands, in order to their being tormented by him. Antigonus
himself also bit off Hyrcanus's ears with his own teeth, as he fell down
upon his knees to him, that so he might never be able upon any mutation of
affairs to take the high priesthood again, for the high priests that
officiated were to be complete, and without blemish.
However, he failed in his purpose of abusing Phasaelus, by reason of
his courage; for though he neither had the command of his sword nor of his
hands, he prevented all abuses by dashing his head against a stone; so he
demonstrated himself to be Herod's own brother, and Hyrcanus a most
degenerate relation, and died with great bravery, and made the end of his
life agreeable to the actions of it. There is also another report about
his end, viz. that he recovered of that stroke, and that a surgeon, who
was sent by Antigonus to heal him, filled the wound with poisonous
ingredients, and so killed him; whichsoever of these deaths he came to,
the beginning of it was glorious. It is also reported that before he
expired he was informed by a certain poor woman how Herod had escaped out
of their hands, and that he said thereupon, "I now die with comfort, since
I leave behind me one alive that will avenge me of mine enemies."
This was the death of Phasaelus; but the Parthians, although they had
failed of the women they chiefly desired, yet did they put the government
of Jerusalem into the hands of Antigonus, and took away Hyrcanus, and
bound him, and carried him to Parthia
Now Herod did the more zealously pursue his journey into Arabia, as
making haste to get money of the king, while his brother was yet alive; by
which money alone it was that he hoped to prevail upon the covetous temper
of the barbarians to spare Phasaelus; for he reasoned thus with himself:—that
if the Arabian king was too forgetful of his father's friendship with him,
and was too covetous to make him a free gift, he would however borrow of
him as much as might redeem his brother, and put into his hands, as a
pledge, the son of him that was to be redeemed. Accordingly he led his
brother's son along with him, who was of the age of seven years. Now he
was ready to give three hundred talents for his brother, and intended to
desire the intercession of the Tyrians, to get them accepted; however,
fate had been too quick for his diligence; and since Phasaelus was dead,
Herod's brotherly love was now in vain. Moreover, he was not able to find
any lasting friendship among the Arabians; for their king, Malichus, sent
to him immediately, and commanded him to return back out of his country,
and used the name of the Parthians as a pretense for so doing, as though
these had denounced to him by their ambassadors to cast Herod out of
Arabia; while in reality they had a mind to keep back what they owed to
Antipater, and not be obliged to make requitals to his sons for the free
gifts the father had made them. He also took the impudent advice of those
who, equally with himself, were willing to deprive Herod of what Antipater
had deposited among them; and these men were the most potent of all whom
he had in his kingdom
So when Herod had found that the Arabians were his enemies, and this
for those very reasons whence he hoped they would have been the most
friendly, and had given them such an answer as his passion suggested, he
returned back, and went for Egypt. Now he lodged the first evening at one
of the temples of that country, in order to meet with those whom he left
behind; but on the next day word was brought him, as he was going to
Rhinocurura, that his brother was dead, and how he came by his death; and
when he had lamented him as much as his present circumstances could bear,
he soon laid aside such cares, and proceeded on his journey. But now,
after some time, the king of Arabia repented of what he had done, and sent
presently away messengers to call him back: Herod had prevented them, and
was come to Pelusium, where he could not obtain a passage from those that
lay with the fleet, so he besought their captains to let him go by them;
accordingly, out of the reverence they bore to the fame and dignity of the
man, they conducted him to Alexandria; and when he came into the city, he
was received by Cleopatra with great splendor, who hoped he might be
persuaded to be commander of her forces in the expedition she was now
about; but he rejected the queen's solicitations, and being neither
afrighted at the height of that storm which then happened, nor at the
tumults that were now in Italy, he sailed for Rome.
But as he was in peril about Pamphylia, and obliged to cast out the
greatest part of the ship's lading, he with difficulty got safe to Rhodes,
a place which had been grievously harassed in the war with Cassius. He was
there received by his friends, Ptolemy and Sappinius; and although he was
then in want of money, he fitted up a three-decked ship of very great
magnitude, wherein he and his friends sailed to Brundusium, 21 and
went thence to Rome with all speed; where he first of all went to Antony,
on account of the friendship his father had with him, and laid before him
the calamities of himself and his family; and that he had left his nearest
relations besieged in a fortress, and had sailed to him through a storm,
to make supplication to him for assistance.
Hereupon Antony was moved to compassion at the change that had been
made in Herod's affairs, and this both upon his calling to mind how
hospitably he had been treated by Antipater, but more especially on
account of Herod's own virtue; so he then resolved to get him made king of
the Jews, whom he had himself formerly made tetrarch. The contest also
that he had with Antigonus was another inducement, and that of no less
weight than the great regard he had for Herod; for he looked upon
Antigonus as a seditious person, and an enemy of the Romans; and as for
Caesar, Herod found him better prepared than Antony, as remembering very
fresh the wars he had gone through together with his father, the
hospitable treatment he had met with from him, and the entire good-will he
had showed to him; besides the activity which he saw in Herod himself. So
he called the senate together, wherein Messalas, and after him Atratinus,
produced Herod before them, and gave a full account of the merits of his
father, and his own good-will to the Romans. At the same time they
demonstrated that Antigonus was their enemy, not only because he soon
quarreled with them, but because he now overlooked the Romans, and took
the government by the means of the Parthians. These reasons greatly moved
the senate; at which juncture Antony came in, and told them that it was
for their advantage in the Parthian war that Herod should be king; so they
all gave their votes for it. And when the senate was separated, Antony and
Caesar went out, with Herod between them; while the consul and the rest of
the magistrates went before them, in order to offer sacrifices, and to lay
the decree in the Capitol. Antony also made a feast for Herod on the first
day of his reign.
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