When Herod Is Rejected In Arabia, He Makes Haste To Rome
Where Antony And Caesar Join Their Interest To Make Him King
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1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.