How Herod And Sosius Took Jerusalem By Force; And What Death
Antigonus Came To. Also Concerning Cleopatra's Avaricious
Temper.
1. Now the multitude of the Jews that were in the city were divided into
several factions; for the people that crowded about the temple, being
the weaker part of them, gave it out that, as the times were, he was the
happiest and most religious man who should die first. But as to the
more bold and hardy men, they got together in bodies, and fell a robbing
others after various manners, and these particularly plundered the
places that were about the city, and this because there was no food left
either for the horses or the men; yet some of the warlike men, who were
used to fight regularly, were appointed to defend the city during the
siege, and these drove those that raised the banks away from the
wall; and these were always inventing some engine or another to be a
hinderance to the engines of the enemy; nor had they so much success any
way as in the mines under ground.
2. Now as for the robberies which were committed, the king contrived
that ambushes should be so laid, that they might restrain their
excursions; and as for the want of provisions, he provided that they
should be brought to them from great distances. He was also too hard
for the Jews, by the Romans' skill in the art of war; although they were
bold to the utmost degree, now they durst not come to a plain battle
with the Romans, which was certain death; but through their mines under
ground they would appear in the midst of them on the sudden, and before
they could batter down one wall, they built them another in its
stead; and to sum up all at once, they did not show any want either of
painstaking or of contrivances, as having resolved to hold out to the
very last. Indeed, though they had so great an army lying round about
them, they bore a siege of five months, till some of Herod's chosen men
ventured to get upon the wall, and fell into the city, as did Sosius's
centurions after them; and now they first of all seized upon what
was about the temple; and upon the pouring in of the army, there was
slaughter of vast multitudes every where, by reason of the rage the
Romans were in at the length of this siege, and by reason that the Jews
who were about Herod earnestly endeavored that none of their adversaries
might remain; so they were cut to pieces by great multitudes, as they
were crowded together in narrow streets, and in houses, or were running
away to the temple; nor was there any mercy showed either to infants, or
to the aged, or to the weaker sex; insomuch that although the king sent
about and desired them to spare the people, nobody could be persuaded
to withhold their right hand from slaughter, but they slew people of all
ages, like madmen. Then it was that Antigonus, without any regard to his
former or to his present fortune, came down from the citadel, and fell
at Sosius's feet, who without pitying him at all, upon the change of his
condition, laughed at him beyond measure, and called him Antigona. 26
Yet did he not treat him like a woman, or let him go free, but put him
into bonds, and kept him in custody.
3. But Herod's concern at present, now he had gotten his enemies under
his power, was to restrain the zeal of his foreign auxiliaries; for the
multitude of the strange people were very eager to see the temple, and
what was sacred in the holy house itself; but the king endeavored to
restrain them, partly by his exhortations, partly by his threatenings,
nay, partly by force, as thinking the victory worse than a defeat to
him, if any thing that ought not to be seen were seen by them. He also
forbade, at the same time, the spoiling of the city, asking Sosius in
the most earnest manner, whether the Romans, by thus emptying the city
of money and men, had a mind to leave him king of a desert,--and told
him that he judged the dominion of the habitable earth too small a
compensation for the slaughter of so many citizens. And when Sosius said
that it was but just to allow the soldiers this plunder as a reward for
what they suffered during the siege, Herod made answer, that he would
give every one of the soldiers a reward out of his own money. So he
purchased the deliverance of his country, and performed his promises to
them, and made presents after a magnificent manner to each soldier,
and proportionably to their commanders, and with a most royal bounty
to Sosius himself, whereby nobody went away but in a wealthy condition.
Hereupon Sosius dedicated a crown of gold to God, and then went away
from Jerusalem, leading Antigonus away in bonds to Antony; then did the
axe bring him to his end, 27 who still had a fond desire of life, and
some frigid hopes of it to the last, but by his cowardly behavior well
deserved to die by it.
4. Hereupon king Herod distinguished the multitude that was in the city;
and for those that were of his side, he made them still more his friends
by the honors he conferred on them; but for those of Antigonus's party,
he slew them; and as his money ran low, he turned all the ornaments he
had into money, and sent it to Antony, and to those about him. Yet could
he not hereby purchase an exemption from all sufferings; for Antony was
now bewitched by his love to Cleopatra, and was entirely conquered by
her charms. Now Cleopatra had put to death all her kindred, till no
one near her in blood remained alive, and after that she fell a slaying
those no way related to her. So she calumniated the principal men among
the Syrians to Antony, and persuaded him to have them slain, that so she
might easily gain to be mistress of what they had; nay, she extended her
avaricious humor to the Jews and Arabians, and secretly labored to have
Herod and Malichus, the kings of both those nations, slain by his order.
5. Now is to these her injunctions to Antony, he complied in part; for
though he esteemed it too abominable a thing to kill such good and great
kings, yet was he thereby alienated from the friendship he had for
them. He also took away a great deal of their country; nay, even the
plantation of palm trees at Jericho, where also grows the balsam tree,
and bestowed them upon her; as also all the cities on this side the
river Eleutherus, Tyre and Sidon 28 excepted. And when she was become
mistress of these, and had conducted Antony in his expedition against
the Parthians as far as Euphrates, she came by Apamia and Damascus
into Judea and there did Herod pacify her indignation at him by large
presents. He also hired of her those places that had been torn away from
his kingdom, at the yearly rent of two hundred talents. He conducted her
also as far as Pelusium, and paid her all the respects possible. Now it
was not long after this that Antony was come back from Parthia, and led
with him Artabazes, Tigranes's son, captive, as a present for Cleopatra;
for this Parthian was presently given her, with his money, and all the
prey that was taken with him.