Herod Is Confirmed In His Kingdom By Caesar, And Cultivates
A Friendship With The Emperor By Magnificent Presents; While
Caesar Returns His Kindness By Bestowing On Him That Part Of
His Kingdom Which Had Been Taken Away From It By Cleopatra
With The Addition Of Zenodoruss Country Also.
1. But now Herod was under immediate concern about a most important
affair, on account of his friendship with Antony, who was already
overcome at Actium by Caesar; yet he was more afraid than hurt; for
Caesar did not think he had quite undone Antony, while Herod continued
his assistance to him. However, the king resolved to expose himself to
dangers: accordingly he sailed to Rhodes, where Caesar then abode, and
came to him without his diadem, and in the habit and appearance of a
private person, but in his behavior as a king. So he concealed nothing
of the truth, but spoke thus before his face: "O Caesar, as I was made
king of the Jews by Antony, so do I profess that I have used my royal
authority in the best manner, and entirely for his advantage; nor will I
conceal this further, that thou hadst certainly found me in arms, and an
inseparable companion of his, had not the Arabians hindered me. However,
I sent him as many auxiliaries as I was able, and many ten thousand
[cori] of corn. Nay, indeed, I did not desert my benefactor after the
bow that was given him at Actium; but I gave him the best advice I was
able, when I was no longer able to assist him in the war; and I told him
that there was but one way of recovering his affairs, and that was to
kill Cleopatra; and I promised him that, if she were once dead, I would
afford him money and walls for his security, with an army and myself
to assist him in his war against thee: but his affections for Cleopatra
stopped his ears, as did God himself also who hath bestowed the
government on thee. I own myself also to be overcome together with
him; and with his last fortune I have laid aside my diadem, and am come
hither to thee, having my hopes of safety in thy virtue; and I desire
that thou wilt first consider how faithful a friend, and not whose
friend, I have been."
2. Caesar replied to him thus: "Nay, thou shalt not only be in safety,
but thou shalt be a king; and that more firmly than thou wast before;
for thou art worthy to reign over a great many subjects, by reason
of the fastness of thy friendship; and do thou endeavor to be equally
constant in thy friendship to me, upon my good success, which is what I
depend upon from the generosity of thy disposition. However, Antony hath
done well in preferring Cleopatra to thee; for by this means we have
gained thee by her madness, and thus thou hast begun to be my friend
before I began to be thine; on which account Quintus Didius hath written
to me that thou sentest him assistance against the gladiators. I do
therefore assure thee that I will confirm the kingdom to thee by decree:
I shall also endeavor to do thee some further kindness hereafter, that
thou mayst find no loss in the want of Antony."
3. When Caesar had spoken such obliging things to the king, and had put
the diadem again about his head, he proclaimed what he had bestowed on
him by a decree, in which he enlarged in the commendation of the man
after a magnificent manner. Whereupon Herod obliged him to be kind
to him by the presents he gave him, and he desired him to forgive
Alexander, one of Antony's friends, who was become a supplicant to him.
But Caesar's anger against him prevailed, and he complained of the many
and very great offenses the man whom he petitioned for had been guilty
of; and by that means he rejected his petition. After this Caesar went
for Egypt through Syria, when Herod received him with royal and rich
entertainments; and then did he first of all ride along with Caesar, as
he was reviewing his army about Ptolemais, and feasted him with all
his friends, and then distributed among the rest of the army what was
necessary to feast them withal. He also made a plentiful provision of
water for them, when they were to march as far as Pelusium, through a
dry country, which he did also in like manner at their return thence;
nor were there any necessaries wanting to that army. It was therefore
the opinion, both of Caesar and of his soldiers, that Herod's kingdom
was too small for those generous presents he made them; for which
reason, when Caesar was come into Egypt, and Cleopatra and Antony were
dead, he did not only bestow other marks of honor upon him, but made an
addition to his kingdom, by giving him not only the country which had
been taken from him by Cleopatra, but besides that, Gadara, and Hippos,
and Samaria; and moreover, of the maritime cities, Gaza 31 and Anthedon,
and Joppa, and Strato's Tower. He also made him a present of four
hundred Galls [Galatians] as a guard for his body, which they had been
to Cleopatra before. Nor did any thing so strongly induce Caesar to make
these presents as the generosity of him that received them.
4. Moreover, after the first games at Actium, he added to his kingdom
both the region called Trachonitis, and what lay in its neighborhood,
Batanea, and the country of Auranitis; and that on the following
occasion: Zenodorus, who had hired the house of Lysanias, had all along
sent robbers out of Trachonitis among the Damascenes; who thereupon had
recourse to Varro, the president of Syria, and desired of him that he
would represent the calamity they were in to Caesar. When Caesar was
acquainted with it, he sent back orders that this nest of robbers should
be destroyed. Varro therefore made an expedition against them, and
cleared the land of those men, and took it away from Zenodorus. Caesar
did also afterward bestow it on Herod, that it might not again become
a receptacle for those robbers that had come against Damascus. He
also made him a procurator of all Syria, and this on the tenth year
afterward, when he came again into that province; and this was so
established, that the other procurators could not do any thing in the
administration without his advice: but when Zenodorus was dead, Caesar
bestowed on him all that land which lay between Trachonitis and Galilee.
Yet, what was still of more consequence to Herod, he was beloved by
Caesar next after Agrippa, and by Agrippa next after Caesar; whence he
arrived at a very great degree of felicity. Yet did the greatness of his
soul exceed it, and the main part of his magnanimity was extended to the
promotion of piety.