Of The [Temple And] Cities That Were Built By Herod And
Erected From The Very Foundations; As Also Of Those Other
Edifices That Were Erected By Him; And What Magnificence He
Showed To Foreigners; And How Fortune Was In All Things
Favorable To Him.
1. Accordingly, in the fifteenth year of his reign, Herod rebuilt the
temple, and encompassed a piece of land about it with a wall, which land
was twice as large as that before enclosed. The expenses he laid
out upon it were vastly large also, and the riches about it were
unspeakable. A sign of which you have in the great cloisters that were
erected about the temple, and the citadel which was on its north side.
The cloisters he built from the foundation, but the citadel 32 he
repaired at a vast expense; nor was it other than a royal palace, which
he called Antonia, in honor of Antony. He also built himself a palace in
the Upper city, containing two very large and most beautiful apartments;
to which the holy house itself could not be compared [in largeness]. The
one apartment he named Caesareum, and the other Agrippium, from his [two
great] friends.
2. Yet did he not preserve their memory by particular buildings only,
with their names given them, but his generosity went as far as entire
cities; for when he had built a most beautiful wall round a country in
Samaria, twenty furlongs long, and had brought six thousand inhabitants
into it, and had allotted to it a most fruitful piece of land, and in
the midst of this city, thus built, had erected a very large temple to
Caesar, and had laid round about it a portion of sacred land of three
furlongs and a half, he called the city Sebaste, from Sebastus, or
Augustus, and settled the affairs of the city after a most regular
manner.
3. And when Caesar had further bestowed upon him another additional
country, he built there also a temple of white marble, hard by the
fountains of Jordan: the place is called Panium, where is a top of a
mountain that is raised to an immense height, and at its side, beneath,
or at its bottom, a dark cave opens itself; within which there is a
horrible precipice, that descends abruptly to a vast depth; it contains
a mighty quantity of water, which is immovable; and when any body lets
down any thing to measure the depth of the earth beneath the water, no
length of cord is sufficient to reach it. Now the fountains of Jordan
rise at the roots of this cavity outwardly; and, as some think, this
is the utmost origin of Jordan: but we shall speak of that matter more
accurately in our following history.
4. But the king erected other places at Jericho also, between the
citadel Cypros and the former palace, such as were better and more
useful than the former for travelers, and named them from the same
friends of his. To say all at once, there was not any place of his
kingdom fit for the purpose that was permitted to be without somewhat
that was for Caesar's honor; and when he had filled his own country with
temples, he poured out the like plentiful marks of his esteem into his
province, and built many cities which he called Cesareas.
5. And when he observed that there was a city by the sea-side that was
much decayed, [its name was Strato's Tower,] but that the place, by the
happiness of its situation, was capable of great improvements from his
liberality, he rebuilt it all with white stone, and adorned it with
several most splendid palaces, wherein he especially demonstrated his
magnanimity; for the case was this, that all the sea-shore between Dora
and Joppa, in the middle, between which this city is situated, had no
good haven, insomuch that every one that sailed from Phoenicia for Egypt
was obliged to lie in the stormy sea, by reason of the south winds that
threatened them; which wind, if it blew but a little fresh, such vast
waves are raised, and dash upon the rocks, that upon their retreat the
sea is in a great ferment for a long way. But the king, by the expenses
he was at, and the liberal disposal of them, overcame nature, and built
a haven larger than was the Pyrecum 33 [at Athens]; and in the inner
retirements of the water he built other deep stations [for the ships
also].
6. Now although the place where he built was greatly opposite to his
purposes, yet did he so fully struggle with that difficulty, that the
firmness of his building could not easily be conquered by the sea; and
the beauty and ornament of the works were such, as though he had not had
any difficulty in the operation; for when he had measured out as large a
space as we have before mentioned, he let down stones into twenty fathom
water, the greatest part of which were fifty feet in length, and nine in
depth, and ten in breadth, and some still larger. But when the haven was
filled up to that depth, he enlarged that wall which was thus already
extant above the sea, till it was two hundred feet wide; one hundred of
which had buildings before it, in order to break the force of the waves,
whence it was called Procumatia, or the first breaker of the waves; but
the rest of the space was under a stone wall that ran round it. On this
wall were very large towers, the principal and most beautiful of which
was called Drusium, from Drusus, who was son-in-law to Caesar.
7. There were also a great number of arches, where the mariners dwelt;
and all the places before them round about was a large valley, or walk,
for a quay [or landing-place] to those that came on shore; but the
entrance was on the north, because the north wind was there the most
gentle of all the winds. At the mouth of the haven were on each side
three great Colossi, supported by pillars, where those Colossi that are
on your left hand as you sail into the port are supported by a solid
tower; but those on the right hand are supported by two upright stones
joined together, which stones were larger than that tower which was on
the other side of the entrance. Now there were continual edifices joined
to the haven, which were also themselves of white stone; and to this
haven did the narrow streets of the city lead, and were built at equal
distances one from another. And over against the mouth of the haven,
upon an elevation, there was a temple for Caesar, which was excellent
both in beauty and largeness; and therein was a Colossus of Caesar, not
less than that of Jupiter Olympius, which it was made to resemble.
The other Colossus of Rome was equal to that of Juno at Argos. So he
dedicated the city to the province, and the haven to the sailors there;
but the honor of the building he ascribed to Caesar, 34 and named it
Cesarea accordingly.
8. He also built the other edifices, the amphitheater, and theater, and
market-place, in a manner agreeable to that denomination; and appointed
games every fifth year, and called them, in like manner, Caesar's
Games; and he first himself proposed the largest prizes upon the hundred
ninety-second olympiad; in which not only the victors themselves, but
those that came next to them, and even those that came in the third
place, were partakers of his royal bounty. He also rebuilt Anthedon,
a city that lay on the coast, and had been demolished in the wars, and
named it Agrippeum. Moreover, he had so very great a kindness for his
friend Agrippa, that he had his name engraved upon that gate which he
had himself erected in the temple.
9. Herod was also a lover of his father, if any other person ever was
so; for he made a monument for his father, even that city which he built
in the finest plain that was in his kingdom, and which had rivers and
trees in abundance, and named it Antipatris. He also built a wall about
a citadel that lay above Jericho, and was a very strong and very
fine building, and dedicated it to his mother, and called it Cypros.
Moreover, he dedicated a tower that was at Jerusalem, and called it
by the name of his brother Phasaelus, whose structure, largeness, and
magnificence we shall describe hereafter. He also built another city in
the valley that leads northward from Jericho, and named it Phasaelis.
10. And as he transmitted to eternity his family and friends, so did he
not neglect a memorial for himself, but built a fortress upon a mountain
towards Arabia, and named it from himself, Herodium 35 and he called
that hill that was of the shape of a woman's breast, and was sixty
furlongs distant from Jerusalem, by the same name. He also bestowed much
curious art upon it, with great ambition, and built round towers all
about the top of it, and filled up the remaining space with the most
costly palaces round about, insomuch that not only the sight of the
inner apartments was splendid, but great wealth was laid out on the
outward walls, and partitions, and roofs also. Besides this, he brought
a mighty quantity of water from a great distance, and at vast charges,
and raised an ascent to it of two hundred steps of the whitest marble,
for the hill was itself moderately high, and entirely factitious. He
also built other palaces about the roots of the hill, sufficient to
receive the furniture that was put into them, with his friends also,
insomuch that, on account of its containing all necessaries, the
fortress might seem to be a city, but, by the bounds it had, a palace
only.
11. And when he had built so much, he showed the greatness of his soul
to no small number of foreign cities. He built palaces for exercise at
Tripoli, and Damascus, and Ptolemais; he built a wall about Byblus,
as also large rooms, and cloisters, and temples, and market-places at
Berytus and Tyre, with theatres at Sidon and Damascus. He also built
aqueducts for those Laodiceans who lived by the sea-side; and for those
of Ascalon he built baths and costly fountains, as also cloisters round
a court, that were admirable both for their workmanship and largeness.
Moreover, he dedicated groves and meadows to some people; nay, not a few
cities there were who had lands of his donation, as if they were parts
of his own kingdom. He also bestowed annual revenues, and those for ever
also, on the settlements for exercises, and appointed for them, as well
as for the people of Cos, that such rewards should never be wanting. He
also gave corn to all such as wanted it, and conferred upon Rhodes large
sums of money for building ships; and this he did in many places,
and frequently also. And when Apollo's temple had been burnt down, he
rebuilt it at his own charges, after a better manner than it was before.
What need I speak of the presents he made to the Lycians and Samnians?
or of his great liberality through all Ionia? and that according
to every body's wants of them. And are not the Athenians, and
Lacedemonians, and Nicopolitans, and that Pergamus which is in Mysia,
full of donations that Herod presented them withal? And as for that
large open place belonging to Antioch in Syria, did not he pave it with
polished marble, though it were twenty furlongs long? and this when
it was shunned by all men before, because it was full of dirt and
filthiness, when he besides adorned the same place with a cloister of
the same length.
12. It is true, a man may say, these were favors peculiar to those
particular places on which he bestowed his benefits; but then what
favors he bestowed on the Eleans was a donation not only in common to
all Greece, but to all the habitable earth, as far as the glory of the
Olympic games reached. For when he perceived that they were come to
nothing, for want of money, and that the only remains of ancient Greece
were in a manner gone, he not only became one of the combatants in that
return of the fifth-year games, which in his sailing to Rome he happened
to be present at, but he settled upon them revenues of money for
perpetuity, insomuch that his memorial as a combatant there can never
fail. It would be an infinite task if I should go over his payments
of people's debts, or tributes, for them, as he eased the people of
Phasaelis, of Batanea, and of the small cities about Cilicia, of those
annual pensions they before paid. However, the fear he was in much
disturbed the greatness of his soul, lest he should be exposed to envy,
or seem to hunt after greater filings than he ought, while he bestowed
more liberal gifts upon these cities than did their owners themselves.
13. Now Herod had a body suited to his soul, and was ever a most
excellent hunter, where he generally had good success, by the means of
his great skill in riding horses; for in one day he caught forty wild
beasts: 36 that country breeds also bears, and the greatest part of it
is replenished with stags and wild asses. He was also such a warrior as
could not be withstood: many men, therefore, there are who have stood
amazed at his readiness in his exercises, when they saw him throw the
javelin directly forward, and shoot the arrow upon the mark. And then,
besides these performances of his depending on his own strength of mind
and body, fortune was also very favorable to him; for he seldom failed
of success in his wars; and when he failed, he was not himself the
occasion of such failings, but he either was betrayed by some, or the
rashness of his own soldiers procured his defeat.