ANTIGONUS AND HEROD.
Weakness of Antigonus and Herod's Strength of
Character--Contest for the Throne--Herod becomes
King--Proscriptions and Confiscations--Herod's
Policy--Abolition of the Hereditary Tenure of the High
Priesthood--Death of the High Priest Aristobulus--War with
the Arabians--The Earthquake--Death of the last of the
Hasmonæans--Hillel becomes the Head of the Synhedrion--His
System of Tradition--Menahem the Essene--Shammai and his
School--Mariamne--Herod's Magnificence and Passion for
Building--Herod rebuilds the Temple--Herod executes his Sons
Alexander and Aristobulus--Antipater and his Intrigues--The
Pharisees under Herod--The Destruction of the Roman
Eagle--Execution of Antipater and Death of Herod.
40.3 B. C. E.
It is certain that Judæa derived her greatness and independence rather
from the tact and foresight of the first Hasmonæans than from their
skill in arms; and in like manner she suffered humiliation and bondage
from the short-sightedness of the last Hasmonæan kings, who did not
understand how to make use of the advantages within their grasp. Events
were most favorable for Antigonus to acquire extended power. The Roman
leaders were violently opposed to one another. The provinces in the
east, unimportant in the eyes of Octavius, were looked upon by Antony
as the abode of luxury and pomp rather than as an arena for warlike
achievements. The soft arms of Cleopatra had made the rough couch of
the war-goddess distasteful to him. The Parthians, who hated the greed
of Rome, had valiantly repulsed her troops. Had Antigonus understood
how to keep alive the hatred of the people towards the Idumæan house,
the Romans themselves would have courted him as an ally instead of
shunning him as an enemy, so eager were they for assistance in staying
the progress of the Parthians. The mountain tribes of Galilee had
already declared in favor of Antigonus; and Sepphoris, one of their
cities, had been converted into an arsenal; besides, the caves of
Arbela sheltered numerous bands of freebooters, who might have proved
dangerous to the enemy's rear. But Antigonus was neither a statesman
nor a general. He did not know how to turn to account the varied
material which he had at hand. The whole of his strength was frittered
away upon trivial aims; his leading passion was the revenge which he
meditated against Herod and his brothers, and this retarded instead
of stimulating his activity. He did not know how to rise to the truly
royal height whence he could look down with contempt instead of with
hatred upon the Idumæan upstarts. During his reign, which lasted three
years and a half (40-37), he undertook nothing great or decisive,
although the Roman officers, who for the sake of appearances pretended
to support Herod, in point of fact usually occupied a neutral position.
Even amongst his own people Antigonus did not know the secret of
winning men of influence to his cause so that they would stand or fall
with him. The very leaders of the Synhedrion, Shemaya and Abtalion,
averse to Herod on account of his overwhelming audacity, were not
partisans of Antigonus. It is somewhat difficult to understand entirely
the reason of this aversion to the Hasmonæan king. Had Antigonus
professed allegiance to Sadducæan principles, or was there personal
jealousy between the representatives of the royal power and the
teachers of the Law? We are led to believe from one circumstance,
insignificant in itself, that the dislike originated from the latter
cause. It happened once, upon the day of Atonement, that the entire
congregation, according to custom, had followed the high priest,
Antigonus, at the close of the divine service, from the Temple to his
own residence. On the way they met the two Synhedrists, Shemaya and
Abtalion; they quitted their priest-king to form an escort for their
beloved teachers of the Law. Antigonus, vexed at this apparent insult,
expressed his displeasure to the Synhedrists by an ironical obeisance,
which they returned in the same offensive way. This unfortunate
variance with the most influential men, coupled with Antigonus's lack
of generalship and statecraft, brought misfortune upon himself, his
house and the nation.
His rival Herod, who possessed all those qualities in which he was
deficient, was a man of a different stamp. When fortune frowned upon
him for a time, he could always win back her smiles. His flight
from Jerusalem had been so desperate for him that at one moment he
contemplated suicide. His design to make an ally of the Nabathæan king
failed. He wandered through the Judæan-Idumæan desert, an outcast and
penniless, but yet unbroken, and revolving far-reaching schemes. He
turned to Egypt; there Cleopatra offered to make him general of her
army, but he refused, for he still clung to the hope of wearing the
crown of Judæa. He took ship for Rome, and after being tempest-tossed
and narrowly escaping shipwreck, he arrived at his destination at the
favorable moment when Octavius and Antony had once more agreed upon
the Brundisian treaty. He found no difficulty in persuading Antony
that he could render him great service in repulsing the Parthians, and
he convinced him that Antigonus, raised to the throne of Judæa by the
Parthians, would always be an implacable enemy to the Romans. Antony
was completely deceived by the craft and subtlety of Herod. He spoke
favorably of him to Octavius, who dared not refuse him anything. Thus
within seven days, Herod succeeded in having the Senate proclaim him
King of Judæa, and Antigonus pronounced an enemy of Rome (40). This
was the second death-blow that Rome had dealt the Judæan nation, in
delivering her up to the mercy of an alien, a half-Judæan, an Idumæan,
who had his own personal insults to avenge. Judæa was forced to submit,
and in addition to pay tribute-money to Rome.
Herod, seeing that his ambition was to be crowned with success, now
left Antony (who had loaded him with honors), in order to assume the
royal title conferred upon him. He left Rome and arrived at Acco (39).
He was supplied with sums of money by various friends, and especially
by Saramalla, the richest Judæan in Antioch. With these moneys he hired
mercenaries and subdued a great part of Galilee. He then hastened
southwards, to relieve the fortress of Masada, where his brother Joseph
was hard pressed by the friends of Antigonus. This struggle was of long
duration, as the Romans were unwilling to take an active part in the
contest. Herod felt the necessity of appearing in person in Antony's
camp, which at that moment was pitched before Samosata, there to plead
his own cause. Partly in return for the services he rendered to the
Roman commander upon this occasion, and partly through his persuasive
powers, he induced Antony to send Sosius, one of his generals, at
the head of two legions, to resolutely carry on the contest against
Antigonus, and to establish upon the throne the king selected by Rome.
This war was carried on by Herod with implacable severity. Five cities
in the neighborhood of Jericho, with their inhabitants to the number
of 2000, who had sided with Antigonus, he ordered to be burnt. In the
following spring (37), he commenced the siege of Jerusalem. Previous
to this, he celebrated in Samaria, with hands stained with the blood
of its inhabitants, his nuptials with Mariamne, to whom he had now for
several years been betrothed.
As soon as Sosius had advanced into Judæa with a large army of Roman
infantry, cavalry and Syrian mercenaries, the siege of Jerusalem was
pressed. The besieging army numbered one hundred thousand men. They
built ramparts, filled up the moats, and prepared their battering-rams.
The besieged, though suffering from want of food, defended themselves
heroically. They made occasional sorties, dispersed the workmen,
destroyed the preparations for the siege, built up a new wall, and
harassed the besiegers to such an extent that after one month's
labor they had not advanced to any extent in their work. But the two
Synhedrists, Shemaya and Abtalion, raised their voices against this
opposition, and recommended their countrymen to open their gates to
Herod.
This division of purpose amongst the besieged, combined with the
attacks of the invaders, may have hastened the fall of the northern
wall, which took place at the end of forty days. The besiegers rushed
into the lower town and into the outworks of the Temple, while the
besieged, with their king, fortified themselves in the upper town and
on the Temple Mount. The Romans were occupied during another fortnight
with the storming of the south wall. On a Sabbath evening, when the
Judæan warriors were least expecting an attack, a portion of the wall
was taken, and the Romans rushed like madmen into the old part of the
city and into the Temple. There, without distinction of age or sex,
they slaughtered all who came in their way, even the priest beside his
sacrifice. By a strange fatality, Jerusalem fell on the anniversary
of the day on which, twenty-seven years previously, the Temple had
been taken by Pompey. It was hardly possible for Herod to restrain his
savage soldiery from plundering and desecrating the holy spot, and it
was only by giving costly gifts to each soldier that he prevented the
entire destruction of Jerusalem. Antigonus was thrown into chains and
sent to Antony, who, upon Herod's persistent entreaties, and contrary
to all custom and usage, had him tortured and then ignobly beheaded.
This disgraceful treatment excited the opprobrium even of the Romans.
Herod, or, as the people called him, the Idumæan slave, had thus
reached the goal of his lofty desires. His throne, it is true, rested
upon ruins and upon the dead bodies of his subjects; but he felt that
he had the power to maintain its dignity, even if it were necessary to
carry a broad river of blood round its base. The bitter hatred of the
Judæan people, whose ruler he had become without the slightest lawful
title, was nothing to him as compared with the friendship of Rome and
the smile of Antony. His line of action was clearly marked out for him
by the situation of affairs: he had to cling to the Romans as a support
against the ill-will of his people, and meet this ill-will by apparent
concessions, or control it by unrelenting severity. This was the policy
that he followed from the first moment of his victory until he drew
his last breath. During all the thirty-four years of his reign he
followed this line of policy, cold and heartless as fate, and entailing
the most terrible consequences. Even in the first confusion attendant
upon the conquest of the Temple Mount, he had not lost his coolness
and vigilance, but had ordered his satellite Costobar to surround the
exits of Jerusalem with his soldiery, and thus to prevent the escape
of the unfortunate fugitives. The followers of Antigonus were slain
in large numbers, many amongst them being of the most distinguished
families. Herod did not forget old grievances. The Synhedrists, who
twelve years previously had decreed his death, were killed to a man,
with the exception of Abtalion and Shemaya, who had been hostile
to Antigonus. He seized the property of those whom he executed or
otherwise condemned for the royal treasury; for this worthy pupil of
Roman masters was fully alive to the advantages of proscription and
confiscation. He passed over the Hasmonæan house in selecting a high
priest, and chose a certain Ananel, a descendant of Aaron, but not
of high-priestly family, for that office. He declared that his own
was an old Judæan family which had returned from Babylonia, wishing
in this way to obliterate the fact that he was descended from an
Idumæan ancestor who had been forced to accept Judaism. The natives
of Jerusalem, who had a good memory for his true extraction, did not
indeed lend an ear to this invention, but foreign Judæans and heathens
may perhaps have been deceived by it. His confidential friend and
historian, Nicolaus of Damascus, relates this fiction as coming from
his own lips. At the death of Shemaya and Abtalion, the presidents of
the Synhedrion were chosen from a Babylonian-Judæan family, that of
Bene Bathyra.
Two persons still existed who might prove dangerous to Herod: an old
man and a youth--Hyrcanus, who had once worn the crown and the priestly
diadem, and his grandson Aristobulus, Herod's brother-in-law, who had
claims upon both the royal and the priestly dignity. Herod could not
devote himself to the calm enjoyment of his conquest until these two
should be powerless. Hyrcanus, it was true, who had fallen captive to
the Parthians, had been mutilated by them, and was therefore unfit to
resume his priestly office; but his captors had generously granted
him freedom, and the aged monarch had been joyfully and reverentially
welcomed by the community of Babylonian Judæans. In spite of the
devotion which he received from these people, Hyrcanus had an intense
longing to return to his native land, and Herod was afraid that he
might induce the Babylonian Judæans or the Parthians to take up his
cause and help him regain his throne, from which the latter had torn
him. Anxious to avert this danger, Herod bethought himself of taking
Hyrcanus from Parthian influence and of bringing him under his own
power. It was thus that the aged monarch received a pressing invitation
to Jerusalem to share the throne and the power of king Herod, and
to receive the thanks of the Idumæan for past acts of kindness that
Hyrcanus had shown him. Vainly did the Babylonian Judæans warn the
credulous prince not to let himself be drawn a second time into the
eddy of public life; he hurried to his doom. Herod received him with
every mark of respect, and gave him the place of honor at his table and
in the Council, masking his treachery so completely that Hyrcanus was
entirely deceived. He was unarmed and powerless in a golden cage.
But more dangerous to Herod seemed his young brother-in-law
Aristobulus, the only brother of Mariamne, who, on account of his
lineage, his youth, and his surpassing beauty, had attracted the love
and devotion of all his people. Herod, in debarring him from the
dignity of high priest, imagined that he had successfully destroyed his
influence. But this was not so. Alexandra, the mother of Mariamne and
Aristobulus, as well versed in intrigue as Herod himself, had succeeded
in obtaining Antony's favor for her son. She had sent the portraits of
her children, the most beautiful of their race, to the Roman triumvir,
believing his weak nature might be worked upon most favorably through
the senses. Antony, in truth, struck by the portraits, requested to
see Aristobulus. But Herod, in order that this meeting should not
take place, suddenly proclaimed the young Hasmonæan high priest, and
Ananel was deprived of this dignity. But Alexandra was far from being
satisfied, for she was secretly determined that her son should also
wear the crown which his ancestors had worn. Herod, fully alive to his
peril, was all the more determined to rid himself of this dangerous
youth. Aristobulus had already gained the heart of the people, and
whenever he appeared in the Temple, every eye hung upon his noble and
perfect form, every glance seemed to avow that the Judæans were longing
to see this last scion of the Hasmonæan house seated upon the royal
throne. Herod durst not act with open violence against his rival, who
was looked upon with special favor by Queen Cleopatra, but as usual
he resorted to treachery. He invited Aristobulus to Jericho, and bade
his followers dispatch the youth whilst he was disporting in the bath.
Thus died, at the early age of seventeen, Aristobulus III., the last
male representative of the Hasmonæan house. Herod then reappointed his
puppet Ananel as high priest. It was vain for the Idumæan to affect
deep grief at the death of his young brother-in-law, it was vain for
him to throw sweet perfume upon his body; all the relations and friends
of the murdered Hasmonæan accused Herod in their hearts of his death,
although their lips gave no utterance to their thoughts.
But this crime brought its own bitter punishment with it, and made
Herod's whole life one long tale of misery. The agony of remorse that
might have wrought some change upon a less hardened nature was not
felt, but only an ever-increasing suspicion towards those of his own
household, which urged him to heap crime upon crime, to murder his
nearest relatives, even his own children, until he became at last the
most terrible example of a sin-laden existence. Alexandra, who had
staked her ambitious hopes upon the coronation of her son, and who
now found herself so cruelly deceived, did not hesitate to accuse
Herod before Cleopatra of the murder of Aristobulus. This queen, whose
passions were uncontrolled, and who looked with an envious eye upon
Herod's newly acquired kingdom, took advantage of his crime to make
its author appear odious in the eyes of Antony. Herod was summoned to
Laodicea. Trembling for his life, the vassal king obeyed the summons,
but succeeded in ingratiating himself so thoroughly by costly gifts and
by carefully chosen yet eloquent words, that not only was the death of
Aristobulus overlooked, but he was distinguished by marks of esteem,
and sent back to Jerusalem, full of happy self-confidence. He lost,
however, one precious pearl from his crown. The far-famed district of
Jericho, celebrated for its wealth of palm-trees and its highly-prized
balsam, had been given by Antony to Cleopatra, and Herod was forced to
accept two hundred talents in lieu as tribute-money from the queen. He
could, however, rest well satisfied with this loss, when comparing it
with the danger from which he had escaped.
On the threshold of his palace, however, the demon of discord awaited
him, ready to fill his whole being with despair. On the eve of his
departure he had entrusted his wife Mariamne to the care of Joseph,
the husband of his sister Salome, and had given him the secret command
that, in case of his falling a victim to Antony's displeasure, Joseph
should murder both Mariamne and Alexandra. Love for his beautiful wife,
whom he could not bear to think of as belonging to another, added to
hatred of Alexandra, who should not triumph in his death, prompted
this fiendish resolve. But Joseph had betrayed his secret mission to
Mariamne, and had thus plunged another dagger into the heart of that
unhappy queen. When a false report of Herod's death became current in
Jerusalem, Mariamne and her mother prepared to put themselves under
Roman protection. Herod's sister Salome, who hated both her husband
Joseph and her sister-in-law Mariamne, made use of this fact to
calumniate them upon her brother's return, accusing them of a mutual
understanding and undue intimacy. Herod at first turned a deaf ear to
this calumny, but when Mariamne disclosed to her husband, amidst tears
of indignation, that Joseph had confessed his secret mission to her,
then the king's wrath knew no bounds. Declaring that he fully believed
his sister's accusations, he beheaded Joseph, placed Alexandra in
confinement, and would have had Mariamne slain, had not his love for
his queen surpassed even his rage. From that day, however, the seeds of
distrust and hatred were sown in the palace, and they grew and spread
until one member of the royal family after another met with an untimely
and violent death.
Outwardly, however, fortune appeared to smile upon Herod, carrying him
successfully over the most difficult obstacles in his path. Before the
sixth year of his reign had ended, threatening clouds began to gather
over his head. A surviving sister of the last Hasmonæan king Antigonus
had arisen as the avenger of her brother and his race, and had, in some
way or other, possessed herself of the fortress of Hyrcanion. Herod
had hardly disarmed this female warrior before he was threatened by a
more serious danger. Cleopatra, who had always hated the Judæans, and
who had been most ungenerous to that community in Alexandria during a
year of famine, had again attempted to effect Herod's ruin by awakening
Antony's displeasure against him. Afraid of this violent and yet crafty
queen, and alarmed at the hatred of his own people, who were longing
for his downfall, Herod determined upon preparing some safe retreat,
where his life would at all events be secure from his enemies. He chose
for this purpose the fortress of Masada, which nature had rendered
almost impregnable, and which he fortified still more strongly. But
Cleopatra was already devising another scheme for the downfall of
her enemy. She succeeded in entangling him in a war with Malich, the
Nabathæan king, and thus endeavored to bring about the ruin of two
equally hated monarchs. But Herod gained two decisive victories over
the Nabathæans, which alarmed Cleopatra, and caused her to send her
general Athenion to the aid of Malich. The Judæan army sustained a
terrible defeat, and Herod was beaten back across the Jordan. This
disaster was followed by an earthquake, which alarmed and dispirited
the Judæan troops to such an extent that they lost all courage and
were almost powerless before the enemy. But Herod, with true genius,
succeeded in rousing his people, and in leading them victoriously
against the Nabathæans. Malich was forced to become the vassal of the
Judæan king.
Hardly, however, was peace restored before a storm arose that
threatened to shake the Roman world to its very depths and to destroy
the favorite of the Roman generals. Ever since that day when Rome and
her vast possessions lay at the feet of the triumvirs, who hated each
other cordially, and each one of whom wished to be sole ruler of the
state, the political atmosphere had been charged with destructive
elements that threatened to explode at any given moment. Added to this,
one of the three leaders was completely under the sway of the dissolute
and devilish Queen Cleopatra, who had set her heart upon becoming
mistress of Rome, even though this should entail the devastation of
whole countries by fire and by sword.
It was during this highly excited period that a Judæan author foretold,
in beautiful Greek verse, written in the form of a sibylline prophecy,
the coming destruction of the Roman-Greek state, and the reign of
Belial, who would decoy the unhappy ones to their final destruction;
but this Judæo-Greek seer also heralded the coming of a glorious
Messiah. An era of crime had certainly begun, and a Belial had appeared
in the person of the half-Judæan Herod, but as yet no Messianic dawn of
better things was apparent.
With the declaration of war between Octavius and Antony, a fierce
strife broke out between the Western and the Eastern provinces of
Rome; it was Europe against Asia--a war of nations. But it came to a
sudden end with the fall of Antony in the battle of Actium (31). This
blow struck Herod severely; neither he nor his friends doubted for one
moment that he would be submerged in the ruin of his protector, for
he had been closely allied to Antony. He was prepared for the worst,
but he determined not to be outlived by the aged Hyrcanus, by his wife
Mariamne, or by his mother-in-law Alexandra. He accused Hyrcanus of
having conspired with the Nabathæan king, and ordered the innocent
monarch to be executed. Mariamne and Alexandra he placed under the
guardianship of the Ithuræan Soem in the fortress of Alexandrion. Herod
then prepared to present himself before the conqueror, Octavianus
Cæsar, and if he met with his death, as was most probable, Mariamne and
her mother were to be instantly murdered.
On the eve of Herod's departure, he found himself compelled to make
some change in the Synhedrion, and to appoint the Babylonian Hillel,
a man unknown until then, as one of the presidents. This gave a new
direction to the spirit of Judaism, which has affected that faith
down to the present. Hillel, born about the year 75, traced back his
descent, on his mother's side, to the house of David. Although his
lineage was a distinguished one, he was living in needy circumstances,
and was supported by his rich brother, Shebna. He probably accompanied
Hyrcanus on his return from Babylon to Jerusalem, and became one of the
most devoted disciples of the Synhedrists, Shemaya and Abtalion, whose
traditional lore he endeavored to transmit literally and faithfully.
Hillel was particularly distinguished for his winning, dove-like
gentleness, his intense love of humanity, which arose from his own
humility, and from his deep faith in others, and lastly, for that
perfect equanimity proceeding from his profound trust in God, that
never wavered in the midst of trouble. In later ages he was revered as
the ideal of modesty and gentleness. When he was once asked to express
the essence of Judaism in one sentence, he uttered this golden maxim:
"Do not unto others what thou wouldst not have done unto thyself.
This is the principal commandment: all others are the development
of that one." If strife and dissension arose, Hillel was invariably
the peacemaker. His beneficence knew no bounds, and he had that rare
delicacy of feeling which never humiliates the recipient by the gift,
but which rather helps him to maintain his self-respect. His faith in
God raised him triumphantly above every fear. All the members of his
household were imbued through his example with the same faith; so much
so that once, upon entering the town and hearing a cry of distress,
he was able confidently to remark, "That cry cannot have proceeded
from my house." Hillel has bequeathed a greater number of maxims to us
than any of his predecessors. We read amongst them the following: "If
I were not to care for myself (my soul), who would do so for me? If I
care for myself alone, what can I effect? If not now, when then?" "Be
of the disciples of Aaron, love peace, seek peace, love mankind, thus
lead them to the Law." Impressed by the sublime mission of Israel, that
of maintaining and teaching the pure belief in one God, he exclaimed
at one of the festivals in the Temple: "If I (Israel) am here, then
is everything here; if I should be wanting, who would be here?" The
doctrines of Judaism were so profoundly revered by him that his
indignation was roused whenever they were used as stepping-stones to
the schemes of the ambitious. "He who wishes to raise his name, lowers
it; he who does not seek the Law, does not deserve to live. He who
does not progress in learning, retrogrades; he who uses the crown of
the Law for his own ends, perishes."
Hillel became in after years the very ideal of his co-religionists.
The impetus given by him to the development of doctrinal Judaism marks
an epoch in the history of that faith. He greatly enriched the mass of
the traditional lore that he had imbibed from the Synhedrists, Shemaya
and Abtalion. But far more important was his logical derivation of the
statutes of the Law observed in his time. He traced them back to their
first principles, and raised them out of the narrow circle of tradition
and mere custom to the height of reason. The traditional law, according
to Hillel, carries within itself its justification and binding power,
it does not depend on authority alone. Thus, to a certain extent, he
paved the way to a reconciliation between Pharisees and Sadducees by
placing before them the principles common to both, from which neither
of them could withhold their assent. On the one hand, Hillel agreed
with the Sadducæan principle, that a law can only be valid if founded
upon scriptural authority; but, on the other hand, he declared that
this authority did not merely lie in the dead letter, but was also to
be derived from the general spirit of the scriptural writings. After
this demonstration by Hillel, no dispute amongst the schools could
arise as to the binding power of traditional law. By the introduction
of seven rules, or Middoth, the oral law could be imbued with the same
weight and authority as that actually contained in the Scriptures.
Through these seven rules the oral law assumed quite a different
aspect; it lost its apparently arbitrary character; it became more
universal and reasonable in its tendency, and might be looked upon as
originating from Holy Writ itself.
These explanatory rules were, moreover, intended not only to justify
the oral law, but also to lay down instructions how to amplify the
laws, and how to meet unforeseen cases of difficulty. At first they
appear to have been unfavorably received. It is expressly narrated
that Hillel introduced them at a council of the Bathyrene Synhedrion,
but that assembly may either have misinterpreted them or have disputed
their expediency. In the meantime an opportunity presented itself
of having recourse to these explanatory rules, for a question was
raised, the solution of which deeply excited the whole nation, and
to this opportunity Hillel owed the dignified position of President
of the Synhedrion. The eve of the festival on which the Paschal
Lamb was to be sacrificed occurred on the Sabbath, a most unusual
event at that time, and the Bathyrene Synhedrion could not throw any
light upon the disputed question, whether it was permitted or not to
sacrifice the Paschal Lamb on the Sabbath Day. Hillel, whose ability
must have attracted the attention of the discerning before, had
taken part in the discussion, and had proved that according to the
explanatory rules, the Pesach, or Paschal Sacrifice, like every other
whole offering, supersedes the Sabbath. The debate became heated, the
mass of the people being warmly interested in the celebration of the
festival. Expressions of approval and censure for Hillel were freely
uttered. Some cried, "We have to look to the Babylonians for the best
information"; others ironically asked, "What good can we expect from
the Babylonians?"
From that day Hillel's name became so popular that the Bathyrene
Synhedrists resigned their offices--whether of their own free will,
or because they were forced to do so by the people, is not known--and
conceded the Presidency to Hillel himself (about 30). Hillel, far from
being proud of his exalted position, expressed himself as dissatisfied,
and angrily reproved the Synhedrists. "Why is it," he asked, "that I,
an insignificant Babylonian, became President of the Synhedrion? Only
because you have been too indolent to heed the teachings of Shemaya and
Abtalion." Herod does not seem to have made any objection to the choice.
One of the statutes which Hillel had introduced was of general
interest, and proved that he had true insight into affairs of life.
In the Sabbatical year all debts were by law canceled. At the time
when the state was a republic based upon moral laws, this was a wise
measure for equalizing property; but at a later period, when capital
became a power in itself, the rich were not willing to relieve their
less wealthy neighbors from their difficulties by giving them loans. On
this account Hillel, without entirely abrogating the law which already
existed, ruled that the creditor should give over the debt in writing
to the Court, so that the Court might collect it, and the creditor be
relieved from the necessity of violating the law. This timely statute,
equally advantageous to debtor and creditor, was called by the Greek
word _Prosbol_, because the debt was given over to the Council of the
Elders.
At Herod's particular desire, the second place of honor, that of
Deputy of Hillel, was given to the Essene Menahem, to whom the king
showed great partiality. The cause of this attachment was as follows
(at least so the tale ran in later days): Menahem, by means of the
prophetic power ascribed to the Essenes, had foretold during his
childhood that Herod would one day be king in Jerusalem, and that his
reign would be a brilliant one, but that he would fail in piety and
justice. That which had appeared incredible to the youth recurred to
the man when he wore the regal crown. But Menahem appears not to have
found his office congenial, and soon withdrew in favor of Shammai,
whose characteristics, opposed in many ways to those of Hillel, in
reality supplemented them. Shammai was probably by birth a Palestinean,
and therefore much interested in all the political and religious
controversies of his native land. His religious views were strict to
a painful extreme. But Shammai was not of a gloomy or misanthropical
disposition; indeed, he encouraged friendliness in demeanor towards
every one. This is indicated by the maxim which has come down to us,
"Let your work in the Law be your principal occupation; speak little,
but do much, and receive all men with a friendly countenance."
The two Synhedrists, Hillel and Shammai, founded two separate
schools, opposed to each other in many religious, moral, and legal
questions, which, with their different tendencies, exerted a powerful
influence, during the subsequent unsettled and warlike times, upon
events of historical importance. Herod had no conception of the forces
antagonistic to his house that were quietly developing within the
seclusion of these schools.
With a trembling heart he had presented himself at Rhodes before
Octavianus Cæsar, who, since the defeat of Antony at Actium, was sole
master of the Roman provinces. He, so haughty in his own country,
appeared in meek and lowly guise at the footstool of the mighty ruler,
yet not without a certain manly resolution. In his interview with
Octavianus, Herod did not in any way conceal the position he had held
with relation to Antony; but he took care to dwell upon the fact of his
having refrained from aiding Antony after his defeat at Actium, thereby
intimating to Octavianus what use he might make of the devotion and
zeal which Herod was prepared to transfer from the cause of Antony to
that of his conqueror. Octavianus was neither noble enough to despise
so venal a man, nor did he feel secure enough to do without him.
So he graciously encouraged the pleading Herod, bade him array himself
as before in royal robes, and sent him back to his own country laden
with honors (30). Herod found no difficulty in becoming as loyal a
partisan of Octavianus as he had been for twelve long years of Antony.
During the campaign of the second Cæsar against Egypt, he was met at
Acco by Herod bearing rich presents, and the Judæan king supplied
the Roman army with water and with wine during their march through
an arid country. It is possible that Antony may have heard, before
he put an end to his life, that Herod's loyalty was not founded on a
rock. Herod had also the malicious joy of knowing that his persistent
enemy, Cleopatra, who had failed to fascinate the conqueror by her
attractions, had nothing left but to seek death. The Alexandrian
Judæans, who had suffered from her hatred, shared Herod's feelings.
For, but a short time previous to her death, this terrible woman had
longed to assassinate with her own hands the Judæans who were living in
the capital of Egypt, and who were devoted to the cause of Octavianus.
The Egyptian Judæans were rewarded for their devotion by an official
recognition of their equality with the rest of the inhabitants; in
fact, Octavianus had such confidence in their loyalty that he placed
the harbors of the Nile and of the sea under the control of the Judæan
Alabarchs, who had held that office under former Egyptian monarchs.
This was a special mark of favor, for the possession of Egypt, the
Roman granary, and particularly of the harbor of Alexandria, was so
precious to the first emperor of Rome that no Senator dared approach
that country without the imperial permission. When the Alabarch who
was then in office died, Octavianus allowed his successor to be chosen
by the Alexandrian Judæans, and granted him all the rights of his
predecessors. Whilst he governed the Greek Alexandrians with extreme
severity on account of their depravity, their untrustworthiness and
their love of sedition, and kept them strictly under his own rule, he
appointed a Judæan Council to assist the Alabarchs or Ethnarchs. The
Judæan community was thus governed by one of its own race, who decided
all the judicial questions and provided for the carrying out of all
imperial commands and behests.
Octavianus also granted to the numerous Judæans who were settled
in Rome, the Libertini, if not extraordinary privileges, at least
the right of observing their own religious customs, and thus set a
worthy example to his successors. The Judæans were allowed to build
synagogues, where they worshiped according to their rites; they were
also permitted to transmit their yearly contributions to the Temple in
Jerusalem, although, in general, it was forbidden to send large sums
out of Rome. The Roman Judæans also received their due portion of the
grain that was distributed amongst the population. If the distribution
happened to take place on a Sabbath, their portion was allotted to them
on the following day. These were the orders of the emperor.
Octavianus made over to Herod the splendid body-guard of Cleopatra,
numbering four hundred Gauls, and he placed under his jurisdiction
several seaports that had been torn from Judæa, as well as the
territory of Jericho. Samaria, as also Gadara and Hippos in
trans-Jordanic territory, were also incorporated with Judæa. The area
of the kingdom was now identical with what it had been before the
civil war between the royal brothers and the first intervention of the
Romans; but different, indeed, were the circumstances under which she
had regained her possessions! Probably it was due to Herod's boundless
sycophancy to Rome that sacrifices were now regularly offered up for
the welfare of the Cæsars, Augustus and his consort presenting in
return golden vessels for the use of the Temple.
Herod was now at the very zenith of his power; the untoward fortune
that he had feared had not only been averted, but had actually
assisted in exalting him. He was not, however, to enjoy his good
fortune; the terrible consequences of his crimes clung to his footsteps
and changed his cup of happiness into one of gall. In the narrow circle
of his own home a tragedy was about to be enacted, far more terrible
than could have been conceived by the imagination of a poet. Mariamne,
who, as well as her mother Alexandra, had been in close confinement
during the king's absence, had elicited from her gaoler Soem the fact
that she would not have been permitted to outlive Herod. Upon the
king's return she made no secret of her hatred for him, and when he
spoke to her in words of tenderness and affection, she taunted him with
the murders of her brother, her grandfather and many others of her
relatives. Herod's heart was torn by the love he bore to this beautiful
woman and by the wrath he felt at her persistent enmity to his person
and his power. Whilst still a prey to these conflicting feelings he
was only too ready to lend a willing ear to the malicious inventions
of his sister Salome, who assured him that his cup-bearer had been
bribed by Mariamne to poison him. During the investigation that ensued
it transpired that Soem had disclosed his secret instructions to
the queen, and this treachery on the part of a confidential servant
let loose a host of wild passions within Herod's breast. Soem was
decapitated on the spot. Whilst still moved by his ungovernable rage,
Herod summoned a council, before whom he accused his wife of adultery
and of an attempt to poison him. The judges passed the sentence of
death upon her, and, wishing to curry favor with Herod, ordered the
execution to take place forthwith. It was thus that the most beautiful
woman in Judæa, the Hasmonæan princess, the pride of her people, was
led to the scaffold. She went to her doom with remarkable fortitude,
without the faintest tremor or the least display of feminine weakness,
worthy of her heroic ancestry (29). We may take Mariamne as the symbol
of Judæa, delivered up to the axe of the executioner by intrigue and
passion.
But Mariamne's death did not quench Herod's thirst for revenge; on
the contrary, it brought on still fiercer paroxysms of rage. He could
not endure her loss, and became a prey to sickness and insanity.
He would call frantically upon her name in a passion of sobs and
tears; and he had her body embalmed in honey, so that he might keep
it in his presence. It was whilst traveling in Samaria that he fell
so dangerously ill that the doctors despaired of his life, and when
this intelligence reached his capital, Alexandra proceeded to possess
herself of Jerusalem. But the king's vitality returned upon the rumor
of this sudden peril to his throne, and Alexandra fell a victim to
her sedition. She was the very last who bore the Hasmonæan name, and
she had lived long enough to witness the violent and disgraceful
deaths of her father-in-law Aristobulus II, her husband Alexander, her
brother-in-law Antigonus, her son Aristobulus III, her father Hyrcanus
II, and her daughter Mariamne.
The remaining two-thirds of the Herodian reign are devoid of any
real progress; the record of that time tells of cringing submission
to Augustus and to Rome, of the erection of magnificent edifices,
of the love of pomp and display, of deeply-rooted moral corruption,
of unsuccessful conspiracies and court intrigues, leading to new
crimes and further executions. In order to retain the favor of the
all-powerful Augustus, Herod introduced into Jerusalem the celebration
of the Actian games, occurring every fifth year, in remembrance of
Augustus' victory over his rival, he also built theaters and arenas,
where he organized combats between gladiators or wild beasts, thus
arousing the displeasure of the national party, who rightly divined
that it was intended that Judaism soon should be absorbed by a
Pagan-Roman worship, and who recognized in the Roman trophies and
eagles displayed in the theaters, the introduction of Roman deities.
Herod gave his people another cause for umbrage, in the fact that
he was not only ornamenting the hated city of Samaria, within a
circumference of half a mile, with the most beautiful buildings,
but that he also contemplated making that city the capital of his
dominions, a dignity for which she was singularly adapted by her
fortunate position. The newly-built Samaria was renamed Sebaste, just
as the citadel Baris, the armory of the Hasmonæans in old days, on
the northwest side of the Temple, had been called Antonia in honor of
Antony. In fact, Judæa became crowded with cities and with monuments
which bore the names of Herod's own family or those of his Roman
protectors. The fortress of Straton on the sea was, by most lavish
expenditure, converted into a beautiful city, with an extensive harbor,
and received the name of Cæsarea, one of the towers on its walls being
called Drusus, after the son of Augustus. Herod did not even hesitate
to erect a Roman temple on the soil of the Holy Land. Two colossal
figures were raised in Cæsarea, one of them representing, in gigantic
proportions, the figure of Augustus as the Olympian Jupiter, and the
other that of the city of Rome as the Argive Juno. At the splendid
consecration of Cæsarea, the rebuilding of which had occupied twelve
years, the inhabitants could have imagined themselves transported into
a pagan city. On account of its name, its origin and its importance,
the national party justly called it Little Rome. In later days it
became the seat of the Roman governor, the rival of Jerusalem, and
finally her conqueror. Whenever Cæsarea rejoiced, Jerusalem was sure to
mourn. The harbor of Cæsarea, which grew in time to be a town itself,
was called Sebastus. Herod had, without doubt, enhanced the beauty of
Judæa, but, like a doomed victim, she was garlanded for the altar. His
love of display found satisfaction in the magnificence of his edifices,
but not his love of renown. Despairing of securing the affection of his
own people, he resolved to compel the admiration of the stranger. He
exhausted his people by taxation, redoubled his extortions, searched
for hidden treasures in the ancient royal cemeteries, sold those who
had been imprisoned for theft as slaves to neighboring countries, and
then lavished all the funds he had gained by these practices upon the
adornment of Syrian, Asiatic, and Greek cities. Huge were the sums of
money that he withdrew from his own country for such enterprises.
Herod may possibly have secured the admiration and affection of the
Greeks, the Romans and the Judæans outside of Palestine; but the people
of Jerusalem felt nothing but aversion for this grasping upstart, who
sought to estrange them from the customs of their fathers. In spite
of his having shown himself to be their generous benefactor, upon the
occasion of a great famine (24), the nation now only beheld in him the
murderer of the Hasmonæans, the usurper of their throne, the destroyer
of the noblest citizens, the suppressor of freedom. He had disgraced
the three dignities of Monarch, High Priest, and Synhedrist. The first
he had arrogated to himself; the second, which until his reign had,
with very few exceptions, descended by right of inheritance from father
to son, he had given away, according to his own pleasure or to attain
his own ends; and the power of the third he had curtailed by allowing
it hardly any scope for action. Joshua, of the family of Phabi, had,
through Herod's instrumentality, succeeded Ananel as High Priest; but
the king having been fascinated by the beauty of another Mariamne,
the daughter of an inferior priest, Simon, he dispossessed Joshua of
his dignity, and raised Simon to his office, in order that his future
wife's rank be not too strikingly below his own.
This High Priest Simon was an Alexandrian, the son of Boëthus, and it
was he who laid the foundation-stone of the greatness of the house
of Boëthus, from which several high priests descended. He appears to
have been the founder of the sect of the Boëthuseans, who followed
the teachings of the Sadducees, but who were better able to grasp and
apply those teachings than the Sadducees themselves, thanks to their
Alexandrian readiness and sophistry.
These despotic acts of Herod were not calculated to make him beloved
by his people. He was perfectly aware of their ill-will towards him,
but as he could not crush it, he at least sought to make it harmless.
Thus he insisted upon all subjects taking an oath of allegiance,
resolving to punish severely those who would refrain from doing so. The
Essenes alone, who disapproved of oaths, were exempt; he had no cause
for fear in their peaceful, contemplative lives; on the contrary, he
warmly approved of such subjects, who would submit without murmuring
to any law that he might choose to make. Those amongst the Pharisees
who were the followers of the peace-loving Hillel seem to have taken
the required oath without hesitation, but the followers of the sterner
Shammai stubbornly refused to do so. Six thousand Pharisees in all
refused to take the oath of allegiance, and to inflict corporal
punishment upon so great a number appeared, even to Herod, a serious
matter. So he heavily taxed the refractory, amongst whom was the wife
of his brother Pheroras, an ardent devotee, strange to say, of strict
Phariseeism.
But, in spite of all these precautionary measures, Herod did not trust
his subjects, and employed a number of spies to watch them. He himself
would often appear in disguise at their popular assemblies, and woe
to the unfortunate individual who, at that moment, might be giving
utterance to a complaint against the existing order of things; he was
doomed to be imprisoned in a fortress, or secretly despatched. But
popularity is too sweet for the tyrant to forego it, and to Herod it
was particularly important, as he wished to appear before the Romans
in the character of a prince beloved by his people. This, besides his
passion for building, was probably the motive that impelled him to
convert the Temple, now five hundred years old, small and of an old
fashion, into a magnificent edifice in a new style. The representatives
of the nation, when he informed them of his plan, received the news
with horror; they feared that Herod intended merely to destroy their
old Temple, and that he would endlessly protract the work of the
new building, thus robbing them entirely of their sanctuary. But he
pacified them by the assurance that the old Temple should remain
standing until all the workmen, with their material, were at hand for
the construction of the new one. Thousands of carts, laden with quarry
stone and marble, now appeared on the scene, and ten thousand skilled
workmen were ready to commence operations. In the eighteenth year of
Herod's reign (20) the building was begun, and in one year and a half
(18) the inner part of the Temple was finished. The building of the
outer walls, courts and galleries occupied a period of eight years, and
long after this time, until just before the destruction, the workmen
were still employed upon them.
The Herodian Temple was a magnificent production, the exquisite
beauty of which those who witnessed it could not sufficiently admire.
It differed from the uncompleted Temple of Zerubbabel in being of
vaster dimensions and of richer and more ornate decoration. The whole
circumference of the Temple Mount (Har-ha-bayith), which was surrounded
by a lofty and strong wall, besides the fortress at Antonia, with
which it was in communication, exceeded three-quarters of a mile,
and the ground rose in terraces. Owing to this commanding position
the Sanctuary could be seen from afar. The long range of outer wall
protected a series of courts and galleries, with their cedar ceilings
and mosaic floorings. The first court was assigned as a place of
assembly for the people, where the most important questions were
discussed. Here the pagan and the unpurified were admitted; here Greek
and Roman inscriptions, in large characters, and placed in prominent
positions, caught the eye of him who entered. They ran as follows: "No
foreigner is permitted to pass through this grating into the Sanctuary
and its surroundings. If discovered there he has brought the punishment
of death upon himself." The second court, which in former days had
been protected by a wooden grating, was now shut in by a low wall.
The internal arrangements of the Temple were but little changed, and
consisted, as in the Temple of Zerubbabel, of three uncovered courts
and of the Sanctuary, which was of a size to admit of the golden
altar, the candlestick and the shewbread table, and, at the extreme
end, of the Holy of Holies. But the outer parts of the Sanctuary
vastly outshone those of the old Temple. Its walls were of snow-white
marble, and as they rose on the highest summit of the Temple Mount,
and towered above the outer walls and their fortifications, they
presented a beautiful and striking appearance from all sides. The large
space in front of the Sanctuary was partitioned into various smaller
courts for the use of the women, the laymen, the priests, and for all
those who were engaged in preparing the sacrifices for the altar. The
space allotted to the female portion of the worshipers, whose visits
to the Temple were now of frequent occurrence, was entirely shut off
from the rest, and three large balconies were reserved for the use of
the women, from which they were able to witness all celebrations of
a public character. The gateway leading to this part of the Temple
was closed by a magnificent door, cast in Corinthian brass, the gift
of a rich and pious Alexandrian, after whom it was named the Gate of
Nicanor. Fifteen steps led thence to the laymen's quarters, which
were reached by passing through a gateway, called, on account of its
commanding position, the High Gate. The outer court was entirely open;
but, on the other hand, the Sanctuary was shut off by a gateway higher
and broader than any other, containing double folding doors, thickly
covered with a layer of gold. This was the Great Gate or the Gate of
the Sanctuary. The high roof of the Sanctuary rose at intervals into
sharp gilded points, the object of which was to prevent the birds from
building their nests on this consecrated place, but probably quite
unintentionally on the part of the builder, they may also have served
as lightning conductors.
The splendor of the dedication far exceeded that solemnized in King
Solomon's time. Hecatombs upon hecatombs were offered up, and the whole
nation was feasted. The celebration fell upon the very anniversary
of the day when, twenty years previously, Herod, with blood-stained
hands, had made himself master of Jerusalem--a terrible reminiscence.
The hands that built the Temple had already lighted the torch for its
destruction. Herod placed it under the protection of Rome. To the
horror of the pious Judæans, a golden eagle, the symbol of Roman might,
was hung over the principal entrance. Herod, moreover, constructed a
subterranean passage, leading from the fortress of Antonia to the east
gate of the Temple, in order to control the egresses of the Sanctuary.
His soul was filled with distrust of his people.
Towards the close of his reign the aged and sin-laden monarch was
seized with a terrible malady. This threw him into a condition of such
hopeless misery that one may say that all human feeling gave place
to the fury of the wild beast. The corpses of his innocent victims
rose up before his excited imagination, and made his life one long
torment. Vainly he sought for one loving heart, one faithful soul,
who would comfort and guide him. But he believed that his own flesh
and blood--his sister and brother, Salome and Pheroras, even his own
children--were his enemies, and were conspiring against his peace and
his life. This terrible state of mind made him more dangerous than
ever to those who ventured within his presence. The chief cause of his
frenzy was the death of his beloved Mariamne. Besides two daughters,
she had left him two sons, Alexander and Aristobulus, who, as they
grew to man's estate, took the death of their unfortunate mother
deeply to heart, and could not conceal the aversion they felt for
their father. As these princes were of Hasmonæan descent, Herod had
decided upon making them his successors. He had sent them as youths
to Rome, in order that they might gain the favor of Augustus, and be
educated according to Roman fashion. He married the eldest, Alexander,
to Glaphyra, the daughter of Archelaus, King of Cappadocia, and the
younger, Aristobulus, to Salome's daughter, Berenice. He thought
that by these means he could secure peace amongst the members of
his own family. But his wishes were defeated by the hatred that the
revengeful Salome and her brother Pheroras bore to the descendants of
the Hasmonæan Mariamne. Herod was induced by his sister to take to his
heart and to adopt as a royal prince the son of his first wife, Doris,
whom together with her child he had repudiated upon his marriage with
Mariamne.
Antipater, the son of Doris, had inherited all the malice, craft and
cruelty of the Idumæans, and he spared neither his father nor his
brothers. The three, Salome, Pheroras, and Antipater, although they
hated one another mortally, were united in hatred against the sons of
Mariamne. The more these princes were indulged by their father, and the
more they were beloved by the people as descendants from the Hasmonæans
on their mother's side, the more did their bitter foes fear and detest
them. Antipater accused Alexander and Aristobulus of wishing to avenge
the death of their mother upon the person of their father. Imprudent
expressions, hastily uttered in moments of irritation, may have given
some show of reason to these accusations. Herod's suspicions dwelt
eagerly upon this calumny. He began to hate his sons, and, as a mark of
displeasure towards them, led Antipater to believe that he should share
in their rights of succession. This determination of the king served to
embitter the Hasmonæan princes still more, and drove them to the most
unwise outbursts of anger against their father. Antipater succeeded at
the same time in laying proofs of an attempted conspiracy of the two
brothers against Herod before him. Their friends and their servants
were, by the king's commands, put to the torture, and upon the strength
of their confession, wrung from them under agony, Alexander and
Aristobulus were condemned to death by a council numbering one hundred
and fifty of Herod's friends. Herod himself hastened the execution,
and ordered the two princes to be torn from Jerusalem and hurried to
Samaria, and there, where thirty years previously their unnatural
father had celebrated his marriage with their mother, her two sons were
mercilessly beheaded.
However, the conspiracies against Herod's life did not cease with
their death, but, on the contrary, acquired fresh vigor. Antipater,
not feeling at all sure of his succession so long as his father was
alive, actually conspired with Pheroras against the life of that
father and benefactor. But his fiendish design came to light, and it
was discovered that Antipater had undoubtedly intended poisoning his
father. This disclosure was a terrible blow for Herod. The turmoil of
his outraged feelings cannot be described, and yet he had to control
himself, and even to pretend great affection for Antipater, in order
to induce that prince to leave Rome and return to Jerusalem. Upon
Antipater's arrival, his father loaded him with reproaches, and accused
him before a tribunal, which was under the presidency of the Roman
governor Quintilius Varus, of fratricide and attempted parricide.
Vainly did the prince plead innocence; Herod's friend, Nicolaus of
Damascus, appeared as his merciless accuser. His death sentence was
passed, and Herod begged of Augustus to ratify it.
Such constant and frequent alarms brought Herod, who had nearly reached
his seventieth year, to his death-bed. All his hopes were frustrated;
the result of so much labor, of so much guilt, of so much bloodshed,
had become hateful to him. In which of his surviving sons could he have
confidence? For the third time he altered the succession, and resolved
that the throne should belong to his youngest son, Antipas I.
His miserable state of mind, which might have made him gentler and
more merciful, only led him into still greater cruelty. An unimportant
rising on the part of some hot-headed youths called forth from the aged
monarch an act of retaliation as heartless and as severe as in the days
when his heart beat high with young and ambitious hopes. The Pharisees
were no friends of his, especially those who were the disciples of
Shammai. He therefore kept a suspicious eye upon the members of the
Pharisaic schools, and the Pharisees, on their side, continued to
incite the youths of their following against their monarch, whom they
termed the Idumæan and the Roman. This they were able to do without
incurring any danger to themselves, for they clothed their words in a
metaphorical garb, applying the denunciations of the Hebrew prophets
of old to the Idumæan nation, to express what they felt for Herod and
his family.
Amongst the Pharisees who were most bitterly opposed to Herod and the
Romans, Judah ben Zippori and Matthias ben Margalot were distinguished
for their ardor and recklessness, and were endeared to their people by
these very characteristics. Upon hearing of Herod's mortal illness,
they incited some of their young disciples to put an end to the
desecration of the Temple, by hurling the Roman eagle from the gateway.
The rumors of Herod's death, that were credited in Jerusalem, favored
this bold undertaking. A number of youths armed with axes rushed to
the Temple Gate, scaled it by means of a rope-ladder, and cut down
the eagle. At the news of this rebellious action, the captain of the
Herodian guard sent his troops to the spot, and they succeeded in
capturing the two ringleaders and forty of their followers. They were
brought into the king's presence, and the sight of these new victims
revived his exhausted vitality. At their trial, which was conducted in
his presence, he was forced to hear much that proved how incapable he
had been in breaking the stubborn will of his people. The prisoners
fearlessly confessed what they had done, boasting proudly of their
performance, and replying to the question as to who had incited them to
such an action, "The Law." They were all burnt alive as "desecrators of
the Temple."
But Herod was to be punished more effectually by eternal justice than
would have been possible had he been arraigned before the severest
earthly tribunal. Even the pleasure that was granted him before he
entirely succumbed to his loathsome malady, the delight of being able
to order the execution of his son, was soon followed by a paroxysm
of pain in which he nearly caused his own destruction. His relative
Achiab tore the knife from his hand, but the cry of horror that arose
from his palace in Jericho at this suicidal attempt, came to the ear
of Antipater, a prisoner in the same palace. He began to hope that
his life might yet be spared, and he besought his gaoler to release
him. But the gaoler, who feared to risk his own life, hurried into the
king's apartments, to see if the cruel monarch still lived. When Herod
heard that Antipater yet hoped to outlive him, he ordered his instant
assassination, and his orders were forthwith obeyed. Although Antipater
deserved his death tenfold, yet there was a general feeling of horror
at the idea of a father who could sentence his three sons to death.
Even Augustus, who did not show any tenderly paternal feelings to his
daughter Julia, could not help exclaiming at the news of Antipater's
execution, that "he would rather be Herod's swine than his son." A
legend of later date tells how Herod was not satisfied with shedding
the blood of his own children, but how, in a passion, he ordered all
children under two years of age in Bethlehem and the surrounding
country to be massacred, because he had heard that the Messiah of the
House of David had been born in that place! But Herod, criminal as he
was, was innocent of this crime.
Herod's last thoughts dwelt, however, upon bloodshed. He insisted
upon the most respected men of Judæa being brought to Jericho, and
imprisoned in the great public arena, where they were closely guarded;
he then left orders with his sister Salome and her husband that
directly after his death had taken place they should be all massacred
by his body-guard, so that the entire nation might be mourning their
loved ones, and no one would have the heart to rejoice over his
demise. Murder filled his thoughts from the first moment of his public
life until he drew his last breath. He died five days after the
execution of Antipater, in the sixty-ninth year of his life and the
thirty-seventh of his reign, in the spring of the year 4 B. C. His
flatterers called him "Herod the Great," but the nation only knew him
as "the Hasmonæan slave." Whilst his body was being taken in all pomp
to its resting-place in Herodium, under the escort of the Thracian,
German and Gallic body-guard, the nation joyfully celebrated the day as
a semi-festival.