|
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 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 [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, 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 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: 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 vas betrayed
by some, or the rashness of his own soldiers procured his defeat.
|
|