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1. In the mean time, Herod's affairs in Judea were in an ill
state. He had left his brother Joseph with full power, but had
charged him to make no attempts against Antigonus till his
return; for that Macheras would not be such an assistant as he
could depend on, as it appeared by what he had done already; but
as soon as Joseph heard that his brother was at a very great
distance, he neglected the charge he had received, and marched
towards Jericho with five cohorts, which Macheras sent with him.
This movement was intended for seizing on the corn, as it was now
in the midst of summer; but when his enemies attacked him in the
mountains, and in places which were difficult to pass, he was
both killed himself, as he was very bravely fighting in the
battle, and the entire Roman cohorts were destroyed; for these
cohorts were new-raised men, gathered out of Syria, and here was
no mixture of those called veteran soldiers among them, who might
have supported those that were unskillful in war.
2. This victory was not sufficient for Antigonus; but he
proceeded to that degree of rage, as to treat the dead body of
Joseph barbarously; for when he had got possession of the bodies
of those that were slain, he cut off his head, although his
brother Pheroras would have given fifty talents as a price of
redemption for it. And now the affairs of Galilee were put in
such disorder after this victory of Antigonus's, that those of
Antigonus's party brought the principal men that were on Herod's
side to the lake, and there drowned them. There was a great
change made also in Idumea, where Macheras was building a wall
about one of the fortresses, which was called Gittha. But Herod
had not yet been informed of these things; for after the taking
of Samosata, and when Antony had set Sosius over the affairs of
Syria, and had given him orders to assist Herod against
Antigonus, he departed into Egypt; but Sosius sent two legions
before him into Judea to assist Herod, and followed himself soon
after with the rest of his army.
3. Now when Herod was at Daphne, by Antioch, he had some dreams
which clearly foreboded his brother's death; and as he leaped out
of his bed in a disturbed manner, there came messengers that
acquainted him with that calamity. So when he had lamented this
misfortune for a while, he put off the main part of his mourning,
and made haste to march against his enemies; and when he had
performed a march that was above his strength, and was gone as
far as Libanus, he got him eight hundred men of those that lived
near to that mountain as his assistants, and joined with them one
Roman legion, with which, before it was day, he made an irruption
into Galilee, and met his enemies, and drove them back to the
place which they had left. He also made an immediate and
continual attack upon the fortress. Yet was he forced by a most
terrible storm to pitch his camp in the neighboring villages
before he could take it. But when, after a few days' time, the
second legion, that came from Antony, joined themselves to him,
the enemy were aftrighted at his power, and left their
fortifications ill the night time.
4. After this he marched through Jericho, as making what haste he
could to be avenged on his brother's murderers; where happened to
him a providential sign, out of which, when he had unexpectedly
escaped, he had the reputation of being very dear to God; for
that evening there feasted with him many of the principal men;
and after that feast was over, and all the guests were gone out,
the house fell down immediately. And as he judged this to be a
common signal of what dangers he should undergo, and how he
should escape them in the war that he was going about, he, in the
morning, set forward with his army, when about six thousand of
his enemies came running down from the mountains, and began to
fight with those in his forefront; yet durst they not be so very
bold as to engage the Romans hand to hand, but threw stones and
darts at them at a distance; by which means they wounded a
considerable number; in which action Herod's own side was wounded
with a dart.
5. Now as Antigonus had a mind to appear to exceed Herod, not
only in the courage, but in the number of his men, he sent
Pappus, one of his companions, with an army against Samaria,
whose fortune it was to oppose Macheras; but Herod overran the
enemy's country, and demolished five little cities, and destroyed
two thousand men that were in them, and burned their houses, and
then returned to his camp; but his head-quarters were at the
village called Cana.
6. Now a great multitude of Jews resorted to him every day, both
out of Jericho and the other parts of the country. Some were
moved so to do out of their hatred to Antigonus, and some out of
regard to the glorious actions Herod had done; but others were
led on by an unreasonable desire of change; so he fell upon them
immediately. As for Pappus and his party, they were not terrified
either at their number or at their zeal, but marched out with
great alacrity to fight them; and it came to a close fight. Now
other parts of their army made resistance for a while; but Herod,
running the utmost hazard, out of the rage he was in at the
murder of his brother, that he might be avenged on those that had
been the authors of it, soon beat those that opposed him; and
after he had beaten them, he always turned his force against
those that stood to it still, and pursued them all; so that a
great slaughter was made, while some were forced back into that
village whence they came out; he also pressed hard upon the
hindermost, and slew a vast number of them; he also fell into the
village with the enemy, where every house was filled with armed
men, and the upper rooms were crowded above with soldiers for
their defense; and when he had beaten those that were on the
outside, he pulled the houses to pieces, and plucked out those
that were within; upon many he had the roofs shaken down, whereby
they perished by heaps; and as for those that fled out of the
ruins, the soldiers received them with their swords in their
hands; and the multitude of those slain and lying on heaps was so
great, that the conquerors could not pass along the roads. Now
the enemy could not bear this blow, so that when the multitude of
them which was gathered together saw that those in the village
were slain, they dispersed themselves, and fled away; upon the
confidence of which victory, Herod had marched immediately to
Jerusalem, unless he tad been hindered by the depth of winter's
[coming on]. This was the impediment that lay in the way of this
his entire glorious progress, and was what hindered Antigonus
from being now conquered, who was already disposed to forsake the
city.
7. Now when at the evening Herod had already dismissed his
friends to refresh themselves after their fatigue, and when he
was gone himself, while he was still hot in his armor, like a
common soldier, to bathe himself, and had but one servant that
attended him, and before he was gotten into the bath, one of the
enemies met him in the face with a sword in his hand, and then a
second, and then a third, and after that more of them; these were
men who had run away out of the battle into the bath in their
armor, and they had lain there for some time in, great terror,
and in privacy; and when they saw the king, they trembled for
fear, and ran by him in a flight, although he was naked, and
endeavored to get off into the public road. Now there was by
chance nobody else at hand that might seize upon these men; and
for Herod, he was contented to have come to no harm himself, so
that they all got away in safety.
8. But on the next day Herod had Pappus's head cut off, who was
the general for Antigonus, and was slain in the battle, and sent
it to his brother Pheroras, by way of punishment for their slain
brother; for he was the man that slew Joseph. Now as winter was
going off, Herod marched to Jerusalem, and brought his army to
the wall of it; this was the third year since he had been made
king at Rome; so he pitched his camp before the temple, for on
that side it might be besieged, and there it was that Pompey took
the city. So he parted the work among the army, and demolished
the suburbs, end raised three banks, and gave orders to have
towers built upon those banks, and left the most laborious of his
acquaintance at the works. But he went himself to Samaria, to
take the daughter of Alexander, the son of Aristobulus, to wife,
who had been betrothed to him before, as we have already said;
and thus he accomplished this by the by, during the siege of the
city, for he had his enemies in great contempt already.
9. When he had thus married Mariamne, he came back to Jerusalem
with a greater army. Sosius also joined him with a large army,
both of horsemen and footmen, which he sent before him through
the midland parts, while he marched himself along Phoenicia; and
when the whole army was gotten together, which were eleven
regiments of footmen, and six thousand horsemen, besides the
Syrian auxiliaries, which were no small part of the army, they
pitched their camp near to the north wall. Herod's dependence was
upon the decree of the senate, by which he was made king; and
Sosius relied upon Antony, who sent the army that was under him
to Herod's assistance.
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