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1. When Archelaus was entered on his ethnarchy, and was come into
Judea, he accused Joazar, the son of Boethus, of assisting the
seditious, and took away the high priesthood from him, and put
Eleazar his brother in his place. He also magnificently rebuilt
the royal palace that had been at Jericho, and he diverted half
the water with which the village of Neara used to be watered, and
drew off that water into the plain, to water those palm trees
which he had there planted: he also built a village, and put his
own name upon it, and called it Archelais. Moreover, he
transgressed the law of our fathers and married Glaphyra,
the daughter of Archelaus, who had been the wife of his brother
Alexander, which Alexander had three children by her, while it
was a thing detestable among the Jews to marry the brother's
wife. Nor did this Eleazar abide long in the high priesthood,
Jesus, the son of Sie, being put in his room while he was still
living.
2. But in the tenth year of Archelaus's government, both his
brethren, and the principal men of Judea and Samaria, not being
able to bear his barbarous and tyrannical usage of them, accused
him before Caesar, and that especially because they knew he had
broken the commands of Caesar, which obliged him to behave
himself with moderation among them. Whereupon Caesar, when he
heard it, was very angry, and called for Archelaus's steward, who
took care of his affairs at Rome, and whose name was Archelaus
also; and thinking it beneath him to write to Archelaus, he bid
him sail away as soon as possible, and bring him to us: so the
man made haste in his voyage, and when he came into Judea, he
found Archelaus feasting with his friends; so he told him what
Caesar had sent him about, and hastened him away. And when he was
come [to Rome], Caesar, upon hearing what certain accusers of his
had to say, and what reply he could make, both banished him, and
appointed Vienna, a city of Gaul, to be the place of his
habitation, and took his money away from him.
3. Now, before Archelaus was gone up to Rome upon this message,
he related this dream to his friends: That he saw ears of corn,
in number ten, full of wheat, perfectly ripe, which ears, as it
seemed to him, were devoured by oxen. And when he was awake and
gotten up, because the vision appeared to beof great importance
to him, he sent for the diviners, whose study was employed about
dreams. And while some were of one opinion, and some of another,
(for all their interpretations did not agree,) Simon, a man of
the sect of the Essens, desired leave to speak his mind freely,
and said that the vision denoted a change in the affairs of
Archelaus, and that not for the better; that oxen, because that
animal takes uneasy pains in his labors, denoted afflictions, and
indeed denoted, further, a change of affairs, because that land
which is ploughed by oxen cannot remain in its former state; and
that the ears of corn being ten, determined the like number of
years, because an ear of corn grows in one year; and that the
time of Archelaus's government was over. And thus did this man
expound the dream. Now on the fifth day after this dream came
first to Archelaus, the other Archelaus, that was sent to Judea
by Caesar to call him away, came hither also.
4. The like accident befell Glaphyra his wife, who was the
daughter of king Archelaus, who, as I said before, was married,
while she was a virgin, to Alexander, the son of Herod, and
brother of Archelaus; but since it fell out so that Alexander was
slain by his father, she was married to Juba, the king of Lybia;
and when he was dead, and she lived in widowhood in Cappadocia
with her father, Archclaus divorced his former wife Mariamne, and
married her, so great was his affection for this Glphyra; who,
during her marriage to him, saw the following dream: She thought
she saw Alexander standing by her, at which she rejoiced, and
embraced him with great affection; but that he complained o her,
and said, O Glaphyra! thou provest that saying to be true, which
assures us that women are not to be trusted. Didst not thou
pledge thy faith to me? and wast not thou married to me when thou
wast a virgin? and had we not children between us? Yet hast thou
forgotten the affection I bare to thee, out of a desire of a
second husband. Nor hast thou been satisfied with that injury
thou didst me, but thou hast been so bold as to procure thee a
third husband to lie by thee, and in an indecent and imprudent
manner hast entered into my house, and hast been married to
Archelaus, thy husband and my brother. However, I will not forget
thy former kind affection for me, but will set thee free from
every such reproachful action, and cause thee to be mine again,
as thou once wast. When she had related this to her female
companions, in a few days' time she departed this life.
5. Now I did not think these histories improper for the present
discourse, both because my discourse now is concerning kings, and
otherwise also on account of the advantage hence to be drawn, as
well for the confirmation of the immortality of the soul, as of
the providence of God over human affairs, I thought them fit to
be set down; but if any one does not believe such relations, let
him indeed enjoy his own opinion, but let him not hinder another
that would thereby encourage himself in virtue. So Archelaus's
country was laid to the province of Syria; and Cyrenius, one that
had been consul, was sent by Caesar to take account of people's
effects in Syria, and to sell the house of Archelaus.
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