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1. Now two years afterward, when Barzapharnes, a governor among
the Parthians, and Paeorus, the king's son, had possessed
themselves of Syria, and when Lysanias had already succeeded upon
the death of his father Ptolemy, the son of Menneus, in the
government [of Chalcis], he prevailed with the governor, by a
promise of a thousand talents, and five hundred women, to bring
back Antigonus to his kingdom, and to turn Hyrcanus out of it.
Pacorus was by these means induced so to do, and marched along
the sea-coast, while he ordered Barzapharnes to fall upon the
Jews as he went along the Mediterranean part of the country; but
of the maritime people, the Tyrians would not receive Pacorus,
although those of Ptolemais and Sidon had received him; so he
committed a troop of his horse to a certain cup-bearer belonging
to the royal family, of his own name [Pacorus], and gave him
orders to march into Judea, in order to learn the state of
affairs among their enemies, and to help Antigonus when he should
want his assistance.
2. Now as these men were ravaging Carmel, many of the Jews ran
together to Antigonus, and showed themselves ready to make an
incursion into the country; so he sent them before into that
place called Drymus, [the woodland ] to seize upon the
place; whereupon a battle was fought between them, and they drove
the enemy away, and pursued them, and ran after them as far as
Jerusalem, and as their numbers increased, they proceeded as far
as the king's palace; but as Hyrcanus and Phasaelus received them
with a strong body of men, there happened a battle in the
market-place, in which Herod's party beat the enemy, and shut
them up in the temple, and set sixty men in the houses adjoining
as a guard to them. But the people that were tumultuous against
the brethren came in, and burnt those men; while Herod, in his
rage for killing them, attacked and slew many of the people, till
one party made incursions on the other by turns, day by day, in
the way of ambushes, and slaughters were made continually among
them.
3. Now when that festival which we call Pentecost was at hand,
all the places about the temple, and the whole city, was full of
a multitude of people that were come out of the country, and
which were the greatest part of them armed also, at which time
Phasaelus guarded the wall, and Herod, with a few, guarded the
royal palace; and when he made an assault upon his enemies, as
they were out of their ranks, on the north quarter of the city,
he slew a very great number of them, and put them all to flight;
and some of them he shut up within the city, and others within
the outward rampart. In the mean time, Antigonus desired that
Pacorus might be admitted to be a reconciler between them; and
Phasaelus was prevailed upon to admit the Parthian into the city
with five hundred horse, and to treat him in an hospitable
manner, who pretended that he came to quell the tumult, but in
reality he came to assist Antigonus; however, he laid a plot for
Phasaelus, and persuaded him to go as an ambassador to
Barzapharnes, in order to put an end to the war, although Herod
was very earnest with him to the contrary, and exhorted him to
kill the plotter, but not expose himself to the snares he had
laid for him, because the barbarians are naturally perfidious.
However, Pacorus went out and took Hyrcanus with him, that he
might be the less suspected; he also left some of the
horsemen, called the Freemen, with Herod, and conducted Phasaelus
with the rest.
4. But now, when they were come to Galilee, they found that the
people of that country had revolted, and were in arms, who came
very cunningly to their leader, and besought him to conceal his
treacherous intentions by an obliging behavior to them;
accordingly, he at first made them presents; and afterward, as
they went away, laid ambushes for them; and when they were come
to one of the maritime cities called Ecdippon, they perceived
that a plot was laid for them; for they were there informed of
the promise of a thousand talents, and how Antigonus had devoted
the greatest number of the women that were there with them, among
the five hundred, to the Parthians; they also perceived that an
ambush was always laid for them by the barbarians in the night
time; they had also been seized on before this, unless they had
waited for the seizure of Herod first at Jerusalem, because if he
were once informed of this treachery of theirs, he would take
care of himself; nor was this a mere report, but they saw the
guards already not far off them.
5. Nor would Phasaelus think of forsaking Hyrcanus and flying
away, although Ophellius earnestly persuaded him to it; for this
man had learned the whole scheme of the plot from Saramalla, the
richest of all the Syrians. But Phasaelus went up to the
Parfilian governor, and reproached him to his face for laying
this treacherous plot against them, and chiefly because he had
done it for money; and he promised him that he would give him
more money for their preservation, than Antigonus had promised to
give for the kingdom. But the sly Parthian endeavored to remove
all this suspicion by apologies and by oaths, and then went [to
the other] Pacorus; immediately after which those Parthians who
were left, and had it in charge, seized upon Phasaelus and
Hyrcanus, who could do no more than curse their perfidiousness
and their perjury.
6. In the mean time, the cup-bearer was sent [back], and laid a
plot how to seize upon Herod, by deluding him, and getting him
out of the city, as he was commanded to do. But Herod suspected
the barbarians from the beginning; and having then received
intelligence that a messenger, who was to bring him the letters
that informed him of the treachery intended, had fallen among the
enemy, he would not go out of the city; though Pacorus said very
positively that he ought to go out, and meet the messengers that
brought the letters, for that the enemy had not taken them, and
that the contents of them were not accounts of any plots upon
them, but of what Phasaelus had done; yet had he heard from
others that his brother was seized; and Alexandra the
shrewdest woman in the world, Hyrcanus's daughter, begged of him
that he would not go out, nor trust himself to those barbarians,
who now were come to make an attempt upon him openly.
7. Now as Pacorus and his friends were considering how they might
bring their plot to bear privately, because it was not possible
to circumvent a man of so great prudence by openly attacking him,
Herod prevented them, and went off with the persons that were the
most nearly related to him by night, and this without their
enemies being apprized of it. But as soon as the Parthians
perceived it, they pursued after them; and as he gave orders for
his mother, and sister, and the young woman who was betrothed to
him, with her mother, and his youngest brother, to make the best
of their way, he himself, with his servants, took all the care
they could to keep off the barbarians; and when at every assault
he had slain a great many of them, he came to the strong hold of
Masada.
8. Nay, he found by experience that the Jews fell more heavily
upon him than did the Parthians, and created him troubles
perpetually, and this ever since he was gotten sixty furlongs
from the city; these sometimes brought it to a sort of a regular
battle. Now in the place where Herod beat them, and killed a
great number of them, there he afterward built a citadel, in
memory of the great actions he did there, and adorned it with the
most costly palaces, and erected very strong fortifications, and
called it, from his own name, Herodium. Now as they were in their
flight, many joined themselves to him every day; and at a place
called Thressa of Idumea his brother Joseph met him, and advised
him to ease himself of a great number of his followers, because
Masada would not contain so great a multitude, which were above
nine thousand. Herod complied with this advice, and sent away the
most cumbersome part of his retinue, that they might go into
Idumea, and gave them provisions for their journey; but he got
safe to the fortress with his nearest relations, and retained
with him only the stoutest of his followers; and there it was
that he left eight hundred of his men as a guard for the women,
and provisions sufficient for a siege; but he made haste himself
to Petra of Arabia.
9. As for the Parthians in Jerusalem, they betook themselves to
plundering, and fell upon the houses of those that were fled, and
upon the king's palace, and spared nothing but Hyrcanus's money,
which was not above three hundred talents. They lighted on other
men's money also, but not so much as they hoped for; for Herod
having a long while had a suspicion of the perfidiousness of the
barbarians, had taken care to have what was most splendid among
his treasures conveyed into Idumea, as every one belonging to him
had in like manner done also. But the Parthians proceeded to that
degree of injustice, as to fill all the country with war without
denouncing it, and to demolish the city Marissa, and not only to
set up Antigonus for king, but to deliver Phasaelus and Hyrcanus
bound into his. hands, in order to their being tormented by him.
Antigonus himself also bit off Hyrcanus's ears with his own
teeth, as he fell down upon his knees to him, that so he might
never be able upon any mutation of affairs to take the high
priesthood again, for the high priests that officiated were to be
complete, and without blemish.
10. However, he failed in his purpose of abusing Phasaelus, by
reason of his courage; for though he neither had the command of
his sword nor of his hands, he prevented all abuses by dashing
his head against a stone; so he demonstrated himself to be
Herod's own brother, and Hyrcanus a most degenerate relation, and
died with great bravery, and made the end of his life agreeable
to the actions of it. There is also another report about his end,
viz. that he recovered of that stroke, and that a surgeon, who
was sent by Antigonus to heal him, filled the wound with
poisonous ingredients, and so killed him; whichsoever of these
deaths he came to, the beginning of it was glorious. It is also
reported that before he expired he was informed by a certain poor
woman how Herod had escaped out of their hands, and that he said
thereupon, "I now die with comfort, since I leave behind me one
alive that will avenge me of mine enemies."
11. This was the death of Phasaelus; but the Parthians, although
they had failed of the women they chiefly desired, yet did they
put the government of Jerusalem into the hands of Antigonus, and
took away Hyrcanus, and bound him, and carried him to Parthia.
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