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1. At this time also it was that some of the Jews got together
out of a desire of innovation. They lamented Matthias, and those
that were slain with him by Herod, who had not any respect paid
them by a funeral mourning, out of the fear men were in of that
man; they were those who had been condemned for pulling down the
golden eagle. The people made a great clamor and lamentation
hereupon, and cast out some reproaches against the king also, as
if that tended to alleviate the miseries of the deceased. The
people assembled together, and desired of Archelaus, that, in way
of revenge on their account, he would inflict punishment on those
who had been honored by Herod; and that, in the first and
principal place, he would deprive that high priest whom Herod had
made, and would choose one more agreeable to the law, and of
greater purity, to officiate as high priest. This was granted by
Archelaus, although he was mightily offended at their
importunity, because he proposed to himself to go to Rome
immediately to look after Caesar's determination about him.
However, he sent the general of his forces to use persuasions,
and to tell them that the death which was inflicted on their
friends was according to the law; and to represent to them that
their petitions about these things were carried to a great height
of injury to him; that the time was not now proper for such
petitions, but required their unanimity until such time as he
should be established in the government by the consent of Caesar,
and should then be come back to them; for that he would then
consult with them in common concerning the purport of their
petitions; but that they ought at present to be quiet, lest they
should seem seditious persons.
2. So when the king had suggested these things, and instructed
his general in what he was to say, be sent him away to the
people; but they made a clamor, and would not give him leave to
speak, and put him in danger of his life, and as many more as
were desirous to venture upon saying openly any thing which might
reduce them to a sober mind, and prevent their going on in their
present courses, because they had more concern to have all their
own wills performed than to yield obedience to their governors;
thinking it to be a thing insufferable, that, while Herod was
alive, they should lose those that were most dear to them, and
that when he was dead, they could not get the actors to be
punished. So they went on with their designs after a violent
manner, and thought all to be lawful and right which tended to
please them, and being unskillful in foreseeing what dangers they
incurred; and when they had suspicion of such a thing, yet did
the present pleasure they took in the punishment of those they
deemed their enemies overweigh all such considerations; and
although Archelaus sent many to speak to them, yet they treated
them not as messengers sent by him, but as persons that came of
their own accord to mitigate their anger, and would not let one
of them speak. The sedition also was made by such as were in a
great passion; and it was evident that they were proceeding
further in seditious practices, by the multitude running so fast
upon them.
3. Now, upon the approach of that feast of unleavened bread,
which the law of their fathers had appointed for the Jews at this
time, which feast is called the Passover and is a memorial
of their deliverance out of Egypt, when they offer sacrifices
with great alacrity; and when they are required to slay more
sacrifices in number than at any other festival; and when an
innumerable multitude came thither out of the country, nay, from
beyond its limits also, in order to worship God, the seditious
lamented Judas and Matthias, those teachers of the laws, and kept
together in the temple, and had plenty of food, because these
seditious persons were not ashamed to beg it. And as Archelaus
was afraid lest some terrible thing should spring up by means of
these men's madness, he sent a regiment of armed men, and with
them a captain of a thousand, to suppress the violent efforts of
the seditious before the whole multitude should be infected with
the like madness; and gave them this charge, that if they found
any much more openly seditious than others, and more busy in
tumultuous practices, they should bring them to him. But those
that were seditious on account of those teachers of the law,
irritated the people by the noise and clamors they used to
encourage the people in their designs; so they made an assault
upon the soldiers, and came up to them, and stoned the greatest
part of them, although some of them ran away wounded, and their
captain among them; and when they had thus done, they returned to
the sacrifices which were already in their hands. Now Archelaus
thought there was no way to preserve the entire government but by
cutting off those who made this attempt upon it; so he sent out
the whole army upon them, and sent the horsemen to prevent those
that had their tents without the temple from assisting those that
were within the temple, and to kill such as ran away from the
footmen when they thought themselves out of danger; which
horsemen slew three thousand men, while the rest went to the
neighboring mountains. Then did Archelaus order proclamation to
be made to them all, that they should retire to their own homes;
so they went away, and left the festival, out of fear of somewhat
worse which would follow, although they had been so bold by
reason of their want of instruction. So Archelaus went down to
the sea with his mother, and took with him Nicolaus and Ptolemy,
and many others of his friends, and left Philip his brother as
governor of all things belonging both to his own family and to
the public. There went out also with him Salome, Herod's sister
who took with her, her children, and many of her kindred were
with her; which kindred of hers went, as they pretended, to
assist Archelaus in gaining the kingdom, but in reality to oppose
him, and chiefly to make loud complaints of what he had done in
the temple. But Sabinus, Caesar's steward for Syrian affairs, as
he was making haste into Judea to preserve Herod's effects, met
with Archclaus at Caesarea; but Varus (president of Syria) came
at that time, and restrained him from meddling with them, for he
was there as sent for by Archceaus, by the means of Ptolemy. And
Sabinus, out of regard to Varus, did neither seize upon any of
the castles that were among the Jews, nor did he seal up the
treasures in them, but permitted Archelaus to have them, until
Caesar should declare his resolution about them; so that, upon
this his promise, he tarried still at Cesarea. But after
Archelaus was sailed for Rome, and Varus was removed to Antioch,
Sabinus went to Jerusalem, and seized on the king's palace. He
also sent for the keepers of the garrisons, and for all those
that had the charge of Herod's effects, and declared publicly
that he should require them to give an account of what they had;
and he disposed of the castles in the manner he pleased; but
those who kept them did not neglect what Archelaus had given them
in command, but continued to keep all things in the manner that
had been enjoined them; and their pretense was, that they kept
them all for Caesar,
4. At the same time also did Antipas, another of Herod's sons,
sail to Rome, in order to gain the government; being buoyed up by
Salome with promises that he should take that government; and
that he was a much honester and fitter man than Archelaus for
that authority, since Herod had, in his former testament, deemed
him the worthiest to be made king, which ought to be esteemed
more valid than his latter testament. Antipas also brought with
him his mother, and Ptolemy the brother of Nicolaus, one that had
been Herod's most honored friend, and was now zealous for
Antipas; but it was Ireneus the orator, and one who, on account
of his reputation for sagacity, was intrusted with the affairs of
the kingdom, who most of all encouraged him to attempt to gain
the kingdom; by whose means it was, that when some advised him to
yield to Archelaus, as to his elder brother, and who had been
declared king by their father's last will, he would not submit so
to do. And when he was come to Rome, all his relations revolted
to him; not out of their good-will to him, but out of their
hatred to Archelaus; though indeed they were most of all desirous
of gaining their liberty, and to be put under a Roman governor;
but if there were too great an opposition made to that, they
thought Antipas preferable to Archelaus, and so joined with him,
in order to procure the kingdom for him. Sabinus also, by
letters, accused Archelaus to Caesar.
5. Now when Archelaus had sent in his papers to Caesar, wherein
he pleaded his right to. the kingdom, and his father's testament,
with the accounts of Herod's money, and with Ptolemy, who brought
Herod's seal, he so expected the event; but when Caesar had read
these papers, and Varus's and Sabinus's letters, with the
accounts of the money, and what were the annual incomes of the
kingdom, and understood that Antipas had also sent letters to lay
claim to the kingdom, he summoned his friends together, to know
their opinions, and with them Caius, the son of Agrippa, and of
Julia his daughter, whom he had adopted, and took him, and made
him sit first of all, and desired such as pleased to speak their
minds about the affairs now before them. Now Antipater, Salome's
son, a very subtle orator, and a bitter enemy to Archelaus, spake
first to this purpose: That it was ridiculous in Archelaus to
plead now to have the kingdom given him, since he had, in
reality, taken already the power over it to himself, before
Caesar had granted it to him; and appealed to those bold actions
of his, in destroying so many at the Jewish festival; and if the
men had acted unjustly, it was but fit the punishing of them
should have been reserved to those that were out of the country,
but had the power to punish them, and not been executed by a man
that, if he pretended to be a king, he did an injury to Caesar,
by usurping that authority before it was determined for him by
Caesar; but if he owned himself to be a private person, his case
was much worse, since he who was putting in for the kingdom could
by no means expect to have that power granted him, of which he
had already deprived Caesar [by taking it to himself]. He also
touched sharply upon him, and appealed to his changing the
commanders in the army, and his sitting in the royal throne
beforehand, and his determination of law-suits; all done as if he
were no other than a king. He appealed also to his concessions to
those that petitioned him on a public account, and indeed doing
such things, than which he could devise no greater if he had been
already settled in the kingdom by Caesar. He also ascribed to him
the releasing of the prisoners that were in the hippodrome, and
many other things, that either had been certainly done by him, or
were believed to be done, and easily might be believed to have
been done, because they were of such a nature as to be usually
done by young men, and by such as, out of a desire of ruling,
seize upon the government too soon. He also charged him with his
neglect of the funeral mourning for his father, and with having
merry meetings the very night in which he died; and that it was
thence the multitude took the handle of raising a tumult: and if
Archelaus could thus requite his dead father, who had bestowed
such benefits upon him, and bequeathed such great things to him,
by pretending to shed tears for him in the day time, like an
actor on the stage, but every night making mirth for having
gotten the government, he would appear to be the same Archelaus
with regard to Caesar, if he granted him the kingdom, which he
hath been to his father; since he had then dancing and singing,
as though an enemy of his were fallen, and not as though a man
were carried to his funeral, that was so nearly related, and had
been so great a benefactor to him. But he said that the greatest
crime of all was this, that he came now before Caesar to obtain
the government by his grant, while he had before acted in all
things as he could have acted if Caesar himself, who ruled all,
had fixed him firmly in the government. And what he most
aggravated in his pleading was the slaughter of those about the
temple, and the impiety of it, as done at the festival; and how
they were slain like sacrifices themselves, some of whom were
foreigners, and others of their own country, till the temple was
full of dead bodies: and all this was done, not by an alien, but
by one who pretended to the lawful title of a king, that he might
complete the wicked tyranny which his nature prompted him to, and
which is hated by all men. On which account his father never so
much as dreamed of making him his successor in the kingdom, when
he was of a sound mind, because he knew his disposition; and in
his former and more authentic testament, he appointed his
antagonist Antipas to succeed; but that Archelaus was called by
his father to that dignity when he was in a dying condition, both
of body and mind; while Antipas was called when he was ripest in
his judgment, and of such strength of body as made him capable of
managing his own affairs: and if his father had the like notion
of him formerly that he hath now showed, yet hath he given a
sufficient specimen what a king he is likely to be, when he hath
[in effect] deprived Caesar of that power of disposing of the
kingdom, which he justly hath, and hath not abstained from making
a terrible slaughter of his fellow citizens in the temple, while
lie was but a private person.
6. So when Antipater had made this speech, and had confirmed what
he had said by producing many witnesses from among Archelaus's
own relations, he made an end of his pleading. Upon which
Nicolaus arose up to plead for Archelaus, and said, "That what
had been done at the temple was rather to be attributed to the
mind of those that had been killed, than to the authority of
Archelaus; for that those who were the authors of such things are
not only wicked in the injuries they do of themselves, but in
forcing sober persons to avenge themselves upon them. Now it is
evident that what these did in way of opposition was done under
pretense, indeed, against Archelaus, but in reality against
Caesar himself, for they, after an injurious manner, attacked and
slew those who were sent by Archelaus, and who came only to put a
stop to their doings. They had no regard, either to God or to the
festival, whom Antipater yet is not ashamed to patronize, whether
it be out of his indulgence of an enmity to Archelaus, or out of
his hatred of virtue and justice. For as to those who begin such
tumults, and first set about such unrighteous actions, they are
the men who force those that punish them to betake themselves to
arms even against their will. So that Antipater in effect
ascribes the rest of what was done to all those who were of
counsel to the accusers; for nothing which is here accused of
injustice has been done but what was derived from them as its
authors; nor are those things evil in themselves, but so
represented only in order to do harm to Archelaus. Such is these
men's inclination to do an injury to a man that is of their
kindred, their father's benefactor, and familiarity acquainted
with them, and that hath ever lived in friendship with them; for
that, as to this testament, it was made by the king when he was
of a sound mind, and so ought to be of more authority than his
former testament; and that for this reason, because Caesar is
therein left to be the judge and disposer of all therein
contained; and for Caesar, he will not, to be sure, at all
imitate the unjust proceedings of those men, who, during Herod's
whole life, had on all occasions been joint partakers of power
with him, and yet do zealously endeavor to injure his
determination, while they have not themselves had the same regard
to their kinsman [which Archelaus had]. Caesar will not therefore
disannul the testament of a man whom he had entirely supported,
of his friend and confederate, and that which is committed to him
in trust to ratify; nor will Caesar's virtuous and upright
disposition, which is known and uncontested through all the
habitable world, imitate the wickedness of these men in
condemning a king as a madman, and as having lost his reason,
while he hath bequeathed the succession to a good son of his, and
to one who flies to Caesar's upright determination for refuge.
Nor can Herod at any time have been mistaken in his judgment
about a successor, while he showed so much prudence as to submit
all to Caesar's determination."
7. Now when Nicolaus had laid these things before Caesar, he
ended his plea; whereupon Caesar was so obliging to Archelaus,
that he raised him up when he had cast himself down at his feet,
and said that he well deserved the kingdom; and he soon let them
know that he was so far moved in his favor, that he would not act
otherwise than his father's testament directed, and than was for
the advantage of Archelaus. However, while he gave this
encouragement to Archelaus to depend on him securely, he made no
full determination about him; and when the assembly was broken
up, he considered by himself whether he should confirm the
kingdom to Archelaus, or whether he should part it among all
Herod's posterity; and this because they all stood in need of
much assistance to support them.
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