80. A.D. 36 to 64

A.D. 36 to 64

Chapter IV

Timeline View:

1. We must now remind the reader of the two sons of Herod the Great by the Asamonean Mariamne, whom their father had put to death. One of them, Aristobulus, left a son called Herod Agrippa, who was sent to Rome, and brought up there in the imperial family. While Tiberius lived, he attached himself to Caligula, and became his intimate friend and companion. An unguarded expression of the wish that his friend might soon be emperor, was reported to Tiberius, who threw him into prison, laden with chains. The first act of Caligula, when he came to the throne, was to liberate Herod Agrippa, and to bestow on him a chain of gold, of the same weight as the one of iron which he had worn for his sake. Nor was this all: he bestowed on him the tetarchy of his late uncle Philippians together with that of Abilene, with the title of king. This unexpected advancement of his nephew was highly unpalatable to Herod Antipas, who, greatly coveting the royal title himself, went to Rome to endeavour to obtain it; but in seeking it he lost all, and was sent to join Pilate at Vienne in Gaul. His territory was given to the fortunate Agrippa; Judea and Samaria were added a few years after; so that the kingdom of Herod the Great was once more reconstructed in behalf of his grandson.

2. The government of Agrippa was acceptable to the Jews. He was anxious to satisfy them; and his influence at Rome enabled him to be of real use to them. Caligula grew intoxicated with power, and wished to be worshipped as a god. The Jews were likely to have been in much difficulty through their resistance to the introduction of his image into their Temple. The emperor was greatly enraged; but at length the solicitations of Agrippa gave effect to the remonstrances of a deputation from the Jews, and the Temple was reluctantly exempted from the threatened pollution. Caligula died soon after; and the part taken by Agrippa in promoting the succession of Claudius, procured him the gratitude and favor of that emperor. It was he who added Judea to his kingdom.

3. It appears to have been less from an intolerant disposition, than from a wish to please the Jews, at all hazards, that Herod Agrippa persecuted the Christians. He put the apostle James, the brother of John, to death, and Peter escaped only through the interposition of an angel.

4. Latterly the mind of Herod was so inflated by the sense of his increasing power and greatness, that he received with complacency the salutations of the people, who, on some public occasion, hailed him as a god in the theatre of Caesarea. A grievous and loathsome disease with which he was immediately smitten, and of which be soon died, convinced him and them that he was a mortal man.

5. His son Agrippa was only seventeen years of age, and was deemed too young to be put in possession of the dominions of his father. When, however, three years after, his uncle Herod, king of Chalcis, died, the emperor gave him that kingdom, to which was annexed the government of the Temple at Jerusalem, and the power of appointing and removing the high-priests. Afterwards a more important kingdom was given him for that of Chalcis. It was composed of the provinces of Batanea, Gaulonitis, Trachonitis, and Abilene. But on the death of Herod Agrippa, Judea was again reduced to the condition of.a Roman province, in which state it afterwards remained.

6. Under the successive governments of Cuspius Fadius, of Tiberius Alexander, and of Ventidius Cumanus, which together occupied not more than eight years, various acts of tumult, popular frenzy, delusion, and crime, afford indications to the careful observer of the commencement of that troubled condition of society which ended in the destruction of Jerusalem and the ruin of the nation.

7. After these, Claudius gave the government of Judaea to his freedman, Felix. He was the brother of Pallas, the celebrated freedman and favorite of that emperor. The common observation, that the government of a slave is always tyrannous, was confirmed in the case of Felix. He acted with great severity, and with utter disregard of public opinion. He began his government by clearing the country of the numerous banditti, and the clandestine assassins called Sicarii,[*] by whom it was infested. The great principle of conduct in Felix was the same as that ascribed to Turkish Pashas in our day—he was bent on making a fortune for himself during the limited period of his government. To this end there was nothing mean, cruel, unjust, or extortionate to which he did not resort; and this conduct went far to extend and strengthen. that impatience of the Roman yoke, which had long existed, and which was soon to rise to a kind of madness. Indeed it was such already; for constantly were enthusiasts and impostors starting up, declaring themselves divinely commissioned to deliver the nation from the Roman bondage. The general expectation of such a deliverer, secured followers for the wildest of those impostors; and so numerous were they, that scarcely a day passed in which several of them were not put to death. The deluded people who listened to them were destroyed like vermin by the Roman troops. The procurator is the same Felix whose name occurs in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 24)—the same who “trembled” when the apostle reasoned before him “of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come”—the same who kept Paul in prison, expecting to obtain money for his ransom. About that time, however, his government became so intolerable to the Jews, that they sent a deputation to complain of his conduct to the emperor Nero. He was then recalled; and the influence of his brother Pallas alone preserved him from a severer punishment.

[*] They obtained thus name from using poniards bent like the Roman Sica. It was their practice to mingle with the crowds, having these poniards under their garments, and then using them as they saw occasion.

8. Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus, whose character in history is much fairer than that of his predecessor. He proceeded to act with great vigor against the robbers and Sicarii, who again swarmed in the land, and acted with incredible boldness, spreading terror through the very heart of Jerusalem. He next applied himself to allay the discords which raged between the superior and inferior priests, and which, in a country where the ecclesiastical institutions were still so prominent as in Judaea, could not be carried on without involving all the interests of the state. No one can examine the history of this period without perceiving that the leaders of the people, whether priests or laymen, were, as Josephus, who knew them well, describes, as vile miscreants as ever lived. The immediate cause of quarrel among the priests was connected with the frequent changes of the persons holding the office of the high-priest, and the extravagant claims of the persons who had once enjoyed that dignity. These, in the course of time, formed a considerable body, and as they all claimed the pontifical portion out of the tithes, there was not enough left for the subsistence of the inferior priesthood. The vigor with which the claim was enforced, and the vehemence with which it was resisted, led to the most scandalous outrages. They engaged partisans and employed assassins against each other; and not only was the country kept in a continual ferment, but the very sanctuary was often desecrated by their broils, and stained with their blood. By his resolute conduct and wholesome severities, Festus in some degree subdued this disgraceful strife. He received much trouble from the enthusiasts and false prophets who from time to time appeared, exciting the multitude by their promises of deliverance. In the midst of these labors Festus died, after he had held the government only two years.

9. Albinus, his successor, thought only of enriching himself. His severities were reserved for poor rogues who could produce no money; but the most atrocious criminals who could bribe sufficiently high, were sure of impunity. As crime yielded him a rich harvest of bribes and ransoms, he was but little anxious to put it down, and his course of action gave it great encouragement; so that he was delared to be the real head of all the robbers in the counry.

10. But had as Albinus was, he was greatly surpassed in oppression and cruelty by Gessius Florus, who war sent out to supersede him. This man seems indeed to have been the very worst, as he was the last, of the Roman governors. Other governors had been tyrannical, cruel, avaricious; but the tyranny of Florus knew no bounds, his cruelty was a habit, and his avarice was utterly insatiable. He gave protection to all robbers who would divide the spoil with him, and thus practically gave a license to all kinds of violence and spoliation. His maladministration was so outrageous as must have insured his disgrace had it been made a subject of complaint at Rome; and the knowledge of this made him do his utmost to urge on the tendencies of the people to intestine commotion and open revolt, hoping that, in the storm, the voice of complaint against him would not be heard, and that a wider field for spoliation would be opened up. The measures of Florus can, however, only be said to have hastened by a few years that result which the madness of the people had made inevitable.

Tomb