37. BOOK I, CHAPTER XII

CHAPTER XII.

*Phasaclus is too hard for Felix; Herod also overcomes Antigonus in battle; and the Jews accuse both Herod and Phasaclus, but Antonius acquits them, and makes them tetrarchs.*

1. WHEN Cassius was gone out of Syria, another sedition arose at Jerusalem, wherein Felix assaulted Phasaclus with an army, that he might revenge the death of Malichus upon Herod, by falling upon his brother. Now Herod happened then to be with Fabius, the governor of Damascus, and as he was going to his brother's assistance, he was detained by sickness; in the meantime, Phasaclus was by himself too hard for Felix, and reproached Hyrcanus on account of his ingratitude, both for what assistance he had afforded Malichus, and for overlooking Malichus' brother, when he possessed himself of the fortresses; for he had gotten a great many of them already, and among them the strongest of them all, Masada.

2. However, nothing could be sufficient for him against the force of Herod, who, as soon as he was recovered, took the other fortresses again, and drove him out of Masada in the posture of a supplicant; he also drove away Marion, the tyrant of the Tyrians, out of Galilee, when he had already possessed himself of three fortified places; but as to those Tyrians whom he had caught, he preserved them all alive; nay, some of them he gave presents to, and so sent them away, and thereby procured good-will to himself from the city, and hatred to the tyrant. Marion had indeed obtained that tyrannical power of Cassius, who 'set tyrants over all Syria; and out of hatred to Herod it was that he assisted Antigonus, the son of Aristobulus, and principally on Fabius' account, whom Antigonus had made his assistant by money, and had him accordingly on his side when he made his descent; but it was Ptolemy, the kinsman of Antigonus, that supplied all that he wanted.

3. When Herod had fought against these in the avenues of Judea, he was conqueror in the battle, drove away Antigonus, and returned to Jerusalem beloved by everybody, for the glorious action he had done; for, those who did not before favour him, did join themselves to him now, because of his marriage into the family of Hyrcanus; for as he had formerly married a wife out of his own country of no ignoble blood, who was called Doris, of whom he begot Antipater; so did he marry Marianne, the daughter of Alexander the son of Aristobulus, and the granddaughter of Hyrcanus, and was become thereby a relation of the king.

4. But when Cæsar and Antony had slain Cassius near Philippi, and Cæsar was gone to Italy, and Antony to Asia, amongst the rest of the cities which sent ambassadors to Antony, into Bithynia, the great men of the Jews came also, and accused Phasaelus and Herod, that they kept the government by force, and that Hyrcanus had no more than an honourable name. Herod appeared ready to answer this accusation, and, having made Antony his friend by the large sums of money which he gave him, he brought him to such a temper as not to hear the others speak against him, and thus did they part at this time.

5. However, after this there came a hundred of

¹ Here we see that Cassius set tyrants over all Syria: so that his assisting to destroy Cæsar does not seem to have proceeded from his true zeal for public liberty, but from a desire to be a tyrant himself.

the principal men among the Jews to Daphne by Antioch to Antony, who was already in love with Cleopatra to the degree of slavery; these Jews put those men that were the most potent, both in dignity and eloquence, foremost, and accused the brethren. But Messala opposed them and defended the brethren, and that while Hyrcanus stood by him, on account of his relation to them. When Antony had heard both sides, he asked Hyrcanus what party was the fittest to govern? who replied, that Herod and his party were the fittest. Antony was glad of that answer, for he had been formerly treated in a hospitable and obliging manner by his father Antipater, when he marched into Judea with Gabinius; so he constituted the brethren tetrarchs, and committed to them the government of Judea.

6. But when the ambassadors had indignation at this procedure, Antony took fifteen of them and put them into custody, whom he was also going to kill presently, and the rest he drove away with disgrace, on which occasion a still greater tumult arose at Jerusalem, so they sent again a thousand ambassadors to Tyre, where Antony now abode, as he was marching to Jerusalem; upon these men, who made a clamour, he sent out the governor of Tyre, and ordered him to punish all that he could catch of them, and to settle those in the administration whom he had made tetrarchs.

7. But before this Herod and Hyrcanus went out upon the seashore, and earnestly desired of these ambassadors that they would neither bring ruin upon themselves, nor war upon their native country, by their rash contentions; and when they grew still more outrageous, Antony sent out armed men, and slew a great many, and wounded more of them; of whom those that were slain were buried by Hyrcanus, as

¹ Phasaelus and Herod.

were the wounded put under the care of physicians by him; yet would not those that had escaped be quiet still, but put the affairs of the city into such disorder, and so provoked Antony, that he slew those whom he had in bonds also.

CHAPTER XIII.

The Parthians bring Antigonus back into Judea, and cast Hyrcanus and Phasaclus into prison. The flight of Herod, and the taking of Jerusalem, and what Hyrcanus and Phasaclus suffered.

1. Now two years afterward, when Barzapharnes, a governor among the Parthians, and Pacorus, the king's son, had possessed themselves of Syria, and when Lysanius had already succeeded upon his father Ptolemy the son of Menneus' death, in the government [of Chaleis,] 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 cupbearer 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 ¹ Drymus, [the wood-land] 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 on 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 meantime Antigonus desired that Pacorus might be admitted to be a reconcilier between them; and Phasaelus was

¹ This large and noted wood, or wood land, belonging to Carmus, called δρικος by the Septuagint, is mentioned in the Old Testament, ² Kings xix. 23, and Is. xxviii. 24, and by Strabo, B. XIV. p. 58, as both Aldrich and Spanheim here remark very pertinently.

prevailed upon to admit the Parthian into the city with five hundred horse, and to treat him in a 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 behaviour 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

These accounts, both here and Antiq. B. XIV. ch. xiii. sect. 5, that the Parthians fought chiefly on horseback, and that only some few of their soldiers were treemen, perfectly agree with Trogus Pompeius, in Justin, B. XII. 2.

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 Parthian 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 endeavoured 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 meantime the cupbearer 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.

¹ Marianne here, in the copies.

the shrewdest woman in the world, Hyrcanus' daughter, begged of him that he would not go out, nor trust himself to those barbarians who were now 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 apprised 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 stronghold 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 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 Thresa 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