HOW THE PEOPLE RAISED A SEDITION AGAINST ARCHELAUS, AND HOW HE SAILED TO ROME. FJAJ 17.47
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. FJAJ 17.48
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. FJAJ 17.49
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 (13)
This passover, when the sedition here mentioned was moved against Archelaus,
was not one, but thirteen months after the eclipse of the moon already
mentioned.
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, FJAJ 17.50
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. FJAJ 17.51
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. FJAJ 17.52
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." FJAJ 17.53
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. FJAJ 17.54