AN EMBASSAGE TO CAESAR; AND HOW CAESAR CONFIRMED HEROD'S TESTAMENT. FJAJ 17.67
1. SO when Varus had settled these affairs, and had placed the former legion at Jerusalem, he returned back to Antioch; but as for Archelaus, he had new sources of trouble come upon him at Rome, on the occasions following: for an embassage of the Jews was come to Rome, Varus having permitted the nation to send it, that they might petition for the liberty of living by their own laws. FJAJ 17.68
(17)
See Of the War, B. II. ch. 2. sect. 3.
Now the number of the ambassadors that were sent by the authority of the
nation were fifty, to which they joined above eight thousand of the Jews
that were at Rome already
Hereupon Caesar assembled his friends, and the
chief men among the Romans, in the temple of Apollo, (18)
See the note, Of the War, B. II. ch. 6. sect. 1.
which he had built at a vast charge; whither the ambassadors came, and
a multitude of the Jews that were there already came with them, as did
also Archelaus and his friends; but as for the several kinsmen which Archelaus
had, they would not join themselves with him, out of their hatred to him;
and yet they thought it too gross a thing for them to assist the ambassadors
[against him], as supposing it would be a disgrace to them in Caesar's
opinion to think of thus acting in opposition to a man of their own kindred.
Philip (19)
He was tetrarch afterward.
also was come hither out of Syria, by the persuasion of Varus, with this
principal intention to assist his brother [Archelaus]; for Varus was his
great friend: but still so, that if there should any change happen in the
form of government, (which Varus suspected there would,) and if any distribution
should be made on account of the number that desired the liberty of living
by their own laws, that he might not be disappointed, but might have his
share in it. FJAJ 17.69
2. Now upon the liberty that was given to the Jewish ambassadors to
speak, they who hoped to obtain a dissolution of kingly government betook
themselves to accuse Herod of his iniquities; and they declared that he
was indeed in name a king, but that he had taken to himself that uncontrollable
authority which tyrants exercise over their subjects, and had made use
of that authority for the destruction of the Jews, and did not abstain
from making many innovations among them besides, according to his own inclinations;
and that whereas there were a great many who perished by that destruction
he brought upon them, so many indeed as no other history relates, they
that survived were far more miserable than those that suffered under him;
not only by the anxiety they were in from his looks and disposition towards
them, but from the danger their estates were in of being taken away by
him
That he did never leave off adorning these cities that lay in their
neighborhood, but were inhabited by foreigners; but so that the cities
belonging to his own government were ruined, and utterly destroyed that
whereas, when he took the kingdom, it was in an extraordinary flourishing
condition, he had filled the nation with the utmost degree of poverty;
and when, upon unjust pretenses, he had slain any of the nobility, he took
away their estates; and when he permitted any of them to live, he condemned
them to the forfeiture of what they possessed
And besides the annual impositions
which he laid upon every one of them, they were to make liberal presents
to himself, to his domestics and friends, and to such of his slaves as
were vouchsafed the favor of being his tax-gatherers, because there was
no way of obtaining a freedom from unjust violence without giving either
gold or silver for it
That they would say nothing of the corruption of
the chastity of their virgins, and the reproach laid on their wives for
incontinency, and those things acted after an insolent and inhuman manner;
because it was not a smaller pleasure to the sufferers to have such things
concealed, than it would have been not to have suffered them
That Herod
had put such abuses upon them as a wild beast would not have put on them,
if he had power given him to rule over us; and that although their nation
had passed through many subversions and alterations of government, their
history gave no account of any calamity they had ever been under, that
could be compared with this which Herod had brought upon their nation;
that it was for this reason that they thought they might justly and gladly
salute Archelaus as king, upon this supposition, that whosoever should
be set over their kingdom, he would appear more mild to them than Herod
had been; and that they had joined with him in the mourning for his father,
in order to gratify him, and were ready to oblige him in other points also,
if they could meet with any degree of moderation from him; but that he
seemed to be afraid lest he should not be deemed Herod's own son; and so,
without any delay, he immediately let the nation understand his meaning,
and this before his dominion was well established, since the power of disposing
of it belonged to Caesar, who could either give it to him or not, as he
pleased
That he had given a specimen of his future virtue to his subjects,
and with what kind of moderation and good administration he would govern
them, by that his first action, which concerned them, his own citizens,
and God himself also, when he made the slaughter of three thousand of his
own countrymen at the temple
How then could they avoid the just hatred
of him, who, to the rest of his barbarity, hath added this as one of our
crimes, that we have opposed and contradicted him in the exercise of his
authority? Now the main thing they desired was this: That they might be
delivered from kingly and the like forms of government, (20)
If any one compare that Divine prediction concerning the tyrannical power
which Jewish kings would exercise over them, if they would be so foolish
as to prefer it before their ancient theocracy or aristocracy, 1 Samuel
8:1-22; Antiq. B. VI. ch. 4. sect. 4, he will soon find that it was superabundantly
fulfilled in the days of Herod, and that to such a degree, that the nation
now at last seem sorely to repent of such their ancient choice, in opposition
to God's better choice for them, and had much rather be subject to even
a pagan Roman government, and their deputies, than to be any longer under
the oppression of the family of Herod; which request of theirs Augustus
did not now grant them, but did it for the one half of that nation in a
few years afterward, upon fresh complaints made by the Jews against Archelaus,
who, under the more humble name of an ethnarch, which Augustus only would
now allow him, soon took upon him the insolence and tyranny of his father
king Herod, as the remaining part of this book will inform us, and particularly
ch. 13. sect. 2.
and might be added to Syria, and be put under the authority of such presidents
of theirs as should be sent to them; for that it would thereby be made
evident, whether they be really a seditious people, and generally fond
of innovations, or whether they would live in an orderly manner, if they
might have governors of any sort of moderation set over them. FJAJ 17.70
3. Now when the Jews had said this, Nicolaus vindicated the kings from
those accusations, and said, that as for Herod, since he had never been
thus accused all the time of his life, it was not fit for those that might
have accused him of lesser crimes than those now mentioned, and might have
procured him to be punished during his lifetime, to bring an accusation
against him now he is dead
He also attributed the actions of Archlaus
to the Jews' injuries to him, who, affecting to govern contrary to the
laws, and going about to kill those that would have hindered them from
acting unjustly, when they were by him punished for what they had done,
made their complaints against him; so he accused them of their attempts
for innovation, and of the pleasure they took in sedition, by reason of
their not having learned to submit to justice and to the laws, but still
desiring to be superior in all things
This was the substance of what Nicolaus
said. FJAJ 17.71
4. When Caesar had heard these pleadings, he dissolved the assembly;
but a few days afterwards he appointed Archelaus, not indeed to be king
of the whole country, but ethnarch of the one half of that which had been
subject to Herod, and promised to give him the royal dignity hereafter,
if he governed his part virtuously
But as for the other half, he divided
it into two parts, and gave it to two other of Herod's sons, to Philip
and to Antipas, that Antipas who disputed with Archelaus for the whole
kingdom
Now to him it was that Peres and Galilee paid their tribute, which
amounted annually to two hundred talents, (21)
This is not true. See Antiq. B. XIV. ch. 9. sect. 3, 4; and ch. 12. sect.
2; and ch. 13. sect. 1, 2. Antiq. B. XV. ch. 3. sect. 5; and ch. 10. sect.
2, 3. Antiq. B. XVI. ch. 9. sect. 3. Since Josephus here informs us that
Archelaus had one half of the kingdom of Herod, and presently informs us
further that Archelaus's annual income, after an abatement of one quarter
for the present, was 600 talents, we may therefore ga ther pretty nearly
what was Herod the Great's yearly income, I mean about 1600 talents, which,
at the known value of 3000 shekels to a talent, and about 2s. 10d. to a
shekel, in the days of Josephus, see the note on Antiq. B. III. ch. 8.
sect. 2, amounts to 680,000 sterling per annum; which income, though great
in itself, bearing no proportion to his vast expenses every where visible
in Josephus, and to the vast sums he left behind him in his will, ch. 8.
sect. 1, and ch. 12. sect. 1, the rest must have arisen either from his
confiscation of those great men's estates whom he put to death, or made
to pay fine for the saving of their lives, or from some other heavy methods
of oppression which such savage tyrants usually exercise upon their miserable
subjects; or rather from these several methods not together, all which
yet seem very much too small for his expenses, being drawn from no larger
a nation than that of the Jews, which was very populous, but without the
advantage of trade to bring them riches; so that I cannot but strongly
suspect that no small part of this his wealth arose from another source;
I mean from some vast sums he took out of David's sepulcher, but concealed
from the people. See the note on Antiq. B. VII. ch. 15. sect. 3.
while Batanea, with Trachonitis, as well as Auranitis, with a certain part
of what was called the House of Zenodorus, (22)
Take here a very useful note of Grotias, on Luke 3:1, here quoted by Dr.
Hudson: "When Josephus says that some part of the house (or possession)
of Zenodorus (i.e. Abilene) was allotted to Philip, he thereby declares
that the larger part of it belonged to another. This other was Lysanias,
whom Luke mentions, of the posterity of that Lysanias who was possessed
of the same country called Abilene, from the city Abila, and by others
Chalcidene, from the city Chaleis, when the government of the East was
under Antonius, and this after Ptolemy, the son of Menneus; from which
Lysanias this country came to be commonly called the Country of Lysanias;
and as, after the death of the former Lyanias, it was called the tetrarchy
of Zenodorus, so, after the death of Zenodorus, or when the time for which
he hired it was ended. when another Lysanias, of the same name with the
former, was possessed of the same country, it began to be called the Tetrarchy
of Lysanias." However, since Josephus elsewhere (Antiq. B. XX. ch.
7. sect. 1) clearly distinguishes Abilene from Cilalcidcue, Groius must
be here so far mistaken.
paid the tribute of one hundred talents to Philip; but Idumea, and Judea,
and the country of Samaria paid tribute to Archelaus, but had now a fourth
part of that tribute taken off by the order of Caesar, who decreed them
that mitigation, because they did not join in this revolt with the rest
of the multitude
There were also certain of the cities which paid tribute
to Archelaus: Strato's Tower and Sebaste, with Joppa and Jerusalem; for
as to Gaza, and Gadara, and Hippos, they were Grecian cities, which Caesar
separated from his government, and added them to the province of Syria.
Now the tribute-money that came to Archelaus every year from his own dominions
amounted to six hundred talents. FJAJ 17.72
5. And so much came to Herod's sons from their father's inheritance.
But Salome, besides what her brother left her by his testament, which were
Jamnia, and Ashdod, and Phasaelis, and five hundred thousand [drachmae]
of coined silver, Caesar made her a present of a royal habitation at Askelo;
in all, her revenues amounted to sixty talents by the year, and her dwelling-house
was within Archelaus's government
The rest also of the king's relations
received what his testament allotted them
Moreover, Caesar made a present
to each of Herod's two virgin daughters, besides what their father left
them, of two hundred and fifty thousand [drachmae] of silver, and married
them to Pheroras's sons: he also granted all that was bequeathed to himself
to the king's sons, which was one thousand five hundred talents, excepting
a few of the vessels, which he reserved for himself; and they were acceptable
to him, not so much for the great value they were of, as because they were
memorials of the king to him. FJAJ 17.73