HEROD THE TETRARCH MAKES WAR WITH ARETAS, THE KING OF ARABIA, AND IS BEATEN BY HIM AS ALSO CONCERNING THE DEATH OF JOHN THE BAPTIST. HOW VITELLIUS WENT UP TO JERUSALEM; TOGETHER WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF AGRIPPA AND OF THE POSTERITY OF HEROD THE GREAT. FJAJ 18.31
1. ABOUT this time Aretas (the king of Arabia Petres) and Herod had
a quarrel on the account following: Herod the tetrarch had, married the
daughter of Aretas, and had lived with her a great while; but when he was
once at Rome, he lodged with Herod, (15)(15) This Herod seems to have had the
additional name of Philip, as Antipus was named Herod-Antipas: and as Antipus
and Antipater seem to be in a manner the very same name, yet were the names
of two sons of Herod the Great; so might Philip the tetrarch and this Herod-Philip
be two different sons of the same father, all which Grotias observes on
Matthew 14:3. Nor was it, as I with Grotias and others of the Philip the
tetrarch, but this Herod-Philip, whose wife Herod the tetrarch had married,
and that in her first husband's lifetime, and when her first husband had
issue by her-; for which adulterous and incestuous marriage John the Baptist
justly reproved Herod the tetrarch, and for which reproof Salome, the daughter
of Herodias by her first husband Herod-Philip, who was still alive, occasioned
him to be unjustly beheaded.
who was his brother indeed, but not by the same mother; for this Herod
was the son of the high priest Sireoh's daughter
However, he fell in love
with Herodias, this last Herod's wife, who was the daughter of Aristobulus
their brother, and the sister of Agrippa the Great
This man ventured to
talk to her about a marriage between them; which address, when she admitted,
an agreement was made for her to change her habitation, and come to him
as soon as he should return from Rome: one article of this marriage also
was this, that he should divorce Aretas's daughter
So Antipus, when he
had made this agreement, sailed to Rome; but when he had done there the
business he went about, and was returned again, his wife having discovered
the agreement he had made with Herodias, and having learned it before he
had notice of her knowledge of the whole design, she desired him to send
her to Macherus, which is a place in the borders of the dominions of Aretas
and Herod, without informing him of any of her intentions
Accordingly
Herod sent her thither, as thinking his wife had not perceived any thing;
now she had sent a good while before to Macherus, which was subject to
her father and so all things necessary for her journey were made ready
for her by the general of Aretas's army; and by that means she soon came
into Arabia, under the conduct of the several generals, who carried her
from one to another successively; and she soon came to her father, and
told him of Herod's intentions
So Aretas made this the first occasion
of his enmity between him and Herod, who had also some quarrel with him
about their limits at the country of Gamalitis
So they raised armies on
both sides, and prepared for war, and sent their generals to fight instead
of themselves; and when they had joined battle, all Herod's army was destroyed
by the treachery of some fugitives, who, though they were of the tetrarchy
of Philip, joined with Aretas's army.
So Herod wrote about these affairs
to Tiberius, who being very angry at the attempt made by Aretas, wrote
to Vitellius to make war upon him, and either to take him alive, and bring
him to him in bonds, or to kill him, and send him his head
This was the
charge that Tiberius gave to the president of Syria. FJAJ 18.32
2. Now some of the Jews thought that the destruction of Herod's army
came from God, and that very justly, as a punishment of what he did against
John, that was called the Baptist: for Herod slew him, who was a good man,
and commanded the Jews to exercise virtue, both as to righteousness towards
one another, and piety towards God, and so to come to baptism; for that
the washing [with water] would be acceptable to him, if they made use of
it, not in order to the putting away [or the remission] of some sins [only],
but for the purification of the body; supposing still that the soul was
thoroughly purified beforehand by righteousness
Now when [many] others
came in crowds about him, for they were very greatly moved [or pleased]
by hearing his words, Herod, who feared lest the great influence John had
over the people might put it into his power and inclination to raise a
rebellion, (for they seemed ready to do any thing he should advise,) thought
it best, by putting him to death, to prevent any mischief he might cause,
and not bring himself into difficulties, by sparing a man who might make
him repent of it when it would be too late
Accordingly he was sent a prisoner,
out of Herod's suspicious temper, to Macherus, the castle I before mentioned,
and was there put to death
Now the Jews had an opinion that the destruction
of this army was sent as a punishment upon Herod, and a mark of God's displeasure
to him. FJAJ 18.33
3. So Vitellius prepared to make war with Aretas, having with him two
legions of armed men; he also took with him all those of light armature,
and of the horsemen which belonged to them, and were drawn out of those
kingdoms which were under the Romans, and made haste for Petra, and came
to Ptolemais
But as he was marching very busily, and leading his army
through Judea, the principal men met him, and desired that he would not
thus march through their land; for that the laws of their country would
not permit them to overlook those images which were brought into it, of
which there were a great many in their ensigns; so he was persuaded by
what they said, and changed that resolution of his which he had before
taken in this matter
Whereupon he ordered the army to march along FJAJ 18.34
the great plain, while he himself, with Herod the tetrarch and his friends,
went up to Jerusalem to offer sacrifice to God, an ancient festival of
the Jews being then just approaching; and when he had been there, and been
honorably entertained by the multitude of the Jews, he made a stay there
for three days, within which time he deprived Jonathan of the high priesthood,
and gave it to his brother Theophilus
But when on the fourth day letters
came to him, which informed him of the death of Tiberius, he obliged the
multitude to take an oath of fidelity to Caius; he also recalled his army,
and made them every one go home, and take their winter quarters there,
since, upon the devolution of the empire upon Caius, he had not the like
authority of making this war which he had before
It was also reported,
that when Aretas heard of the coming of Vitellius to fight him, he said,
upon his consulting the diviners, that it was impossible that this army
of Vitellius's could enter Petra; for that one of the rulers would die,
either he that gave orders for the war, or he that was marching at the
other's desire, in order to be subservient to his will, or else he against
whom this army is prepared
So Vitellius truly retired to Antioch; but
Agrippa, the son of Aristobulus, went up to Rome, a year before the death
of Tiberius, in order to treat of some affairs with the emperor, if he
might be permitted so to do
I have now a mind to describe Herod and his
family, how it fared with them, partly because it is suitable to this history
to speak of that matter, and partly because this thing is a demonstration
of the interposition of Providence, how a multitude of children is of no
advantage, no more than any other strength that mankind set their hearts
upon, besides those acts of piety which are done towards God; for it happened,
that, within the revolution of a hundred years, the posterity of Herod,
which were a great many in number, were, excepting a few, utterly destroyed.
(16)(16) Whether this sudden extinction
of almost the entire lineage of Herod the Great, which was very numerous,
as we are both here and in the next section informed, was not in part as
a punishment for the gross incests they were frequently guilty of, in marrying
their own nephews and nieces, well deserves to be considered. See Leviticus
18:6, 7; 21:10; and Noldius, De Herod, No. 269, 270.
One may well apply this for the instruction of mankind, and learn thence
how unhappy they were: it will also show us the history of Agrippa, who,
as he was a person most worthy of admiration, so was he from a private
man, beyond all the expectation of those that knew him, advanced to great
power and authority
I have said something of them formerly, but I shall
now also speak accurately about them. FJAJ 18.35
4. Herod the Great had two daughters by Mariamne, the [grand] daughter
of Hyrcanus; the one was Salampsio, who was married to Phasaelus, her first
cousin, who was himself the son of Phasaelus, Herod's brother, her father
making the match; the other was Cypros, who was herself married also to
her first cousin Antipater, the son of Salome, Herod's sister
Phasaelus
had five children by Salampsio; Antipater, Herod, and Alexander, and two
daughters, Alexandra and Cypros; which last Agrippa, the son of Aristobulus,
married; and Timius of Cyprus married Alexandra; he was a man of note,
but had by her no children
Agrippa had by Cypros two sons and three daughters,
which daughters were named Bernice, Mariarune, and Drusius; but the names
of the sons were Agrippa and Drusus, of which Drusus died before he came
to the years of puberty; but their father, Agrippa, was brought up with
his other brethren, Herod and Aristobulus, for these were also the sons
of the son of Herod the Great by Bernice; but Bernice was the daughter
of Costobarus and of Salome, who was Herod's sister
Aristobulus left these
infants when he was slain by his father, together with his brother Alexander,
as we have already related
But when they were arrived at years of puberty,
this Herod, the brother of Agrippa, married Mariamne, the daughter of Olympias,
who was the daughter of Herod the king, and of Joseph, the son of Joseph,
who was brother to Herod the king, and had by her a son, Aristobulus; but
Aristobulus, the third brother of Agrippa, married Jotape, the daughter
of Sampsigeramus, king of Emesa; they had a daughter who was deaf, whose
name also was Jotape; and these hitherto were the children of the male
line
But Herodias, their sister, was married to Herod [Philip], the son
of Herod the Great, who was born of Mariamne, the daughter of Simon the
high priest, who had a daughter, Salome; after whose birth Herodias took
upon her to confound the laws of our country, and divorced herself from
her husband while he was alive, and was married to Herod [Antipas], her
husband's brother by the father's side, he was tetrarch of Galilee; but
her daughter Salome was married to Philip, the son of Herod, and tetrarch
of Trachonitis; and as he died childless, Aristobulus, the son of Herod,
the brother of Agrippa, married her; they had three sons, Herod, Agrippa,
and Aristobulus; and this was the posterity of Phasaelus and Salampsio.
But the daughter of Antipater by Cypros was Cypros, whom Alexas Selcias,
the son of Alexas, married; they had a daughter, Cypros; but Herod and
Alexander, who, as we told you, were the brothers of Antipater, died childless.
As to Alexander, the son of Herod the king, who was slain by his father,
he had two sons, Alexander and Tigranes, by the daughter of Archelaus,
king of Cappadocia
Tigranes, who was king of Armenia, was accused at Rome,
and died childless; Alexander had ason of the same name with his brother
Tigranes, and was sent to take possession of the kingdom of Armenia by
Nero; he had a son, Alexander, who married Jotape, (17)(17) There are coins still extant of
this Eraess, as Spanheim informs us. Spanheim also informs us of a coin
still extant of this Jotape, daughter of the king of Commageus.
the daughter of Antiochus, the king of Commagena; Vespasian made him king
of an island in Cilicia
But these descendants of Alexander, soon after
their birth, deserted the Jewish religion, and went over to that of the
Greeks
But for the rest of the daughters of Herod the king, it happened
that they died childless
And as these descendants of Herod, whom we have
enumerated, were in being at the same time that Agrippa the Great took
the kingdom, and I have now given an account of them, it now remains that
I relate the several hard fortunes which befell Agrippa, and how he got
clear of them, and was advanced to the greatest height of dignity and power. FJAJ 18.36