Antiquities of the Jews — Book 17, Chapter 11

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. 17 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 Cæsar assembled his friends, and the chief men among
the Romans, in the temple of Apollo, 18 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 Cæsar's opinion to
think of thus acting in opposition to a man of their own kindred. Philip
19 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.

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 Cæsar, 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 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.

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.

4. When Cæsar 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 while
Batanea, with Trachonitis, as well as Auranitis, with a certain part of
what was called the House of Zenodorus, 22 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 Cæsar, 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
Cæsar 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.

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, Cæsar 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, Cæsar 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.