Antiquities of the Jews — Book 17, Chapter 9

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 Cæsar'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 Cæsar, 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.

2. So when the king had suggested these things, and instructed his
general in what he was to say, he 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.

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 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, Cæsar's
steward for Syrian affairs, as he was making haste into Judea to
preserve Herod's effects, met with Archelaus at Cæsarea; 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 Cæsar
should declare his resolution about them; so that, upon this his
promise, he tarried still at Cæsarea. 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
Cæsar.

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 Cæsar.

5. Now when Archelaus had sent in his papers to Cæsar, 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 Cæsar 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 Cæsar 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 Cæsar, by
usurping that authority before it was determined for him by Cæsar; 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 Cæsar [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 Cæsar. 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 Cæsar, 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 Cæsar to obtain the
government by his grant, while he had before acted in all things as he
could have acted if Cæsar 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 Cæsar 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 he was but a private person.

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 Cæsar
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 Cæsar is therein
left to be the judge and disposer of all therein contained; and for
Cæsar, 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]. Cæsar 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 Cæsar'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 Cæsar'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
Cæsar's determination."

7. Now when Nicolaus had laid these things before Cæsar, he ended his
plea; whereupon Cæsar 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.