Читать книгу A Class-Book of New Testament History - G. F. Maclear - Страница 22

MEANWHILE the friendship between Octavius and Antonius had at length been broken, and the whole East rang with preparations for the coming contest between the triumvirs for the supremacy of the world. Herod raised a body of troops to assist Antonius, but the latter declined his aid, and being thus excused taking any prominent part in a doubtful struggle, he turned his arms against Malchus, king of Arabia. The artful designs of Cleopatra had involved him in this war. Already mistress of Cœlesyria, and of the palm-groves around Jericho by the concessions of her Roman lover, she cast longing eyes upon Judæa also. The Arabian king, emboldened by the rupture between the Roman triumvirs, had withheld the payment to her of his annual tribute, an insult which Antonius directed Herod to avenge. Seeing her opportunity, she urged Herod to embark in the war, hoping if he was successful to become mistress of Arabia, if unsuccessful, of Judæa.

But the Jews were exceedingly unwilling to undertake a war against a nation with whom they had no quarrel, and Herod was defeated in the first campaign with great loss. His troops were still more unwilling to engage a second time, but fortune came to his aid. A sudden earthquake convulsed the cities of southern Palestine, and destroyed in one day upwards of 30,000 of the inhabitants. Taking advantage of the consternation thus caused, the Arabs slew the Jewish ambassadors who had come to treat of peace. News of this treachery roused once more the martial spirit of the nation, and enabled Herod to win a signal triumph over his foes, and to reduce the country to subjection.

On his return from this expedition he received intelligence that his patron Antonius had been defeated in the decisive battle of Actium, B.C.31, and had left the supremacy of the world to his rival Octavius. His first impulse was to urge the triumvir to seize Egypt, and put to death Cleopatra, the faithless cause of his misfortunes. But the infatuated Roman, rejecting this advice, followed his enchantress to Alexandria. There twelve months afterwards, deserted by his troops, and unable to come to any terms with Octavius, he fell upon his sword, and Cleopatra, rather than grace a Roman triumph, applied the fatal asp to her breast.

Herod’s fate once more seemed to tremble in the balance. But, equal to the emergency, he provided with characteristic energy and boldness an escape from his embarrassments. He first resolved to put Hyrcanus out of the way, as the last remnant of the Asmonean dynasty, and on a charge of a treasonable correspondence with the king of Arabia, dragged him before the Sanhedrin, and caused him to be executed. He next resolved to make a personal appeal to Octavius, and before he left sent his mother, sister, and children to Masada, and placed Mariamne in the fortress of Alexandrium, under the custody of faithful adherents, Soemus the Ituræan, and Joseph his steward, again enjoining that, in the event of his death, Mariamne should be instantly dispatched.

Then setting out for Rhodes he appeared before Octavius without the diadem, but with all the spirit and dignity of a king, and addressed him in a speech of the utmost freedom98. He did not in the least disguise his friendship for the late triumvir. He had given him, he said, the best advice in urging him to put Cleopatra to death, and prosecute the war with vigour. But Antonius had rejected his counsels, and pursued a course ruinous to himself and beneficial only to his rival. If Octavius, seeing the steadiness of the speaker’s friendship towards his late foe, would honour him with his confidence, he might count on being served with the same steadiness and the same fidelity. His frankness completely won over the arbiter of the world, who restored to him the diadem, treated him with the greatest distinction, and assured him of his friendship and confidence99.

Thus successful beyond his utmost expectations, Herod returned to Jerusalem. But the secret orders entrusted to the guardian of Mariamne had been again disclosed, and she met his greeting with coldness and aversion, and reproached him bitterly with the murder of her grandfather Hyrcanus. Herod’s anger was deeply roused, but for the present other and more public duties demanded his attention. Bent on the invasion and conquest of Egypt, Octavius passed through Syria and arrived at Ptolemais. Thither Herod went to meet him, presented him with 800 talents, and supplied provisions in great abundance for his troops. This still further conciliated the Roman’s favour, and on his return from Egypt, where the suicide of Antony and Cleopatra removed all obstructions to the reduction of the country to a Roman province, he not only conferred upon him the territory around Jericho, which had been ceded to the late Egyptian queen, but reannexed to his dominions the cities of Gadara, Hippo, and Samaria, together with the maritime towns Gaza, Joppa, and Strato’s Tower100, B.C.30.

But these successes did little towards compensating the Jewish king for the loss of the affections of Mariamne, who persisted in rejecting his caresses, and reproaching him with his cruelty towards her family. At this juncture the envious Salome suborned the royal cupbearer to accuse the queen of having bribed him to poison his master. This new accusation filled Herod with such rage that he ordered Mariamne’s favourite eunuch to be put to the rack. The wretched man denied all knowledge of the plot, but confessed that the secret orders given to Soemus had excited the queen’s hatred and disgust. Furious at what he deemed a second proof of her infidelity, Herod directed that Soemus should be instantly executed, and arraigned Mariamne before a tribunal of judges on a charge of adultery. The judges, too terrified to do any thing but obey his bidding, pronounced her guilty, and sentenced her to death. But though he had procured her condemnation, the tyrant shrunk from proceeding to her execution. His mother and sister, however, suffered him to have no rest, and so worked upon his feelings that at length he signed the fatal order for her execution, and Mariamne was led forth to die, B.C.29.

But now a reaction set in. The terrible reality of the deed, combined with a sense of his own loss, so wrought upon his feelings, that he became the victim of the most violent remorse. “Everywhere, day and night, he was haunted by the image of the murdered queen; he called upon her by name; he perpetually burst into passionate tears; he ordered his servants to bring Mariamne to him, as though she were yet alive. In vain he tried every diversion,—banquets, revels, the excitements of society. A sudden pestilence breaking out, to which many of the noblest of his court and of his own personal friends fell a sacrifice, he recognised and trembled beneath the hand of the avenging Deity. On pretence of hunting he sought out the most melancholy solitude, till the disorder of his mind brought on a disorder of body, and he was seized with violent inflammation and pains in the back of his head, which led to temporary derangement101.”

After lying in this state for some time in his palace at Samaria, he was at length partially restored to health, and came forth gloomy, stern, revengeful, more ready than ever to resort to cruelty and bloodshed. Alexandra was his first victim. Taking advantage of his malady she had again renewed her intrigues, and tried to gain possession of Jerusalem. She was now executed, together with Costobaras, governor of Idumæa and Gaza and husband of Salome, who was accused of harbouring some of the Asmonean dynasty, with many others of rank and influence102.

Meanwhile, B.C. 27103, the senate of Rome had conferred upon Octavius the title of Augustus, the august, the divine, and soon in every part of the empire temples began to rise in honour of the divinity of the Emperor. Herod resolved not to be behindhand in adulation towards his patron, and, all being now dead who had any claims to the crown, he devoted himself to the introduction of foreign customs into the country. Though fully aware of the intensely national feelings of his subjects, he resolved to lose no opportunity of breaking down the wall of partition between them and the surrounding nations.

He introduced, therefore, public exhibitions and spectacles of all kinds; erected a theatre within, an amphitheatre without, the walls of Jerusalem; instituted quinquennial games, which were celebrated on a scale of the most lavish magnificence; invited to his capital the professors of every kind of gymnastic exercises, and did not even shrink from exhibiting in the city of David shows of gladiators and combats with wild beasts.

The stricter Jews regarded with horror those innovations, but their indignation knew no bounds when, for the purpose of celebrating the victories of Octavius, he set up in his theatre complete suits of armour captured during the imperial wars. Nothing could persuade them to believe that these trophies did not conceal heathen images, and it was only when they had been taken to pieces, and the bare peg of wood exposed underneath, that their suspicions were removed. This raised a laugh, but the deepfelt exasperation of the majority was not removed. At length ten men formed a conspiracy to assassinate the king as he entered the theatre. The plot was betrayed, and they were put to death with the most cruel tortures. The people, sympathising with their sufferings, seized the informer who had betrayed the secret to Herod, tore him to pieces, and flung his flesh to the dogs. This roused the king in his turn to retaliate, and seizing the ringleaders he put them to death, together with their families, B.C.25.

These risings, however, convinced him that his life was insecure, and he had recourse to various measures of precaution. He erected a palace on the impregnable hill of Sion; restored and enlarged the Baris, and named it Antonia, after his former patron. At the same time he rebuilt and founded various cities to serve as military ports and retreats on occasions of danger, such as Gaba in Galilee, and Heshbon in Peræa. Samaria also, which had been destroyed by John Hyrcanus, once more rose from its ruins, was surrounded with a wall, strongly fortified, and peopled with 6000 veterans devoted to the king’s interests. A temple also was erected within it, dedicated to the occupant of the imperial throne, in whose honour the city also was now called Sebaste, the August104.

But Herod105 further resolved that his kingdom should have a naval harbour and a maritime city, whereby he might communicate more securely with the western world. A convenient point along the inhospitable coast-line of Palestine offered itself at a spot called Strato’s Tower, situated about 30 miles south of Mount Carmel, and 70 miles north-west of Jerusalem, on the line of the great road from Tyre to Egypt. To protect the shipping from the violent south-west winds, which blew along the coast, it was first necessary that a breakwater should be constructed. Accordingly enormous stones were sunk in deep water to form a mole 2000 feet in length. This supported a pier, 200 feet wide, defended by a wall and towers, and formed a sort of double harbour equal in size to the Piræus at Athens, and surrounded with broad landing wharves. The entrance was from the north, so that a vast fleet could ride at anchor with perfect safety. Above the harbour rose the city, built on the Greek model with a forum and amphitheatre, and called, in honour of the king’s friend on the imperial throne, Cæsarea. Upwards of 12 years were spent in the erection of this important maritime city106.