FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS
JEWISH ANTIQUITIES
Book 18

¹Quirinius, a Roman senator who had ascended through the magistracies up to the consulship and also enjoyed high dignity in other ways, came to Syria at this time, with some others, sent by Caesar to judge that nation and assess their property. ²A man of equestrian rank, Coponius, was sent with him, to take full charge of the Jews, though Quirinius came into Judea too, which was now annexed to Syria, to assess their property and dispose of Archelaus' money. ³The Jews were at first alarmed to hear about this tax-registration but were persuaded to give up their opposition to it by the high priest Joazar, the son of Boethus, and, won over by Joazar's words, they gave an account of their estates without argument. ⁴But Judas, a Gaulonite from a city called Gamala, with the support of the Pharisee Sadduc, stirred them to revolt by calling this taxation nothing but an introduction to slavery and urging the nation to reassert its freedom. ⁵This would allow them to regain prosperity and retain their own property, as well as something still more valuable, the honour and glory of acting with courage. They said that God would surely help them to achieve their goals, if they set their hearts on great ideals and not grow tired in carrying them out. ⁶What they said was eagerly listened to and great progress was made in this bold project, so that indescribable troubles came on the nation as a result of these men. ⁷We were embroiled in interminable violence and war, and lost the friends who could alleviate our misery, when our leading men were robbed and murdered, under the pretext of the common good, but in reality for private gain. ⁸From them came the seeds of political murder, for the mania for victory sometimes caused people to kill their own race, wanting none of the opposition to survive any more than their enemies. The revolt brought famine upon us and utter despair, as our cities were taken and demolished, until even the temple of God was burned down by our enemies. ⁹Such were the results of changing our ancestral customs, for these changes contributed much to the coming destruction. Judas and Sadduc began a fourth philosophy among us that had many followers and not only threw our state into convulsion at that time but also our woeful future, such as we had never known before, sprang from this "philosophy." ¹⁰I will explain a little about this, since the infection of the younger impressionable elements by these ideas brought our affairs to ruin.

¹¹By traditional custom, the Jews had for a long time had three sorts of philosophy: that of the Essenes, that of the Sadducees and a third way followed by those called the Pharisees. Although I have already spoken about these in the second book of the Jewish War, I will say a little more about them now.

¹²The Pharisees opt for a simple lifestyle and make no concession to luxury, and accept the authority of what their doctrine hands on to them as good, and reckon that the preservation of their doctrines is worth fighting for. They show respect to their elders and do not rashly contradict whatever these have introduced. ¹³Though they believe that everything is subject to fate, they do not remove from people the freedom to act as they think fit, for they think God has given us the judgment by which the human will can follows the ways of virtue or of vice. ¹⁴They also believe that souls have an immortal fore and that there will be rewards or punishments beneath the earth, according as one has lived virtuously or badly in this life, and the latter will be kept in an everlasting prison, and the others be empowered to live again. ¹⁵With these doctrines they greatly influence the general public, who follow their guidance about worship and prayers and sacrifices, so that in the cities they are acclaimed as admirable, both in their actions and in their words.

¹⁶The Sadducees teach that souls die with the bodies; nor do they regard as obligatory anything beyond what the law commands. They think it a virtue to dispute ideas with the teachers of wisdom whom they meet. ¹⁷This doctrine is held by only a few, though these are of the highest dignity. But of themselves they can achieve almost nothing, for when they become leaders, as they are sometimes obliged to be, even if unwillingly, they adopt the ideas of the Pharisees, since otherwise the people would not listen to them.

¹⁸The Essenes hold that all things are best left in the hands of God. They believe in the soul's immortality and think one should earnestly strive for righteousness. ¹⁹Though they send to the temple what they have dedicated to God, they offer their sacrifice with distinctive purifications, because of which they are excluded from the common court of the temple and offer their sacrifices separately. Their way of life is better than that of other men, and they devote themselves entirely to farming. ²⁰It is admirable how much they excel all others in virtue, for their lifestyle is not found among Greeks or barbarians, even briefly, though it has been continually practiced by them for a long time. They hold their wealth in common, so that a rich man enjoys no more of his wealth than one who owns nothing at all, and about four thousand men live in this way. ²¹They neither wives nor keep servants, thinking that the latter leads to injustice while the former can cause quarrelling, but live single lives and are of service to each other. ²²They appoint good men as stewards to receive their revenues and the fruits of the earth, and priests to prepare their bread and other food. Their lifestyle does not differs little from, indeed is very similar to, that of the so-called Ktistai ( "founders" ) among the Dacians.

²³Judas the Galilean was the originator of the fourth way of Jewish philosophy, which agrees in most things with the views of the Pharisees, but is intensely devoted to freedom and claims God as the only Ruler and Lord. They are prepared for any kind of death, and even accept the deaths of relatives and friends, rather than call any man lord. ²⁴Since their immovable resolve is well known to many, I shall say no more about it, nor do I fear that what I have said of them will be disbelieved. What I do fear is that I have understated the indifference they show in the face of misery and pain. ²⁵It was in the time of Gessius Florus as governor that the nation began to grow mad with this illness, when by the abuse of his authority he caused them to revolt from the Romans. Those are the ways of philosophy among the Jews.

²⁶When Quirinius had disposed of Archelaus' money and the assessments had been completed, in the thirty-seventh year after Caesar's victory over Antony at Actium, he took from Joazar the dignity of the high priesthood, which had been given him by the people and appointed Ananus, son of Seth, as high priest. ²⁷Herod and Philip each took charge of their own tetrarchies and arranged matters there. Then Herod built a wall around Sepphoris for the security of all Galilee, and made it the capital of his area, and also built a wall around the city of Betharamphtha, and called it Julias, after the emperor's wife. ²⁸Philip also built up Paneas at the source of the Jordan, calling it Caesarea, and made a city of the village of Bethsaida, on the lake of Gennesareth, for the number of its inhabitants and its importance, naming it Julias, the name of Caesar's daughter.

²⁹The following occurred while Judea was under Coponius, who as we said was sent out with Quirinius. As the Jews were celebrating the feast of unleavened bread that we call Passover, it was the practice for the priests to open the temple gates just after midnight. ³⁰When those gates were first opened, some Samaritans secretly came into Jerusalem and began throwing some human bones around in the porticoes and elsewhere in the temple, and as a result it was decided to have the temple more carefully guarded than before. ³¹Shortly afterward Coponius returned to Rome and Marcus Ambivius came as his successor, under whom Salome, the sister of king Herod, died, leaving to Julia, ( Caesar's wife, ) Jamnia and its district and Phasaelis in the plain and Archelais, where is a great plantation of palm trees of excellent fruit. ³²After him came Annius Rufus, in whose time Caesar, the second emperor of the Romans, died after a reign of fifty-seven years, besides six months and two days. Antony ruled along with him for fourteen years, and his life span was seventy-seven years. ³³After his death Tiberius Nero, his wife Julia's son, succeeded him, as the third emperor, and he sent Valerius Gratus as procurator of Judea, to succeed Annius Rufus. ³⁴This man deposed Ananus from the high priesthood and named Ismael, son of Phabi, as high priest and soon replaced him with Eleazar, son of Ananus, who had been high priest before. After he had held the office for a year, Gratus deposed him and gave the high priesthood to Simon, son of Camithus. ³⁵After he had held the dignity no more than a year, Joseph Caiaphas was made his successor. When Gratus had done all this he returned to Rome after spending eleven years in Judea, and Pontius Pilate came as his successor.

³⁶Herod the tetrarch, who was in great favour with Tiberius, built a city in the best part of Galilee, at the lake of Gennesareth, and named it Tiberias, in his honour. Not far from it there are warm baths, in a village called Ammathus. ³⁷Strangers came to live there and many Galileans too, compelled by Herod to come from the area belonging to him, to populate it. Some of them were wealthy, but he also accepted poor people, collected from all parts. ³⁸Some of them were not quite free from slavery and these he set free in large numbers, as a favour, obliging them not to forsake the city by building them very good houses at his own expense and by giving them land. He knew that this settlement was in opposition to Jewish ancestral laws, for many tombs had to be removed to make room for building Tiberias and our laws say that those who live there are unclean for seven days.

³⁹Meanwhile the king of the Parthians, Phraates, died by the treachery of his son, Phraatakos, as follows. ⁴⁰After Phraates already had legitimate sons, he had an Italian slave girl named Thermusa, sent to him, among other gifts, by Julius Caesar. Struck by her beauty, he first made her his concubine and in time had by her a son named Phraataces, and made her his wife and treated her with respect. ⁴¹As she could persuade him in everything, she worked to win for her son the leadership of the Parthians, but saw it was impossible unless she found a way to remove Phraates' legitimate sons. ⁴²Thus, she persuaded him to send his proper sons as hostages to Rome and they were duly sent, as Phraates was unable to resist Thermusa. But while Phraataces alone was brought up to succeed in the leadership, he thought it too long to wait for it to come by his father's gift and treacherously conspired against his father, helped by his mother, with whom he was also rumoured to make love. ⁴³For both these vices he was hated, as his subjects regarded his lust for his mother as no better than his patricide, and they rebelled before he grew too powerful, and deposed him, and he died. ⁴⁴The Parthian aristocrats agreed that it was impossible for the state to do without a king, and it was their constant practice to choose one of the family of Arsaces, for their law allowed no other, and they thought their kingdom had already been harmed enough by the marriage with an Italian concubine and by her offspring. So they sent envoys and called Orodes to be king, though the people did not care for him, on account of his savagery and temper and proneness to anger; but he did belong to the royal family. ⁴⁵But they conspired against this man too, and killed him; some say, at a festival and among their sacrifices, as it is the custom there for everyone to go armed; more say, however, that he was killed after being lured out hunting. ⁴⁶So they sent envoys to Rome asking them for one of the hostages to be king, and Vonones was chosen above his brothers and sent to them. He seemed destined for fortune, being offered two of the greatest kingdoms under the sun, his own and a foreign one. ⁴⁷The barbarians, however, being naturally volatile, soon changed their minds and felt this man unworthy to be their ruler, as they could not obey the commands of one who had been a slave, for so they considered anyone who had been held hostage. Nor could they bear the shame of having such a king set over the Parthians, all the worse as it was not by right of war, but in time of peace. ⁴⁸So they soon invited Artabanus, king of Media, to be their king, since he too was of the Arsacid clan. Artabanus agreed and came to them with an army, and Vonones went out against him. At first the Parthians were on his side and he scored a victory, and Artabanus fled to the mountains of Media. ⁴⁹But not long after, gathering a large army and fought Vonones again and defeated him, and Vonones fled on horseback to Seleucia upon the Tigris, along with a few of his attendants. When, to cow the barbarians, Artabanus had slaughtered many after his victory, he retreated to Ctesiphon with most of his troops. ⁵⁰Now he was king of the Parthians, but Vonones fled to Armenia, and after arrival sought to rule that country and sent envoys to Rome to ask for it. ⁵¹When Tiberius refused it to him his courage failed, and as the Parthian king threatened him and sent envoys to declare war on him if he persisted, and had no way to gain any other kingdom, for the influential people Armenians and those around Niphates sided with Artabanus, ⁵²he surrendered to Silanus, the ruler of Syria, who, in light of his education in Rome, kept him in Syria, while Artabanus gave Armenia to Orodes, one of his own sons.

⁵³Antiochus, the king of Commagene, died and his people squabbled with the nobility and both sides sent envoys. The notables wanted their state to become a province of the empire, but the people wanted to be ruled by kings, like their ancestors. ⁵⁴So the senate decreed that Germanicus be sent to settle affairs in the East, and thereby Fate robbed him of his life, for when he had gone to the East and settled everything there, his life was taken by the poison which Piso gave him, as we said elsewhere.

⁵⁵Pilate, the procurator of Judea, moved the army from Caesarea to Jerusalem, to take up winter quarters there. Setting aside the ancestral Jewish law he introduced into the city effigies of Caesar, that were upon the ensigns, though our law forbids the making of images. ⁵⁶For this reason earlier procurators had always entered the city carrying ensigns without such ornaments. Pilate was the first to bring those images into Jerusalem, setting them up at night, without the people knowing. ⁵⁷As soon as they learned of it, they came in crowds to Caesarea and interceded with Pilate for many days, to remove the images. When he would not grant their requests, for it would be an insult to Caesar, they persisted and on the sixth day he ordered his soldiers to hide their weapons, while he came and sat upon his judgment-seat. This was in the stadium, so that it concealed the army that lay in hiding. ⁵⁸When the Jews again made their request, he pointed to the soldiers surrounding them and at once threatened them with death, unless they stopped disturbing him and went home. ⁵⁹But they threw themselves on the ground and bared their necks and said they would willingly die, rather than see the wisdom of their laws transgressed. Pilate was shocked by their firm resolve to preserve their laws and soon ordered the images to be brought back from Jerusalem to Caesarea.

⁶⁰Then he planned to bring a water supply to Jerusalem, using the temple money to do so, and found a source of water two hundred furlongs away. But the population was not pleased about the water, and many thousands gathered to complain to him, insisting that he give it up and some also insulted the man, as some speakers tend to do. ⁶¹So he got a troop of his soldiers to dress up like the crowd and carry batons under their clothing and then stationed them on the perimeter of the crowd. When he told the Jews to withdraw and they went on insulting him, he gave the soldiers the agreed signal. ⁶²But they struck the crowd with much harder blows than Pilate had ordered and gave equally hard treatment to rioters and innocent alike, not sparing them in the least. Since the civilians were unarmed and were caught by men trained for action, many of them were killed on the spot while others ran away wounded; and this put an end to the revolt.

⁶³Jesus lived about this time, a wise man, if one may properly call him a man, for he performed wonderful works and was a teacher to those who receive the truth with pleasure. He drew to himself many of the Jews and many Gentiles too. He was the Anointed One. ⁶⁴When Pilate, prompted by our leading men, condemned him to the cross, those who loved him from the beginning did not forsake him, for he appeared to them alive again the third day, just as the divine prophets had foretold these and countless other wonderful things about him. The tribe of the Christians, so named after him, survive to the present day.

⁶⁵About the same time another tragedy rocked the Jews and some scandalous deeds were done regarding the temple of Isis in Rome. I will first discuss the outrage committed by the followers of Isis and then return to the Jewish matter. ⁶⁶There was in Rome a woman named Paulina, highly reputed both for the dignity of her ancestors and for her personal practice of virtue. She was very rich, but though beautiful in appearance and in the flower of her age when women are most exuberant, she led a life of great modesty. She was married to Saturninus, whose fine character matched hers in every way. ⁶⁷Decius Mundus, a very reputable man of the equestrian order, fell in love with this woman, and as she was too good to succumb to gifts and had rejected the many he had sent, he was still more ardent, even promising her two hundred thousand Attic drachmae to share her bed just once. ⁶⁸When this did not persuade her and he could not bear his erotic frustration, he thought he should starve himself to death to end his suffering, and having decided to die in this way, he set about doing so. ⁶⁹Mundus had a freed-woman who had been set free by his father, and her name was Ide. She was expert in mischief of all sorts and was saddened by the young man's intention to kill himself, for he did not hide his suicidal intention from others, so she came to him and by her words and promises gave him hope of gaining intercourse with Paulina. ⁷⁰As he listened gladly to her pleas, she said she needed only fifty thousand drachmae to entrap the woman. After giving the young man new heart and getting the money she required, she did not follow his methods, seeing that the woman could not be tempted by money, but knowing her to be devoted to the worship of Isis, she devised this scheme. ⁷¹Going to some of Isis' priests and promising them total secrecy, she persuaded them by her words, and still more by the offer of money, twenty-five thousand drachmae up front and as much more when the deed was done, and told them of the young man's passion, telling them to use every possible means to beguile the woman. ⁷²So they were drawn in and promised to do so, for the sake of the large sum of gold they would get. The oldest of them went immediately to Paulina, and on entering, asked to speak with her alone. When that was granted he told her that he was sent by the god Anubis, who had fallen in love with her and ordered her to come to him. ⁷³She was delighted with the message and prided herself at this coming down of Anubis and told her husband about the message sent to her and that she was to sup and lie down with Anubis. He agreed to let her accept the offer, being fully satisfied with his wife's chastity. ⁷⁴So she went to the temple and after dining there, when it was time to go to sleep the priest shut the doors of the temple, and the lights were also put out in the innermost sanctuary. Then Mundus, who was hidden, jumped out and made sure to enjoy her, for she was at his service all night long, thinking him to be the god. ⁷⁵After he left, before the priests who were unaware of this plot were awake, Paulina came to her husband early and told him how the god Anubis had appeared to her, and also told her her friends how much she valued this favour. ⁷⁶Thinking about it, they mainly disbelieved it, but not having any reason to disbelieve her because of her modesty and dignity, they were amazed that it had happened. ⁷⁷But three days later, Mundus met met and said, "Well Paulina, you have saved me two hundred thousand drachmae, which you could have had for your family, but you still put yourself at my service just as I previously asked you. Since you insulted Mundus, I did not stick to my name, but took pleasure in what I did once I assumed the name of Anubis." ⁷⁸With this he went away, and when she first grasped the outrage he had done her, she rent her clothing and told her husband of his dreadful scheme and implored him not to fail to vindicate her; so he revealed it to the emperor. ⁷⁹Tiberius inquired fully into the matter and examined the priests about it and had them crucified along with Ide, who had instigated the whole insult to the woman's honour. He had the temple of Isis demolished and her statue thrown into the river Tiber. ⁸⁰Mundus he only banished, reckoning that as sufficient for a crime committed out of erotic passion. These are the details about the temple of Isis and the wrongs done by her priests. I now return to the story I mentioned earlier, what happened about this time to the Jews in Rome.

⁸¹There was a Jew, a wicked man in every way, who had been expelled from his country under accusation of breaking the laws and who feared being punished for it. Living in Rome at the time, he professed to teach people in the wisdom of the laws of Moses, ⁸²and he found three other men, of similar character as himself, to be his partners. These persuaded Fulvia, a woman of great dignity who had embraced the Jewish religion, to send purple and gold to the temple in Jerusalem, and when they got hold of the gifts they used them for themselves and spent the money, which was why they asked her for it in the first place. ⁸³When Tiberius learned of it from Saturninus, the husband of Fulvia, who wanted it investigated, he ordered all the Jews to be banished from Rome. ⁸⁴Then the consuls drafted four thousand of them into the army and sent them to the island of Sardinia, but penalized even more of them, who refused to serve as soldiers on account of their ancestral laws. So these Jews were banished from the city because of the wrongdoing of four men.

⁸⁵But the Samaritan nation did not escape disturbance either. The man who roused them to it was one who thought little of lying and arranged everything just to please the people. He told them to gather at Mount Garizim, which they regarded as the holiest of all mountains, assuring them that when they got there he would show them the sacred vessels which were buried there in deposit, by Moses himself. ⁸⁶So they came there armed and thought the man's words plausible, and as they stayed at a village called Tirathaba, they got ready to go up the mountain together in a large crowd. ⁸⁷Pilate prevented them, however, by seizing the roads with a great band of cavalry and infantry, who attacked the first ones they met in the village, and some of them they killed in battle and put the others to flight and took many alive; and Pilate condemned to death the chief and most powerful of the fugitives.

⁸⁸When this disturbance had been put down, the Samaritan council sent an embassy to Vitellius, a former consul who was now ruler of Syria, to accuse Pilate of murdering those who had been killed, since they had not gone to Tirathaba to revolt from the Romans, but to escape the violence of Pilate. ⁸⁹So Vitellius sent Marcellus, a friend of his, to take care of the affairs of Judea and ordered Pilate to go to Rome to reply to the Samaritans' accusation before the emperor. So Pilate, after spending ten years in Judea, hurried to Rome since he could not disobey the orders of Vitellius, but before he got to Rome Tiberius was dead.

⁹⁰Vitellius came to Judea and went up to Jerusalem, at the time of the festival which is called the Passover, and was magnificently received there. So Vitellius released the people of Jerusalem from all the taxes on the sale of farm produce and restored the custody of the high priest's vestments to them, with all their ornaments, to be under the care of the priests in the temple, as they formerly used to be. ⁹¹At that time they were deposited in the so called tower of Antonia, for this reason. One of the priests named Hyrcanus, the first of many of that name, had built a stronghold near the temple and lived there most of the time, keeping charge of these vestments since only he could lawfully wear them. There he had them safe while he went down into the city wearing his ordinary clothes. ⁹²This continued to be the practice of his sons and of their sons after them. When Herod came to be king, he magnificently rebuilt this tower which was so conveniently situated, and because he was a friend to Antony, he called it by the name of Antonia. As he found these vestments lying there, he kept them in the same place, believing that as long he had them in his custody the people would make no revolt against him. ⁹³Herod's son Archelaus, who was king after him, did the same, and when the Romans took over direct rule, they took charge of the vestments of the high priest and deposited them in a stone chamber, under the seal of the priests and the temple treasurers, and the officer of the guard lit a lamp there every day. ⁹⁴Seven days before a festival they were handed over to them by the officer of the guard; and later the high priest, having purified and used them, deposited them again in the same chamber, the day after the feast was over. This was the practice at the three yearly festivals and on the fast day. ⁹⁵Now Vitellius followed our ancient law about those vestments and told the officer of the guard not to interfere with where they were kept, or when they should be used. Having done this act of kindness to the nation, he deposed Joseph, surnamed Caiaphas, from the high priesthood, appointing the former high priest Jonathan the son of Ananus, in his place. Then he returned to Antioch.

⁹⁶Tiberius also sent a letter to Vitellius instructing him to make a pact of friendship with Artabanus, the king of the Parthians, for since he had taken Armenia from him he feared him as an enemy who might go even further. His instructions were not to trust him unless he gave him hostages, and especially Artabanus his son. ⁹⁷Tiberius wrote this to Vitellius and by large bribes he tried to persuade the king of the Iverians and Alvanians [ Azerbaijan ]
to declare war on Artabanus. Although they would not do so, they allowed the Scythians passage through their country and opened the Caspian gates to them and so let them attack Artabanus. ⁹⁸So Armenia was retaken and the land of Parthia was embroiled in war and their leading men were killed and all was in chaos, and even the king's son fell in these wars, along with many thousands of his army. ⁹⁹Vitellius sent so much money to Artabanus senior's relatives and friends, that the bribes almost succeeded in having him killed. Now Artabanus saw that the plotting against him could not be avoided, as it came from so many of the officers that it would certainly succeed. ¹⁰⁰He saw too the number of those who were truly faithful to him, and those who were already corrupted, for though they pretended loyalty to him, they were likely to go over to his enemies at the critical time, so he made his escape to the upper provinces, where later he raised a large army from the Dahae and Sacre and fought his enemies and stayed in power.

¹⁰¹Hearing about this, Tiberius wanted a pact of friendship made between him and Artabanus, and when the proposal was well received, Artabanus went to meet Vitellius at the Euphrates. ¹⁰²A bridge was made across the river, each came with his bodyguards and they met in the centre of the bridge. When they had agreed on the terms of peace, Herod the tetrarch built a rich tent on the midst of the passage and held a feast for them there. ¹⁰³Not long afterward, Artabanus sent his son Darius as a hostage, with many gifts, among which was a man seven feet tall, a Jew by birth, named Eleazar, who was called a giant on account of his height. ¹⁰⁴After this Vitellius went to Antioch and Artabanus to Babylon, but Herod wanting to be first to Caesar with the news that they had obtained hostages, sent him letter-bearers with an accurate written description of the whole affair and leaving nothing new for the proconsul to inform to report. ¹⁰⁵When Vitellius' letters were sent and Caesar had told him that he knew about the affair, since Herod had already written of it, Vitellius was furious, thinking it a bigger offence than it really was, but kept his anger secret until he got his revenge, which he did when Gaius took over as Roman emperor.

¹⁰⁶About this time Herod's brother Philip departed this life, in the twentieth year of the reign of Tiberius, after ruling Trachonitis and Gaulanitis and the Batanean nation for thirty-seven years, with moderation and in an easy-going style. ¹⁰⁷He spent all his time in the area assigned to him, making his rounds with a few chosen friends. The throne on which he sat in judgment went with him on the circuit, and when anyone met him who needed his help, he made no delay, but wherever it might be he soon had his tribunal set up and sat and heard the case, penalizing the guilty and acquitting those who were unjustly accused. ¹⁰⁸He died at Julias, and was brought to the tomb he had built for himself in advance, and buried with great pomp. As he left behind no children, Tiberius took his territory and joined it to the province of Syria, but ordered that the tributes collected in his tetrachy should be held on deposit.

¹⁰⁹Meanwhile there was a quarrel between Aretas the king of Arabia Petrea and Herod, for this reason : Herod the tetrarch had married the daughter of Aretas and had been with her a long time. Once, however, when he was in Rome he lodged with his half-brother Herod, who was not by the same mother, for this Herod was son of the daughter of Simon the high priest. ¹¹⁰He was in love with Herodias, this latter Herod's wife, who was the daughter of their other brother Aristobulus and a sister of Agrippa the Great, and proposed marriage to her. She accepted and agreed to move in with him as soon as he returned from Rome, and part of the agreement was that Aretas' daughter be sent away. ¹¹¹Having agreed this he sailed to Rome, but when he finished his business in Rome and came home, his wife learned of his agreement with Herodias and before he was aware that she knew of it, she asked him to send her to Machaerus, on the border between the realms of Aretas and Herod, without telling him her intentions. ¹¹²Herod sent her there, thinking the poor woman had noticed nothing. But she had sent advance notice to Machaerus, which was subject to her father and so everything necessary for her journey was made ready for her by the general of Aretas' army, and so she soon reached Arabia, passed on from one chieftain to the next, and soon came to her father and told him of Herod's plans. ¹¹³This was the start of their enmity and there was also their border dispute about Gamalitis, so both sides prepared for war, though they sent their generals to fight instead of themselves. ¹¹⁴In the ensuing battle, all Herod's army was destroyed by the treachery of some fugitives, who joined with Aretas' army though they came from the tetrarchy of Philip. ¹¹⁵Herod wrote about these matters to Tiberius, who was at what Aretas had done, and wrote to Vitellius to make war on him and either capture him alive and bring him to him in chains, or if he was killed to send him his head. These were the orders of Tiberius to the governor of Syria.

¹¹⁶Some of the Jews thought that that Herod's army was destroyed as a just punishment from God, for what he did to John, who was called the Baptist. ¹¹⁷For Herod killed this good man who was telling the Jews to practice virtue, and behave righteously toward each other and devoutly toward God and so to come to baptism. This would make the washing acceptable to Him, if it were used not for the putting away of some sins, but for the purification of the body, since the soul was already purified by righteousness. ¹¹⁸When others crowded around him, for they were greatly moved by hearing his words, Herod feared that his great influence over the people might lead to some revolt, as they seemed ready to do everything he advised, so he thought it better to put him to death before he could start a rebellion than to wait and later have to repent of it after the revolution had begun. ¹¹⁹So due to Herod's suspicions he was sent a prisoner to Machaerus, the castle mentioned earlier, and put to death there. The Jews suspected that the loss of Herod's army was sent as a punishment and a mark of God's displeasure with him.

¹²⁰Vitellius went to war against Aretas with two fully-armed legions and all the light-armed infantry and cavalry attached to them, drawn from the kingdoms which were under the Romans and came to Ptolemais on his way toward Petra. ¹²¹But on the march as he was leading his army through Judea, some prominent men met him to ask him not to go through their land, since their ancestral laws did not let them ignore the images they carried into it, many of which were on their ensigns. ¹²²Persuaded by this he changed his plans and ordered the army to march along the great plain, while he himself, with Herod the tetrarch and his friends, went up to Jerusalem to offer sacrifice to God during an ancient Jewish festival which was coming up. ¹²³On his arrival he was well received by the Jewish populace, and stayed there for three days, during which time he deposed Jonathan from his priestly office and gave it to his brother Theophilus. ¹²⁴When on the fourth day letters arrived announcing the death of Tiberius, he made the people swear their loyalty to Gaius. He also stood down his army, sending each man home for the winter, since with the accession of Gaius he no longer had his former authority to go to war. ¹²⁵It was also reported that Aretas, when he heard that Vitellius was coming to fight him, consulted the auguries and said that the army of Vitellius could not cross the entrance of Petra, for one of the leaders would die, either the one who gave orders for the war, or the one who marched to carry out the other's plan, or the one against whom the army had mustered. ¹²⁶So Vitellius retired to Antioch. Now Agrippa, son of Aristobulus, had gone to Rome a year before the death of Tiberius, to have contact with the emperor, and seek some advantage for himself. ¹²⁷I now wish to describe how things went for Herod and his family, partly as it is relevant to this history and partly because it offers proof of divine intervention, how mere numbers are fruitless, or any other worldly advantage, without piety toward God. ¹²⁸The fact is that, within a hundred years, the numerous descendants of Herod had all disappeared, apart from a few. One may well apply this for the guidance of mankind and learn from their misfortune. ¹²⁹It is worth recalling the story of Agrippa, an admirable person who beyond all the expectation of his friends rose from being a private citizen to great power and authority. I have said something of this before, but will now speak of it in detail.

¹³⁰Herod the Great had two daughters by Mariamne, the daughter of Hyrcanus. One of them was Salampsio, who was given by her father in marriage to her first cousin Phasael, who was himself the son of Herod's brother Phasael. The other was Cypros, who also was married to her first cousin Antipater, the son of Herod's sister Salome. ¹³¹Phasael had five children by Salampsio : Antipater, Herod and Alexander and two daughters, Alexandra and Cypros, who married Agrippa, the son of Aristobulus, while Alexandra married Timius of Cyprus, a worthy man, but with him she died childless. ¹³²By Cypros Agrippa had two sons and three daughters, Berenice, Mariamne and Drusilla, and the sons were Agrippa and Drusus, of whom Drusus died before puberty. ¹³³Of these, Agrippa and his brothers, Herod and Aristobulus, were reared by his father, along with Berenice the daughter of Costobarus and of Herod's sister Salome. ¹³⁴As already said, Aristobulus left these infants when he and his brother Alexander were killed by their father. When they reached puberty, this Herod, Agrippa's brother, married Mariamne, the daughter of king Herod's daughter Olympias, and of Joseph, son of king Herod's brother Joseph, and by her had a son, Aristobulus. ¹³⁵Agrippa's third brother, Aristobulus, married Jotape, the daughter of Sampsigeramus, king of Emesa. They had a daughter who was deaf, whose name was also Jotape, and up to this these were the children of the male line. ¹³⁶Their sister Herodias was married to Herod, the son of Herod the Great by Mariamne, the daughter of Simon the high priest. They had a daughter, Salome, after whose birth Herodias set about overturning the laws of our country and divorced from her husband while he was alive and married Herod ( Antipas ) , her husband's brother on the father's side, who was tetrarch of Galilee. ¹³⁷Her daughter Salome was married to Philip, Herod's son and tetrarch of Trachonitis, and as he died childless, Aristobulus, Herod's son and Agrippa's brother, married her. They had three sons, Herod, Agrippa and Aristobulus. ¹³⁸Those were the descendants of Phasael and Salampsio. Now by Cypros Antipater had a daughter named Cypros, who married Alexas Selcias, son of Alexas and they had a daughter, Cypros, while Herod and Alexander, who, as I said, were Antipater's brothers, died childless. ¹³⁹The Alexander who was killed by his father king Herod, had two sons, Alexander and Tigranes, by the daughter of Archelaus, king of Cappadocia. Tigranes, who was king of Armenia, was accused of charges in Rome and died childless. ¹⁴⁰Alexander had a son named with his brother Tigranes and was sent by Nero to take possession of the kingdom of Armenia. He had a son, Alexander, who married Jotape, daughter of Antiochus the king of Commagene, and Vespasian made him king of Ketis in Cilicia. ¹⁴¹But soon after their birth these descendants of Alexander left the Jewish religion and went over to the Greeks, and the rest of the daughters of Herod the king died childless. ¹⁴²I have listed, by way of preface, these descendants of Herod up to the time that Agrippa the Great took over the kingdom. Now I will relate the various adversities faced by Agrippa and how he overcame them, to advance to the height of dignity and power.

¹⁴³Shortly before king Herod's death, Agrippa lived in Rome and was reared in close contact with Drusus, the emperor Tiberius' son and made friends with Antonia, the wife of Drusus the Great, who highly esteemed his mother Berenice and was asked by her to promote her son. ¹⁴⁴Agrippa was of an expansive nature and generous in giving gifts, though he hid his natural bent while his mother was alive, in order not to provoke her by his extravagance. ¹⁴⁵Once Berenice was dead and he was left to his own devices, he spent lavishly in his daily lifestyle and gave endless gifts, mainly to Caesar's freedmen, to win their help, so that he was soon reduced to poverty. ¹⁴⁶He could no longer afford to live in Rome, and Tiberius forbade the friends of his deceased son to come into his sight, for they reminded him of his son and only revived his grief.

¹⁴⁷For these reasons he left Rome and sailed to Judea in dire circumstances, depressed by the loss of his former wealth and without the money to pay his many creditors, and seeing no way to escape them. Not knowing what to do, and ashamed of his present condition, he retired to a tower at Malatha in Idumaea, and thought of killing himself. ¹⁴⁸But his wife Cypros knew his mind and tried all sorts of ways to divert him from such a course. She wrote a letter to his sister Herodias, who was now the wife of Herod the tetrarch, to tell her of Agrippa's state and the need that drove him to it. ¹⁴⁹She asked for her help as his relative, and to get her husband to do the same, seeing how she had helped her husband all she could, though without any wealth like theirs. They sent for him and gave him Tiberias as his dwelling, with money to maintain him and honouring him as mayor of Tiberias. ¹⁵⁰But Herod did not continue long in his resolve to support him, though even that was insufficient for him. Once they were drinking at a feast in Tyre and insults were exchanged, Agrippa found it unbearable when Herod reproached him with his poverty and with owing his very food to him. So he went to Flaccus, who had been consul and had formerly been a great friend to him in Rome and was now ruler of Syria.

¹⁵¹He was amiably received by Flaccus and stayed with him. Another guest there was Aristobulus, Agrippa's brother, with whom he on bad terms, but their mutual hostility did not prevent him treating them both with friendship and honour. ¹⁵²Aristobulus did not cease being unpleasant to Agrippa until he brought him into enmity with Flaccus, and this was the cause of their estrangement. ¹⁵³The Damascenes had a border quarrel with the Sidonians and when Flaccus was about to hear their case, they learned that Agrippa had great influence with him, so they got him to take their side, with the promise of a lot of money. ¹⁵⁴So he gladly did all he could to help the Damascenes, but Aristobulus learned about the promised money and accused him of it to Flaccus, who fully examined the matter and found is to be the case, and no longer numbered Agrippa among his friends. ¹⁵⁵So he was reduced to the utmost penury and came to Ptolemais. Then not knowing where else to get a livelihood, he wanted to sail to Italy, but as he could not do so for lack of money, he asked Marsyas, his freedman, to find the means for that purpose, by borrowing the money from somebody. ¹⁵⁶Marsyas asked Protos, the freedman of Agrippa's mother Berenice, who bequeathed him in her will to Antonia, to lend the sum, on a personal bond of security. ¹⁵⁷He, however, accused Agrippa of defrauding him of certain sums of money and so obliged Marsyas, when he signed the bond for twenty thousand Attic drachmae, to accept twenty-five hundred drachma less, to which the other agreed having no other option. ¹⁵⁸On receipt of this money, Agrippa came to Anthedon and was about to set sail when Herennius Capito, the procurator of Jamnia, sent a band of soldiers to get from him the three hundred thousand silver drachmae that he owed to Caesar's treasury in Rome, so forcing him to stay. ¹⁵⁹He pretended to follow this order, but when night came he cut the cables and left and sailed to Alexandria, where he asked Alexander the Alabarch to lend him two hundred thousand drachmae. He refused to lend it to him, but said that he would not refuse it to Cypros, impressed by her love for her husband and other examples of her virtue. ¹⁶⁰She undertook to repay it and so Alexander gave them five talents in Alexandria and promised them the rest at Dicaearchea, in case Agrippa was getting ready to spend it. So Cypros bailed her husband out and sent him off on with his voyage to Italy, while she and her children left for Judea.

¹⁶¹Agrippa came to Puteoli, where he wrote a letter to Tiberius Caesar, who then lived in Capri, telling him that he had come so far to pay him a visit and see him, and asked his permission to come over to Capri. ¹⁶²Without hesitation Tiberius wrote courteously to him, saying he was glad of his safe return and inviting him to come to Capri, and when he arrived he did not fail to welcome him as kindly as he had promised in his letter. ¹⁶³But the next day Caesar got a letter from Herennius Capito, saying that Agrippa had borrowed three hundred thousand drachmae and not repaid it when it fell due, and when it was demanded, escaped like a fugitive from his jurisdiction, making it impossible to get the money back. ¹⁶⁴When Caesar read this letter, he was irritated and had Agrippa excluded from his presence until he paid off the debt. But undaunted by Caesar's anger, he begged Antonia, the mother of Germanicus and Claudius, the future emperor, to lend him the three hundred thousand drachmae, so as not to be deprived of Tiberius' friendship. ¹⁶⁵Out of regard to the memory of his mother Berenice, for the two women had been great friends, and remembering how he and Claudius were educated together, she lent him the money; and once his debt was paid, there was nothing further to bar him from friendship with Tiberius. ¹⁶⁶Tiberius Caesar then commended his grandson to him, saying that he should always accompany him when he went abroad. After being received in friendship by Antonia, Agrippa went to pay his respects to her grandson Gaius, who was in high repute because of people's goodwill toward his father. ¹⁶⁷From a Samaritan freedman of Caesar he borrowed a million drachmae and from it repaid his debt to Antonia and by sending the rest in paying court to Gaius, gained great influence with him.