Bloody Events in the Reign of Herod
AT THE beginning of the Christian Era the whole of Palestine was under Roman dominion, having been divided into provinces and districts and placed under the direct rulership of ethnarchs and tetrarchs as representatives of Rome. The country west of the Jordan embraced the provinces of Galilee, Samaria and Judea, over which the Ethnarch Archelaus presided, while the east country was divided into eight districts, viz: Perea proper, Gilead, Decapolis, Gaulonitis, Batanea, Auranitis, Trachonitis and Abilene, which were governed by two tetrarchs, Philip and Herod Antipas.
It was immediately preceding this division of Palestine and in consequence of the disputes and bloody events which had distinguished the rulership of Herod, son of Antipater, who was of the last dynasty in Judea, and who had established himself as an independent king under the auspices and favors of the Roman triumvirs, that several of the most momentous occurrences in the history of Israel transpired.
Hyrcanus, who, as the son of Alexander Jannaeus, the Sadducee, had (B. C. 71) been established as high priest by his mother, was soon after reconfirmed by Pompey, after defeating the contestant, Aristobulus, and capturing Jerusalem, with tremendous slaughter of the people. In the name of Hyrcanus, Antipater became Governor, who, in turn, was established by Caesar after the fall of Pompey, as Procurator of Judea. This change of rulership was speedily followed by an invasion of the country by Antigonus, who defeated the great Roman general Crassus (B. C. 53) and, making himself master of Judea, carried Hyrcanus into captivity. His success was of short duration, however, for Herod, son of Antipater, who had been compelled to seek safety in flight to Rome, succeeded in winning the favor of the triumvirs, and with a royal commission returned to Judea to a.ssume the office of Procurator. He quickly took the title of Herod the Great, and began his rule by ordering a reconstruction of the Temple in a style of almost inconceivable magnificence, and the building of cities and fortresses which should make his reign more glorious than was that of Solomon, whom he had an ambition to excel. But while this great expenditure of the revenue and treasure of the countr>’ was made with the double purpose of increasing his fame and winning
(121) the admiration of his subjects, he was so injudicious as to institute ceremonies, which, while grateful to his vanity, were most repugnant to the Jews, and which reacted against hira with great force. Among his foreign allies or supporters were Marc Antony and his voluptuous mistress, Cleopatra, out of consideration to whose desires Herod established customs that had from time immemorial received the condemnation of all Jewish law-givers. Among these forbidden carnivals which Herod revived were gladiatorial contests, and Olympian games, and Dionysian festivals, and the setting up of statues, while above the Temple gate he caused to be fixed the Roman Eagle, which to the Jews was a.
ROMAN SOLDIERS BESIEGING A WAI.LED CITY.
perpetual reminder of their thraldom to the new conquerors, and their subjection as a nation that had been oppressed by many yokes, galling and grievous. Horrible Atrocities of Herod. With the institution of ceremonials repugnant to the vast majority of his subjects, Herod conceived and executed revenges that incited against him the just hatred of the Jews, who now saw in their ruler the bloody iron hand of a malevolent ruffian who was bent on eiFacing the last, vestiges of Jewish succession and the complete destruction of their influence as a nation. “The Maccabean blood was the red flag that set aflame with passion the Herodian bull and with a merciless sword he set about the slaughter.”
Herod was himself connected with the house of Maccabees by marriage, being the husband of Mariamne, who was granddaughter of Hyrcanus, and daughter of Alexandra and Jannseus, and sister of Aristobulus. But this fact did not in any wise abate his determination to destroy the seed royal; by his desire, if not direct orders, Antigonus was executed at Damascus, followed soon after by the murder of his own powerful rival, Hyrcanus, who was enticed from Babylon to Jerusalem with the promise from Herod to re-establish him in the position of high priest. The next to fall by his attainted hand was the youthful high priest Aristobulus, his queen’s brother, who was drowned while bathing with the king, by the latter’ s attendants. But these murders, instead of glutting Herod’s vengeance, only stimulated his atrocious spirit to baser deeds. His victims now rapidly multiplied in the following order: Joseph, his uncle; then his own beloved queen, whom he suspected of conniving against the perpetuity of his crown, next his mother-in-law Alexandra, and a few years after, as will presently be described, his two sons, who were idols of the people, possessing as they did all the graces and good qualities of their mother, and none of the vices of their brutal father; all these fell victims to his madness. Besides these executions of Herod’s relations, hundreds of others were as cruelly slaugh- thu roman eagle, and statue of titus.
tared by the royal edict for no other crime than the king’s suspicion that they were in sympathy with the victims and thus secretly opposed to his rule.
Calamities that Befell the Nation.
The many murders of innocent people and the flagrant abuses of his power at length brought Herod into a sorry plight. The blood of his house cried out against him and the mutterings of the people grew so loud and general that to have hushed them would have depopulated his kingdom. But as if to increase his miseries, four years after the death of Mariamne, and in the thirteenth of his reign, a dreadful famine prevailed throughout the land, which the people construed as a judgment sent by God for the king’s crimes and his defilement of the sanctuary, which had been prostituted to all manner of heathen worship. Something must be done to avert a threatened insurrection and placate his incensed subjects and, if possible, to win their favor. With admirable diplomacy, therefore, Herod brought out from his sumptuously furnished palace all the silver service and rich cloths and splendid furnishings, to which he added his plethoric treasury, and sent the whole to Egypt with which to buy grain for his famishing people and their starving herds. Vast quantities of corn were thus brought into Palestine, which he distributed as a free gift to all the needy, as well as a bounteous provision of clothing to all those who had lost their flocks of goats and sheep. Besides this munificent bounty, he remitted a third of the taxes and removed all burdens, within his power to do, without bankrupting the nation, from the people; but while doing these generous things he forfeited a large portion of the favor which they must have brought him by a most impolitic act, in issuing a decree ordering that all persons convicted of theft should be sold as slaves to other countries. This was specially obnoxious to the Jews, who foresaw, as they believed, a scheme for the removal of persons who might be repugnant to the king, and a law easily abused by using it to gratify personal spites.
A Royal Domestic Imbroglio.
The complaints which the law for the punishment of theft incited speedily abated, however, and popular feeling turned towards Herod for the first time, as a reward for his interposition with Agrippa on behalf of the Jews to grant to them the privileges of free worship and protection, as promised by Caesar, and also because of a further remission of a quarter of the annual tax.
In the meantime, Herod’s two sons by his first wife, Mariamne (he having meanwhile married a Jewess of the same name), Alexander and Aristobulus, the former now eighteen years of age, and the latter one year younger, had been sent to Rome and placed under careful tutelage for a bringing up that would prepare them for the assumption of imperial duties. Their schooling in home had not made them forget their father’s cruelty, nor diminished their love for the memory of their mother, and with the harboring of a desire for revenge they sought to have the accusers of their mother brought to trial. In addition to this effort to revive animosities, the two sons also showed an unmistakable aversion to others of the king’s household, which led to a conspiracy being formed against them, in which Herod was soon made a party. The sons were recalled and each provided with a wife, Alexander, who was crown prince, being wedded to a daughter of Archelaus, king of Cappadocia, whose mother was the illegitimate offspring of a votary in the temple of Venus in Corinth. Aristobulus was united to Herod’s niece, named Berenice, daughter of the king’s sister Salome. These two brides began, almost immediately upon entering Herod’s palace, to foment strife bycarrying the idle gossip of attendants to the Court, who in turn retailed all such reports, especially when they reflected upon the ambition of the princes, to Herod, and thus were the plans of the conspirators against Alexander and Aristobulus rapidly promoted. To add to this sorrjcondition of the royal household, Berenice and Glasphyra, wife of Alexander, became envious of one another and v fell into a bitter quarrel, which soon involved their husbands. Another ingredient of evil that Increased the bubble in the already seething kettle of domestic scandal, was caused by the marriage of Herod’s youngest brother, Pheroras, with a Pharisee slave girl, who threw herself armor of roman officers in the time of uerod.
into the broil because Glasphyra had ridiculed Pheroras for his low alliance. All
were now against the two princes save their wives, and the conspirators hastened
a consummation of their foul plans by inducing Herod to recall his son Antipater,
who had been banished some years before, and who was known to be a bitter
€nemy of the princes. A result of this scheme was the naming of Antipater as
heir to the throne and, on account of his accusations, the arrest of Alexander
and Aristobulus, who were conveyed to Rome for trial before Caesar on the charge
of conspiracy against the life of their father. Their personal popularity at Rome,
as well as their address, however, procured for them an acquittal, and they
returned to Jerusalem in the company of Herod with an outward appearance
of reconciliation.
Execution of the Two Princes.
A very short period of peace intervened before a fresh disturbance in Herod’s household occurred, precipitated a second time by a renewal of the enmity between the wives of Alexander, Aristobulus and of Pheroras, while Antipater encouraged the hatred, knowing that out of the difficulty some personal advantage must come to his unscrupulous ambition. At length, when the occasion seemed auspicious for their base purposes, Antipater and Pheroras caused the slaves of the two princes to be seized and put to the torture, with the intent of thus extorting from them an accusation of their master’s guilt of conspiracy. In this infamous purpose they succeeded, and then confronting Alexander with the confessions so basely and mercilessly secured, they boldly added their own accusations. Annoyed, threatened, pursued, traduced and abused as he had been, with his father’s hand against him and nowhere to turn for protection, in a moment of madness Alexander admitted his guilt, making no other defence thereto than the claim that he was no more a conspirator against his father’s life than were all others of his relatives, excepting alone Antipater, whom he regarded, despite the baseness manifested, as his best friend, and therefore he desired that no ill might befall him. The admission thus made and his sweeping charge against his relatives as co-conspirators so incensed them, that with one voice they demanded his immediate execution, which, but for the king of Cappadocia would, no doubt, have been obeyed.
A dreadful condition of affairs now followed. If Herod’s concern were great before, his state of mind was now so horrible as to excite compassion. He verysoon discovered the deceits in his household, and the designs so persistently and systematically pursued by Pheroras and Salome, who were evidently seeking, not only the death of the princes, but his own as well. Thus he became suspicious of all his Court which increased the evils by multiplying the accusers, who made charges against each other in order to divert suspicion from themselves. At length this very condition developed a deeper intrigue in the mind of one of Herod’s Greek Court officers, who sought to profit by interposing his offices for a final settlement of the disputes. Seeing that Antipater and Archelaus had some interests in common, which they would wnlingly pay him largely to advance, and having diagnosed the canker in the king’s mind as a consuming suspicion against his two sons, he deliberately set about planning for their execution. It was not long before he was able to lay before Herod such forged letters as convinced the king of the charges so speciously advanced, and forthwith the two princes were placed in chains by the royal order and their slaves again put to the rack to affix their guilt. Salome importuned Herod incessantly to destroy them, which he had a strong desire to do, but was restrained for a time by the fear that such an act, perpetrated so soon after their acquittal by a Roman tribunal, would give offence to Augustus, who certainly had some regard for the unfortunate princes, over whom he had exercised a friendly care during the time they had attended school in Rome.
The incessant importunings of Salome, however, influenced the distracted Herod at length to address a message to Augustus requesting permission to order the execution of the princes. This request, though granted, so incensed Augustus that he wrote a very caustic letter to Herod, condemning him for his cruelty and unnatural hatred, and for his pusillanimous
ROMAN INl-ANXRV SOLDIKRS.
weakness in permitting such a broil and calamitous termination in his own household. While giving Herod a permit to destroy his two sons, Augustus took away from him the crown of Arabia.
In pursuance of the authority thus granted Herod appeared before the court, held at Bertyus, whither the two sons were brought in chains, and at a mock trial, on the evidence of the father, the unfortunate princes were condemned to death, and were accordingly strangled at Samaria.
Herod had confidently expected that the death of his two sons would be followed by a truce between the warring factions of his household, but so great was his disappointment that the embitterment was increased and the king became at once an object not only for suppressed public execration, but also for the murderous shafts of one of his surviving sons, Antipater, and his adroit and malignant brother, Pheroras. Antipater had really been the instigator of nearly all the trouble which brought his brothers Alexander and Aristobulus to a violent death, and fearing that his villainy would be exposed to his father he joined in a conspiracy wdth Pheroras to murder Herod. The latter entered willingly into the plot, being incited thereto by a movement begun by his wife’s relations and the Pharisees, who were anxious to compass the death of Herod and to place Pheroras on the throne. To give greater encouragement to their murderous scheme they industriously circulated prophecies that God had decreed a transference of the throne from Herod and his family to Pheroras. The plot was also furthered by the procurement of the aid of one of Herod’s eunuchs, named Bagoas, who, it was declared, should soon become father of a son who would be the long-promised Messiah.
This conspiracy, though adroitly conceived, and participated in by many persons about the palace — and its execution would no doubt have met with general approval — was nevertheless exposed, and several rabbis and commoner people near the king were put to death. Pheroras was suspected by Herod, but not openly accused of participation, hence in the belief that Pheroras’ wife was one of the prince’s instigators, Herod demanded that she be divorced and sent out of the kingdom. Rather than do this, however, Pheroras accepted banishment in her company, and accordingly proceeded to Perea, where he very soon after suddenly died from swallowing a poison potion which had been sent by Antipater to kill Herod, who now, in the eccentricity of his disposition and distraction of mind conceived that Pheroras had been guiltless of any participation in the plot against his life. To make amends as far as possible for what be thought had been his unjust suspicion, he caused the body of Pheroras to be brought back to Jerusalem and appointed a day of national mourning for his death.
Antipater, who had remained at Rome, and was yet ignorant of the exposure of his villainy, was now sent for by Herod, the request for his presence being made in a letter of unctuous friendliness which completely disarmed him of any suspicion. Antipater came at once to Jerusalem in response to the summons, and as he entered the palace Herod gave orders for his arrest and trial before the Syrian proconsul. The evidence of his guilt was conclusive, and withal so horrifying that Herod, after communicating the result to Rome, was seized with an illness from which it was declared by those who attended him he could not recover. This report quickly spread and was followed immediatelj’ by an outburst of long-RUINS OF H1-;K()I)S I’AI.ACl’; IN SAMARIA, AS THKV NOW APPKAR.
repressed hatred on the part of the Jews, led as they were by the rabbis. They regarded the culmination as a direct manifestation of God’s anger at Herod for his many sacrilegious acts, in profaning the Temple, and his violations of the Jewish laws, as well as the many acts of cruelty’ which had distinguished his reign. The incipient revolution was characterized by a freedom of complaint made by the rabbis against the iniquities of Herod, and the criticisms thus publicly made soon emboldened the people to add the most serious accusations, and from these revolution quickly succeeded. From a smouldering coal a great fire had been developed and the kingdom was in a tumult. The rabbis, or Pharisees, went cr>’ing through the streets of Jerusalem, and not only in synagogues but on the corners, everywhere, inflamed the passions of the populace by bitter harangues until a mob organized to destroy the hated symbols of Rome, which the Jews regarded as badges of their servitude to the Romish invaders. A body of students, encouraged by the rabbis, rushed to the Temple, and tore down the Roman Eagle, which they broke to pieces in the street, while others rose in various parts of the city, and committed similar acts until they were scattered by a charge of a company of soldiers. Forty of the rioters were arrested and taken for j udgment before Herod. When he threatened them with death they only laughed him to scorn, and counted that their reward should be so great hereafter that they had no fears of any punishments he could inflict. Herod was so bitterly incensed by this bravado, besides being racked with both mental and physical suffering, that he ordered a prompt trial of the ofienders at Jericho, readily anticipating what the result must be. They were of course convicted of treason and vandalism, and by Herod were brought to a terrible punishment. The rabbis and several leaders of the movement were burned at the stake and the rest were beheaded.
But these inflictions, cruel, terrible as they were, did not break the spirit of his enemies, nor did they serve to assuage his dreadful sufferings. He could bring a horrible punishment upon his enemies, but as an enemy to God he must endure sufferings even greater. A loathsome disease was slowly but surely devouring his vitals; it had him on the rack of torture, and human hands could give him no relief now, no more than a royal pronunciamento could avert his torment. Servants carried his putrefying body to the sulphur springs of Callirhoe, but the waters could do him no good, for the angel of death had troubled the waters of his life and soul.
He saw with distempered vision a procession of his victims, his wife, sons, and scores of subjects, with locks bedraggled of blood, and eyes looking scorn, and fingers pointing triumphant. His last day was fast approaching, when suddenly he thought of his arch enemy, his unnatural son, Antipater, who had not yet paid the penalty of his horrible iniquities. In a trice the failing king wrote out an order for his immediate execution, and five days after Antipater had joined the other victims. Herod surrendered up his soul in the seventy-second year of his miserable life, probably two years after the birth of Christ.