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Josephus on Herod Before Octavian
In his long work, Wars of the Jews, the historian Josephus recounts how Herod,
after providing support to Mark Antony in the latter's unsuccessful struggle
against Octavius ("Caesar"), gained an audience with Octavius and
persuaded him that he could be as good a friend to him as he had been to Antony.
HEROD IS CONFIRMED IN HIS KINGDOM BY CAESAR, AND CULTIVATES A FRIENDSHIP WITH
THE EMPEROR BY MAGNIFICENT PRESENTS; WHILE CAESAR RETURNS HIS KINDNESS BY
BESTOWING ON HIM THAT PART OF HIS KINGDOM WHICH HAD BEEN TAKEN AWAY FROM IT BY
CLEOPATRA WITH THE ADDITION OF ZENODORUSS COUNTRY ALSO.
1. BUT now Herod was under immediate concern about a most important affair, on
account of his friendship with Antony, who was already overcome at Actium by
Caesar; yet he was more afraid than hurt; for Caesar did not think he had quite
undone Antony, while Herod continued his assistance to him. However, the king
resolved to expose himself to dangers: accordingly he sailed to Rhodes, where
Caesar then abode, and came to him without his diadem, and in the habit and
appearance of a private person, but in his behavior as a king. So he concealed
nothing of the truth, but spike thus before his face: "O Caesar, as I was made
king of the Jews by Antony, so do I profess that I have used my royal authority
in the best manner, and entirely for his advantage; nor will I conceal this
further, that thou hadst certainly found me in arms, and an inseparable
companion of his, had not the Arabians hindered me. However, I sent him as many
auxiliaries as I was able, and many ten thousand [cori] of corn. Nay, indeed, I
did not desert my benefactor after the bow that was given him at Actium; but I
gave him the best advice I was able, when I was no longer able to assist him in
the war; and I told him that there was but one way of recovering his affairs,
and that was to kill Cleopatra; and I promised him that, if she were once dead,
I would afford him money and walls for his security, with an army and myself to
assist him in his war against thee: but his affections for Cleopatra stopped his
ears, as did God himself also who hath bestowed the government on thee. I own
myself also to be overcome together with him; and with his last fortune I have
laid aside my diadem, and am come hither to thee, having my hopes of safety in
thy virtue; and I desire that thou wilt first consider how faithful a friend,
and not whose friend, I have been."
2. Caesar replied to him thus: "Nay, thou shalt not only be in safety, but thou
shalt be a king; and that more firmly than thou wast before; for thou art worthy
to reign over a great many subjects, by reason of the fastness of thy
friendship; and do thou endeavor to be equally constant in thy friendship to me,
upon my good success, which is what I depend upon from the generosity of thy
disposition. However, Antony hath done well in preferring Cleopatra to thee; for
by this means we have gained thee by her madness, and thus thou hast begun to be
my friend before I began to be thine; on which account Quintus Didius hath
written to me that thou sentest him assistance against the gladiators. I do
therefore assure thee that I will confirm the kingdom to thee by decree: I shall
also endeavor to do thee some further kindness hereafter, that thou mayst find
no loss in the want of Antony."
3. When Caesar had spoken such obliging things to the king, and had put the
diadem again about his head, he proclaimed what he had bestowed on him by a
decree, in which he enlarged in the commendation of the man after a magnificent
manner. Whereupon Herod obliged him to be kind to him by the presents he gave
him, and he desired him to forgive Alexander, one of Antony's friends, who was
become a supplicant to him. But Caesar's anger against him prevailed, and he
complained of the many and very great offenses the man whom he petitioned for
had been guilty of; and by that means he rejected his petition. After this
Caesar went for Egypt through Syria, when Herod received him with royal and rich
entertainments; and then did he first of all ride along with Caesar, as he was
reviewing his army about Ptolemais, and feasted him with all his friends, and
then distributed among the rest of the army what was necessary to feast them
withal. He also made a plentiful provision of water for them, when they were to
march as far as Pelusium, through a dry country, which he did also in like
manner at their return thence; nor were there any necessaries wanting to that
army. It was therefore the opinion, both of Caesar and of his soldiers, that
Herod's kingdom was too small for those generous presents he made them; for
which reason, when Caesar was come into Egypt, and Cleopatra and Antony were
dead, he did not only bestow other marks of honor upon him, but made an addition
to his kingdom, by giving him not only the country which had been taken from him
by Cleopatra, but besides that, Gadara, and Hippos, and Samaria; and moreover,
of the maritime cities, Gaza (31) and Anthedon, and Joppa, and Strato's Tower.
He also made him a present of four hundred Galls [Galatians] as a guard for his
body, which they had been to Cleopatra before. Nor did any thing so strongly
induce Caesar to make these presents as the generosity of him that received
them.
4. Moreover, after the first games at Actium, he added to his kingdom both the
region called Trachonitis, and what lay in its neighborhood, Batanea, and the
country of Auranitis; and that on the following occasion: Zenodorus, who had
hired the house of Lysanias, had all along sent robbers out of Trachonitis among
the Damascenes; who thereupon had recourse to Varro, the president of Syria, and
desired of him that he would represent the calamity they were in to Caesar. When
Caesar was acquainted with it, he sent back orders that this nest of robbers
should be destroyed. Varro therefore made an expedition against them, and
cleared the land of those men, and took it away from Zenodorus. Caesar did also
afterward bestow it on Herod, that it might not again become a receptacle for
those robbers that had come against Damascus. He also made him a procurator of
all Syria, and this on the tenth year afterward, when he came again into that
province; and this was so established, that the other procurators could not do
any thing in the administration without his advice: but when Zenodorus was dead,
Caesar bestowed on him all that land which lay between Trachonitis and Galilee.
Yet, what was still of more consequence to Herod, he was beloved by Caesar next
after Agrippa, and by Agrippa next after Caesar; whence he arrived at a very
great degree of felicity. Yet did the greatness of his soul exceed it, and the
main part of his magnanimity was extended to the promotion of piety.