Before the autumn, however, a terrible end had overtaken the tyrant. Tidings reached Judæa of the triumphant return of Claudius from his expedition to Britain[851], and shows similar to those at Rome were commenced at Cæsarea, which was crowded with people from all quarters. On the second day[852] of the festival the king, clothed in magnificent robes, entered the glorious theatre[853] which his grandfather had built, and sitting down on his throne (Acts xii. 21) proceeded to give an audience to certain ambassadors from the inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon. For some reason the people of these Phœnician cities had given him offence, and through the intercession of Blastus, the royal chamberlain, they now sought a reconciliation and a renewal of friendly relations, which was a matter of no small importance, since Phœnicia, as in ancient times[854], depended on Palestine for its supplies of corn and oil (Acts xii. 20). It was early morning[855]. The sun’s rays fell upon the apparel of the king glistering with silver tissue, and the excited multitude sitting in a great semicircle, tier above tier, on the stone seats of the theatre, were dazzled with the brightness which flashed forth from the monarch’s robes. Presently he spoke, and they shouted, _It is the voice of a god and not of a man_. The king made no attempt to repress their adulation, and in the midst of this idolatrous ostentation an angel of God smote him, and he was carried out of the theatre, smitten with a terrible internal disorder, and eaten of worms[856] (Acts xii. 23). After lingering five days in excruciating agony he died in the fifty-fourth year of his age, having reigned seven years, four over part of his dominions, and three over the whole of Palestine[857], and leaving behind him one son, Agrippa, and three daughters, Drusilla, Berenice, and Mariamne[858]. PART III. THE CHURCH OF THE GENTILES. Illustration: A MAP TO ILLUSTRATE THE APOSTOLIC HISTORY. London and New York: Macmillan & Co. _Stanford’s Geographˡ Estabᵗ. London_ SECTION I. _First Missionary Tour of Paul and Barnabas._ CHAPTER I. _CYPRUS, PERGA, THE PISIDIAN ANTIOCH._ A.D. 45, 46.