CHAPTER V. _HEROD, KING OF JUDÆA._ B.C. 24–14. THUS Judæa seemed to be sinking more and more into the form of a Roman province, while Herod rivalled the other vassal kings of Rome in subservience to the master of the world. It was a saying that Cæsar assigned to him the next place in his favour to Agrippa, while Agrippa esteemed Herod higher than all his friends, except Augustus[107]. The three vied with one another in mutual courtesies, and whenever either Cæsar or Agrippa visited the Eastern provinces, the Jewish king was sure to be first to pay his homage, and to assist with his personal support and advice. In return for these attentions the Roman emperor was profuse in his concessions. When Herod sent his two elder sons by Mariamne, Alexander and Aristobulus, to Rome for their education, he received them into his palace and treated them with the utmost care and distinction[108]. Moreover, besides the large addition he had already made to Herod’s territories, he now conceded to him the district east of the Lake of Gennesaret, known as Trachonitis, with Batanæa and Auranitis, and afterwards appointed him procurator of the province of Syria, and with such authority, that his colleagues in command could take no step without his concurrence[109]. At the same time a tetrarchy was conferred on his brother Pheroras, and in memory of these concessions, Herod erected a splendid temple of white marble at Paneas, near the sources of the Jordan, and dedicated it to his benefactor[110]. But while the Jewish king was on terms of such intimate friendship with his imperial patron, his relations with his own subjects were far from satisfactory. In spite of the profuse liberality with which he had poured forth the contents of his treasury, and even parted with the silver plate of his table to satisfy their wants during a severe famine, B.C. 25, in spite also of his munificence in diminishing a third of the annual taxation, the murmurs of the populace against his rule could not be restrained. Strong as was the party which favoured his designs and approved his policy, the majority of the nation regarded with undissembled suspicion and mistrust his numerous innovations, and the introduction of foreign rites and customs. In vain he forbade any assemblages of the citizens for feasting or deliberation; in vain he kept himself informed through his spies of all who disapproved of his government, threw them into prison, and sometimes punished them with death; in vain he tried to compel all his subjects to take an oath of fidelity towards himself and his dynasty; he could not control the opposition of the powerful Pharisaic faction[111], or check the general feeling of disaffection.