But during his absence fresh symptoms of disaffection appeared amongst his subjects. Of all his numerous innovations, none had irritated the Jews more than the placing of a large golden eagle, the emblem of Roman power, over the principal gate of the Temple. Two of the most learned rabbis, Judas and Matthias, resolved to have it removed. Accordingly they instigated some daring and fanatical youths to take down the offensive symbol. Emboldened by a sudden rumour of the death of Herod, the young men lowered themselves by ropes from the roof, and cut away the eagle with hatchets. They could never have hoped to execute so daring a deed with impunity, and being apprehended and brought before Herod, boldly avowed their guilt, and gloried in the success of the feat. Dissembling his anger, the king assembled the chiefs of the nation at Jericho, and reproaching them bitterly for their ingratitude after all the favours he had bestowed upon them, ordered the instigators of the deed to be burned alive[132]. In the meantime his disorder had made rapid progress. A slow fire seemed to consume his vital parts. His appetite became ravenous, but he dared not gratify it on account of dreadful pains and internal ulcers, which preyed on the lower parts of his body. Moreover his breathing became difficult, and violent spasms convulsed his frame, and imparted supernatural strength to his limbs[133]. But in spite of these accumulated sufferings he still clung to life, and cherishing hopes of recovery caused himself to be conveyed across the Jordan to Callirrhoë[134], hoping to obtain relief from its warm bituminous baths. Arrived there, the physicians advised that he should be fomented with warm oil. For this purpose, he was lowered into a vessel filled with that fluid, when his eyes relaxed, and he suddenly fell back as if dead. Roused, however, by the cries of his physicians, he revived, and was conveyed back to Jericho, where, as if defying death, he devised a new atrocity. Knowing the joy his death would cause, he gave instructions that the men of distinction from every town in Judæa should be assembled in the hippodrome, and secretly confided to Salome his pleasure that they should be butchered immediately upon his decease, that thus his funeral might at least be signalized by a real mourning.