On his death-bed, Herod, considering that the extreme hatred the people had for him would prevent them from lamenting his loss, and that his death would no doubt cause much rejoicing in the land, was determined even in his last moments to be wicked and cruel. To effect this, he convened a meeting of all the principal Jews, from all parts of the kingdom, on pain of death, to appear at Jericho where he then lay. He ordered them all to be shut up prisoners, and then commanded his sister Salome and her husband, his chief confidants, that they should have them all put to the sword by the soldiery, for this, said he, "will provide mourners for my funeral all over the land." Herod died, but his orders were not attended to, for Salome, although wicked, hesitated to commit so horrid a deed as the murder of so many innocent persons, and therefore as soon as Herod was dead, she released all the prisoners. At Herod's death, his son Archelaus succeeded him in the government of Judea, nearly ten years, during which time he was guilty of many acts of cruelty and tyranny, for which he was ultimately deposed by the Roman emperor, and banished to an obscure place in France. The Romans being so displeased with the evil practices and bad government of Archelaus, they reduced Judea to a Roman province, to be ruled by a Roman procurator or governor, who was sent thither and removed therefrom at pleasure. It was now that the power of life and death was taken out of the hands of the Jews, and placed in that of the Roman governor; and from that time all taxes were gathered by the publicans, and paid directly to the Roman emperor. This new regulation very much annoyed the people; for the Pharisees, and all those under their influence, considering it unlawful to acknowledge a heathen for their king or governor, looked upon their tax-gatherers with greater detestation than any of those kings or governors of former days, appointed to rule over them, and who were of their own nation or religion. True, Herod was an Idumean by birth, yet all the Idumeans having embraced the Jewish religion, he was so far counted a lawful governor, that the people did not scruple to pay him their taxes. The Romans followed the plan adopted by Herod in the appointment of the high priests, and the removing of them as often as they pleased, to answer their own purposes.