[Sidenote: Jos. Ant. XV, 11:5k, 6] Herod himself took charge of the work upon the colonnades and outer enclosures; these he built in eight years. But the temple itself was built by the priest in a year and five months. Thereupon all the people were filled with joy and returned thanks, in the first place to God for the speed with which it was finished, and in the second place for the zeal which the king had shown. They feasted and celebrated this rebuilding of the temple; the king sacrificed three hundred oxen to God, as did the others, each according to his ability. The time of this celebration of the work about the temple also fell upon the day of the king's inauguration, which the people customarily observed as a festival. The coincidence of these anniversaries made the festival most notable. I. Herod's Motives. It is not difficult to appreciate the reasons which influenced Herod to begin the rebuilding of the temple. Chief among these was doubtless the desire to win still further the approval of his master Augustus. It is also a characteristic of a man of Herod's type to seek to gain popular approval by the munificence of his public gifts. Throughout his reign he was painfully aware of the suspicions of his Jewish subjects. He trusted, and the event proved the wisdom of his judgment, that he might conciliate them by giving them that about which their interest most naturally gathered. The methods which he employed in building the temple clearly indicate that this was one of his leading motives. He also gratified that love of construction which had found expression in many of the cities of Palestine and the eastern Mediterranean. He desired to rear a great memorial for himself, and in this hope he was not disappointed, for later generations continued to think of him with gratitude because of the temple which bore his name.