The Wars of the Jews; Or, The History of the Destruction of JerusalemJosephus, Flavius
Religion
The Wars of the Jews; Or, The History of the Destruction of Jerusalem
Josephus, Flavius
Jews -- History
3. But Herod's concern at present, now he had gotten his enemies under
his power, was to restrain the zeal of his foreign auxiliaries; for the
multitude of the strange people were very eager to see the temple, and
what was sacred in the holy house itself; but the king endeavored to
restrain them, partly by his exhortations, partly by his threatenings,
nay, partly by force, as thinking the victory worse than a defeat to
him, if any thing that ought not to be seen were seen by them. He also
forbade, at the same time, the spoiling of the city, asking Sosius in
the most earnest manner, whether the Romans, by thus emptying the city
of money and men, had a mind to leave him king of a desert,--and told
him that he judged the dominion of the habitable earth too small a
compensation for the slaughter of so many citizens. And when Sosius said
that it was but just to allow the soldiers this plunder as a reward for
what they suffered during the siege, Herod made answer, that he would
give every one of the soldiers a reward out of his own money. So he
purchased the deliverance of his country, and performed his promises to
them, and made presents after a magnificent manner to each soldier,
and proportionably to their commanders, and with a most royal bounty
to Sosius himself, whereby nobody went away but in a wealthy condition.
Hereupon Sosius dedicated a crown of gold to God, and then went away
from Jerusalem, leading Antigonus away in bonds to Antony; then did the
axe bring him to his end, 27 who still had a fond desire of life, and
some frigid hopes of it to the last, but by his cowardly behavior well
deserved to die by it.
4. Hereupon king Herod distinguished the multitude that was in the city;
and for those that were of his side, he made them still more his friends
by the honors he conferred on them; but for those of Antigonus's party,
he slew them; and as his money ran low, he turned all the ornaments he
had into money, and sent it to Antony, and to those about him. Yet could
he not hereby purchase an exemption from all sufferings; for Antony was
now bewitched by his love to Cleopatra, and was entirely conquered by
her charms. Now Cleopatra had put to death all her kindred, till no
one near her in blood remained alive, and after that she fell a slaying
those no way related to her. So she calumniated the principal men among
the Syrians to Antony, and persuaded him to have them slain, that so she
might easily gain to be mistress of what they had; nay, she extended her
avaricious humor to the Jews and Arabians, and secretly labored to have
Herod and Malichus, the kings of both those nations, slain by his order.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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