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oath, he plundered the temple of all its wealth, to the amount of £2,000,000 of our money, or ten thousand talents.*

On the death of Crassus, at the battle of Carrhæ,† the command of the routed remains of the Roman army devolved upon Cassius, who retreated with it into Syria; and, having recovered Tyre, laid siege to Tarichæa, a city on the lake of Gennesareth, where Pitholaus, with the remaining partisans of Aristobulus, had shut themselves up. Having taken the place, Cassius made all the garrison captives, except Pitholaus, whom he put to death by the advice of Antipater; and afterwards forced Alexander to accept of terms of peace.+

The jealousies between Pompey and Julius Cæsar having at length involved the whole Roman empire in a civil war ; one of the first acts of the latter, on coming to Rome, was to liberate Aristobulus from his confinement, and placing two legions under his command, to send him home to Jerusalem, with instructions to raise Syria, Phoenicia, and Arabia in favour of the Cæsarean interest. Some of Pompey's partisans, however, contrived to poison him on his march; and his son Alexander having raised some forces in expectation of his father's arrival, he was arrested by Q. Metellus Scipio, and being carried to Antioch, and condemned by a formal trial, was beheaded by the orders of Pompey.§

The next public transaction in which the Jews bore a conspicuous part was when Cæsar, having imprudently followed Pompey after the battle of Pharsalia, into Egypt, with too small a number of forces, became shut up in Alexandria, and

Prid. ii. 539.

He was repeatedly misled by pretended deserters from the enemy, who at last conducted him into bogs and morasses, where both he and his army were cut to pieces; for being justly destined to destruction on account of his impious sacrilege at Jerusalem, God cast infatuations into all his counsels.

+ Prid. ii. 544.

Prid. ii. 543. § Prid. ii. 549.

found himself in danger of being overpowered by the Egyptians in the interest of Ptolemy, Cæsar having formed an illicit connexion with, and, therefore, favouring the interests of, his sister Cleopatra. Having dispatched Mithridates, one of the sons of Orodes, king of Parthia, to collect and bring him succours from Syria, and the neighbouring provinces, he was furnished by Antipater and Hyrcanus with a large auxiliary force of Jews, the former marching at their head and displaying great prowess throughout the Alexandrian war, besides rendering the additional service of inducing the Jews who inhabited the city of Onion to declare in favour of Cæsar. In return for these services, before Cæsar quitted Egypt, he confirmed the Jews in the enjoyment of all their ancient privileges in Alexandria; and ordered a pillar to be erected, whereon, as well the privileges themselves, as his decree confirming them, were inscribed.§

Nor was this all the advantage which Antipater derived from his Egyptian expedition, for Cæsar having at length left Alexandria in order to resist the inroads of Pharnaces, king of Pontus, in passing through Syria; he was applied to by Antigonus, the surviving son of Aristobulus, who besought him to adopt the interests of his family, urging as a claim that both his father and brother had lost their lives in his cause; making, at the same time, heavy complaints against

Prid. ii. 557.

In a temple, called the Serapeum, at Alexandria, Ptolemy Soter and his successors collected and deposited a famous library. And another in a museum or college in a particular part of the same city, called Bruchium. During this war, the library at Bruchium, with four hundred thousand volumes, was accidentally burned; as was the Serapeum, with its subsequent valuable addition, by the Saracens, (A. D. 642.) upon the ground that the Coran alone was necessary for mankind. Prid. ii. 33. 35. See p. 357.

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both Antipater and Hyrcanus. The interest of the former, however, was so great, and such his influence over the Roman commander, and so necessary was he become to the Romans, that he not only refused to listen to the representations of Antigonus, but confirmed Hyrcanus in the office of high priest and the principality of Judea, to him and his family in perpetuity, appointing Antipater, at the same time, to be procurator of Judea under him; and directed that his decree should be engraven in tables of brass and Latin, and be hung up in the capitol of Rome, and in the temples of Tyre, Sidon, and Askalon, in Phoenicia.*

By virtue of this decree, Antipater settled the civil government of Judea under Hyrcanus, in the same manner as it had been previous to the ordinances of Gabinius, all of which he abolished, and appointed Phasælus, his own eldest son, governor of Jerusalem, and Herod, his second son, governor of Galilee.†

One of the first acts of the latter prince, who was then in the vigour of youth, was to suppress a gang of banditti who invested and ravaged Galilee and the neighbouring parts; and having taken Hezekiah, their ringleader, with several of their associates, he put them all to death, and thus attracted the notice and favour of Sextus Cæsar, the president of the province.+

Those, however, who envied the growing greatness of Antipater and his family, represented this transaction to Hyrcanus as a violation of the laws by putting the above mentioned depredators to death without a legal trial, and induced him to summon the young governor before the Sanhedrim. Herod appearing there clothed in purple, and surrounded by his guards, neither Hyrcanus nor any other member of the Sanhedrim durst accuse him, except Sameas, who not only

♦ Prid. ii. 565.

+ Prid. ii. 568.

Prid. ii. 569.

charged him with a violation of the law, but boldly reproved him for appearing before the court in a way that was calculated to overawe their sentence and pervert the course of justice. Nor was this all, for this intrepid man also reproached Hyrcanus and his brethren for their pusillanimity, in allowing themselves to be thus intimidated; and forewarned them, that though they now spared Herod, the time was not far off when he would not spare them; but that the just judgment of God should, by his hands, be executed upon them. Hyrcanus, however, did all he could to obtain the acquittal of Herod, influenced as well by his personal regard for the youth, as by a threatening letter he had received from Sextus Cæsar. But the rest of the court being roused by the address of Sameas, Hyrcanus perceived he could not obtain an acquittal for his favourite; and therefore to avoid the disgrace of a condemnation, adjourned the court till the next day, and in the mean time assisted Herod to fly, during the night, to Damascus, where he placed himself under the protection of Sextus Cæsar.*

Having given that general a sum of money, he obtained from him the government of Cole-Syria, and collecting another army he marched into Judea, with the avowed intention of deposing Hyrcanus, and destroying the whole Sanhedrim; but from the commission of these enormities he was prevented by the interposition of his father, Antipater, and his elder brother, Phasael.+

In a sort of civil feud which took place between the Roman generals, Sextus Cæsar and Antistius Vetus, on the one hand, on the part of Cæsar, and Cæcilius Bassus on the other, a general of the Pompeian faction, Antipater and his sons sided with the former, and rendered them considerable services.+

* Prid. ii. 569.

+ Prid. ii. 569.

Prid. ii, 571.

In this feud Sextus Cæsar was assassinated, and Statius Murcus was appointed by Cæsar to succeed him in the presidency.*

In the fifth consulate of Julius Cæsar, Hyrcanus applied to him for permission to restore the walls of Jerusalem, which had been pulled down by Pompey; and this request the dictator readily granted, in consideration of the services he had rendered both in Egypt and Syria. A decree having accordingly been passed at Rome for the purpose, Antipater set about the work, and the fortifications of the city were restored as in former times.†

After the assassination of Cæsart by the hands of the

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"Cæsar was a very extraordinary person, of great parts, polite literature, and thorough abilities in all the arts of war and civil government, and of equal diligence and application in the use and pursuit of both. However, many of his enterprises being entered upon with great rashness, this abundantly proves that he owed the success which he had in them, only to an overruling power of providence on his side: which having set him up as a fit instrument for the work which he brought to pass, carried him through all dangers and hazards, to the full accomplishing of it; and after that, when there was no more for him to do, cast him off to perish like a rod, which is thrown into the fire when no more to be used. The work was God's; but it being malice and ambition that excited him to be the instrument in the execution of it, he justly had for the reward thereof that destruction by which he fell. Having found, in two or three of his attempts, the hand of providence with him, he afterward, presuming hereon, often ventured on very hazardous undertakings, without having any other prospect of succeeding in them, than from the confidence which he had in that which he called his good fortune. And he never failed in any of them; for he fought fifty battles without missing of success, unless at Pharus, where he swam for his life, and once at Dyrrachium. And in these battles he is said to have slain one million one hundred and ninety-two thousand men; which sufficiently proves him to have

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