Augustus himself having visited Syria the ensuing year, when he arrived at Antioch, found Zenodorus with the Gadarenes, who were come to renew their complaints against Herod, charging him with tyranny, violence, and rapine, and sacrilege in plundering and violating temples. They succeeded so far as that Augustus sent for Herod to make his defence; in which the former exhibited so much leniency towards the latter, that his accusers destroyed themselves during the night; Zenodorus taking poison, and the Gadarenes either cutting their own throats, or casting themselves down from the rocks into the sea. Augustus conceiving from these occurrences that the accusations were false, and to make Herod amends for the trouble and anxiety they had occasioned him, invested him with the tetrarchy of the provinces formerly under Zenodorus; and for greater honour joined him in the commission with the president of Syria, ordaining that nothing should be done without his knowledge and advice. Besides which, having given Pheroras, a brother of Herod's, an independent tetrarchy, Herod erected a sumptuous temple to his honour, near the mountain Paneas, at the foot of which Jordan takes its rise, of beautiful white marble; by which idolatrous flattery, and his other compliances with the pagan rites, he still further alienated the regards of all such Jews as had any respect for the purity of their religion. †

When Augustus retired out of Syria, Herod attended him to the sea shore; but upon his return to Jerusalem, he found that many of his subjects were deeply offended by his culpable compliances with the idolatrous practices of the Greeks and Romans; and although he pleaded the doctrine of expediency, as eloquently as the Duke of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel, he found it impossible to restrain the discontents of the people,

It is more than probable Herod caused them to be assassinated.

except, like the above political tergiversators, by prohibiting all meetings at feasts and clubs, and all numerous assemblies, and planting his spies in all directions. And so low did the jealous tyrant condescend to stoop, that he often went out himself in disguise, and acted the police officer in his own defence. As a measure of security, he attempted to impose an oath of fidelity on all his subjects; but Hillel and Shammai, and their partisans amongst the Pharisees, and all the Essenes, positively refusing to take it, he was compelled to abandon his object.*

In the nineteenth year of his reign, Herod having finished his buildings at Sebaste, and nearly completed those at Cæsarea, formed the design of rebuilding the temple at Jerusalem, which had been erected by Ezra, and had received much damage in the various wars which had taken place since its erection.† But the Jews were so jealous of the tyrant's real intentions, that he did not venture to take down the old temple, till he had actually collected all the materials necessary for the construction of a new one, which occupied two whole years, employing for that purpose one thousand waggons, ten thousand artificers, and one thousand priests, skilful in the appropriate architecture.+

The materials having been collected, Herod took down the Nehemiahan temple to the very foundations, and began the

*Prid. ii. 711.

The temple built after the return of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity fell much short of that of Solomon's in the height, magnificence, and other particulars; and five hundred years having elapsed since its erection, several decays had happened to it, both by the length of time and also by the violence of enemies. For the temple, by reason of its situation, being the strongest part of Jerusalem, whenever the inhabitants were pressed by war, they always made their last refuge thither; and whenever they did so, some of its building suffered by it. Prid. ii. 713.

Prid. ii. 713.

new erection, just forty-six years before the first passover of our blessed Lord's personal ministry.*

Herod wishing to pay his respects to Augustus, at Rome, and to see his own sons whom he had sent there for education, set sail for Italy, and passing through Greece, was present at the one hundred and ninety-first Olympiad,+ wherein he presided. Perceiving that the shows had sunk much in point of magnificence, through the poverty of the Elians, he settled a constant revenue for their support; and he was in consequence nominated a president for life.§

Augustus received him with great hospitality and regard, and Herod finding the education of his sons completed, took them back with him into Judea, where he soon after married Alexander to Glaphyra, the daughter of Archelaus, king of Cappadocia, and Aristobulus to Berenice, the daughter of Salome, his own sister. These young men soon became great favourites with the Jews, and consequently excited the suspicion and malice of old Salome, although one of them had married her own daughter.||

In about a year and a half, the holy of holies and the more sacred parts of the new temple were ready for the performance of public worship.¶

Prid. ii. 714. John, ii. 20.

+ See p. 452.

The Grecian mode of reckoning time: an Olympiad being a circle of four years. This way of reckoning was brought in by Iphitus, taking its rise from the Olympic games, which were instituted by Pelops, and celebrated every fifth year, for five days together, in the plains of Elis, near the city of Olympia, in honour of Jupiter Olympus, by five kinds of exercises, viz.—leaping, running, wrestling, quoiting, and whorl-bats. The first Olympiad began A. M. 3174. By presiding at these games, Herod branded himself as a favourer of idolatry and an apostate from Jehovah.

§ Prid. ii. 715.

Agrippa having arrived in Proper Asia, Herod went thither to invite him to come into Judea, whither Herod accompanied him, and entertained him and his attendants with great magnificence; and having taken him a tour to Sebaste, Cæsarea, Alexandrium, Herodium, Hyrcania, and his other new built cities and castles, finally conducted him to Jerusalem. On approaching that quondam habitation of holiness, he was met at some distance by all the people in their festival apparel, and conducted into the city in a solemn procession and with loud acclamations. Whilst there, he offered an entire hecatomb of oxen in the temple, and feasted all the people, and soon after sailed back again into Ionia.†

Agrippa having involved himself in a war with the inhabitants of the Cimmerian Bosphorus, and being in some difficulties for want of supplies and military stores, Herod hastened to his assistance with a fleet and army, and arriving at Sinope in Pontus at a very critical juncture, established himself in the favour of the Roman commander. Agrippa having with this relief succeeded in subduing the Bosphorans, and settled Polemon on the throne, returned to Ephesus in

*Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa was a faithful servant of Octavius; a man of low birth, but who had great talents for war and for a court. Hooke, vi. 280. He was beyond dispute the first man of his age, great in peace and great in war; qualified to hold the first rank in a republic, he held the second under Augustus, whose sonin-law, colleague, and intended successor, he became merely by dint of his own merit. Crevier, i. 147. M. Agrippa, virtutis nobillissimæ, labore, vigilia, periculo invictus, parendique, sed uni, scientissimus, aliis sanè imperandi cupidus, et per omnia extra dilationes positus, consultisque facta conjungens. Vell. Paterc. 103. † Prid. ii. 716. Crevier, i. 137.

See an interesting account of a petition from the Jews, to be relieved against some of their public burthens, argued before Agrippa, and seconded by Herod. Jos. ii. 381. 383.

Jonia, whither Herod accompanied him; and during the journey, obtained from him many favours in behalf of several of the inhabitants of the countries through which he passed, who made use of his mediation. Amongst others, on his arrival in Ionia, the descendants of the Babylonish Jews whom Antiochus the Great had planted in Phrygia, Lydia, and other provinces, and who had spread themselves throughout Lesser Asia and the Isles, had been much distressed, and were then suffering from the oppressions, first of the Syrians, and afterwards of the Romans. These having applied to Herod, he so effectually interceded with Agrippa, that he procured a redress of their grievances, and a restoration of all their privileges, and especially the liberty of exercising and enjoying their own religion.

Upon his return to Jerusalem, Herod assembled the people and related to them his successes, and the relief he had obtained for the Jews of Lesser Asia, and then remitted to them one quarter of their taxes, and thus obtained great popularity.†

Herod, however, was not doomed to experience tranquillity long together, for his sons, Alexander and Aristobulus, had not lived at home with their father more than three years, when they fell under his displeasure, in consequence of occasionally expressing resentment at their mother's death, and throwing out threats against the authors of it. Salome and Pheroras were well aware against whom those threats were pointed, and therefore began immediately to lay plots for the ruin of the young princes. Opportunities were easily supplied by such designing characters to excite and inflame the incautious youths, and all their rash expressions were regularly conveyed to Herod, and we may be certain not without some embellishments. The tyrant soon took the alarm, and amongst

* Prid. ii. 717. Crevier, i. 137.

+ Prid. ii. 718.