New Cities and Parthian Kings

When Quirinius had now sold off Archelaus’s property, and the census was finished, which was carried out in the thirty-seventh year after Caesar’s victory over Antony at Actium, he removed Joazar, against whom the multitude had risen in revolt, from the high priesthood, and appointed Ananus, the son of Seth, to be high priest. Meanwhile Herod and Philip had each received his own tetrarchy and settled its affairs. Herod built a wall around Sepphoris, the showpiece of all Galilee, and named it Autocratoris. He also built a wall around Betharamphtha, which was itself a city as well, and called it Julias, after the name of the emperor’s wife. Philip too built Paneas, a city at the springs of the Jordan, and named it Caesarea. He also raised the village of Bethsaida, on the Lake of Gennesaret, to the rank of a city, both by the number of inhabitants it held and by its other grandeur, and called it Julias, the same name as Caesar’s daughter. [a] While Coponius, who we said was sent along with Quirinius, was governing Judea, the following events took place. When the Jews were celebrating the feast of unleavened bread, which we call the Passover, it was the custom for the priests to open the temple gates just after midnight. So when the gates were first opened, some Samaritans came secretly into Jerusalem and began scattering human bones in the colonnades and throughout the whole temple. Because of this the Jews afterward shut them out of the temple, which had not been their custom at such festivals, and for other reasons too they guarded the temple more carefully than they had before. A little after this incident Coponius returned to Rome, and Marcus Ambivius became his successor in that office. Under him Salome, King Herod’s sister, died, and left to Julia Jamnia with all its district, and Phasaelis in the plain, and Archelais, where there is a great plantation of palm trees whose fruit is excellent of its kind. After him came Annius Rufus, under whom Caesar died, the second emperor of the Romans. He reigned fifty-seven years, besides six months and two days (of which time Antony ruled together with him for fourteen years), and he lived seventy-seven years. On his death Tiberius Nero, the son of his wife Julia, succeeded him. He was now the third emperor, and he sent Valerius Gratus to be prefect of Judea and to succeed Annius Rufus. This man removed Ananus from the high priesthood and appointed Ishmael, the son of Phabi, to be high priest. He removed him too a little later, and appointed Eleazar, the son of Ananus the former high priest, to be high priest. When Eleazar had held the office for a year, Gratus took it from him and gave the high priesthood to Simon, the son of Camithus; and when Simon had held that rank no longer than a year, Joseph Caiaphas was made his successor. When Gratus had done these things, he went back to Rome, after staying in Judea eleven years, and Pontius Pilate came as his successor. [f] Now Herod the tetrarch, who stood high in the favor of Tiberius, built a city named after him, and called it Tiberias. He built it in the best part of Galilee, on the Lake of Gennesaret. There are hot baths a short distance from it, in a village named Ammathus. A mixed crowd settled in this city, and a great number of the inhabitants were Galileans as well. Many were compelled by Herod to come there out of the country under his rule and were forced to live in it, and some of them were people of rank. He also admitted poor people, gathered from all parts, to live there. Some of them were not even fully free, and to these he was a benefactor, setting them free in great numbers; but he bound them not to leave the city, by building them very good houses at his own expense and by giving them land as well. For he knew that to make this place a settlement was to break the ancient laws of the Jews, because many tombs had to be removed here to make room for the city of Tiberias, whereas our laws declare that those who live in such a place are unclean for seven days. [m]

About this time Phraates, king of the Parthians, died through the treachery of his son Phraataces, in the following way. Phraates had legitimate sons of his own, but he also had an Italian slave girl named Thermusa, who had once been sent to him by Julius Caesar among other gifts. He first made her his concubine; but since he greatly admired her beauty, when in time he had a son by her, named Phraataces, he made her his lawful wife and held her in great honor. She was able to persuade him to do anything she said, and she was eager to secure the throne of Parthia for her son; but she saw that her efforts would not succeed unless she could find a way to remove Phraates’s legitimate sons. So she persuaded him to send those sons of his to Rome as hostages; and they were sent to Rome accordingly, because it was not easy for him to refuse her commands. Now while Phraataces alone was being brought up to succeed to the throne, he thought it very tedious to wait for the kingdom as his father’s gift. So he formed a treacherous plot against his father with his mother’s help, and, as the report went, he had sexual relations with her as well. He was hated for both these crimes, since his subjects thought this love for his mother no less wicked than the murder of his father; and in an uprising he was driven out of the country by them before he grew too powerful, and he died. But the best of the Parthians agreed that it was impossible for them to be governed without a king, and the king must be of the family of Arsaces, since no others may lawfully rule; and the kingdom had been insulted often enough already by the marriage with the Italian concubine and by her offspring. So they sent ambassadors and summoned Orodes, a man otherwise hated by the multitude and charged with excessive cruelty, for he was very harsh and quick to anger; but he was one of the family. However, they formed a conspiracy against him and killed him, some say at a feast, over the wine and at table (for it is the universal custom there to carry swords), but, as the more general report has it, when they had drawn him out hunting. So they sent ambassadors to Rome and asked the Romans to send them one of those who were there as hostages to be their king. Accordingly Vonones was preferred to the rest and sent to them; for he seemed fit for so great a fortune, which two of the greatest kingdoms under the sun were now offering him, his own and a foreign one. But the barbarians soon changed their minds, being by nature fickle, supposing that this man was not worthy to rule them. They could not bear the thought of obeying the commands of one who had been a slave (for so they called those who had been hostages), nor could they bear the disgrace of that name; and this was all the harder to bear because the Parthians would then have such a king set over them, not by right of war but, what was worse still, as an insult in time of peace. So they at once invited Artabanus, king of Media, to be their king, since he too was of the race of Arsaces. Artabanus accepted the offer made to him and came to them with an army. Vonones met him, and at first the multitude of the Parthians stood on his side, and he drew up his army for battle; and Artabanus was beaten and fled to the borders of Media. Yet a little later he gathered a great army, fought with Vonones, and beat him; and Vonones fled on horseback, with a few of his attendants around him, to Seleucia. When Artabanus had made a great slaughter in the rout, to strike terror into the barbarians, he withdrew to Ctesiphon with a great number of his people, and so he now reigned over the Parthians. But Vonones fled to Armenia, and as soon as he arrived he wanted the government of that country given to him, and sent ambassadors to Rome. But Tiberius refused him, because of his lack of courage and because of the threats of the Parthian king, who sent ambassadors in turn threatening war. And since he had no way to gain any other kingdom (for the men of authority among the Armenians around Niphates had joined Artabanus), he gave himself up to Silanus, the governor of Syria. Out of regard for his upbringing at Rome, he was kept under guard in Syria, while Artabanus gave Armenia to Orodes, one of his own sons. [o] At this time Antiochus, the king of Commagene, died. At this the multitude quarreled with the nobility, and both sent ambassadors to Rome; for the men of power wanted their form of government changed into that of a province, while the multitude wanted to be under kings, as their fathers had been. So the senate decreed that Germanicus should be sent to settle the affairs of the East, fortune taking this as a fitting opportunity to deprive him of his life. For when he had been in the East and settled all affairs there, his life was taken by the poison that Piso gave him, as has been related elsewhere. [s]