Herod Clears the Caves

So the Romans lived in plenty of everything and rested from war. But Herod did not rest. He secured Idumea with two thousand foot soldiers and four hundred horsemen, sending his brother Joseph there so that nothing could be stirred up in Antigonus’s favor. He himself moved his mother and the other relatives he had brought out of Masada to Samaria, and when he had settled them safely, he set out to subdue the rest of Galilee and drive out the garrisons Antigonus had placed there.

He reached Sepphoris in a very heavy snowstorm and took the city without a struggle, for its guards fled before he could attack. There he let his followers, who had suffered badly from the winter, recover their strength, since the city had a great abundance of supplies. Then he hurried off against the robbers who lived in the caves. They overran much of the country and did its inhabitants as much harm as a war could have done. He sent three cohorts of infantry and one troop of cavalry ahead to the village of Arbela, and came himself forty days later with the rest of his forces. Yet the enemy were not frightened by his approach. They met him under arms, for they had the skill of soldiers and the boldness of robbers. When it came to a pitched battle, their right wing routed Herod’s left. But Herod quickly swung around from his own right wing to its rescue. He turned his own men back from their flight, fell on the pursuers and broke their charge, until they could not stand the attacks made straight at them, and turned and ran. [a]

Herod followed, killing them all the way to the Jordan, and destroyed a great part of them; the rest scattered across the river. So Galilee was freed from its terrors, except for those who were left hiding in the caves, and they would take longer. Therefore he first paid his soldiers the reward of their labors, giving each man a hundred and fifty drachmas of silver and their officers many times as much, and sent them off to their winter quarters. He also instructed Pheroras, the youngest of his brothers, to see to a market where they could buy their provisions, and to build a wall around Alexandrium; and Pheroras saw to both. [c]

Meanwhile Antony was staying at Athens. Ventidius sent for Silo and Herod to join the war against the Parthians, but told them first to settle the affairs of Judea. Herod gladly released Silo to go to Ventidius, and marched in person against the men in the caves. These caves were in the face of sheer mountain cliffs and could not be reached from any side, except by some very narrow paths that wound up to them. The rock face in front of them dropped straight down into deep ravines, so that for a long time the king did not know what to do, the place seemed so impossible to attack. At last he used a scheme that was full of danger. He lowered the strongest of his men in chests and set them at the mouths of the caves. They slaughtered the robbers with their families and threw fire in on those who fought back. [e]

Herod wanted to save some of them, and had a herald call on them to come out and surrender to him. Not one of them came out willingly, and of those who were forced out, many chose death rather than captivity. There one old man, the father of seven children, killed them in this way when his sons and their mother begged him to let them go out on the pledge of safety that had been offered them. He ordered them to come out one at a time, while he himself stood at the mouth of the cave, and as each son came out he cut him down. Herod was watching from where he could see it all. He was overcome at the sight, stretched out his right hand to the old man, and begged him to spare his children. But the old man did not give way at all at anything Herod said. He even taunted Herod with his low birth, and after his sons he killed his wife too. Then he threw the bodies down the cliff, and last of all threw himself down after them.

In this way Herod overcame the caves and the men in them. He left behind part of his army, as large as he thought would be enough to put down any uprising, with Ptolemy in command of it, and went back toward Samaria, leading three thousand heavy infantry and six hundred horsemen against Antigonus. Once he had gone, those who were in the habit of stirring up Galilee felt free to act. They fell on Ptolemy his general without warning and killed him, and they ravaged the country, taking refuge in the marshes and in places hard to search out. When Herod heard of the uprising, he came quickly to the rescue. He killed a great number of the rebels, took all their strongholds by siege, and exacted a hundred talents from the cities as a penalty for their revolt. [f]

By now the Parthians had been driven out and Pacorus killed, and Ventidius, on Antony’s instructions, sent Herod a thousand horsemen and two legions as allies against Antigonus. Antigonus wrote to their commander Machaeras, begging him to come to his help. He complained bitterly of Herod’s violence and promised him money. But Machaeras would not listen to the invitation to betray his trust, for he did not take lightly the man who had sent him, especially since Herod was giving him more. So he pretended friendship and went to spy out Antigonus’s affairs, though Herod tried to dissuade him and he would not be persuaded. But Antigonus saw through his purpose ahead of time. He shut the city against him and fought him off from the walls as an enemy, until Machaeras, ashamed of himself, withdrew to Herod at Emmaus. In his rage at his failure he killed every Jew he came upon, sparing none of Herod’s people, but treating them all as if they were Antigonus’s. [h]

Herod was angry at this and set out to deal with Machaeras as an enemy, but he mastered his anger and rode off to Antony to accuse Machaeras of lawless conduct. Machaeras, thinking over the wrongs he had done, quickly went after the king, and by much pleading won him back. Still, Herod did not give up his journey to Antony. When he heard that Antony was attacking Samosata, a strong city near the Euphrates, with a great army, he hurried all the more, seeing a good chance both to show his courage and to win Antony’s favor still further. And when he arrived, he brought the siege to an end. He killed many of the barbarians and carried off a great deal of plunder, so that Antony, who had long admired his courage, admired it more than ever, and added much both to his other honors and to his hopes of the kingdom; and King Antiochus was forced to surrender Samosata. [j]