Jerusalem Falls to Herod

Inside the city the mass of the Jews were in turmoil of every kind. The weaker part, crowding around the sanctuary, fell into religious frenzy and made up many oracle-like sayings to suit the crisis. Among the bolder men, bands formed and took to robbery of every sort, plundering above all the provisions around the city and leaving no food for horses or for men. The better disciplined of the fighting men were posted to defend the city against the siege. They drove the men building the earthworks back from the wall, and were always devising some new obstacle to the siege engines; but in nothing did they get the better of the enemy so much as in their tunneling. [a]

Against the robbing raids the king laid ambushes that checked their sallies, and against the shortage of supplies he arranged for provisions to be brought from far away. In the fighting he had the better of the defenders through the Romans’ experience, though they left nothing undared. They clashed openly with the Romans in the face of certain death; through their tunnels they would suddenly appear in the middle of them; and before any part of the wall was battered down, they had built another to replace it. In short, they never tired either in labor or in ingenuity, for they had made up their minds to hold out to the very end. Indeed, with so great an army encamped around them, they endured the siege for five months, until some of Herod’s picked men dared to mount the wall and broke into the city, followed by Sosius’s centurions. The area around the temple was taken first, and as the army poured in there was slaughter everywhere beyond counting. The Romans were furious at the length of the siege, and the Jews on Herod’s side were determined to leave no opponent alive. Vast numbers were butchered as they were crowded together in the narrow streets and in the houses, or as they fled to the sanctuary. There was no pity for infants or for the old, or for the weakness of women. Although the king sent word everywhere and urged them to spare the people, no one held back his hand; like madmen they fell on people of every age. Then Antigonus, with no thought for his former fortune or his present one, came down from the citadel and threw himself at Sosius’s feet. Sosius felt no pity at all for his change of fortune, but laughed at him without restraint and called him Antigona. Yet he did not treat him as a woman and let him go unguarded; Antigonus was put in chains and kept under guard. [c]

Now that Herod had his enemies under his power, his concern was to have the same control over his foreign allies. The crowd of foreigners was eager to see the temple and the holy things in the sanctuary. The king held them back, some by appeals, some by threats, and some even by force of arms, thinking victory worse than defeat if any of the things that may not be seen were seen by them. He also put a stop at once to the plundering in the city. He argued hard with Sosius, asking whether the Romans meant to empty the city of money and men and leave him king of a wilderness, and telling him that he would count even the rule of the whole world too small a price for the slaughter of so many citizens. When Sosius said it was only fair to let the soldiers plunder in return for the siege, Herod said he would pay every man his reward out of his own money. So he bought off what was left of his country and kept his promises. He gave splendid gifts to every soldier, gifts in proportion to their officers, and truly royal gifts to Sosius himself, so that no one went away in want of money. Sosius dedicated a crown of gold to God and marched away from Jerusalem, taking Antigonus in chains to Antony. Antigonus, who clung to life to the very end on a vain hope, met the axe his cowardice deserved. [f]

King Herod then sorted out the people of the city. Those who had been on his side he bound more closely to himself with honors; Antigonus’s partisans he put to death. And since money was now short, he turned all the valuables he had into coin and sent it to Antony and those around him. Even so, he could not buy complete freedom from harm. Antony was by now ruined by his passion for Cleopatra and wholly mastered by his desire. Cleopatra had worked her way through her own family until no one of her blood was left alive, and from then on she killed outsiders. She slandered the leading men of Syria to Antony and persuaded him to put them to death, so that she could easily become mistress of each man’s property. She even stretched her greed to the Jews and the Arabs, and worked in secret to have their kings, Herod and Malchus, put to death. [g]

Antony came partly to his senses about her demands. He thought it an unholy thing to kill good men and such great kings, but short of that he broke off his friendship with them. He cut away much of their territory, including the palm grove at Jericho, where the balsam grows, and gave it to her, along with all the cities this side of the river Eleutherus except Tyre and Sidon. Once she was mistress of these, she escorted Antony as far as the Euphrates on his campaign against the Parthians, and then came into Judea by way of Apamea and Damascus. There Herod soothed her ill will with great gifts, and leased from her the lands that had been torn from his kingdom for two hundred talents a year. He escorted her as far as Pelusium, paying her every attention. Not long afterward Antony arrived back from Parthia, bringing Artabazes son of Tigranes as a captive, a present for Cleopatra; for the Parthian was given to her at once, together with his money and all the plunder. [h]