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[487]
This destruction befell the city of Jerusalem when Marcus Agrippa
and Caninius Gallus were consuls of Rome 1
on the hundred eighty and fifth olympiad, on the third month, on the solemnity
of the fast, as if a periodical revolution of calamities had returned since
that which befell the Jews under Pompey; for the Jews were taken by him
on the same day, and this was after twenty-seven years' time. So when Sosius
had dedicated a crown of gold to God, he marched away from Jerusalem, and
carried Antigonus with him in bonds to Antony; but Herod was afraid lest
Antigonus should be kept in prison [only] by Antony, and that when he was
carried to Rome by him, he might get his cause to be heard by the senate,
and might demonstrate, as he was himself of the royal blood, and Herod
but a private man, that therefore it belonged to his sons however to have
the kingdom, on account of the family they were of, in case he had himself
offended the Romans by what he had done. Out of Herod's fear of this it
was that he, by giving Antony a great deal of money, endeavored to persuade
him to have Antigonus slain, which if it were once done, he should be free
from that fear. And thus did the government of the Asamoneans cease, a
hundred twenty and six years after it was first set up. This family was
a splendid and an illustrious one, both on account of the nobility of their
stock, and of the dignity of the high priesthood, as also for the glorious
actions their ancestors had performed for our nation; but these men lost
the government by their dissensions one with another, and it came to Herod,
the son of Antipater, who was of no more than a vulgar family, and of no
eminent extraction, but one that was subject to other kings. And this is
what history tells us was the end of the Asamonean family.
1 Note here, that Josephus fully and frequently assures us that there passed above three years between Herod's first obtaining the kingdom at Rome, and his second obtaining it upon the taking of Jerusalem and death of Antigonus. The present history of this interval twice mentions the army going into winter quarters, which perhaps belonged to two several winters, ch. 15. sect. 3, 4; and though Josephus says nothing how long they lay in those quarters, yet does he give such an account of the long and studied delays of Ventidius, Silo, and Macheras, who were to see Herod settled in his new kingdom, but seem not to have had sufficient forces for that purpose, and were for certain all corrupted by Antigonus to make the longest delays possible, and gives us such particular accounts of the many great actions of Herod during the same interval, as fairly imply that interval, before Herod went to Samosata, to have been very considerable. However, what is wanting in Josephus, is fully supplied by Moses Chorenensis, the Arme nian historian, in his history of that interval, B. II ch. 18., where he directly assures us that Tigranes, then king of Armenia, and the principal manager of this Parthian war, reigned two years after Herod was made king at Rome, and yet Antony did not hear of his death, in that very neighborhood, at Samosata, till he was come thither to besiege it; after which Herod brought him an army, which was three hundred and forty miles' march, and through a difficult country, full of enemies also, and joined with him in the siege of Samosata till that city was taken; then Herod and Sosins marched back with their large armies the same number of three hundred and forty miles; and when, in a little time, they sat down to besiege Jerusalem, they were not able to take it but by a siege of five months. All which put together, fully supplies what is wanting in Josephus, and secures the entire chronology of these times beyond contradiction.
Flavius Josephus. The Works of Flavius Josephus. Translated by. William Whiston, A.M. Auburn and Buffalo. John E. Beardsley. 1895.
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