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BUT now Herod was under immediate concern about a most important
affair, on account of his friendship with Antony, who was already overcome
at Actium by Caesar; yet he was more afraid than hurt; for Caesar did not
think he had quite undone Antony, while Herod continued his assistance
to him. However, the king resolved to expose himself to dangers: accordingly
he sailed to Rhodes, where Caesar then abode, and came to him without his
diadem, and in the habit and appearance of a private person, but in his
behavior as a king. So he concealed nothing of the truth, but spike thus
before his face: "O Caesar, as I was made king of the Jews by Antony,
so do I profess that I have used my royal authority in the best manner,
and entirely for his advantage; nor will I conceal this further, that thou
hadst certainly found me in arms, and an inseparable companion of his,
had not the Arabians hindered me. However, I sent him as many auxiliaries
as I was able, and many ten thousand [cori] of corn. Nay, indeed, I did
not desert my benefactor after the bow that was given him at Actium; but
I gave him the best advice I was able, when I was no longer able to assist
him in the war; and I told him that there was but one way of recovering
his affairs, and that was to kill Cleopatra; and I promised him that, if
she were once dead, I would afford him money and walls for his security,
with an army and myself to assist him in his war against thee: but his
affections for Cleopatra stopped his ears, as did God himself also who
hath bestowed the government on thee. I own myself also to be overcome
together with him; and with his last fortune I have laid aside my diadem,
and am come hither to thee, having my hopes of safety in thy virtue; and
I desire that thou wilt first consider how faithful a friend, and not whose
friend, I have been."
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Caesar replied to him thus: "Nay, thou shalt not only be in
safety, but thou shalt be a king; and that more firmly than thou wast before;
for thou art worthy to reign over a great many subjects, by reason of the
fastness of thy friendship; and do thou endeavor to be equally constant
in thy friendship to me, upon my good success, which is what I depend upon
from the generosity of thy disposition. However, Antony hath done well
in preferring Cleopatra to thee; for by this means we have gained thee
by her madness, and thus thou hast begun to be my friend before I began
to be thine; on which account Quintus Didius hath written to me that thou
sentest him assistance against the gladiators. I do therefore assure thee
that I will confirm the kingdom to thee by decree: I shall also endeavor
to do thee some further kindness hereafter, that thou mayst find no loss
in the want of Antony."
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When Caesar had spoken such obliging things to the king, and had
put the diadem again about his head, he proclaimed what he had bestowed
on him by a decree, in which he enlarged in the commendation of the man
after a magnificent manner. Whereupon Herod obliged him to be kind to him
by the presents he gave him, and he desired him to forgive Alexander, one
of Antony's friends, who was become a supplicant to him. But Caesar's anger
against him prevailed, and he complained of the many and very great offenses
the man whom he petitioned for had been guilty of; and by that means he
rejected his petition. After this Caesar went for Egypt through Syria,
when Herod received him with royal and rich entertainments; and then did
he first of all ride along with Caesar, as he was reviewing his army about
Ptolemais, and feasted him with all his friends, and then distributed among
the rest of the army what was necessary to feast them withal. He also made
a plentiful provision of water for them, when they were to march as far
as Pelusium, through a dry country, which he did also in like manner at
their return thence; nor were there any necessaries wanting to that army.
It was therefore the opinion, both of Caesar and of his soldiers, that
Herod's kingdom was too small for those generous presents he made them;
for which reason, when Caesar was come into Egypt, and Cleopatra and Antony
were dead, he did not only bestow other marks of honor upon him, but made
an addition to his kingdom, by giving him not only the country which had
been taken from him by Cleopatra, but besides that, Gadara, and Hippos,
and Samaria; and moreover, of the maritime cities, Gaza
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and Anthedon, and Joppa, and Strato's Tower. He also made him a present
of four hundred Galls [Galatians] as a guard for his body, which they had
been to Cleopatra before. Nor did any thing so strongly induce Caesar to
make these presents as the generosity of him that received them.
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Moreover, after the first games at Actium, he added to his kingdom
both the region called Trachonitis, and what lay in its neighborhood, Batanea,
and the country of Auranitis; and that on the following occasion: Zenodorus,
who had hired the house of Lysanias, had all along sent robbers out of
Trachonitis among the Damascenes; who thereupon had recourse to Varro,
the president of Syria, and desired of him that he would represent the
calamity they were in to Caesar. When Caesar was acquainted with it, he
sent back orders that this nest of robbers should be destroyed. Varro therefore
made an expedition against them, and cleared the land of those men, and
took it away from Zenodorus. Caesar did also afterward bestow it on Herod,
that it might not again become a receptacle for those robbers that had
come against Damascus. He also made him a procurator of all Syria, and
this on the tenth year afterward, when he came again into that province;
and this was so established, that the other procurators could not do any
thing in the administration without his advice: but when Zenodorus was
dead, Caesar bestowed on him all that land which lay between Trachonitis
and Galilee. Yet, what was still of more consequence to Herod, he was beloved
by Caesar next after Agrippa, and by Agrippa next after Caesar; whence
he arrived at a very great degree of felicity. Yet did the greatness of
his soul exceed it, and the main part of his magnanimity was extended to
the promotion of piety.