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[253]
Now when that festival which we call Pentecost was at hand, all the
places about the temple, and the whole city, was full of a multitude of
people that were come out of the country, and which were the greatest part
of them armed also, at which time Phasaelus guarded the wall, and Herod,
with a few, guarded the royal palace; and when he made an assault upon
his enemies, as they were out of their ranks, on the north quarter of the
city, he slew a very great number of them, and put them all to flight;
and some of them he shut up within the city, and others within the outward
rampart. In the mean time, Antigonus desired that Pacorus might be admitted
to be a reconciler between them; and Phasaelus was prevailed upon to admit
the Parthian into the city with five hundred horse, and to treat him in
an hospitable manner, who pretended that he came to quell the tumult, but
in reality he came to assist Antigonus; however, he laid a plot for Phasaelus,
and persuaded him to go as an ambassador to Barzapharnes, in order to put
an end to the war, although Herod was very earnest with him to the contrary,
and exhorted him to kill the plotter, but not expose himself to the snares
he had laid for him, because the barbarians are naturally perfidious. However,
Pacorus went out and took Hyrcanus with him, that he might be the less
suspected; he also 1
left some of the horsemen, called the Freemen, with Herod, and conducted
Phasaelus with the rest.
1 These accounts, both here and Antiq. B. XIV. ch. 13. sect. 5, that the Parthians fought chiefly on horseback, and that only some few of their soldiers were free-men, perfectly agree with Trogus Pompeius, in Justin, B. XLI. 2, 3, as Dean Aldrich well observes on this place.
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