THE WARS OF THE JEWS
OR
THE HISTORY OF THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM
Book I: Chapter 21
OF THE [TEMPLE AND] CITIES THAT WERE BUILT BY HEROD
AND ERECTED FROM THE VERY FOUNDATIONS; AS ALSO OF
THOSE OTHER EDIFICES THAT WERE ERECTED BY HIM; AND
WHAT MAGNIFICENCE HE S HOWED TO FOREIGNERS; AND HOW
FORTUNE WAS IN ALL THINGS FAVORABLE TO HIM.
1.
ACCORDINGLY, in the fifteenth year of his reign, Herod
rebuilt the temple, and encompassed a piece of land
about it with a wall, which land was twice as large as
that before enclosed. The expenses he laid out upon it
were vastly large also, and the riches about it were
unspeakable. A sign of which you have in the great
cloisters that were erected about the temple, and the
citadel which was on its north side. The cloisters he
built from the foundation, but the citadel 32 he
repaired at a vast expense; nor was it other than a
royal palace, which he called Antonia, in honor of
Antony. He also built himself a palace in the Upper
city, containing two very large and most beautiful
apartments; to which the holy house itself could not
be compared [in largeness]. The one apartment he named Caesareum, and the other Agrippium, from his [two
great] friends.
2. Yet did he not preserve their memory by
particular buildings only, with their names given
them, but his generosity went as far as entire cities;
for when he had built a most beautiful wall round a
country in Samaria, twenty furlongs long, and had
brought six thousand inhabitants into it, and had
allotted to it a most fruitful piece of land, and in
the midst of this city, thus built, had erected a very
large temple to Caesar, and had laid round about it a
portion of sacred land of three furlongs and a half,
he called the city Sebaste, from Sebastus, or
Augustus, and settled the affairs of the city after a
most regular manner.
3. And when Caesar had further bestowed upon him
another additional country, he built there also a
temple of white marble, hard by the fountains of
Jordan: the place is called Panium, where is a top of
a mountain that is raised to an immense height, and at
its side, beneath, or at
its bottom, a dark cave opens itself; within which
there is a horrible precipice, that descends abruptly
to a vast depth; it contains a mighty quantity of
water, which is immovable; and when any body lets down
any thing to measure the depth of the earth beneath
the water, no length of cord is sufficient to reach
it. Now the fountains of Jordan rise at the roots of
this cavity outwardly; and, as some think, this is the
utmost origin of Jordan: but we shall speak of that
matter more accurately in our following history.
4. But the king erected other places at Jericho
also, between the citadel Cypros and the former
palace, such as were better and more useful than the
former for travelers, and named them from the same
friends of his. To say all at once, there was not any
place of his kingdom fit for the purpose that was
permitted to be without somewhat that was for Caesar’s
honor; and when he had filled his own country with
temples, he poured out the like plentiful marks of his
esteem into his province, and built many cities which
he called Cesareas.
5. And when he observed that there was a city by
the sea-side that was much decayed, (its name was
Strato’s Tower,) but that the place, by the happiness
of its situation, was capable of great improvements
from his liberality, he rebuilt it all with white
stone, and adorned it with several most splendid
palaces, wherein he especially demonstrated his
magnanimity; for the case was this, that all the
sea-shore between Dora and Joppa, in the middle,
between which this city is situated, had no good
haven, insomuch that every one that sailed from
Phoenicia for Egypt was obliged to lie in the stormy
sea, by reason of the south winds that threatened
them; which wind, if it blew but a little fresh, such
vast waves are raised, and dash upon the rocks, that
upon their retreat the sea is in a great ferment for a
long way. But the king, by the expenses he was at, and
the liberal disposal of them, overcame nature, and
built a haven larger than was the Pyrecum 33 [at
Athens]; and in the inner retirements of the water he
built other deep stations [for the ships also].
6. Now although the place where he built was
greatly opposite to his purposes, yet did he so fully
struggle with that difficulty, that the firmness of
his building could not easily be conquered by the sea;
and the beauty and ornament of the works were such, as
though he had not had
any difficulty in the operation; for when he had
measured out as large a space as we have before
mentioned, he let down stones into twenty fathom
water, the greatest part of which were fifty feet in
length, and nine in depth, and ten in breadth, and
some still larger. But when the haven was filled up to
that depth, he enlarged that wall which was thus
already extant above the sea, till it was two hundred
feet wide; one hundred of which had buildings before
it, in order to break the force of the waves, whence
it was called Procumatia, or the first breaker of the
waves; but the rest of the space was under a stone
wall that ran round it. On this wall were very large
towers, the principal and most beautiful of which was
called Drusium, from Drusus, who was son-in-law to
Caesar.
7. There were also a great number of arches, where
the mariners dwelt; and all the places before them
round about was a large valley, or walk, for a quay
[or landing-place] to those that came on shore; but
the entrance was on the north, because the north wind
was there the most gentle of all the winds. At the
mouth of the haven were on each side three great
Colossi, supported by pillars, where those Colossi
that are on your left hand as you sail into the port
are supported by a solid tower; but those on the right
hand are supported by two upright stones joined
together, which stones were larger than that tower
which was on the other side of the entrance. Now there
were continual edifices joined to the haven, which
were also themselves of white stone; and to this haven
did the narrow streets of the city lead, and were
built at equal distances one from another. And over
against the mouth of the haven, upon an elevation,
there was a temple for Caesar, which was excellent
both in beauty and largeness; and therein was a
Colossus of Caesar, not less than that of Jupiter
Olympius, which it was made to resemble. The other
Colossus of Rome was equal to that of Juno at Argos.
So he dedicated the city to the province, and the
haven to the sailors there; but the honor of the
building he ascribed to Caesar, 34 and named it
Cesarea accordingly.
8. He also built the other edifices, the
amphitheater, and theater, and market-place, in a
manner agreeable to that denomination; and appointed
games every fifth year, and called them, in like
manner, Caesar’s Games; and he first himself proposed
the largest prizes upon the hundred ninety-second
olympiad; in which not only the victors themselves,
but those that came next to them, and even those that
came in the third place,
were partakers of his royal bounty. He also rebuilt
Anthedon, a city that lay on the coast, and had been
demolished in the wars, and named it Agrippeum.
Moreover, he had so very great a kindness for his
friend Agrippa, that he had his name engraved upon
that gate which he had himself erected in the temple.
9. Herod was also a lover of his father, if any
other person ever was so; for he made a monument for
his father, even that city which he built in the
finest plain that was in his kingdom, and which had
rivers and trees in abundance, and named it
Antipatris. He also built a wall about a citadel that
lay above Jericho, and was a very strong and very fine
building, and dedicated it to his mother, and called
it Cypros. Moreover, he dedicated a tower that was at
Jerusalem, and called it by the name of his brother
Phasaelus, whose structure, largeness, and
magnificence we shall describe hereafter. He also
built another city in the valley that leads northward
from Jericho, and named it Phasaelis.
10. And as he transmitted to eternity his family
and friends, so did he not neglect a memorial for
himself, but built a fortress upon a mountain towards
Arabia, and named it from himself, Herodium 35 and he
called that hill that was of the shape of a woman’s
breast, and was sixty furlongs distant from Jerusalem,
by the same name. He also bestowed much curious art
upon it, with great ambition, and built round towers
all about the top of it, and filled up the remaining
space with the most costly palaces round about,
insomuch that not only the sight of the inner
apartments was splendid, but great wealth was laid out
on the outward walls, and partitions, and roofs also.
Besides this, he brought a mighty quantity of water
from a great distance, and at vast charges, and raised
an ascent to it of two hundred steps of the whitest
marble, for the hill was itself moderately high, and
entirely factitious. He also built other palaces about
the roots of the hill, sufficient to receive the
furniture that was put into them, with his friends
also, insomuch that, on account of its containing all
necessaries, the fortress migh
t seem to be a city,
but, by the bounds it had, a palace only.
11. And when he had built so much, he showed the
greatness of his soul to no small number of foreign
cities. He built palaces for exercise at Tripoli, and
Damascus, and Ptolemais; he built a wall about Byblus,
as also large
rooms, and cloisters, and temples, and
market-places at Berytus and Tyre, with theatres at
Sidon and Damascus. He also built aqueducts for those
Laodiceans who lived by the sea-side; and for those of
Ascalon he built baths and costly fountains, as also
cloisters round a court, that were admirable both for
their workmanship and largeness. Moreover, he
dedicated groves and meadows to some people; nay, not
a few cities there were who had lands of his donation,
as if they were parts of his own kingdom. He also
bestowed annual revenues, and those for ever also, on
the settlements for exercises, and appointed for them,
as well as for the people of Cos, that such rewards
should never be wanting. He also gave corn to all such
as wanted it, and conferred upon Rhodes large sums of
money for building ships; and this he did in many
places, and frequently also. And when Apollo’s temple
had been burnt down, he rebuilt it at his own charges,
after a better manner than it was before. What need I
speak of the presents he made to the Lycians and
Samnians? or of his great liberality through all
Ionia? and that according to every body’s wants of
them. And are not the Athenians, and Lacedemonians,
and Nicopolitans, and that Pergamus which is in Mysia,
full of donations that Herod presented them withal?
And as for that large open place belonging to Antioch
in Syria, did not he pave it with polished marble,
though it were twenty furlongs long? and this when it
was shunned by all men before, because it was full of
dirt and filthiness, when he besides adorned the same
place with a cloister of the same length.
12. It is true, a man may say, these were favors
peculiar to those particular places on which he
bestowed his benefits; but then what favors he
bestowed on the Eleans was a donation not only in
common to all Greece, but to all the habitable earth,
as far as the glory of the Olympic games reached. For
when he perceived that they were come to nothing, for
want of money, and that the only remains of ancient
Greece were in a manner gone, he not only became one
of the combatants in that return of the fifth-year
games, which in his sailing to Rome he happened to be
present at, but he settled upon them revenues of money
for perpetuity, insomuch that his memorial as a
combatant there can never fail. It would be an
infinite task if I should go over his payments of
people’s debts, or tributes, for them, as he eased the
people of Phasaelis, of Batanea, and of the small
cities about Cilicia, of those annual pensions they
before paid.
However, the fear he was in much disturbed the
greatness of his soul, lest he should be exposed to
envy, or seem to hunt after greater filings than he
ought, while he bestowed more liberal gifts upon these
cities than did their owners themselves.
13. Now Herod had a body suited to his soul, and
was ever a most excellent hunter, where he generally
had good success, by the means of his great skill in
riding horses; for in one day he caught forty wild
beasts: 36 that country breeds also bears, and the
greatest part of it is replenished with stags and wild
asses. He was also such a warrior as could not be
withstood: many men, therefore, there are who have
stood amazed at his readiness in his exercises, when
they saw him throw the javelin directly forward, and
shoot the arrow upon the mark. And then, besides these
performances of his depending on his own strength of
mind and body, fortune was also very favorable to him;
for he seldom failed of success in his wars; and when
he failed, he was not himself the occasion of such
failings, but he either vas betrayed by some, or the
rashness of his own soldiers procured his defeat.
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