756 
Herod. {0 him, he would put the queen to death. . Joseph dis~ 
‘-y~—" closed the secret to Mariamne, who, indignant at this 
savage proof of his affection for her, conceived from 
that moment a deep and settled aversion to her hus- 
band. Upon his return, some hints were thrown out 
_ respecting Joseph’s familiarity with Mariamne during 
his absence. These suspicions he communicated toy his 
wife, who immediately recriminated, and upbraided 
‘him. with his. cruel order. concerning her. His fury 
‘then became unbounded. He put Joseph to death for 
betraying the secret confided to him, and threw his 
-mother-in-law Alexandra, into prison. About this time 
he received a visit from Cleopatra, who is said to have 
. entertained amorous inclinations towards him. These, 
however, Herod did not. gratify, but endeavoured to 
glut her avarice with profuse donations. 
In the war which broke out between Antony’and 
Octavius, Herod levied an army for the support of the 
former ; but’ was obliged first to encounter Malchus, 
king of Arabia, whom ‘he defeated and compelled to 
sue for peace. After the decisive battle of Actium, his 
. great object was to make terms with the conqueror ; 
.and, as a preliminary step, he put to death Hyrcan, 
the only surviving male of the Asmodean family. » Ha- 
ving taken this precaution to secure himself, he em- 
barked for Rhodes, and appeared before Augustus:in 
_all the ornaments of soyaliy excepting his diadem. 
With all the appearance of noble and ingenuous confi- 
dence, he related the faithful services he had perform- 
ed for his benefactor Antony, and hinted that he was 
-ready to transfer his gratitude and ‘allegiance to a new 
patron, from whom he should hold his crown and king- 
dom. Augustus was struck with the apparent magna- 
nimity of this defence of his former conduct, and re- 
placed the diadem on the head of Herod, who conti- 
vnued to be the most favoured of his tributary sove- 
reigns. 
But the good fortune which Herod experienced, as a 
prince, was poisoned by domestic broils, and particu- 
larly by the insuperable aversion of his wife Mariamne, 
whom at length he brought to trial, convicted; and ex- 
ecuted, She submitted to her fate with all the intre- 
pidity of conscious innocence, and -was sufficiently 
avenged by the dreadful remorse of her husband, whose 
peace of mind was for ever afterwards destroyed. In 
vain did he endeavour to banish her mi by scenes 
_of dissipation and cruelty: the charms of his ‘beloved 
Mariamne haunted him wherever he went; and he 
would frequently call aloud upon her name, as if will- 
ing to forget that she was no longer among the living. 
At times he would fly from the sight of men ; and on 
‘his return from solitude, which was ill suited to-a mind 
stricken with the consciousness of eas he became more - 
i 
brutal and ferocious than ever, and in his fits of phrenzy 
spared neither friends nor foes. ' Alexandra, who had al- 
ways exhibited the utmost malignity towards her daugh- 
ter, fell the unpitied victim of his rage. At length he 
appears ta haverecovered some portion of self-possession, 
and employed himself in projects of regal magnificence. 
He built at Jerusalem a magnificent theatre and amphi- 
theatre ; in which he caused games to be:celebrated in 
honour of Augustus; to the great displeasure of the 
zealous Jews, who ‘discovered Gentile profanation in 
the theatrical omaments and ‘spectacles. > These, and 
other offensive acts, excited a most serious ‘conspiracy 
against him, which he, fortunately for himself, disco- 
vered, and exercised the most brutal revenge on all the 
parties ‘concerned in it. He next built Samaria, which 
HERO D. A398 
~ 
he named Sebaste, and adorned with the most sump- 
tuous edifices ;. and for his security, he erected several 
fortresses throughout the whole:of Judea, of which the ~~ 
principal was called Cesarea, in honour of the. “ 
At the dedication of this last new. city, herdi ed 
such profuse magni , that us said, ‘ his soul 
was;too great for his kingdom.” The same taste for 
sumptuous magnificence was exhibited in his palaces, 
on which he lavished the most costly materials and 
workmanship. To supply the place of his lost Ma- 
viamne, he married another wife of the same name, the 
beautiful daughter of a priest, whom he: raised to the 
high rank of the pontificate. » His two sons 
by the first Mariamne he sent to be educated at Rome, 
and so ae. epee himself with Augustus: and his: mix 
nisters, that he was appointed imperial procurator :for 
Syria. 
about a yearand.a half, in a noble st TE aR 
During ‘the of this work iy visited. , and 
ther’s person and 
victed, and It was in reference to this trans« 
action that Augustus is to have said, that «it 
was better to be Hered’s hog than his son.” ; 
In the thirty-third year of his reign, occurred the 
memorable event of the birth of our Saviour ; upon 
which occasion, according to the Gospel:of St Matthew, 
the jealousy of Herod was so highly excited by the pro« 
phetic intimations of the future of the Messiah, 
that he slaughtered all the infants in Bethlehem, in hopes 
of destroying him:among the number. About this time 
Antipater returning from Rome, was arrested by his fa- 
ther’s orders, and accused of treasonable practices. ‘He 
wasfound guilty of conspiring against the life of the king, 
This and other calamities, combined with a guilty con- 
science preying upon a broken constitution, threw the 
wretched monarch into a loathsome and mortal disease, 
which has been represented by historians as a just ju 
ment of heaven forthe many foul past a Cs ieces 
of which he had been guilty. In truth, his ap- 
to increase as he approached the termination ‘of 
is career. A premature report of his death caused:a 
tumult in Jerusalem ; and those who had been impru- 
dently concerned in it,:»were immediately’ seized, and 
put to death, by order of the dying king. He also 
caused his son Antipater to’be slain in prison, and his 
remains to be treated with every species of insult and 
ignominy. Even on his death-bed, he had planned a 
scene of more atrocious cruelty than he had ever devised 
or attempted at any former period of his life. He sum- 
moned the most considerable. persons among the Jews 
to Jericho, and caused them to be shut up in the hip- 
podrome, or circus, and gave strict orders to have'them 
all , as soon .as he should have we pra 
« This,” said he, * will provide for my funeral all over 
the land, and\make family in the kingdom la« 
ment my death.” | Fortunately, however, this savage ore 
der was not executed by those to whom it was en« 
yes expired in th ighth of h 
Herod expired in the sixty-ei year is age, 
and the thirty-fourth of his reign. He bequeathed hi: 
kingdom to his son Archelaus, and left tetrarchies to his 
two other sons. The character of this monarch exhibits 
3. 
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