A.D. 2.

THE LORD ADORED BY THE MAGI.

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the least among the princes of Judah, for out of thee shall come a babe who shall rule my people Israel." Then Herod having privily called the wise men, enquired of them carefully the time of the star which had appeared to them. And sending them to Bethlehem, he said, "Go ye and enquire diligently about the young child, and when ye have found him bring me word, that I may go and worship him also." But he said this treacherously, wishing to kill him, because he was to be the king of the seed of David, who might be able to get possession of his kingdom.

Then the wise men, coming to the cradle of Christ, found him with Mary his mother, and falling down they worshipped him, and opening their treasures they offered him gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And when the duty of their devotion had been wisely discharged, they omitted to return to Herod; on which account the king was alarmed with more suspicion, and adopting a wicked counsel, he sent and slew all the children who were in Bethlehem, from two years old and under, hoping that among the boys of the same age, he should slay the child Jesus. For he had learnt that the star had arisen on the day in which the Lord was born, and according to the rising of the star, he knew that Jesus was a year old, and a few days over; and therefore he let loose his fury upon the children of two years old and under, down to the infant who was only one night old. But Joseph, having been warned by the voice of an angel, took the child and his mother and fled into Egypt on the second of February, and remained there till the death of Herod. In reference to which it is said that as when the children of Israel departed from Egypt, there was not one house in Egypt in which, by the contrivance of God, there was not some one lying dead, so now there was not a temple in Egypt in which an idol had not fallen down.

Some say that it was on the thirteenth day after his birth, that the Lord was adored by the Magi, and that the star had appeared to them a considerable time before Christ was born, and that so they were able to come from a distance, or perhaps they travelled over a wide extent of country, sitting on dromedaries. But the account given by Josephus, appears to contradict this opinion. For he says that Herod was summoned by letter by Cæsar Augustus, to go to Rome to answer the accusations of his sons, whom I have spoken of above; and

that he took Alexander, his son, with him to Rome, and accused him before Cæsar of having prepared poison for him. And as he was travelling through Sicily, hearing that the ships of the people of Tarshish had conveyed the Magi, he, being vehemently enraged, burnt the ships of Tarshish, so that the prophecy of the Psalmist was fulfilled, "In an angry spirit," &c.

But when he had pleaded his cause against his sons, before Cæsar, a reconciliation was made up between them, on these conditions, that the young men should obey their father in all matters, and that he himself should leave his kingdom to whoever he chose. And when he came to Jerusalem he convened the people, and relating the peace that had been made between them by Cæsar, he declared that he would appoint an heir. Thus being more firmly established in his kingdom than before, he ordered the children to be put to death; the greater part of whom are buried at the third milestone from Bethlehem, on the southern road. Chrysostom says that the star appeared during the year before the Nativity of the Lord, and that Herod believed that the Lord had been born at that time, and therefore he thought that the Lord was two years old with the addition of a few days; and therefore he slew all the children of two years old and upwards, up to five years, but none less than two years old; and he speaks below of the age of two years according to his calculation of the number. For as from a calculation of the time, those who are younger than two years old are inferior to those who are born after them, so by calculation of number, those who are more than two years old are inferior to them, because they are reckoned after them. And it appears, to prove this assertion, that some bones of the Innocents are considered so large that they cannot belong to children who were but two years old. But it may said to this, that men at that time were far taller and larger than of late. This year also was Bissextile, consisting of three hundred and sixty-six days, and it was called Bissextile, because the sixth of the calends of March was reckoned twice.

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A.D. 3. By the cunning of the before-mentioned Antipater, Alexander and Aristobulus were a second time rendered objects of suspicion to Herod; and on this account the father wrote to Augustus and accused his sons of many crimes. Cæsar therefore sent Saturninus and Piarius, his lieutenants, with a rescript,

A.D. 3.

HEROD PUTS HIS SONS TO DEATH.

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that they should bring the two young men before a council of the nobles which they should convoke, and try the sons, and that Herod should do what he pleased with them if he could convict them. But when both sides had been heard, the lieutenants pronounced that they deserved to be condemned, but not to death. Then their father threw them into prison at Sebaste, and ordered their accomplices to be put to the torture, in order that, by their confession, he might learn if his sons were contriving anything against his life. And one of them confessed that he had had great promises made to him by Alexander, if he would give his father poison. And his barber confessed that great gifts had been promised him if, while he was trimming their father's beard, he would cut his throat. He added also, that Alexander had said that there was no hope to be placed in an old man who dyed his hair in order to seem young.

Herod, being influenced by these things, sent javelin men, and ordered his sons to be put to death, and to be carried to Alexandria, and to be buried there, with Alexander, his maternal grandfather. Then Herod made a will, and appointed Antipater to be king after him, and Herod who was surnamed Antipas, to govern in the place of Antipater; but Antipater incurred intolerable hatred from the people, as every one knew that he had heaped calumnies on his brothers and fellow subjects; and on this account, his father regarded him with an unfavourable eye. Besides this, Antipater was displeased with his father, because he had substituted his brother for him, and shown that he was unwilling that the kingdom of Antipater should come to his children. He had another and still more influential cause of dislike towards his father. For he cherished with paternal affection the youthful children of those sons whom he had slain, joining them to other grandchildren of his in matrimony. For, according to Josephus, there were little children left by Aristobulus, namely, Herod Agrippa, who slew James with the sword, and Herodias, whom Herod Antipas afterwards took away from his brother Philip. Antipater, therefore, was afraid that, some time or other, Herod would restore the kingdom to his brother's youthful children, because he was related to them on the mother's side. also excited Feroras to a frantic hatred of Herod, to such a degree, that Feroras left his father, and settled in the land which had been granted to him on the other side of Jordan.

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But Antipater himself, with even the consent of his father, when he had devised some opportunity for doing so, went to Rome, and procured a very efficacious poison from a certain female poisoner of Arabia, and gave it to the wife of Feroras, that while he himself was absent, it might be given to his father by a servant whom he himself had bribed for the purpose. But while Antipater was absent at Rome, Feroras died, and Herod received information about the poison which was thus stored up in the care of the wife of Feroras, from a handmaid who left her mistress in a passion. Accordingly, having summoned his brother's widow, he orders her to bring him the poison. She having left the palace as if for the purpose of getting it, threw herself down a height, but being brought half dead to the king, she said, "When your brother and my husband died, he said to me, O wife bring hither the poison that Antipater left us, and burn it in the fire before my eyes, in order that I may not carry with me to the shades below, a conscience which will be the avenger of my fratricide. But I threw a great portion of it into the fire, but kept back a small part for my own use in any doubtful circumstances, because I was afraid of you." But when she had given him the box she died.

And as he had received many other proofs that Antipater was labouring to effect his father's death, Herod recalled him suddenly, and repudiated his mother. And when he had publicly accused his son of parricide, in the presence of Varus, the governor of Syria, who had come to Jerusalem at that time, he threw him into prison at Jericho. And when the father sought for the accomplices of his son, in order to slay them all together with his son by exquisite punishments, he was hindered by a violent attack of illness.

The same year John the Evangelist was born.

A.D. 4. Cæsar Augustus was passing the forty-fifth year of his reign. At which time there were two sophists in Jerusalem, whom not a few of the young men used to follow when they expounded the law. It seemed a good opportunity to them while Herod was seen to throw down the golden eagle which the king had set up contrary to the laws of his country over the principal gate of the temple. And when it was thrown down, the king being very angry, got the better of his disease by the violence of his anger, and proceeding to the public assem

A.D. 7. HEROD'S MESSENGERS RETURN FROM ROME. 125

bly, endeavoured to revenge the insult upon all the people of Jerusalem. But, yielding to the entreaties of the people, he revenged himself on the authors of the action only. Accor dingly he took those who had been let down with ropes, to cut the eagle to pieces, and burnt them alive with the two sophists. After this he was afflicted with various distempers. For he had no slight fever, and an intolerable itching over the whole surface of his body; he was harassed incessantly with the pains of the cholic, his feet were swollen with dropsy, rottenness in his members was breeding worms; his panting for breath was incessant, he was constantly giving vent to broken sobs, which were referred by all people to the vengeance of God. He crossed the Jordan at Calirope, where he took the warm baths, and as the physicians had recommended the bathing his body with warm oil, he was placed in a vessel full of it, and relaxed to such a degree that he even rolled his eyes in a powerless manner, like a dead man. But then, when the bystanders raised a shout, he with some difficulty was brought to look up again.

A.D. 5. Cymbeline, the king who had reigned over Britain, begot two sons, namely, Guiderius and Arviragus, of whom Guiderius was the elder; and when his father died, as is stated below, he succeeded to the helm of the kingdom, and governed the people who became his subjects in joy and peace.

About this time, Herod sent ambassadors to Rome, and brought many accusations against his son Antipater.

A.D. 6. Herod returning to Jericho, as he had heard that the Jews had shown great joy at the news of his expected death, ordered all the youths of noble birth in Judæa to be collected and shut up in the hippodrome, that is to say, in the prison of the Circus, giving a charge to his sister Salome, that when he expired she should immediately put them to death, so that ali Judæa might mourn at his death as well as during his life. This year also was a Bissextile year.

A.D. 7. The messengers whom Herod had sent to Rome returned, and brought a letter from Cæsar, to the effect that he might send Antipater into banishment, or, if he preferred it, might condemn him to death; and he was a little reinvigorated by the messengers; but afterwards he asked for an apple, (a fruit that he was very fond of eating) and also for a knife to cut it with; and as on a sudden he was shaken by a violent cough,