(33) Death of Herod Agrippa
This should be compared with the account in Acts xii. 19-23. St. Luke differs from Josephus in representing the scene as a court of judgement, instead of a theatre.
A.D. 44
Agrippa had completed the third year of his reign over (all)[[200]] Judæa when he came to the city of Cæsarea, formerly called Strato’s Tower. There he exhibited spectacles in Cæsar’s honour, at a festival which he had instituted[[201]] to commemorate the preservation of the Emperor’s life, and a great multitude of the provincial magistrates and men of rank was assembled for the occasion.
On the second day of the performance he entered the theatre at daybreak, arrayed in a wonderfully woven robe made entirely of silver; whereupon the silver, caught by the first rays of the sun, was lit up and glittered in a marvellous manner, with dazzling flashes that struck terror and awe into the onlookers. His flatterers straightway, from one quarter and another, raised cries, which even to him seemed ill-omened, calling him a god and adding, “O be gracious! If hitherto we have feared thee as a man, from henceforth we own thee as of more than mortal nature.” The king neither rebuked them nor rejected their impious adulation; but not long after he looked up and saw the owl sitting on a rope above his head, and at once recognized the former bringer of good tidings as now the messenger of ill.[[202]] Pangs pierced his heart; a spasm of pain with violent onset shot straight to[[203]] his stomach. Leaping up[[204]] he addressed his friends: “I, your god, even now receive orders to quit this life; destiny at the instant confutes those lying voices which this moment filled my ears; I, whom you called immortal, am already being led off to die. But I must accept such fate as it has pleased God to send me; for my[[205]] life has been no ignoble one, but passed in blissful splendour.”
As he spoke these words intense pain prostrated him. He was quickly carried into the palace, and a report ran through the assembly that his death was certainly imminent. At once the multitude, including women and children, according to their national custom sat in[[206]] sackcloth and besought God for the king’s life, and the whole scene was one of wailing and lamentation. The king himself, who lay in a chamber above, as he looked down and saw them falling on their faces, could not restrain his tears. For five days he was racked continuously by abdominal pains, and so departed this life in the fifty-fourth year of his age and the seventh of his reign. He reigned |A.D. 37-40| four years under Gaius Cæsar, during three of them over Philip’s tetrarchy, while in the fourth |A.D. 40-1| he took over that of Herod[[207]] as well; and three more years |A.D. 41-44| under the Emperor Claudius Cæsar, having Judæa, Samaria and Cæsarea added to his former realm.—Ant. XIX. 8. 2 (343-351).