Antipater's Services to Rome. During the two decades that followed the Roman conquest of Palestine, Judea was deeply affected by the great convulsions through which Rome passed in its transition from a republican to an imperial form of government. During this turbulent and dramatic era Antipater, the Idumean, remained the ruling power in Judea and profited by each change of ruler. His policy was to retain the friendship of Rome at any cost and to ally himself with the man of the hour. His chief aim was to further his own personal interests. He was influenced by no patriotic zeal or racial prejudices. At the same time he showed great skill in steering his course amidst the storms that swept the Roman world during these tempestuous years. When Pompey was defeated at the battle of Pharsalia in 49 B.C. Antipater actively allied himself with the cause of Julius Cæsar. When an army of the victor marched to the conquest of Egypt he sent Jewish auxiliaries and fought valiantly at their head, both in the siege of Pelusium and that of Memphis. He also at a critical moment influenced the Nabateans and the Jews of Egypt to ally themselves with the cause of Cæsar.

Rewards for His Services. As a reward for his services Antipater was made procurator of Judea. His elder son, Phasael was appointed governor of Jerusalem and his younger son, Herod, of Galilee. Hyrcanus was given the title of ethnarch. Joppa, which opened the trade of the Mediterranean to Judea, was added to the province. The rights of the Jews in foreign countries were also guarded by Cæsar, who always showed himself a patron and friend of the race. His assassination in 44 B.C., and the murder of Antipater by an ambitious Jewish noble one year later, did not undermine the influence of the Idumean house. Mark Antony, who was then Rome's representative in the east, at once appointed Herod and Phasael civil rulers of Judea to succeed their father.

The Parthian Conquest. In 40 B.C., however, the Parthians for a brief time pushed the boundaries of their empire westward to the Mediterranean and placed Antigonus, the son of Aristobulus, on the throne of his fathers. Phasael was treacherously put to death by the Parthians. Hyrcanus's ears were cut off and he was carried captive to Babylon, and the Sadducean nobles who rallied about Antigonus either slew or drove from the land the followers of their former Idumean rulers.

Herod Made King of the Jews. Herod, after many adventures, finally escaped to Rome, where he was given the then empty title of "King of the Jews" at the recommendation of Mark Antony and Octavius. After two years of active campaigning, Herod finally captured Jerusalem, and Antigonus, the last Maccabean king, was promptly put to death by the Romans. In 37 B.C. Herod began his reign as king of the Jews. His dominant policy, like that of his father, was loyalty at all times and at any cost to the ruling Roman faction. Notwithstanding faults, he proved a valuable servant of Rome. The kingdom over which he ruled was the natural eastern boundary of the empire. It contained many elements hostile to each other. The Jews had proved by many rebellions how little their loyalty to Rome could be trusted; and yet it was essential for the integrity of the empire that the peace and strength of this outlying province should be maintained. This task Herod was able to accomplish. Hence, when Augustus, at the battle of Actium in 31 B.C., became master of the Roman empire, he confirmed Herod in the authority which he had hitherto held. Subsequently Augustus added new territory to Herod's kingdom until, with the exception of certain Greek cities on the coast and others east of the Jordan, he ruled over all Palestine from the sea to the desert and from the foot of Mount Hermon to the wilderness in the south.

His Policy. Herod was a tyrant, merciless in putting to death all rivals. He loaded his people with heavy taxes, but he did give them much desired peace. Naturally in this Greek age the son of an Idumean father and an Arabian mother was an ardent advocate of the prevailing Hellenistic culture; yet, with occasional lapses, Herod proved also a defender of the Jewish race and religion.

His Work as a City Builder. As a builder Herod made a deep impression upon the Palestine of his age. After the battle of Actium the city of Samaria had been presented to him by Augustus. Herod transformed it into a Græco-Roman city of the most magnificent type. Its name was changed to Sebaste, the Greek for Augusta, in honor of his patron. On the top of the hill was built the huge Roman temple, the ruins of which have recently been laid bare by American excavators.[(59)] The city was encircled by a colonnade, twenty yards wide and over a mile long, with pillars sixteen feet in height. A beautiful natural theatre was built on the northern slope of the hill, overlooking the fertile plain. Splendid public buildings made it one of the glories of Herod's kingdom. He also transformed Straton's Tower on the Mediterranean coast into a Græco-Roman metropolis and named it Cæsarea,[(115)] in honor of the emperor. On a comparatively level plain rose a temple, theatre, amphitheatre, and palaces of marble. Since it was intended to be the seaport of both Samaria and Judea, a great breakwater two hundred feet wide was constructed out of huge stones. The harbor opened to the north, thus protecting ships from the prevailing southwest winds. At strategic points throughout his kingdom he fortified natural strongholds, such as the high conical hill east of Bethlehem known as the Herodium.[(86)] In Athens and in other cities outside his kingdom Herod reared magnificent public buildings.

Herod's Temple. In many ways the crowning achievement of Herod's zeal for building was the great temple which he reared in Jerusalem. The temple area was first extended to the south so that it was double its former size.[(99)] A viaduct and four gates connected it with the central and western part of the city. Two large gateways also led up from the ancient City of David on the south. The entire temple area was encircled with a double row of huge marble columns. On the south side of the court were four rows of lofty columns with Corinthian capitals. The sanctuary itself, which stood on its original site in the northern part of the temple area on a platform of native rock, was surrounded by an inner group of elaborate buildings, approached by splendid gateways on the north, east, and south. In front of the comparatively small temple structure was reared a large porch, one hundred cubits high and one hundred cubits broad, which brought it into harmony with Herod's huge constructions. The work on the temple was begun about 20 B.C. Provisions were made so that it continued uninterruptedly after Herod's death. The temple was completed only a few years before the final destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.

The Tragedies of His Family Life. The saddest chapter in Herod's tempestuous career is that of his family life. He was a man of strong and ungoverned passions, in whom intense love, jealousy, and vindictiveness played a prominent rôle. He was also the victim of the intrigues and rivalries characteristic of an oriental harem. The story of the murder of his wife, Mariamne, the Maccabean princess whom he truly loved, and of his two favorite sons, Alexander and Aristobulus, as a result of the plots of his sister, Salome, and of his treacherous son, Antipater, is one of the familiar and most tragic chapters in history. Conscious at last that his wife and sons had been innocent of the base charges which led him to murder them, betrayed by his nearest kinsmen, hated by most of his subjects, and regarded coldly by the royal patron whom he had served so slavishly, Herod the Great was the most pathetic figure in all his wide kingdom.

The Popular Hopes of the Jews. The victories and glories of the Maccabean era, followed by the double tyranny of Rome and Herod, made a profound impression upon the faith and hopes of the Jewish race. Many of them turned with loathing from the bloodshed and the selfish victories of the later Maccabean rulers to the law and the worship at the temple as their chief joy and consolation. In the minds of others these triumphs recalled the glories of the days of David and kindled anew their ambition to see a world-wide kingdom with Jerusalem as its centre and a descendant of David on the throne, who should reign, not as the corrupt, selfish Maccabean kings, but with justice and regard for the welfare of all his subjects. Others, more spiritually minded, like the author of chapters 37 to 70 of the book of Enoch, looked for The Elect One, The Anointed, The Son of Man, who would come to put an end to the reign of the wicked, to purify the earth of all evil, to gather together the faithful, and to establish a universal rule of righteousness. The more bitter the tyranny of Herod and the more galling the yoke of Rome the more ardently they hoped for the speedy realization of these expectations, which were the solace and inspiration of the great body of the Jewish nation. About 4 B.C., while at Jericho the tyrant lay dying who for a third of a century had held the Jewish race powerless in his strong grasp, a few miles away there was born one who was destined to realize, in a manner more glorious than the most enlightened of Israel's prophets had proclaimed, Jehovah's gracious purpose for mankind.