relieved Massada, and was only prevented by the treachery of Silo, who commanded some Roman auxiliaries from forming the immediate siege of Jerusalem. While he was making all necessary preparations for this great event, he was also exerting himself in a variety of minor actions with his characteristic and restless energy. He not only took the city of Sepphoris, and recovered the provinces of Galilee and Idumæa, but he employed himself in totally exterminating the numerous banditti, whose ravages diffused desolation and terror over the country. These wretches hid themselves from the pursuit of the soldiers, in caverns on the face of perpendicular rocks. Herod adopted the following mode of reaching them. Large chests were filled with soldiers and let down the face of the rocks by iron chains; some of the banditti were killed with the sword; and combustible matter being placed at the mouths of the caverns, the whole of the robbers were either suffocated by the smoke, or consumed in the flames. Josephus relates an anecdote of one of these men, sufficiently illustrative of their desperate character. He says that an aged man being concealed in one of these caverns, his wife and seven sons who were with him, entreated him, to surrender with them, that their lives might be spared. The stern old man, however, stationed in the mouth of the cavern, stabbed them one by one as they attempted to pass by him, cast their dead bodies down the precipice, and after grossly insulting Herod, who was within hearing, and who was making him signs of forgiveness, he effected his own destruction.

What princess in this interval did Herod marry?

In this interval Herod celebrated his nuptials with Mariamne, the daughter of Alexander the son of king Aristobulus, and the grand-daughter of Hyrcanus the highpriest-a lady of fascinating loveliness, and of the most extraordinary mental endowments; whose life was as eventful as her death was tragical.

How did Herod obtain possession of Jerusalem?

A. C, 37.

The siege of Jerusalem was seriously undertaken; and the vast number of Roman troops, amounting to eleven legions, which united,

under the command of Sosius, with the army of Herod, left no reasonable doubt of the ultimate issue of the contest. The Jews defended themselves with obsti-. nate desperation, and their utmost animosity was excited against an army of idolaters, headed by an abhorred Idumæan usurper. After five months' uninterrupted exertion on the part of Herod, the lower inclosure of the city was taken; and Antigonus and the besieged confined themselves within the higher walls and the temple. At length the signal was given for a general assault; the troops of Sosius and of Herod emulated each other in mounting the walls; all opposition was ineffectual; the Romans burst sword in hand into the city; their cruelty spared nothing that was living, and their impiety profaned every thing that was sacred; the very sanctuary was in danger of being polluted; Herod interposed; he upbraided Sosius with the impolicy and barbarity of leaving him the monarch of bare walls; and by a liberal donative from his own treasures, he satisfied the avidity of the Roman soldiery, arrested the progress of their devastations, and saved the city and the temple from total destruction. The unhappy Antigonus was carried away by Sosius in chains; he was taken to Antioch; and by the command of Antony, and for the gratification of Herod, he was put to an ignominious death which had never before been inflicted upon a king.

SECTION II.

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE AUTHORITY OF HEROD.

RELATE some of the sanguinary proceedings of Herod after he obtained possession of Jerusalem.

THE actions of Herod at the commencement of his reign, gave a fearful pledge of the scenes of horror and of blood which were to follow. He destroyed all the members of the Sanhedrim except Sameas and Pollio, who during the siege had represented to the Jews the hopelessness of resistance; he put to death forty-five

of the principal adherents of Antigonus, and confiscated their estates; and he enriched himself by seizing whatever treasures he could find in Jerusalem, without condescendiug to regard the claims, or to listen to the representations of the owners. It was necessary immediately to fill the office of high-priest, Herod not being of a sacerdotal race was totally disqualified for the assumption of this office himself; and Hyrcanus, though he had returned from Parthia, to Jerusalem, was equally disqualified on account of the mutilation of his person; Ananel, therefore, a Babylonian Jew, whose merit was questionable, although of the family of Aaron, was placed in the pontifical chair to the general dissatisfaction of the people, and even of the royal family. Aristobulus, the brother of Marianme, a young man seventeen years of age, had an equitable claim upon this office, as the last of the Asmonean line. The intrigues of the queen mother, and perhaps the influence of Mariamne, induced Herod to depose Ananel, and to place Aristobulus in his place. The feast of tabernacles arrived; 'Aristobulus officiated before the people in his pontifical ornaments; the beauty of his person, the majesty of his mien, the mingled solemnity and grace of his manner, revived among the countless spectators their reverence for his royal ancestors, their recollection of his right to the regal as well as the sacerdotal dignity, and the whole city was filled with his praises. The jealous tyrant heard, united in the general applause, but secretly determined that Aristobulus should die. The king and the high-priest went to Jericho to partake of a sumptuous entertainment given by Alexandra, the queen mother, the weather was hot, Aristobulus was bathing, he was drowned by the hired myrmidons of Herod, and from that hour, the tyrant never enjoyed domestic confidence and peace. Although Herod professed to be innocent of this atrocious murder, yet neither his household nor his people, could have any doubt that the whole was performed by his instigation. Alexandra was the friend of the celebrated and infamous Cleopatra, whose meretricious influence over the unfortunate Mark Antony was then at its height. Herod was summoned to appear before Antony at Laodicea; he was compelled to obey.

Describe the conduct of Herod relative to his queen Mariamne.

The conduct of Herod before he departed to appear before Antony, relative to his wife, the beautiful Mariamne, will exhibit the hateful selfishness, jealousy, and cruelty of his disposition. He commanded his brother Joseph whom he left governor behind him, to put Mariamne to death if he was condemned to die, being unable to bear the idea of her being exposed to the brutal licentiousness of Antony. While he was absent, the incautious Joseph, in order to prove the sincerity of the king's affection, most incautiously acquainted Mariamne with the secret orders he had received. The queen, shocked at the inhuman jealousy of Herod, conceived for him a detestation which she never afterwards could overcome. Mariamne had excited the malignant hatred of Salome, the sister of Herod, by some insulting reflections upon the baseness of her origin, and the irritated woman vowed a signal revenge. When Herod returned triumphant from Laodicea, Salome accused the queen of improper intimacy with Joseph, in his absence. The injustice of this foul imputation and her own perfect innocence, Mariamne easily established on her first interview with the king. But while he was describing to her his intense and absorbing affection, she interrupted him by asking, if the orders which he had left behind him with his uncle were any proof of his love. Such was the tempest of rage which this taunt excited in the mind of the furious monarch, that he would have slain Mariamne upon the spot with his own hand, if her beauty had not still retained its influence over his passions. But Joseph was put to death, and Alexandra, whom Herod suspected to be the cause of all the mischief, was thrown into a dungeon with every mark of ignominy and contempt.

A. C, 34.

After this tragical event in what transactions was Herod engaged?

Soon after this tragical event, Herod was exposed to the most imminent danger. The detestable paramour of Antony, returning from the Euphrates, whither she had accompanied her infatuated dupe, visited Herod

on her way to Egypt. She had obtained from Antony a grant of the pleasant and productive territory of Jericho, so renowned for its healing balsam, and she troubled Herod with her unwelcome presence in Jerusalem. Having rejected her licentious overtures, he was sensible that her most deadly resentment was excited against him, and that she would leave no art unemployed to effect his destruction. That destruction she would probably have achieved, if Antony had not been completely engaged in preparing for his mighty contest with Octavius Cæsar for the possession of the Roman world. Herod, as it was, was so sensible of his danger, that he prepared the fortress of Massada for his refuge, and placed in it arms and provisions for a garrison sufficient to ensure his safety. During the war which was terminated by the battle of Actium and the irretrievable defeat and miserable death of Antony, Herod was engaged in a contest with Malchus a king in Arabia. The shame of his defeat was aggravated by the calamities of his people. A tremendous earthquake shook the whole country of Judæa; the edifices were shattered, the cattle were destroyed, and many thousand persons perished beneath the ruins of their houses. The sufferings of the survivors were however mitigated by the care of the government, and the insolent Arabs received two such decisive and bloody defeats, that they were compelled to sue for peace, to acknowledge the supremacy of the conqueror, and to submit to the terms which he imposed.

What measures did Herod adopt to secure the favour of Octavius Cæsar after the battle of Actium? and what dreadful act of cruelty did he perpetrate at the same period?

The victory of Octavius Cæsar involved all the partizans of Antony in danger; and Herod, who had always zealously maintained the cause of that unfortunate triumvir, found it necessary to adopt the most prudent and vigorous measures to secure himself in the possession of his kingdom and his throne. He determined to repair in person to Rhodes, where Octavius was then arranging the affairs of his empire, and from his own mouth to receive the sentence of his establish