confirmed that monarch's will. His children returned to Judea and took possession of their several inheritances. The sons of Herod, imitating their father, marked their reign by architectural improvements, founding some cities and embellishing others.

Archela'us drew on himself general hatred by his tyranny and by contempt for the national laws and customs. An appeal was made to Rome, and he was banished (A. D. 6 of the common era). His state was reduced to a Roman province, incorporated with Syria and administered by a Roman, called a procurator. Copo'nius, a Roman knight, was sent into Judea as its governor. At the same time, P. Sulpi'cius Quiri'nus, who had just been appointed Proconsul of Syria, was commanded by the emperor to take a general census of Judea. This census, or numbering of the people, with a valuation of their property, with a view to the imposition of taxes, had been ordered a short time before the death of Herod, but the attempt being resisted by the patriotic party, its execution was postponed, and now, for the first time, took place. It was not passively acquiesced in even at present. Judas the Gaulonite, and the Pharisee Zadok, excited the people to resistance, on the ground that the Jewish law forbad the recognition of any other sovereign but God, and that Jews ought to perish rather than acknowledge a human power. The revolt was, for the time, put down (Acts v. 37; Joseph. Antiq. xviii. 1, 6, xx. 5, 2; Jew. War, ii. 8, 1); but it contained those elements of thought and passion which led to the final struggle with the Romans, and therein to the overthrow of the Jewish state.

Coponius governed Judea for three or four years. When Tiberius succeeded (A. D. 14) Augustus on the imperial throne, he sent into Judea, Vale'rius Gratus, who held the administration for the space of eleven years. Exercising the supreme power of his master, he was more free than his predecessors in appointing and setting aside high-priests.

During this time the two tetrarchs, Antipas and Philip, enjoyed unbroken peace, and finished the construction and embellishment of their new cities. During a journey which Herod Antipas made to Rome, he seduced the affections of Herodias, the wife of his half-brother Herod Philip, and in order to enjoy the fruits of his guilt, he put away his own wife, daughter of the Arabian king, Hareth, or Aretas. Reproved for this misdeed by John, who bore the surname of Baptist, he, at the request of his wicked paramour, caused that righteous man to be beheaded (Matt. xiv. 3-11; Mark vi. 17-28; Lukc iii. 19, 20; Joseph. Antiq. xviii. 5, 2).

In Judea, Pontius Pilate succeeded (A.D. 25) Gratus. His conduct occasioned discontent and tumults. Under the veil of night, he introduced into Jerusalem Roman ensigns, bearing, as was customary, the image of the emperor. This act the Jews regarded as a profanation of their sacred places. Irritated by

the insult, they hurried to Cesare'a, the Roman capital of the country, to demand the withdrawal of the offensive objects. Their urgency proved successful. Fresh aggressions, however, brought new complaints, till at length Vitellius, governor-general of Syria, was induced to supersede Pilate, whom he ordered to repair to Rome, in order to answer for his misdeeds to the emperor. Before Pilate reached the capital of the world, its master, Tiberius, was dead (A. D. 37). By Caligula, his successor, however, the unjust judge was banished to Vienna, in Gaul, where, at a later period, he put an end to his days.

It was during Pilate's government that there took place in Jerusalem that event on which depends the character of the whole of subsequent history. Jesus Christ was crucified (30 A.D.) by the authority of that governor. Solicitous as Pilate appears to have been for the acquittal of Jesus, in whom he found nothing worthy of death, yet must he bear the blame of that legal crime; for as the Jews at that time had no sovereign of their own, and Jude'a was in all respects a Roman province, so did the power of life and death, or what the Romans termed jus gladii, right of the sword,' belong exclusively to Pontius Pilate, the representative of the emperor of Rome.

Pilate was succeeded by Marcellus, and Vitellius, coming to Jerusalem, showed to its inhabitants great favour. Tiberius had for his successor Cali'gula, by whose grace there rose to the throne of Judea one under whom the nation was for a short time before its ruin to enjoy the shadow of independence. We allude to Herod Agrippa, grandson of Herod the Great. From a prison, where, after a variety of bad fortune, he had been placed by Tiberius, he was liberated by Caligula, who gave him, together with the title of king, the territories of his uncle Philip (37 A.D.), which were (39 A.D.) enlarged by the addition of those of his brother Antipas, whom, under Agrippa's accusations, Caligula sent into exile at Lyons, in Gaul.

The new king (A.D. 41), little as he had to recommend him in his character and history, soon found means of acquiring the esteem and gratitude of his subjects, by employing the influence he had with the emperor in order to turn aside a storm which, but for his intervention, would probably have hastened the great catastrophe. The insane and cruel Caligula, having the silly desire of being adored as a god, wished to have his statue set up in the temple at Jerusalem, and gave order to Petronius, who had been appointed governor of Syria in place of Vite'llius, to make war against the Jews if they withstood the accomplishment of his purpose. The Jews of Ålexandria and of all Egypt were exposed to the most painful persecutions, carried on against them by the Greek inhabitants. King Agrippa himself, after his elevation to the throne, had, in passing through Alexandria on his way into Palestine, been grievously insulted by the Greek

populace. The influence of Agrippa had scarcely delivered the Jews of Egypt from the tyranny of the governor, Flaccus, when the Greeks excited against them new persecutions, charging them with refusing marks of respect to the statue of the emperor, which they would not receive into their synagogues. A deputation of Alexandrian Jews, having at their head the celebrated Philo, who spent his life in a vain effort to bring Moses into accordance with philosophy, proceeded to Rome, in order to entreat the emperor to put an end to their sufferings. Cali'gula scarcely deigned to grant an audience. In Palestine, the Jews assumed a firm and threatening attitude, which threw the governor, Petronius, into perplexity. At length he wrote to the emperor, begging him to revoke his command. During this time, Agrippa, who had returned to Rome for his own pleasures, had more and more gained on the good graces of Caligula. Informed of the state of things in Palestine, he one day entertained the emperor at a sumptuous banquet, when, in the midst of the carousals, he found a way to prevail with the new divinity, who gave up his claim to be worshipped in the temple at Jerusalem.

When the tyrant Caligula perished (A.D. 41), under the blows of the assassin, Judea became more tranquil. His successor, Clau'dius, being aided to his crown by Agrippa, added to the dominions of the latter, Samaria, Judea, A'bila of Lysa'nias, and a district of Lebanon. Having thus become sovereign of all Palestine, Agrippa proceeded to Jerusalem (A.D. 42), where in a short time he published a decree he had obtained from Claudius, which secured to the Jews throughout the empire the free exercise of their worship. He also gained favour with the people by abolishing some imposts.

Like his grandfather, Agrippa had a strong passion for building. He constructed theatres, amphitheatres, baths, porticos. He also augmented Jerusalem on the northern side, where he erected a new quarter, called Bezetha, or new city. After the example of Herod, he built at his own expense fine monuments in cities of his neighbours: at Berytus (Beiroot), he constructed a magnificent theatre and a grand circus, where he set up a gymnastic school. His name became so celebrated, that princes of neighbouring and distant countries came to visit him at Tiberias, and his power and connections excited the jealousy of Rome. His reign was of short duration. Presiding at games given by him at Cesare'a in honour of the emperor, he was suddenly seized with a mysterious and offensive malady, of which he died at the end of five days, at the age of fifty-four, in the seventh year of his elevation to the throne, and the fourth of his rule over all Palestine (A.D. 44). His death spread consternation among the Jews, but the Greeks of Samaria and of Cesarea manifested their joy in the most revolting_transactions, in which they were joined and supported by Roman soldiers.

G

Agrippa left three daughters-Berni'ce', Maria'mne', and Drusi'lla—and a son of his own name, then living at Rome.

Claudius was disposed to send the young Agrippa to take possession of his father's kingdom, but, considering the extreme youth of the prince, he resolved to govern Palestine by a procurator; so that the country was once more reduced to a Roman province. Cu'spius Fadus received (A.D. 44) the appointment, though after a short time the emperor entrusted the custody of the temple to Herod, brother of king Agrippa, to whom he had previously given the principality of Chalcis."

At this epoch a certain Theudas, who gave himself out to be a prophet, occasioned troubles in Judea. Collecting around him a number of men, he conducted them to the Jordan, which he promised them he would lead them over dryshod. Fadus sent some troops, who dispersed his partisans, of whom they killed a great number. Theudas himself was taken and beheaded.

This Theudas is the same that is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles (v. 36); for there is reason to believe that the speech of Gama liel, who speaks of him, was not delivered till after that impostor had been punished.

A terrible famine desolated the country (A.D. 45). Venti'dius Cuma'nus became its governor (A.D. 48). Herod of Chalcis died, and was succeeded by the young Agrippa, who took the title of king.

The new procurator, by his violence, gave occasion to those troubles which led to the final rising of the nation against the Romans and to the ruin of the country. After having greatly insulted and injured the Jews, Cumanus was banished.

CHAPTER VII.

TIMES OF THE APOSTLES-FROM FELIX TO THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM.

A. D. 52 to A. D. 70.

At the end of the twelfth year of his reign, Claudius sent (52-53) his emancipated slave, Felix, to take the government of Judea. At the same time, Agrippa II., instead of Chalcis, received the ancient tetrarchy of Philip and the Abilene' of Lysanias. Agrippa married his sister Drusi'lla to Azi'zas, king of Eme'ssa, in Syria. His other sister, Berni'ce', widow of Herod of Chalcis, formed an alliance with Po'lemon, king of Cili'cia, in order to put a stop to rumours which accused her of having an incestuous intercourse with her brother Agrippa. The two sisters soon

quitted their husbands, and gave themselves up to a dissolute life. The procurator, Felix, became enamoured of the beautiful Drusilla, whom he married, and by whom he had a son, named Agrippa, who, with his mother, perished in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, in the reign of the emperor Titus.

Claudius dying A.D. 54, was succeeded by Nero, who in the first year of his reign increased the territories of Agrippa by adding to it a part of Galilee and a number of cities. The most frightful anarchy then reigned in Judea. Bands of robbers infested the country; cheats of all kinds, magicians, false prophets, and false Messiahs, misled the people and excited constant troubles. Assassins, armed with daggers hidden under their gaiments, mixed with the crowd and committed murder, without even respecting the sanctity of the temple. One impostor, an Egyptian Jew, assembled a great multitude of people, whom he led to the Mount of Olives, from the summit of which he told them they should see the walls of Jerusalem fall before their eyes, after which he would enter the capital and expel the Romans. Fadus attacked him and slew the greater part of his dupes. The impostor himself escaped. Some time afterwards, the Apostle Paul having been apprehended in a tumult in Jerusalem, the captain of the guard took him at first for this false prophet (Acts xxi. 38).

The violence of Felix and his cupidity augmented the hatred of the Jews towards the Romans. The procurator, under the hope of extorting a bribe by way of ransom, kept Paul in prison for a long space of time (Acts xxiv. 27). He even procured the assassination of the high-priest. Such crimes encouraged the secret murderers above mentioned, and every day had its new victim. Serious disturbances broke out at Cesarea between the Jews and the Syrian Greeks. Felix had recourse to arms, and much blood was shed. Even the ministers at the altar quarrelled.

In the year 60 or 61, Felix was recalled, and was succeeded by Porcius Festus, who, taking measures against the robbers, the assassins, and the false Messiahs, slew a great number. Agrippa himself, who then resided in Jerusalem, excited disturbance by raising an edifice on Mount Zion, from the top of which he could see what took place in the temple.

Festus having died (A.D. 63) in Judea, Albi'nus was sent in his place. The crimes and greediness of the new procurator had no bounds. Money procured impunity, whatever the misdeed. In the midst of these calamities, Agrippa spent enormous sums in the construction of buildings of all kinds. About this time (A. D. 64), all the exterior edifices of the temple were completed.

Albinus was succeeded by Gessius Florus (A.D. 65), whose wickedness was so great as to cause even his predecessor to be