In the war which broke out between Antony and Octa vins, Herod levied an army for the support of the former; but was obliged first to encounter Malchus, King of Ara bia, whom he defeated, and compelled to sue for peace. After the decisive battle of Actium, his great object was to make terms with the conqueror ; and, as a preliminary step, he put to death Hyman, the only surviving male of the Asmodean family. Having taken this precaution to secure himself, he embarked for Rhodes, and appeared be fore Augustus in all the ornaments of royalty, excepting his diadem. With all the appearance of noble and ingenuous confidence, he related the faithful services he had perform ed for his benefactor Antony, and hinted that he was ready to transfer his gratitude and allegiance to a new patron, from whom h eshould hold his crown and kingdom. Augus tus was struck with the apparent ;nagnanimity of this de fence of his former conduct, and replaced the diadem on the head of Herod, who continued to be the most favoured of his tributary sovereigns.
But the good fortune which Herod experienced, as a prince, was poisoned by domestic broils, and particularly by the insuperable aversion of his wife Mariamnc, whom at length he brought to trial, convicted, and executed. Shc submitted to her fate with all the intrepidity of con scious innocence, and was sufficiently avenged by the dread ful remorse of her husband, whose peace of mind was for ever afterwards destroyed. In vain did he endeavour to banish her memory by scenes of dissipation and cruelty : the charms of his beloved Mariamne haunted him wher ever he went; and he would frequently call aloud upon her name, as if willing to forget that she was no longer among the living. At times he would fly from the sight of men : and on his return from solitude, which was ill suited to a mind stricken with the consciousness of guilt, he became more brutal and ferocious than ever, and in his fits of phren zy spared neither friends nor foes. Alexandra, who had always exhibited the utmost malignity towards her daugh ter, fell the unpitied victim of his rage. At length he ap pears to have recovered some portion of self-possession, and employed himself in projects of regal magnificence. He built at Jerusalem a magnificent theatre and amphithea tre, in which he caused games to be celebrated in honour of Augustus; to the great displeasure of the zealous Jews, who discovered Gentile profanation in the theatrical orna ments and spectacles. These, and other offensive acts, excited a most serious conspiracy against him, which he, fortunately for himself, discovered, and exercised the most brutal revenge on all the parties concerned in it. Ile next built Samaria, which he named Scbaste, and adorned with the most sumptuous edifices ; and for his security, he erect ed several fortresses throughout the whole of Judea, of which the principal was called Caesarea, in honour of the emperor. At the dedication of this last new city, he dis played such profuse magnificence,that Augustus said," his soul was too great for his kingdom." The same taste for sumptuous magnificence was exhibited in his palaces, on which he lavished the most costly materials and workman ship. To supply the place of his lost Mariamne, he mar ried another wife of the same name, the beautiful daughter of a priest, whom he raised to the high rank of the supreme pontificate. His two sons by the first Mariamne he sent to he educated at Rome, and so ingratiated himself with Augustus and his ministers, that he was appointed imperi al procurator for Syria.
With the view of acquiring popularity among the Jews, and of exhibiting an attachment to their religion, he under took the vast entcrprize of rebuilding the temple of Jeru salem, which he completed in the course of about a year and a half, in a noble style of magnificence. During the
progress of this work he visited Rome, and brought back his sons, who had grown up to manhood. These, how ever, at length conspired against their father's person and government, and were tried, convicted, and executed. It was in reference to this transaction that Augustus is re ported to have said, that " it was better to be Herod's hog than his son." In the thirty-third year of his reign occurred the memo rable event of the birth of our Saviour ; upon which occa sion, acccording to the Gospel of St Mathew, the jealousy of Herod was so highly excited by the prophetic intima tions of the future greatness of the Messiah, that he slaugh tered all the infants in Bethlehem, in hopes of destroying hint among the number. About this time Antipater, re turning from Rome, was arrested by his father's orders, and accused of treasonable practices. He was found guil ty of conspiring against the life of the king. This and other calamities, combined with a guilty conscience prey ing upon a broken constitution, threw the wretched monarch into a loathsome and mortal disease, which has been repre sented by historians as a just judgment of heaven for the many foul enormities and impieties of which he had been guilty. In truth, his cruelty appeared to increase as lie approached the termination of his career. A premature report of his death caused a tumult in Jerusalem ; and those who had been imprudently concerned in it were im mediately seized, and put to death, by order of the dying king. He also caused his son Antipater to be slain in pri son, and his remains to be treated with every species of insult and ignominy. Even on his death-bed, he had planned a scene of more atrocious cruelty than he had ever devised or attempted at any former period of his life. He sum moned the most considerable persons among the Jews to Jericho, and caused them to be shut up in the hippodrome, or circus, and gave strict orders to have them all massa cred, as soon as he should have expired. This," said he, will provide for my funeral all over the land, and make every family in the kingdom lament my death." Fortunate ly, however, this savage order was not executed by those to whom it was entrusted.
Herod expired in the sixty-eighth year of his age, and the thirty-fourth of his reign. He bequeathed his king dom to his son Archelaus, and left tetrarchies to his two other sons. The character of this monarch exhibits a com bination of great talents and great vices. The success which attended his enterprizes, and which shed a false though dazzling lustre around his government, has given him an eminent rank in the list of sovereigns ; while the savage disposition, which appears to have taken delight in the most revolting and horrible acts of cruelty, has con signed his memory to merited detestation. He was the first, it may be remarked, who shook the foundations of the Jewish government. He appointed the high-priests and removed them at his pleasure, without any regard to the laws of succession ; and he entirely destroyed the au thority of the national council. In short, his reign was similar to that of most able tyrants; splendid and glorious to outward appearance, but, in reality, destructive of the prosperity of the kingdom over which he presided. See Josephus, Prideaux, Lardner ; Univers. Hist. ; and Gen. Biog. Dict. (z)