With regard to those who had made such ravages in Samaria, the officers and principal people in Jerusalem went after them in sackcloth and ashes, intreating them, by every persuasive argument, to abandon their design. "Do not," said they, "let your rage against Samaria destroy Jerusalem. Pity your country, temple, city, and wives; the fate of all being at stake in this contest: let not the idea of avenging one poor Galilean cost you all that you hold dear in the world." The Jews were at length pacified by these remonstrances.

Peace being naturally productive of sloth, robberies of every kind became now very common; the countries were infested with men of violence, and the greater villains preyed upon the less. At this time, Numidius Quadratus, being governor of Syria, was applied to at Tyre by the principal of the Samaritans, who represented how greatly their country was infested by robbers. Jonathan, the son of Ananus the high-priest, was present with a considerable number of Jews of distinction. Jonathan replied to their complaints, by blaming the Samaritans as the authors of the insurrection by the death of the Galilean; and likewise hinted that Cumanus's neglect of properly punishing the offenders had produced all the fatal consequences.

When Quadratus had heard thus much of the affair, he postponed the further consideration of it till he should arrive in Judea, where he might obtain further information respecting it. He now went to Cæsarea, and ordered the execution of those persons whom Cumanus had made prisoners, and then proceeded to Lydda; when he again heard the cause, and ordered eighteen of the principal Jews who were proved to have been concerned to be beheaded. He sent some of the noble Samaritans to Cæsar; likewise Jonathan and Ananias, high-priests of the Jews; Ananus, son of Ananius; and other Jews of distinction. Cumanus and Celer the tribune he also sent to Rome, to answer for their conduct to the emperor. Having thus adjusted affairs, he went to Jerusalem; but retired to Antioch, on finding that the people were in the peaceable celebration of their feast of unleavened bread.

The trial coming on at Rome, Agrippa was now an advocate for the Jews, and Cumanus had many friends to support him; but when Cæsar had heard his defence, and that of the Samaritans, he ordered three of the most eminent of the latter to be beheaded; Cumanus to be banished; Celer the tribune to be sent in chains to Jerusalem, dragged through the city, and beheaded, and the Jews to see the sentence executed. This done, he constituted Felix, brother of Pallax, governor of Judea, Samaria, Galilee, and Perca. He advanced Agrippa from the kingdom of Chalcis to a better government, giving him likewise Trachonitis, Batanea, with the tetrarchy that Varus had held, and the kingdom of Lysanias.

'This happened in the year fifty-four, soon after which the emperor Claudius died,. and was succeeded by Nero.

Agrippa, after his last-mentioned promotion, gave his sister Drusilla, who is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, to Azizus, king of the Emesenes, who had been Couverted to the Jewish religion. Drusilla had been betrothed to Epiphanes, the son of Antiochus, on the condition of his professing Judaism; but upon his refusal to comply with the terms, the contract was dissolved. Another sister, named Mariamne, be espoused to Archelaus, the son of Chelcias, to whom she had been promised by her father Agrippa; and a daughter, named Berenice, was the issue of this marriage.

Soon after their union, a separation took place between Drusilla and Azizus. She was admired as the most beautiful woman of her time, and Felix, the governor of Judea, became violently enamoured of her. He informed a Jew, named Simon, who was his particular friend, and a man highly celebrated as a magician, of the

passion he had conceived; enjoining him to exert his endeavours to prevail upon Drusilla to desert her husband and marry him, and to assure her that if she consented he would make her the happiest woman upon earth. Drusilla was prevailed upon to renounce her religion, abandon her husband, and marry Felix and to this she was partly adduced by the desire of avoiding all future uneasiness from her sister Berenice, who envied her the possession of the superior attractions of her person. By Felix, Drusilla had a son, named Agrippa, who, in the time of Titus Cæsar, together with his wife, fell a sacrifice to a violent eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

Berenice, for a considerable time, survived Herod, to whom she was both wife and niece. A report being circulated that a criminal intercourse subsisted between her and her brother, she judged that the most effectual method for clearing herself from the horrid and slanderous accusation of incest, would be to prevail upon Polemon, king of Cilicia, to embrace Judaism, and unite herself to him in marriage. In consideration of her great wealth, Polemon accepted the proposals of Berenice; but she soon deserted him, and he then abandoned the principles of the Jewish religion.

Mariamne was not more virtuous than her sister; for she quitted her husband Archelaus, and espoused Demetrius, the most considerable Jew of Alexandria, both on account of his family and wealth. He held the office of alabarcha of Alexandria. By Demetrius, Mariamne had a són, named Agrippinus.

Felix was no sooner vested with his authority, than he made war on the robbers who had now infested the country for twenty years, making prisoner Eleazer their captain, with several others, whom he sent to Rome. The number of thieves killed, taken prisoners, or put to death judicially, with those kept in prison, including the country people who joined them, was incredibly great.

These miscreants being routed, another set of villains appeared, who were called Sicarii, from Sica, the poignard used by them. These used to commit murders in the open streets of Jerusalem, particularly when the city was crowded on public days. They carried short daggers under their clothes, and privately stabbed those against whom they had an enmity; and, when a murder was committed, were the first to wonder at the crime. This practice was continued some time before the authors of it were suspected. Jonathan, the high-priest, was the first who fell by their hands, and daily murders followed his death. The citizens were so alarmed, that their apprehensions aggravated the reality; for the danger in battle was not greater than in walking the streets; every man at a distance was suspected for an enemy, and people were afraid of their approaching friends yet the murderers were so dexterous at their work, that vigilance itself could not guard against them.

Another set now arose, whose tongues were as mischievous as the weapons of the former. Though they shed no blood, their doctrines were worse than daggers, utterly contaminating the minds of the people. These enthusiasts, under pretence of religion, propagated strange doctrines. They enticed the people into woods and solitary places, pretending that God had determined to give them absolute liberty, of which he would grant them infallible assurance by signs from heaven. Felix, foreseeing that this plau tended only to foment a rebellion, dispatched a body of troops after the enthusiasts, by which great numbers of them were destroyed.

It was at this time that that Egyptian rebelled who is referred to in the Acts, and whose history is recorded in a former chapter.

The robbers and magicians now concerted with each other how they should engage the people to shake off the Roman yoke, and assert an absolute liberty. To effect this, they used arguments and menaces, threatening with death those who denied their

authority. Their view was to reduce those by terror who would otherwise have submitted to voluntary slavery. These people were dispersed through the country, plundering the houses of the rich, and killing and burning as they went; so that Judea was reduced to the utmost degree of confusion and despair.

As the city of Cæsarea, about this time, began to be the scene of some important transactions which not a little accelerated the destruction of the Jewish state, it will not be improper to give here its description and history in the words of Josephus. Adjacent to the sea-coast was situated a place which had heretofore been denominated Straton's tower; and this Herod deemed a spot most admirably adapted for the building of a city. Having drawn the model of the intended erection, he employed a number of hands to construct it, and completed the whole. The private houses, as well as the palaces of this city were all built with marble; but the most distinguished part of the whole was the port, which was erected on the same scale as the Pyræum; and, exclusive of all the other conveniences that attended it, was protected from all danger of wind or weather. The completion of this work was the more extraordinary, as every article of the materials for finishing it was conveyed thither from distant parts at an expence almost incredible.

The situation of this city is in Phoenicia, near the passage into Egypt, between Joppa and Dora, two most considerable sea-port towns, in the harbours of which there is no riding with any degree of safety if the wind blows from the south-west; for it beats upon the coast with such fury, that the merchant-men are often obliged to keep out at sea for a considerable time, lest they should be driven on shore. To obviate these dangers arising from the situation he had chosen, Herod gave directions that a mole should be formed in the shape of a half-moon, and of size sufficient to contain a complete royal navy. In this place, he gave orders for the sinking of stones of immense size in twenty fathoms of water. Some of these stones were fifty feet long, eighteen feet broad, and nine feet thick, many others of them of various dimensions, some being even more than this size. The extent of the mole was no less than two hundred feet, one half of which was destined to the breaking off the surf of the sea, and the other was appropriated to form the foundation of a stone wall, on which a number of fortified turrets were erected; and the largest and most beautiful of these Herod called by the name of the tower of Drusus, in honour of the memory of Drusus, the son-inlaw of Cæsar, who had died in his youth. Adjacent hereto were several arched vaults, which served as cabins for the sailors. There was also a quay, or landing place, with a broad walk around the port, proper to retreat for the benefit of the air, and as a place of recreation. The opening of this port was to the northward, whence the wind blows with its mildest influence. On the entrance of this port, to the left hand, a turret was built with a large platform, and beneath it was a descending bank to prevent the sea from washing it: on the right hand, and opposite to the tower, were erected two pillars of stone, and of an equal height. The houses adjacent to the port were all built with the finest kind of marble, and with the most exact uniformity to each other. A temple dedicated to Cæsar was erected on a mount in the middle, which became a famous sea-mark, and proved of the utmost use to mariners. In this temple were placed a representation of the city of Rome, and a statue of Cæsar, which were no less distinguished for the beauty of the materials they were made of, than for the elegance of the workmanship; and thence the city obtained the name of Cæsarea. Nor was less ingenuity exerted in the contrivance of the vaults and common sewers, which were placed at equal degrees of distance from each other, and discharged their contents into the sea; but there was one conveyance which intersected all the rest, which, while it carried off all the filth from the various parts of the city, was so