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A. M.

Hyrcanus; Anthony caused the crown to be conferred upon him, contrary to the usual maxim of the Romans in like cases. For it was not their custom to violate the rights of the royal houses, which acknowledged them for protectors, and to give the crown to strangers. Herod was declared king of Judæa by the senate, and conducted by the consuls to the capitol, where he received the investiture of the crown, with the ceremonies usual upon such occasions.

Herod passed only seven days at Rome in negociating this great affair, and returned speedily into Judæa. He employed no more time than three months in his journies by sea and land.

SECT. VI. Reign of Antigonus, of only two years' duration.

It was not so easy for Herod to establish himself 3965. in the possession of the kingdom of Judæa, as it Ant. J. C. had been to obtain his title from the Romans. Antigonus was not at all inclined to resign a throne which had cost him so much pains and money to acquire. He disputed it with him very vigorously for almost two years.

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A. M. 3966.

Ant. J. C.

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Herod, who during the winter had made great preparations for the following campaign, opened it at length with the siege of Jerusalem, which he invested at the head of a fine and numerous army. Authony had given orders to Sosius, governor of Syria, to use his utmost endeavours to reduce Antigonus, and to put Herod into full possession of the kingdom of Judæa. Whilst the works necessary for the siege were carrying on, Herod made a tour to Samaria, and at length consummated his marriage with Mariamue. They had been contracted four years to each other: But the unforeseen troubles,

t

Joseph. Antiq xiv. 27. Id. de bell. Jud. i. 13.

which had befallen him, had prevented their consum mating the marriage till then. She was the daughter of Alexander, the son of king Aristobulus, and Alexandra, the daughter of Hyrcanus the second, and thereby grand-daughter to those two brothers. She was a princess of extraordinary beauty and virtue, and possessed in an eminent degree all the other qualities that adorn the sex. The attachment of the Jews to the Asm næan family, made Herod imagine, that by espousing her, he should find no difficulty in gaining their affection, which was one of his reasons for consummating his marriage at that time.

On his return to Jerusalem, Sosius and he, having joined their forces, pressed the siege in concert with the utmost vigour, and with a very numerous army, which amounted to at least sixty thousand men. The place however held out against them many months with exceeding resolution, and if the besieged had been as expert in the art of war and the defence of places, as they were brave and resolute, it would not perhaps have been taken. But the Romans, who were much better skilled in those things than they, carried the place at length, after a siege of something more than six months.

37.

The Jews being driven from their posts, the enemy A. M. entered on all sides, and made themselves masters of 3967. the city. And to revenge the obstinate resistance Ant. J.C. they had made, and the fatigue they had suffered during so long and difficult a siege, they filled all quarters of Jerusalem with blood and slaughter, plundered and destroyed all before them, though Herod did his utmost to prevent both the one and the other.

Antigonus seeing all was lost, came and threw himself at the feet of Sosius in the most submissive and most abject manner. He was put in chains, and sent to Anthony as soon as he arrived at Antioch. He designed at first to have reserved him for his triumph; but Herod, who did not think himself safe as long as that remnant of the royal family survived, would not let him rest till he had obtained the death of

that unfortunate prince, for which he even gave a large sum of money". He was proceeded against in form, condemned to die, and had the sentence executed upon him in the same manner as common criminals, with the rods and axes of the lictor, and was fastened to a stake; a treatment with which the Romans had never used any crowned head before.

Thus ended the reign of the Asmonæans, after a duration of an hundred and twenty-nine years, from the beginning of the government of Judas Maccabæus. Herod entered by this means upon the peaceable possession of the kingdom of Judæa.

This singular, extraordinary, and, till then, unexampled event, by which the sovereign authority over the Jews was given to a stranger, an Idumæan, ought to have opened their eyes, and rendered them attentive to a celebrated prophecy, which had foretold it in clear terms; and had given it as the certain mark of another event, in which the whole nation was interested, which was the perpetual object of their vows and hopes, and distinguished them by a peculiar characteristic from all the other nations of the world, that had an equal interest in it, but without knowing or being apprised of it. This was the prophecy of Jacob, who at his death foretold to his twelve sons, assembled round his bed, what would happen in the series of time to the twelve tribes, of which they were the chiefs, and after whom they were called. Amongst the other predictions of that patriarch concerning the tribe of Judah, there is this of which we now speak: "the sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a law-giver from between his feet, until Shiloh come, and unto him shall the gathering of the people be." The sceptre or rod (for the Hebrew signifies both) implies here the authority and superiority over the other tribes.

"Joseph. Antiq. xiv. 27. Plut. in Anton, p. 932. Dion. Cass. 1. xlix. p. 405. * Gen. xlix. 10.

All the ancient Jews have explained this prediction to denote the Messiah; the fact is therefore incontestable, and is reduced to two essential points. The first is, that as long as the tribe of Judah shall subsist, it shall have pre-eminence and authority over the other tribes the second, that it shall subsist, and form a body of a republic, governed by its laws and magistrates, till the Messiah comes.

The first point is verified in the series of the history of the Israelites, wherein that pre-eminence of the tribe of Judah appears evidently. This is not the proper place for proofs of this kind; those, who would be more fully informed, may consult the explanation of Genesis lately published*.

For the second point, we have only to consider it with the least attention. When Herod, the Idumæan, and in consequence a stranger, was placed upon the throne, the authority and superiority, which the tribe of Judah had over the other tribes, began to be taken from it. This was an indication that the time of the Messiah's coming was not far off. The tribe of Judah has no longer the supremacy, it no longer subsists as a body, from which the magistrates are taken. It is manifest, therefore, that the Messiah is come. But at what time did that tribe become like the rest, and was confounded with them? In the times of Titus and Adrian, who finally exterminated the remnant of Judah. It was therefore before those times that the Messiah came.

How wonderful does GoD appear in the accomplishment of his prophecies! Would it be making a right use of history, not to dwell a few moments upon facts like this, when we meet them in the course of our subject? Herod, reduced to quit Jerusalem, takes refuge at Rome. He has no thoughts of demanding the sovereignty for himself, but for another. It was the grossest injustice to give it to a stranger, whilst there were princes of the royal family in being. But it had been decreed from all eternity,

By F. Babuty, Rue St. Jacques.

A. M.

that Herod should be king of the Jews. Heaven and earth should sooner pass away, than that decree of GOD not be fulfilled. Anthony was at Rome, and in possession of sovereign power, when Herod arrived there. How many events were necessary to the conducting of things to this point! But is there any thing too hard for the Almighty?

ARTICLE II.

Abridgement of the history of the Parthians, from the establishment of that empire to the defeat of Crassus, which is related at large.

THE

HE Parthian empire was one of the most powerful and most considerable that ever was in the East. Very weak in its beginnings, as is common, it extended itself by little and little over all upper Asia, and made even the Romans tremble. Its duration is generally allowed to be four hundred threescore and fourteen years; of which two hundred and fiftyfour years were before JESUS CHRIST, and two hundred and twenty after him. Arsaces was the founder of that empire, from whom all his successors were called Arsacidæ. Artaxerxes, by birth a Persian, having overcome and slain Artabanus, the last of those kings, transferred the empire of the Parthians to the Persians, in the fifth year of the emperor Alexander, the son of Mammaa. I shall only speak here of the affairs of the Parthians before JESUS CHRIST, and shall treat them very briefly, except the defeat of Crassus, which I shall relate in all its

extent.

I have observed elsewhere what gave Arsaces I, 3754. occasion to make Parthia revolt, and to expel the Ant. J.C. Macedonians, who had been in possession of it from the death of Alexander the Great, and in what man

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y See Vol. VI.

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