Chapter 1.
CONCERNING POLLIO AND SAMEAS. HEROD SLAYS THE PRINCIPAL OF
ANTIGONUS'S FRIENDS, AND SPOILS THE CITY OF ITS WEALTH. ANTONY BEHEADS
ANTIGONUS.FJAJ 15.3
1. HOW Sosius and Herod took Jerusalem by force; and besides that, how
they took Antigonus captive, has been related by us in the foregoing book.
We will now proceed in the narration
And since Herod had now the government
of all Judea put into his hands, he promoted such of the private men in
the city as had been of his party, but never left off avenging and punishing
every day those that had chosen to be of the party of his enemies
But
Pollio the Pharisee, and Sameas, a disciple of his, were honored by him
above all the rest; for when Jerusalem was besieged, they advised the citizens
to receive Herod, for which advice they were well requited
But this Pollio,
at the time when Herod was once upon his trial of life and death, foretold,
in way of reproach, to Hyrcanus and the other judges, how this Herod, whom
they suffered now to escape, would afterward inflict punishment on them
all; which had its completion in time, while God fulfilled the words he
had spoken.FJAJ 15.4
2. At this time Herod, now he had got Jerusalem under his power, carried
off all the royal ornaments, and spoiled the wealthy men of what they had
gotten; and when, by these means, he had heaped together a great quantity
of silver and gold, he gave it all to Antony, and his friends that were
about him
He also slew forty-five of the principal men of Antigonus's
party, and set guards at the gates of the city, that nothing might be carried
out together with their dead bodies
They also searched the dead, and whatsoever
was found, either of silver or gold, or other treasure, it was carried
to the king; nor was there any end of the miseries he brought upon them;
and this distress was in part occasioned by the covetousness of the prince
regent, who was still in want of more, and in part by the Sabbatic year,
which was still going on, and forced the country to lie still uncultivated,
since we are forbidden to sow our land in that year
Now when Antony had
received Antigonus as his captive, he determined to keep him against his
triumph; but when he heard that the nation grew seditious, and that, out
of their hatred to Herod, they continued to bear good-will to Antigonus,
he resolved to behead him at Antioch, for otherwise the Jews could no way
be brought to be quiet
And Strabo of Cappadocia attests to what I have
said, when he thus speaks: "Antony ordered Antigonus the Jew to be
brought to Antioch, and there to be beheaded
And this Antony seems to
me to have been the very first man who beheaded a king, as supposing he
could no other way bend the minds of the Jews so as to receive Herod, whom
he had made king in his stead; for by no torments could they he forced
to call him king, so great a fondness they had for their former king; so
he thought that this dishonorable death would diminish the value they had
for Antigonus's memory, and at the same time would diminish the hatred
they bare to Herod." Thus far Strabo.FJAJ 15.5