exactly marked.4 Henceforth this was to be a Yom Tobh (feast-day), on which mourning
was interdicted.5
4. Meg. Taan xi, 1, ed Warsh, p. 16 a.
5. The Megillath Taanith itself, or 'Roll of Fasts,' does not mention the death of Herod.
But the commentator adds to the dates 7th Kislev (Nov.) and 2nd Shebhat (Jan.), both
manifestly incorrect, the notice that Herod had died - on the 2nd Shebhat, Jannai also - at
the same time telling a story about the incarceration and liberatio of 'seventy of the Elders
of Israel,' evidently a modification of Josephus' account of what passed in the
Hippodrome of Jericho. Accordingly, Grätz (Gesch. vol. iii. p. 427) and Derenbourg (pp.
101, 164) have regarded the 1st of Shebhat as really that of Herod's death. But this is
impossible; and we know enough of the historical inaccuracy of the Rabbis not to attach
any serious importance to their precise dates.
Herod had three times before changed his testament. By the first will Antipater, the
successful calumniator of Alexander and Aristobulus, had been appointed his successor,
while the latter two were named kings, though we know not of what districts.6 After the
execution of the two sons of Mariamme, Antipater was named king, and, in case of his
death, Herod, the son of Mariamme II. When the treachery of Antipater was proved,
Herod made a third will, in which Antipas (the Herod Antipas of the New Testament)
was named his successor.7 But a few days before his death he made yet another
disposition, by which Archelaus, the elder brother of Antipas (both sons of Malthake, a
Samaritan), was appointed king; Antipas tetrarch of Galilee and Perĉa; and Philip (the
son of Cleopatra, of Jerusalem8), tetrarch of the territory east of the Jordan.9 These
testaments reflected the varying phases of suspicion and family- hatred through which
Herod had passed. Although the Emperor seems to have authorised him to appoint his
successor,10 Herod wisely made his disposition dependent on the approval of Augustus.11
But the latter was not by any means to be taken for granted. Archelaus had, indeed, been
immediately proclaimed King by the army; but he prudently declined the title, till it had
been confirmed by the Emperor. The night of his father's death, and those that followed,
were characteristically spent by Archelaus in rioting with his friends.12 But the people of
Jerusalem were not easily satisfied. At first liberal promises of amnesty and reforms had
assuaged the populace.13 But the indignation excited by the late murder of the Rabbis
soon burst into a storm of lame ntation, and then of rebellion, which Archelaus silenced
by the slaughter of not less than three thousand, and that within the sacred precincts of
the Temple itself.14
6. Jos. War i. 23. 5.
7. Jos. Ant. xvii. 6. 1; War i. 32. 7.
8. Herod had married no less than ten times.
9. Batanĉa, Trachonitis, Auranitis, and Panias.
10. Jos. War i. 23. 5.
11. Ant. xvii
8. 2.
12. Ant. xvii 8. 4; 9. 5.
13. Ant. xvii 8. 4.
14. Ant. xvii. 9. 1-3.
Other and more serious difficulties awaited him in Rome, whither he went in company
with his mother, his aunt Salome, and other relatives. These, however, presently deserted