Agrippa did his utmost to make the Jews see the folly of opposing the trained armies

of Rome, but all in vain. The populace became maddened at the mentioned of the hated

Procurator Florius (just as the Jews had become inflamed at the mention of the word

"Gentiles" by Paul in Acts 22: 21, 22), and broke out into curses. From cursing

Florius, they passed to cursing Agrippa, throwing stones, and ordering him to leave the

city. So began the Jewish war, which was to end with the destruction of the Temple, and

the scattering of Israel. Throughout the whole war Agrippa remained with the Romans.

In A.D.75 he went to live at Rome, with his sister Bernice, whom Tiberius would have

made Empress, if he had not been deterred by the open murmurs of the Romans.

When Josephus published his "Wars of the Jews' he sent a copy to Agrippa, and the

King congratulated him on the accuracy of his narrative. The work of Josephus is a

mine rich in incidents during these eventful years, and he has proved to be a very

faithful historian. Practically all that we have written so far in this series has been

derived from Josephus, although we have taken much at second-hand from books by

Farrar, S. Buss, Conybeare and Howson, Lewin and others.

With Agrippa II, the man who was "almost persuaded to become a Christian", the

Asmonæans and the Herods disappear from the pages of history. The last of the line,

Agrippa's nephew, perished as we have already seen in the eruption of Vesuvius.

We have already spoken of the appalling bloodshed associated with the reign of

Herod the Great, and we must now, by contrast, refer briefly to some of his public acts of

a more constructive kind.

Herod was so well regarded in Rome, that he was permitted to extend his frontiers "to

the widest limits ever dreamed of by Solomon".  As King of Judæa, he had an

acknowledged precedence over all but the very greatest of the Oriental kings.  He

protected his subjects from the inroads of Bedouin marauders, and put down with a

strong hand the bandits that infested the region of Galilee and Trachonitis.  He

surrounded the whole of Palestine with castles and fortified towers. He shook "an

inexhaustible cornucopia, filled with gifts, over the heathen world, building gymnasia in

Tripolis, Damascus, Ptolemais and Nicopolis; theatres in Damascus and Sidon; an

aqueduct in Laodicea; baths in Ascalon; temples in Tyre and Rhodes; colonnades in

Tyre and Antioch.  The towns of Byblos and Berytus owed to him their city walls.

Athens, Sparta, Nicopolis, Pergamum, and Cos received ostentatious donations or prizes

for their games; and had it not been for his permanent and regal endowment, the ancient

and famous Olympic contests would probably have come to an end" (Hausruth). When

he came into power, he found the harbour and Stratos Tower silted up; after twelve years

of labour, he left a splendid breakwater and harbour. The city was renamed Cæsarea, and