Herod's death in B. C. 4, the year of the Nativity, let loose on all sides the disorderly elements. Arche- laus, the heir by Herod's will, advertised his acces- sion by ascending a golden throne in the Temple on a 'high elevation made for him,' and hastened to ingratiate himself by promising all kinds of good things to the expectant and worshipping crowds. He was, however, unable to satisfy the excessive and exacting demands of the unruly crowds, who had been deeply stirred by the heavy punishment meted out by Herod in the aft'air of the golden eagle, and at the approach of the Passover a riot followed which ended in the massacre of three thousand Jews— mainly visitors to the feast, who were encamped in tents outside the Temple. Arche- laus forthwith hastened to Rome to have his ap- • Palace built B.C. 24 ; Temple restored B.C. 19-11. '
jerusale:m
JERUSALEJI
pointment confirmed, leaving the city in utter confusion. As soon as lie had taken ship, Sabinus, the Roman procurator, hastened to the city, seized and garrisoned the king's palace and all the forti- iied posts of wliich he could get possession, and laid hands on all the treasures he could find. He endeavoured to assert his authority -with a view to opposing the absent Archelaus, for he at the same tmie sent to Rome a letter accusing him to Ca;sar. At the succeeding feast of Pentecost the crowds of Galilajans, Idumteans, and trans-Jordan Jews, with recruits from the more unrestrained elements from Jerusalem, rose in open rebellion, and commenced to besiege Sabinus in the palace. One party assembled along the whole ^\ . wall of the Temple to attack from the east, another towards the south at the Hippodrome, and a third to the west —
outside the W. walls of the cit binus, who seems to have been an arra
apparently Sabinus, w
coward, sent an appeal for help to Varus, tlie governor of Syria, who was then in Antioch, and shut himself up in the tower Phasael. From there he signalled to the troops to fall upon the people. A terrible fight ensued, at first in the city itself and then in the Tyropoeon Valley, from which the Roman soldiers shot up at the rioters assembled in the Temple cloisters. Finding them- selves at great disadvantage from their position in the valley, the soldiers in desperation set tire to the cloisters, and their Jewish opponents, crowiled within and upon the roof, were either burnt to death or were slaughtered in attempting to escape. Some of the soldiers pursuing their victims through the flames burst into the Temple precincts and seized the sacred treasures ; of these Sabinus is stated to have received 40lJ talents for himself. Upon this, other parties of Jews, exasperated by these afi'airs, made a counter attack upon the palace and threatened to set it on fire. They first offered a free pass to all who would come out peaceably, whereupon manj- of Herod's soldiers came out and joined the Jews ; but Rufus and Gratus with a band of horsemen went over to the Romans with three thousand soldiers. Sabinus continued to be besieged in the palace, the walls of which the Jews commenced to undermine, until Varus arrived, after which he slunk away to the seacoast. The Jerusalem Jews excused themselves to the governor by laying all the blame on their fellow-countrymen from other parts. Varus suppressed the rebellion with ruthless firm- ness, crucifying two thousand Jews ; and then, leaving a legion in the city to maintain order, he returned to Antioch. Archelaus returned some months later as ethnarch, and ruled for ten years, until, being accused to Ctesar of oppression, he was banished to Vienne.
During the rule of Coponius (6-10), the pro- curator who succeeded, another Passover disturb- ance occurred. This was due to the extiaordinarj- and defiant conduct of a party of Samaritans, who threw some dead bodies into the cloisters of the Temple just after midnight,— a step which must, without doubt, have deepened tlie smouldering hatred between Jews and Samaritans (Jn 4^). Marcus Ambivius (11-12) and Annius Rufus (13) after short and uneventful terms of office were succeeded by Valerius Gratus (14-25), whose eleven years were marked only by the many changes he made in the high priesthood. His successor, Pontius Pilate (2(>-37), left the stamp of his char- acter on secular history by making a great show of authority, in constituting Jerusalem the military headquarters, and introducing Coesar's effigies into the city, but entirely reversing this policy when it was vigorously opposed by the more fanatic ele- ments of the Jews. On this occasion a gieat gathering of Jews assembled in, apparently, the
Xystus {4v T(j /leyiXoi (TTaSiw), and preferred to bare their necks to Pilate's soldiers to withdrawing their demands {Anf. XVIII. iii. 1). Mention has already been made of the ' current of water ' Pilate brought to Jerusalem, and the riot which followed because he used for the work 'sacred money' of the Temple. When persuasions had failed to q^uell the tumult, Pilate gave a signal to the soldiers, whom he had distributed in disguise through the crow d, and many were killed and wounded {Ant. XVIII. iii. 2).
The whole secular history as given by Josephus shows in what an excitable and unstable condition tlie Jews were, specially at the time of the feasts, when the city was filled by outsiders. In such a city it is not wonderful that twice (Jn 8™ l(f' ) Jesus \\ as threatened with stoning; The histories of p.ist I'ussovers in the Holy City may have made Pil:ite arutely anxious as to whither the commo- tion connected with the arrest of Jesus was tend- ing ; the leaders of the Jews, on the other hand, had doubtless learnt by their victory in the matter of Caesar's effigies to anticipate that, if they blus- tered and threatened enough, Pilate was unlikely finally to withstand their demands.