made known to Hvrcanus, and Herod was summoned to take his trial before the Sanhedrim for his deeds of violence. Herod, instead of appearing before the San- hedrim clothed in mourning, came in purple, attended by armed guards, and bearing in his hands a letter from the Roman commander Sextus C»sar for his acquittal. This overawed the assembly; but Sameas, a just man (Josephus, Ant. xiv, 9, 4), stepped forward, and, boldly addressing the assembly, predicted that, should the of- fender escape punishment, he would live to kill all those who were his judges, and would not grant the pardon which the assembly seemed inclined to extend to him. He, however, escaped, and took refuge with Sextus C«- sar, who soon appointed him governor ((Trpar/;yo(,') of Coele-Syria. He then determined to march against Je- rusalem, and would have done so had not his father Antipater and his family restrained him from commit- ting any fresh acts of violence. In B.C. 44, after Cae- sar's death, Cassius took the government of Syria, Herod and his father Antipater willingly assisted Cas- sius in obtaining the taxes levied upon the Jews for the support of the troops. For this Herod was confirmed in the government of Ccele-Syria (Josephus, War, i, 11, 4). In B.C. 41 Antony came to SjTia, and Herod, by makuig him valuable presents, soon formed with him a close personal intimacy (Josephus, A nt. xiv, 1 2, 2) . Hyr- canus, to whose beautiful gTanddaughter Mariamne Herod was betrothed, induced Antony to make Herod and his brother Phasael tetrarchs of Judsea (Josephus, Ant. xiv, 13, 1; War, i, 12, 5). The invasion of the Parthians, who sided with Antigonus the Asmonrean, compelled Herod to give up Judrea and fly to Rome. Antony was then in great power, and took Herod under his protection, and, seeing that he might prove useful to him, obtained a decree of the senate appointing him king of Judaea, to the extinction of all the livmg Asmo- ntean prmces (Josephus, Ant. xiv, 9-14; War, i, 10-14; Dion Cass, xlviii). These events took place in B.C. 40, and Herod, only staying seven days at Rome, returned speedily to Jerusalem within three months from the time he had first fled.
It was not, however, so easy for Herod to obtain pos- session of Jerusalem, or to establish himself as king of Judrea, as it had been to obtain this title from the Ro- mans. The Jews still held firmly to Antigonus as the representative of the Asmonaean line, and it was not for several years that Herod made any material advance whatever. With the assistance of the Romans Herod made preparations to take Jerusalem. He had endeav- ored to conciliate the people by marrj-ing IMariamne, thinking that by so doing the attachment of the Jews to the Asmonfean family would be extended to him. After six months' siege the Romans entered the city (B.C. 37), and, to revenge the obstinate resistance they had received, began to ransack and plunder, and it was no easy task for Herod to purchase from the conquerors the freedom from pillage of some part of his capital. Antigonus was taken and conveyed to Antioch, where, having been previously beaten, he was ignominiously executed with the axe by the order of Antony, a mode of treatment which the Romans had never before used to a king (Dion Cass. Lxix, 22 ; Josephus, Ant. xv, 1, 2). Thus ended the government of the Asmonjeans, 12G years after it was first set up (Josephus, Ant. xiv, 16, 4). Immediately on ascending the throne Herod put to death all the members of the Sanhedrim, excepting PoUio and Sameas (the famous Hillel and Shammai of the Rabbinical writers), who had predicted this result, and also all the adherents of Antigonus who could be found. Having confiscated their property, he sent pres- ents to Antony to repay him for his assistance and to fiu-ther seciure his favor. He then gave the office of high-priest, which had become vacant by the death of Antigonus, and the mutilation of HjTcanus, whose ears had been cut off by Antigonus (comp. Lev. xxi, 16-24), to an obscure priest from Babylon named Ananel. At this insult Alexandra, the mother of 3Iariamne and Ar-
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