By the Komans, Jericho was first visited under Pom- pey. He encamped there for a single night, and subse- quently destroyed two forts — Threx and Taurus — that commanded its approaches (Strabo, Geogr. § 40). Da- gon (Josephus, War, i, 2, 3) or Docus (1 Mace, xvi, 15; comp. ix, 50), where Ptolemy assassinated his father-in- law, Simon the Maccabee, may have been one of these strongholds, which were aftenvards infested by banditti. Gabinius, in his resettlement of Judfea, made Jericho one of the five seats of assembly (Josephus, War, i, 8, 5). With Herod the Great it rose to still greater promi- nence : it had been found full of treasure of all kinds ; as in the time of Joshua, so by his Roman allies who sacked it {ibiil i, 15, G) ; and its revenues were eagerly sought and rented by the wily tyrant from Cleoi-atra, to whom Antony had assigned them {Ant. xv, 4, 2). Not long aitcrwards he built a fort there, which he call- ed " Cyprus," in honor of his mother {ibid, xvi, 5) ; a tower, which he called, in honor of his brother, "Phasae- lis ;" and a number of new palaces, superior in their construction to those which had existed there previous- ly, which he named after liis friends. He even founded a new town higher up the plain, which he called, like the tower, Phasaelis ( War, i, 21, 9). If he did not make Jericho his habitual residence, he at least retired thith- er to die — and to be mourned, if he could have got his plan carried out; and it was in the amphitheatre (if Jericho that the news of his death was announced to the assembled soldiers and people by Salome {War, i, 38, 8). Soon afterwards the place was burned and the town plundered by one Simon, a revolutionary that had been slave to Herod {Ant. xvii, 10, G); but Archclaus rebuilt the former sumjituously, founded a new town in the plain, that bore his own name, and, most important of all, diverted water from a village called Nea?ra to irrigate the plain, which he had ])lanted with palms {Ant. xvii, 13, 1). Thus Jericho was once more " a city of palms'' when our Lord visited it. As the city that had so ex- ceptionally contributed to his own ancestrj' — as the city which had been the first to fall, amidst so much cere- mony, before " the captain of the Lord's host and his servant Joshua" — we may well suppose that his eyes surveyed it with unwonted interest. It is supposed to have been on the rocky heights overhanging it (hence called by tradition the (Juarentana) that he was assail- ed by the tempter ; and over against it, according to tradition likewise, he had been previously baptized dii the Jordan. Here he restored sight to the blind (two certainly, perhaps three [Matt, xx, 30; Mark x, 46] : this was in leaving Jericho ; Lul<e says " as he was come nigh unto Jericho," etc. [xviii, 35]). Here the descend- ant of Rahab did not disdain the hospitality of Zacchse- us the publican — an office which was likely to be lucra- tive enough in so rich a city. Finally, between Jerusa- lem and Jericho was laid the scene of his story of the good Samaritan, which, if it is not to be regarded as a real occurrence throughout, at least derives interest from the fact that robbers have ever been the terror of that precijiitous road (comp. Phocas, ch. 20 ; see Schu- bert, iii, 72) ; and so formidable had they proved only just before the Christian xrn, that Pompcy had been in = duced to undertake the destruction of their strongholds (Strabo, as before, xvi, 2, § 40 ; comp. Joseph. A nt. xx, 6, 1 sq.). The way from Jerusalem to Jericho is still de- scribed by travellers as the most dangerous about Pal- estine. (See Hackett's Illustra. of Script, p. 206.) As lately as 1820, an English traveller. Sir Frederick Hen- niker, was attacked on this road bv the Arabs Avith fire-
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arms, who stripped him naked and left him severely wounded.