“Do so !”
Athenodorus of Tarsus was called from the Library. He sauntered in, smiling cheerfully, stroking his long white beard. He was one of the few people in the world who were never disconcerted by a sudden summons to the Imperial presence. He knew well who was the real ruler of the Empire and therefore saluted Livia a trifle more formally than he saluted Augustus, which pleased both of them.
“You have another literary or historical problem for me to sharpen my wits upon ?” he asked.
“Precisely, my good Athenodorus,” said Livia. “We wish you to adjudicate in a slight dispute between us.”
Madam, let me assure you at once : you are right!
Livia laughed. “As usual ?”
“As usual ; but doubtless the Emperor needs convincing.”
“Athenodorus, the case is this. A petty-king ruling within a few hundred miles of your beloved city has a son. He loves him, cherishes him, raises him to co-sovereignty with himself, then suddenly condemns him to death on a palpably false charge and asks our permission to execute him in whatever way he pleases. Now, why? Why ?”
Athenodorus rubbed his hooked nose. “You have withheld one or two important elements in the case. May I presume the prince in question to be an eldest or perhaps an only son ?”
“You may.”
“And the father is one of your subject allies, with an honorary Roman citizenship ?”
“He is.”
In that case, I suppose that either the Emperor or yourself believes that the King is a homicidal maniac ?”
“Yes, I must confess that this is what I believe,” said Augustus. “Unless perhaps he has good cause for putting his son to death, but has not ventured to try him on the real evidence for fear of incriminating some person whom he either wishes to shield or hesitates to offend.”
Athenodorus continued : But you, my Lady Livia, with feminine intuition, suspect that the reason is to be found in some barbarous Eastern superstition ?”
Livia clapped her hands. “Athenodorus, what an intelligent man you are! I will give you that Hecataeus manuscript of mine that you have so long coveted.”
Athenodorus beamed. “Yes, Caesar, the Lady Livia is likely, as usual, to be right. As you know, Father Zeus himself once—according to the mystics at least—invested his son Dionysus with full power and glory for a short season, seating him upon his Olympian throne and putting thunderbolts in his hands, but then pitilessly destroyed him. The legend of Apollo and his son Phaethon is analogous ; and so is that of the Pelasgian Sun-god Daedalus and his son Icarus. For though the deaths of these two young men, both of whom were temporarily invested with royalty, are ascribed by the mythographers to their imprudence, it is difficult to exculpate the divine fathers, each of whom, as the Sun, was the direct cause of the accident. Hercules, too, as an archaic Sun-god, repeatedly killed his eldest son ; the mythographers pretend that he had fits of insanity. Not to be tedious, the royal investiture of an eldest or only son, followed by his sacrifice and incineration, is common form in the whole group of near-Eastern nations that claim Agenor, or his brother Belus, as their ancestor. I came across a reference to the same practice in the Jewish Scriptures the other day : an ancient King of Moab offered up his eldest son in this way to Belus. It is their way of propitiating the Sun-god during a religious crisis, either when the country as a whole is in danger or when the king has personally incurred the god’s displeasure. The history of Tarsus contains several instances. Well, then, this unnamed king happens to be an ally of yours and therefore cannot risk your displeasure by killing his son, who is a Roman citizen by birth, without sufficient cause. So he forges evidence of high treason and asks your permission to carry out the sentence in whatever way he pleases. Yet the killing of the eldest son is as stern a religious duty among this group of nations, which includes the Egyptians of the Delta, as circumcision and the avoidance of pork ; and this is a matter of plain religious logic.”
Augustus, a trifle vexed at the ease with which Athenodorus had solved the riddle, said : “Come now, learned one, you surely do not pretend that there is any logical connexion between the three religious aberrations you have just mentioned ?”
“I do, Caesar,” said Athenodorus. “The Egyptian god Set in the form of a wild boar tears his brother Osiris into pieces. Syrian Apollo does the same with Adonis. They are both Sun-gods. The boar is their sacred beast and must therefore not be eaten except on very special occasions. In Palestine and Syria generally, foreskins were formerly taken as trophies of battle and dedicated to the Sun-god, that is to say, the Sacred King, on the occasion of his marriage with the Moon-goddess, the Sacred Queen. And if the King fell sick his eldest son was circumcised by the Queen with a flint knife, to turn away the anger of Heaven— as we read in the story of Moses the Hebrew and his son Gershom—from which derives the custom of circumcising all male infants on the eighth day after birth. This propitiatory rite is connected with the now happily abandoned one of butchering all first-born males, both animal and human, on that day. The number eight, as you know, expresses increase. Moreover, the foreskin—”
“We love you well,” said Livia graciously. “You have judged the case with admirable precision. But pray, no more antiquarian discussion of a topic which is hardly suitable for a lady’s ears.”
Athenodorus with an apologetic smile saluted and sauntered out again, hand to beard.
“So you see—” said Livia.
“My dear, it is very well, but we cannot allow an innocent man, and a capable cavalry officer too, with the makings of a first-class petty king, to die in this barbarous manner.”
“No ?” said Livia coolly. “What has become of your famous principle never on any occasion to interfere with the religious abnormalities of your subject allies so long as they cause no breach of the peace ?”
“It is odious to destroy one’s own child.”
“To do so for the good of the nation is a very praiseworthy act. Early Roman history bristles with examples of noble fathers who put their sons to death.”
“Their wicked sons.”
“How do we know that they were wicked? Perhaps the evidence was forged. In any case, my advice is : do not refuse Herod’s request unless you wish to find yourself with an awkward war on your hands. You can hardly afford a war, with the Treasury in its present state. I am sorry for Antipater, but what can we do? It is his fate. And I am sorry for Acme ; she will have to be executed in token of your goodwill towards Herod. Not that she will be much of a loss, the slut.”
So Livia had her way, as usual. But Augustus sighed and said : “A religious duty like circumcision or the avoidance of pork! By Hercules, it were better to be Herod’s pig than his eldest son !”
King Herod was sick. Becoming aware of a congestion in his bowels he consulted his physician Machaon, who confessed that he could do nothing but palliate the pain that it caused him, and that his end would not be an easy one.
Herod asked : “Have I a full year of life left to me ?”
Machaon answered : “I can promise you a full year if you submit to my tedious regimen, but I cannot promise more.”
“It is enough,” said Herod. That day he sent for craftsmen out of Egypt, who made him a great golden eagle of the sort called a griffon-vulture, sacred to the Sun. He had it fixed high above the East Gate of the Temple, where he dedicated it to Jehovah. Underneath he wrote the divine words spoken to Moses :
I bare you on eagle-wings and brought you unto myself.
It was calculated to stir up trouble, for though this was not the only text in the Pentateuch which identified Jehovah with an eagle, the god was never depicted in bird form, and the Roman military standards had made the eagle symbolical of foreign oppression ; besides, the Law of Moses forbade the making of any graven image whatsoever.
Herod’s son Prince Archelaus, now the heir-apparent, wished to secure the goodwill of the Sanhedrin. When the new High Priest came to him in tears and implored him to persuade his father
to remove the eagle, he promised to do his best. He went to Herod in company with his brother Prince Philip—who is not to be confused with the studious Prince Herod Philip, grandson of Simon the High Priest—but they had hardly begun their plea when Herod stormed and raged at them, heaved himself from his chair, spat in their faces and buffeted them. They counted themselves lucky to escape with their lives. That same day Herod announced that he had again altered his Will. The names of Archelaus and Philip were blotted out, and Herod Antipas, his youngest son, was named as his successor.
When the High Priest informed the Sanhedrin that Herod would not remove the eagle, Judas son of Scpphorus, Matthias son of Margalothus and other patriotic Pharisees incited their disciples to remove it for him. The young men went to work with great boldness. Some of them climbed to the top of the gate in broad daylight and let themselves down with cords until they were on a level with the eagle, at which they hacked with axes and pruning-hooks. The rest, and with them the same party of young Zadokites that had stoned Zacharias, stood below with swords in their hands to prevent any attempt at interference with the work ; but just as the eagle came crashing down, Carmi the Captain of the Temple Guard came running up with a full company of Levites, reinforced by Celtic javelin-men from Hero’s Palace, and arrested the entire band, forty in all. Carmi brought them before Herod, who sat growling to himself like an old lion in his den. In a terrible voice he asked who had ordered them to cut down the eagle.
They answered humbly : “The Lord God, if it pleases your Majesty, through the mouth of his servant Moses.”
“You have committed a horrid sacrilege, and must all die instantly !”
A young Pharisee answered : “What is that to us? The soul is immortal, and for obeying the Law we shall be suitably rewarded after our bodies are laid in the grave.”
Herod roared : “Not so, for your carrion bodies will not be buried. They shall be burned—burned, do you hear?—and your ashes shall be scattered in an abominable place, from which there is neither resurrection nor hope of resurrection !”
Then Herod went up in his litter to the Court of the Gentiles, where he addressed a passionate speech to the mixed assembly, accusing the High Priest of instigating a rebellion ; it was expected that he would massacre the entire Sanhedrin without further delay. However, the High Priest came down from the Sanctuary dressed in mourning garments and abased himself before Herod, pleading for mercy, and undertook to hand over to his vengeance every one of the elders who had prompted their disciples to this outrageous act.
Herod pretended to relent. He ordered the men who had merely stood guard to be stoned to death, and allowed their bodies to be decently buried ; only those who had cut down the eagle, together with the two Pharisee elders who had prompted the deed, and Reuben son of Abdiel as the instigator of the young. Zadokites, he burned alive in the court of his Palace and dedicated their bodies to the God of his fathers. Thus Zacharias was avenged. And on that very night, which was the thirteenth night of March, occurred an eclipse of the Moon, which both amazed and delighted Herod by its appositeness.
On the next day Prince Archelaus sent the King a message : “Father, you hate me, yet I love you and I have news for you of great importance. You will see that my heart yearns to be restored to your love.”
Herod sent for him.
Archelaus, weeping tears of pretended joy to see his father again, asked for a private audience.
Herod dismissed all but his deaf mutes and ordered him to speak briefly and to the point.
“Father, it happened at Bethlehem between two or three months ago. Everyone there is talking about it. In Bethlehem of Ephrath, I mean, not the Galilean Bethlehem.”
“What happened, rambler in words ?”
“A child was born, in the cave—in the cave called the Grotto of Tammuz. The people of Bethlehem say that it is the Child who has been prophesied.”
Herod leaned forward intently in his chair. “Are the parents known ?” he asked.
“Nobody can tell me their names, though it is agreed that they were members of the House of David come on a visit to Bethlehem. The woman, who was young and beautiful, was overcome by the pains of childbirth at some distance from the town. She was taken to the Grotto and delivered there. Her servant, who acted as midwife, called out to some Kenite shepherds who have grazing rights thereabouts to fetch her water for the childbirth washings. The shepherds were superstitiously excited that a child had been born in the Grotto, and on a day too which is locally called ‘The Day of Peace’. They came crowding up and found the child cradled in a harvest-basket of the sort used in the Tammuz cult ; but what excited them most of all was that the midwife testified that she had found the woman’s maidenhead intact, which recalled the prophecy of Isaiah, that ‘A virgin shall conceive and bear a son’. This is, of course, against the laws of nature, but I report what I heard. The parents remained in the cave for three days and then rode off again by night with the child ; meanwhile Kenites and peasants had streamed in from fifteen miles around to adore and serenade him. The father, it is said, was elderly and mild-mannered and appeared to be a man of substance.”
“You can tell me nothing more ?”
“It is said that as the old man and his young wife were walking along the road before they came to the Grotto, he said to her : ‘Woman, why are you laughing and weeping alternately in this strange manner?’ And that she answered : ‘It is because in my mind’s eye I see two peoples—those on my left hand weeping and lamenting, and those on my right hand laughing and exulting.’ And there is another nonsensicality. The shepherds claim that about noon on that day, just before the news reached them from the Grotto, they became aware of a sudden suspension of time. One of them was seated at the stream-side washing his hands after dinner when he saw a heron flap across the valley. Suddenly it seemed to stand still in the sky as if arrested in flight by an invisible hand. He looked towards his companions, who had not yet finished their dinner ; they were seated around a dish of mutton boiled in barley and pulling pieces out with their hands in shepherd fashion. But those who had their hands in the dish kept them there ; those who were conveying food to their mouths sat frozen with their hands raised half-way ; those who were chewing ceased to chew. A shepherd was watering his flocks a little way upstream ; the sheep had their mouths in the water but ceased to drink. The illusion persisted for as long as it would have taken him to count up to fifty, and then slowly all things moved onward again on their course, while a burst of music sounded from the grove on the hill-top—the grove sacred to Tammuz—and a voice cried out : ‘The Virgin has brought forth. The Light is waking.’ ”
Herod said slowly : “It is an extraordinary story, my son, and I thank you heartily for bringing it to me. Even the account of the suspension of time is useful since it confirms the day of the child’s birth. The nomad Kenites pretend that when the Sun stands still in midwinter, having reached the day on which he rallies his failing strength, all Nature does the same, which accounts for the name ‘The Day of Peace’. The superstition has indeed become absurdly incorporated in the story of Joshua’s victory over the five Amorite kings, from a misunderstanding of the ancient poem : ‘Sun, upon Gibeon stand thou still!’ which celebrates the birth of the Sun-god at that season. Nor can I reject the story of the virgin birth as necessarily false, for a child may be conceived without breach of maidenhead ; there are several attested cases. Now, Archelaus, my son, I would have you prove your wisdom. The child, if he lives, is bound to cause immense trouble to our country because of the coincidence of his birth with popular Messianic prophecy, unless I intervene decisively before the mischief ripens. What do you advise ?”
Archelaus answered after reflexion : “Father, my advice is this. Issue an edict, endorsed by the High Priest, that according to many complaints that have reached you of late certain persons are fraudulently claiming to be members of the famous House of David ; and that you have therefore decided to compile an accurate register of the entire
House. Henceforth nobody who cannot produce a certificate proving that he has been registered as a Davidite will be accepted in the quality that he professes. Order the registration to be held at Bethlehem in three weeks’ time, when all Davidite heads of houses must appear in person and bring with them such of their sons as have been born since the last registration—get thee into the land of which was, I believe, fifteen years ago. The parents of the child are bound to attend, and their arrival will attract the same popular excitement as before. Supply me with soldiers and I will soon settle the matter for you.”
“And if they fail to attend ?”
“Then their names and the child’s name will not appear on the register, and the child will forfeit his claim to be called a Son of David.”
“Three weeks’ time? Short notice for the Davidites of Babylonia, Asia Minor and Greece !”
“A later registration date can be arranged for them in their own countries.”
Herod slapped his knee and cried : “Admirably argued. You are to-day restored to your rank and place, my dear Archelaus. And if you succeed in this business I shall appoint you my colleague ; you are a man after my own heart.”