Cleopas smiled. This trophy had been taken from the Edomites by King Alexander Jannaeus in the wars, the hollow head of an onager, or wild-ass, made of pure gold, with red jewels for eyes and teeth of ivory : it was thought to be of ancient Egyptian workmanship. Alexander Jannaeus had captured it from the Edomites of Dora or Adoraim, a city close to Hebron, for while the Jews were in Captivity, the Edomites had reconquered their ancient territories in Southern Judaea. They set great store by this fetish, which they called the Mask of Nimrod. When it was brought back in triumph to Jerusalem, an Edomite named Zabidus who pretended to be a traitor to his country had come before Alexander Jannaeus and said : “Do you not know your good fortune? By means of this mask you can utterly defeat Kozi, who is called Nimrod, the Abominable God of Dora, and expel him from the whole region.”
Alexander, who was High Priest as well as King, asked : “How can that be ?”
Zabidus replied : “The Evil One can be enticed to this mountain by conjuration.”
“That is forbidden by the Law.”
“I will perform the elicitation without offence to the Law.”
Alexander gave his consent when Zabidus undertook to utter the necessary spells outside the Temple precincts in the Valley of the Jebusites, also called the Cheesemongers’ Valley.
Zabidus took down the mask from the Beautiful Gate where it was fastened, wrapped it in a dark blanket and set the bundle high on a cornice of the wall. He warned those who watched him : “If you value your lives, keep away from this accursed trophy.”
Then, dressed all in white, he descended into the valley and stood alone in the level place at the bottom. On his head he set a round wooden frame in which fifteen lighted candles were arranged at intervals, ensconced in stained-glass lamps, besides five flaming torches fixed in an inner ring of the frame. He then danced slowly about in geometrical figures, blessing the name of Jehovah and calling upon the God of Dora to come up in haste to Jerusalem and there make obeisance to his rightful Lord, the God of Israel. A multitude of Jews watched from the City walls and the sides of the valley, being forbidden to approach anywhere near him or to utter any sound that might break the spell. The night was moonless and the whirling and twinkling of the tiny lamps below as Zabidus moved, now in a spiral, now in an ellipse, now in a figure-of-eight, fascinated them. Suddenly he uttered a great cry, as of despair and terror, the lights went out and a horrific wailing noise was heard.
No one knew what had happened. Some believed that Zabidus, failing in his project, had been struck dead by Jehovah for his presumption. Others, that all was well, that they had heard the death-cry of the Abomination of Dora. But none ventured into the valley to discover the truth until dawn broke. Then they found the frame with the lamps, and the white robes which Zabidus had worn, neatly folded, but nothing else. When a servant of the King opened the bundle on the wall, intending to restore the mask to the Beautiful Gate, it was found to contain only a lump of red clay, which is the sign-manual of the Edomite. The mask was never recovered.
“He was a bold rogue,” said Cleopas. “But I cannot grieve greatly for the loss long ago of a golden ass’s head from the Temple trophies.”
“It is my conviction,” said Joachim slowly, “that the Edomite has obtained the relic from the family of Zabidus by marriage with Doris, whose home is at Dora, and intends to make mischief with it in the name of Nimrod. You are mistaken in calling it an ass’s head ; for though a man may pile burdens on an ass and beat it to his heart’s content, he would be either a fool or a Samson who dared to do the same with an onager. Onagers are man-killers, as is often proved in the Circus when prisoners of war are set to hunt wild beasts. They are swift as swallows, cunning as ichneumons, murderous as Arabian bandits.”
“But who or what is Nimrod? The Nimrod of whom I have read was a son of Cush, dead these two thousand years.”
“I should soil my mouth if I told you who and what the Edomites believe him to be. But you may be sure that he is a power to be reckoned with. You will remember at least that Nimrod, the lord of three hundred and sixty-five warriors, persecuted Abraham because he would not fall down and worship false gods? I fear that a Certain Man will persecute Israel for the same reason in the name of Nimrod.”
“The Lord God forbid !” cried Cleopas in alarm.
Herod took his sons by Mariamne to Rome, where they were given a suite of rooms in the Palace of the Emperor Augustus. He supplied them with an over-generous allowance of money, and the Jewish tutors in whose charge he left them, though of upright soul and orthodox views, were chosen by him principally for their lack of courage and authority. It seems that his secret intention was that the boys should learn to love the profligate habits of the Roman youth and ruin themselves by a scornful disregard of the Law of Israel ; for when after a few years he had assured himself that they were perfect Romans he called them home and at Jerusalem subjected them to a strict religious discipline. He married one of them to his niece, the daughter of his sister Salome, and the other to a daughter of Archelaus, the petty king of Cappadocia. Neither was satisfied with his marriage, and both chafed at their enforced studies of the Hebrew Scriptures, at the grave and tedious devotions, the irritating formalities required of them, the Law’s restrictions on their eating, drinking and vicious pursuits, and at the monotony of Sabbath-day observance. Cunning Herod also arranged that they should hear Palace gossip about events which until then had been kept secret from them, so that they should learn to hate him as the murderer of their mother and relatives. Alexander, the elder, was told that the beautiful dresses and jewels worn by their father’s latest wives were really his own property, having been part of his mother’s wardrobe. Aristobulus, the younger, was taught to think himself disgraced by marriage to the daughter of Salome, whose accusations had brought his mother to execution. But for a long while Herod played the indulgent father and turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to their rebellious ways, until they dared to go further and hint at their intention of avenging their mother’s murder.
About this time Herod left Jerusalem for Asia Minor, where his old friend Agrippa, the victor of Actium, and next to Augustus himself the most influential man in the Empire, was about to relinquish his command of the Armies of the East. Herod begged Agrippa to restore the Jewish merchants settled in certain Ionian cities to the ancient privileges which the Greek civic authorities had denied them, especially freedom to worship in their ancestral manner, the right to send gifts to the Temple, and exemption from military service. Agrippa thanked Herod heartily for calling the abuses to his attention ; he confirmed the privileges of the merchants and sent an unfavourable report to Rome on the insolence and malice of the Greeks. When Herod returned to Jerusalem with this good news, and celebrated the occasion by remitting a quarter of the year’s taxes, the leading Jews wished him all manner of happiness ; and for once meant it.
During his absence Aristobulus and Alexander had become more resentful of him than ever. They had spoken openly of going to Rome and charging him before the Emperor with having brought false witnesses to destroy their innocent mother, and mentioned Archelaus of Cappadocia as the man who would intervene and secure justice for them. Their indiscretions were so notorious that Herod could not be easily reproached for his next action, that of restoring his eldest son Antipater to favour, as a warning to them that if they did not behave themselves better they might find themselves disinherited. Antipater had hitherto been forbidden to visit Jerusalem except for the festivals which every Jew who lived within a week’s travel from the City was expected to attend. Now his arrival at the Palace excited the bitterest anger in the two princes, who continually insulted and abused him ; but he bore their insults with good-humour and by assuming indifference earned Herod’s public approval for his forbearance. Antipater was a grown man, of settled habits and unimpeachable character, but, since he had been educated in the Jewish colony of Alexandria, his Greek was not the purest Attic and his Latin was barbarous. When one day Alexander tau
nted him at a banquet for his provincialism and ignorance of the ways of the world, Herod good-humouredly undertook to repair these failings : he would send Antipater off at once to complete his education at Rome. Perhaps, when he returned, Alexander would think more highly of him.
Antipater was sent to Rome under the protection of Agrippa, and there he made as favourable an impression on the Imperial family as his two brothers had made an unfavourable one. Since Herod’s father had been granted the Roman citizenship, Antipater was a citizen of the third generation, and Augustus gave him command of a regiment of allied cavalry. This appointment was no sinecure and Antipater soon distinguished himself as an energetic and capable officer. When news of his success reached Jerusalem, jealousy provoked Alexander to a passionate outburst of anger in the presence of his mother-in-law Salome, who repeated his words to Herod. Herod sternly cautioned Alexander, declaring that he was thoroughly displeased with his way of life and that of Aristobulus, that he had shown great forbearance towards them on account of their maternal ancestors, but that unless he observed an immediate improvement in both he would be forced to alter his Will in favour of their eldest brother.
Thereupon Alexander bought poison, intending, it is supposed, to destroy Herod before he had time to alter his Will, though this is not certain. Watchful spies seized the poison, and Herod immediately brought both sons to Rome, with witnesses, to accuse them before Augustus of a plot against his life.
The case against the princes looked black, and Augustus, who was under a long-standing obligation to Herod for his loyal maintenance of peace in the Near East, might well have condemned them to death, had not his sister Octavia, Mark Antony’s widow, who had befriended them during their stay in Rome, pleaded for their lives ; and had not certain influential senators, to whom Archelaus of Cappadocia had written letters, supported her plea.
Augustus decided that the evidence was not conclusive. He summed up : “Poisoners work in secret. They do not, my dear Herod, advertise their intentions beforehand as your sons are said to have done. Alexander and Aristobulus have in my opinion behaved like naughty children, not like mature criminals. They are jealous of the honours that their elder brother has earned by his prudence and modesty. And, by the by, it is only fair now to let them know that he has joined with my dear sister Octavia in a plea for clemency. He is their true friend, as an elder brother should be, and I trust that their unworthy jealousy of him will give place to gratitude and admiration. I cannot find it in my heart to condemn them, having suffered so many domestic misfortunes myself, and having seen so many vicious young men repent and reform in later life.”
When the princes had recovered from their fright they were galled to think that their humiliation had been witnessed by Antipater, and exasperated by Antipater’s congratulations on their acquittal. The truth was that he had too generous a heart to wish for the throne at the expense of his brothers’ lives ; but they judged him by their own standards of conduct to be a hypocrite and decided that his plea for clemency had been made solely to clear himself of the suspicion of having been concerned in their deaths.
They all sailed back to Judaea, where Herod called the leading Jews together at his Palace and informed them of what had happened. To the embarrassment of Antipater, who was present, he then said : “The Emperor has graciously permitted me to appoint my successor. I should dearly have loved to name Alexander and Aristobulus, my sons by the ill-fated Mariamne, as co-heirs in my dominions, for they are of the royal Maccabee blood, descendants of the glorious heroes who won for Israel the freedom which by the Lord’s grace I have been able to preserve for you and your children through years of the greatest danger. Alas, they have not yet proved worthy to rule in Israel, and were my soul to be required of me to-night, with my former Will still remaining in force, I should die miserably, expecting that all my work would be undone within a few months. These princes do not yet understand the necessity of obeying the Law faithfully, and what is reprehensible in a private person is fifty times more so in a king to whom a vast multitude looks for guidance. I have decided to appoint my generous and pious son Antipater to succeed me, with the succession, however, to revert to Alexander and Aristobulus, jointly, after his death, though he may have sons surviving, if in your opinion they are then worthy to rule. If any of you, however, has cause to complain of this decision, I hope that he will speak up boldly at once before I record and seal it in a new Will.”
No one dared to complain. Unquestionably Antipater was by far the most suitable man of the three to inherit the throne, and was moreover Herod’s eldest son.
Antipater rose and briefly thanked his father for the good opinion he had of him, which he would try never to forfeit ; but hoped, he said, that no new king would be crowned at Jerusalem for very many years to come. He ended : “And should it happen, Father, that my brothers please you better by their behaviour before long—and I am convinced that they are nobler men at heart than their rash tongues acknowledge them to be—I would not take it ill if you then decided them to be, after all, worthy of the throne of their maternal ancestors. On the contrary, I would be happy in their happiness, for we are all sons of one father and are bound together by natural obligations of love. I have only one modest request to make of you, for which nobody here can dare to blame me since I am commanded by our God to honour my mother as well as my father. It is this, that you will restore my mother Doris to your favour, seeing that you put her away for no fault of hers when you married Mariamne. She has remained faithful to you these many years, separated from your protection and care, without a word of complaint.”
Herod cheerfully granted this request, restoring Doris to her former rights by an edict which he signed on the spot.
Alexander and Aristobulus presently found an unexpected ally in their Aunt Salome, who had fallen in love with an Arabian petty king named Sylleus but had been forbidden by Herod to marry him unless he consented to be circumcised. Sylleus explained that if he were circumcised his people would stone him to death, and therefore begged to be excused the rite, but Herod could not give his sister to an uncircumcised infidel without weakening his position with the Jews ; he preferred to risk the enmity of both Salome and Sylleus. Salome was mad with rage. The intricacies of the subsequent Palace plots and counter-plots, in which most of Herod’s wives became involved, are hardly worth unravelling, but at last she succeeded in stirring up trouble for Herod at Rome with the help of her lover Sylleus and of the influential Ionian Greeks whom Herod had offended in the matter of the Jewish merchants.
Now, Herod had been provoked into sending a small punitive expedition into Arabia, where Sylleus, who owed him a great deal of money, was harbouring robber bands and assisting them, with arms and remounts, to raid Herod’s frontier villages. The expedition was successful ; the robbers were caught and the debt recovered. About twenty-five Arabians were killed. Sylleus fled to Rome and complained to Augustus that Herod was seeking to dominate all Arabia, which he had invaded at the head of an enormous army. “He has already destroyed two thousand five hundred of our principal citizens,” Sylleus lamented, “and carried off untold wealth.”
Augustus was somehow persuaded to believe this nonsense and wrote sharply to Herod : “You must now regard yourself as my subject, no longer my friend.” For no petty king was allowed to wage an offensive war without Imperial permission. The contents of the letter became known and it was generally considered that Herod’s throne was tottering. With Salome’s help, Alexander and Aristobulus then bribed two of his bodyguard to murder him while he was hunting in the desert, but in such a way that it would seem to be an accident. They also secured a verbal promise from the leaders of the Sadducee party to assist their claims to the throne should Herod die suddenly, and arranged with the commander of the fortress of Alexandrium to give them temporary refuge as soon as the accident should be reported. But Herod was informed of the plot in good time by the repentant Salome, who suddenly realized that she had behaved rashly and that Syll
eus had no real love for her. She assured Herod that she had been acting in his interests all the time, by tempting his enemies to show their hand prematurely, and that if he went to Rome he would have no difficulty in regaining the Emperor’s confidence : she knew, she said, that he had been careful to obtain the consent of the nearest Imperial authorities before sending his men against Sylleus.
Herod sailed to Rome at once and soon made Augustus see reason. Augustus apologized handsomely for having doubted him, and ordered Sylleus to be put on trial for his life on the charges of disturbing the peace, plotting the death of Herod, and perjury. Herod’s lawyers pleaded for a postponement of the trial until Sylleus had been sent under escort to Antioch, headquarters of Saturninus the Governor-General of Syria who would decide whether or not the money seized in Arabia was a full and equitable settlement of the debt owed to Herod. The postponement was granted, and Sylleus was sent to Antioch at once.
Herod then reported the new plot against his life by Alexander and Aristobulus, whom he accused of having engineered the whole Arabian conspiracy. Augustus readily gave him permission to put them to death as parricides.
Presently Cleopas visited Joachim again at Cocheba. He found him in the harvest-field, supervising the carting of the sheaves. “I have come here at your invitation, brother Joachim,” said Cleopas.
“You are welcome ; but I sent you no invitation.”
“You invited me to come to your house again when That Man’s two sons were dead. They were strangled three days ago at Samaria. The game is played. Nicolaus of Damascus was their accuser, and Antipater was called to give evidence in the matter of the two murderous guards, whose confessions he had secured. Sing me your prophecy !”