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ment or deposition. But before he departed, he acted another dreadful tragedy. Hyrcanus once the king, and long the venerable high-priest, of the Jews, had become obnoxious to his barbarous and tyrannical grandson. A plot was fabricated to afford a decent pretext for his execution, and at the age of eighty years the last male of the Asmonean family was violently hurried to the grave.

Why was the execution of Hyrcanus memorable?

The execution of Hyrcanus was the termination of a race of heroes, whose actions equal, if they do not excel, any which history has recorded; who delivered their country from a foreign yoke, beyond all others the most detestable, and raised it to a station of independence, of eminence, and of honour among the nations; who were skilful in council, moderate in peace and valiant in war; who preserved the existence, restored the purity, and maintained the claims of their holy religion; who were distinguished by being rendered the instruments of God for the accomplishment of his mysterious designs of mercy; and who paved the way for the appearance of that illustrious and adorable Messiah, whose appearance in a human form terminated the institutions of the Mosaic law, and commenced a new series of divine dispensations to the intelligent universe.

What event in the life of Herod redounded most to his honour?

A. C. 30.

The interview of Herod with Augustus constituted that event in his life, upon which the historian dwells with the greatest pleasure. His conduct was distinguished by courage, dignity, and magnanimity. He appeared before the master of the world in all his regal decorations except his diadem. He avowed his attachment to Antony; he declared that he had adopted and had advised every measure which could have made that chieftain more formidable to his antagonist; and he appealed to Augustus, if his fidelity to Antony ought not to recommend him to the confidence and favour of the conqueror himself, when he professed his readiness to assert his cause, and maintain his interests, with the same zeal and con

stancy which had distinguished his adherence to the fortunes of the friend and benefactor he had lost. The firmness, gallantry, candour, and ingenuousness of Herod produced their appropriate impression upon Augustus; his approbation was instantly testified; the power and the splendour of Herod were established upon a firmer basis than ever; and he returned to Jerusalem triumphant over all the hopes of his enemies, and the apprehensions of his friends.

SECTION III.

THE DOMESTIC CRUELTIES OF HEROD.

DESCRIBE the tragical death of Mariamne?

THE highest exaltation of glory is frequently connected with the bitterest and most deplorable misery; and ambition has no sooner accomplished the dearest objects of its desire, than it finds itself humbled by the most degrading and intolerable mortifications. So it was with Herod. No sooner had he obtained the friendship of the sovereign of the world, and thus secured the tranquillity of his government and the stability of his throne, than he was overwhelmed with domestic calamities, which rendered him the most unhappy monarch of his age. His unreasonable and cruel jealousies, his furious and ferocious character had entirely alienated the affections of his beloved Mariamne; and her irreconcilable aversion, which she could no longer conceal, effected her ruin and brought her to a tragical end. The crisis now arrived. Herod, in a moment of affection, was lavishing upon Mariamne the tenderest expressions and endearments of love; but the queen, unable to conceal her detestation, rejected his caresses with contempt, accused him of the murder of her father and brother, and upbraided him with a statement of her wrongs. Again he was on the verge of putting her to death with his own hands. The malignity of his sister against the unhappy Marianne, took advantage of his rage, and sustained his irritation, until the deed of destruction was

accomplished. The king's cup-bearer was her tool. He came with a vessel filled with deadly poison, and pretended that Mariamne had bribed him with a sum of money, to present it to Herod, and thus to satisfy her invincible hatred by his death. The infuriated monarch believed the abominable tale, and wreaked his instant vengeance upon all whom he suspected to have participated in the plot. He had left a second time with Sohemus, one of his principal confidants, orders to put both Mariamne and Alexandra her mother to death, in the event of his being unfortunate in his interview with Augustus. These princesses, recollecting how on a former occasion he had left a similar mandate with his uncle Joseph, soon procured from Sohemus the full confirmation of their suspicions; and Mariamne, unintimidated by her former danger, again imprudently divulged to Herod, that she had become acquainted with his barbarous arrangement. He immediately suspected that his favourite would never have disclosed the secret, if he had not been criminally connected with Mariamne; and the expressions of one of her favourite eunuchs who was put to the torture to extort a confession, corroborated his apprehensions, and inflamed his rage to phrenzy. Sohemus was put to death: Mariamne was tried and was condemned; while Salome strained every nerve to induce Herod to command an immediate execution, apprehensive of the return of his fondness for his queen, and her own inevitable destruction. The fatal order was given. On this appalling emergency, Mariamne conducted herself with wonderful magnanimity and heroism; and with an unfaltering step, and uninterrupted serenity, she proceeded to the place of execution. Her mother Alexandra, with diabolical baseness, either from an infamous desire to obtain the favour of Herod by her barbarity, or from a natural brutality of disposition, loaded her unhappy daughter with the most insulting reproaches, and even offered to her personal violence; but Mariamne endured this climax of her woe, with the same immovable fortitude which she had previously exemplified, and suffered the mortal stroke with the most intrepid resolution and courage.

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What was the effect of the death of Mariamne upon the mind of Herod?

The happiness of Herod expired with the A. C. 29. death of Mariamne. When the paroxysm of his fury was over, all his love returned; he became fully conscious of his irreparable loss and of his enormous crime; he was filled with remorse, exasperation, and despair. The image of Mariamne was constantly before his eyes; and if in a moment of forgetfulness he would send for hers though she were alive, his agony was fearfully aggravated by his renewed conviction of his cruelty and folly. He withdrew into the desert to avoid the sight of his fellow-creatures, and the ravages of a pestilence, as though the curse of God was upon him, aggravated his misery. At length his constitution appeared to sink, and by a painful disease, which threatened his dissolution, he was confined to the city of Samaria. He recovered, but the impression of the event was never removed from his mind. His passions became more and more irritable, and to the day of his death he was accustomed to indulge his animosities and rage, in the most fearful excesses of brutality and fury.

What other executions were performed in his own family by the sanguinary Herod?

The execrable Alexandra did not long escape the punishment due to her unnatural conduct to her murdered daughter. Expecting that the distemper of Herod would end in his death, she treasonably attempted to corrupt the governors of the two principal fortresses in Jerusalem. These officers, however, were faithful to Herod; they informed him of her traitorous practices, and he ordered her immediate execution. He not long afterwards put to death his brother-inlaw, and several of those who had been the most distinguished adherents of the Asmonean race.

What conspiracy was formed against Herod and what was its issue?

By introducing foreign, and in the opinion of the people, profane and wicked, customs; by erecting an amphitheatre for the combats of wild beasts and

gladiators, he excited the suspicion and hatred of the Jews, who considered his conduct a sufficient demonstration that he was an alien from their interests, and an apostate from their religion. Ten conspirators entered the theatre with concealed daggers, determined to kill either the king or some of his courtiers. An informer divulged the plot; the conspirators were put to the most cruel deaths; but the people were enraged; the spy was assassinated and his mangled body was thrown to the dogs. The king inhumanly put some women to the rack to discover the perpetrators of the deed, who with their guiltless husbands and children were all hurried to execution. These repeated slaughters excited general indignation, and all the prognostications of open rebellion; but Herod, by fortifyiug and garrisoning his strong places, obviated the danger, and by his munificence in a time of famine and pestilence, he repressed for the present the popular disaffection.

What magnificent architectural works were finished by Herod?

However ferocious the cruelty, and however oppressive the tyranny of Herod, it must be acknowledged that the utility and magnificence of his public works intitled him to the gratitude of his country and the admiration of posterity. He rebuilt with great splendour Samaria, to which he gave the name of Sebaste; he erected the city of Cæsarea on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea; he reared in different parts of his dominions, edifices for the convenience and defence, and perhaps for the intimidation, of his subjects; he built a gorgeous palace in Jerusalem, in which he exhausted the most precious materials, and which he adorned with the most elaborate architectural decorations; he raised another royal palace upon a hill about seven miles from Jerusalem which he called Herodion, and which was soon surrounded with a considerable city; and, what may be designated the principal work of his reign, he rebuilt, or rather reedified, the temple which had decayed in the lapse of years, and been shattered by the desolations of war. Although the authors of the two principal descriptions of this edifice appear rather to have consulted fancy

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