Chapter III

Summary

For nine years the throne of Judea was occupied by Archelaus, the son of Herod and his sixth wife, Malthæ, a Samaritan. Little of national interest occurred during that period except a constant reference to Rome (for the claims of Archilaus were disputed by his brother, Herod Antipas—repeated insurrections of the Jewish people, and, in consequence, numberless executions—and the increasing power of the Romans within Judea, who overspread the country, and ruled with such despotic hand, as to cause innumerable adventurers to spring up, collecting daring bands around them, who, either as robbers or fanatics, increased the wretchedness of the people. Archelaus appears to have neither possessed nor exercised any kingly power. In fact, we can scarcely regard him either as a Hebrew, or a Hebrew king. His marriage with Glaphyra, the widow of his brother Alexander, and the mother of children by him, was in direct disobedience to the law of Moses, and consequently very obnoxious to the people; and so completely were himself and his kingdom in the power of the Romans, that the emperor would not even allow him the title of king, recognising him simply as Ethnarch of Judea. In the tenth year of his reign, he was suddenly summoned to Rome, and thence banished to Vienne in Gaul, and all his estates confiscated. From that hour, though one or other noble Hebrew was continually rising, with claims to the sovereignty, Judea sunk into a Roman province, dependent on the prefecture of Syria, with a subordinate administration of its own in a Roman governor, generally of the equestrian rank—and recognised in history as Procurator of Judæa.