He had concluded a secret alliance against Rome with all the neighbouring kingdoms and cities for hundreds of miles around. Only Phoenician Tyre and Sidon had rejected his advances, and that had troubled him because the Phoenicians were a seafaring people and their fleet was needed to protect his coasts; but now they too had joined him. A joint deputation from both cities had approached his chamberlain Blastus and, humbly told him that, faced with the necessity of having either Rome or the Jewish nation as their enemies, they had chosen the lesser evil and were now here to sue for his royal master's friendship and forgiveness. Blastus had informed them of Herod's terms, which eventually they accepted. To-day their formal submission would be made. Herod's terms were that they should forswear Ashtaroth and their other deities, accept circumcision and swear perpetual obedience to the God of Israel, and to Herod the Anointed, his representative here on earth.
With that symbolic act would Herod initiate his reign of glory! He would mount on his throne, the rams' horns would blow, and he would command his soldiers to bring before him that statue of the, God Augustus which had been set up in the market-place of the town, and my own statue which stood next to it (wearing a fresh garland to-day in honour of my birthday), and he would call out to the multitude: `Thus saith the Anointed of the Lord, hew Me in pieces all graven images that are found in My coasts, grind them to powder; for I am a jealous God.' Then; with a hammer he would batter at Augustus's statue and mine, would strike off our heads and lop off our limbs. The people would utter a great shout of joy and he would cry again: `Thus saith the Anointed of the Lord, 0 my children, the children of Shem, first-born of my servant Noah, cleanse ye this land of the stranger and the infidel, and let the habitations of Japhet be a prey unto you, for the hour of your deliverance is at hand.' The news would sweep the country like a fire: `The Anointed has manifested himself and has, hewn the images of the Caesars asunder. Be joyful in the Lord. Let us defile the temples of the heathen, and lead our enemies captive;.The Jews would hear of it in Alexandria. They would rise 300,000 strong, and seize the city, massacring our small garrison there Bardanes would hear of it at Nineveh and march on Antioch and the kings of Commagene, Lesser Armenia, and Pontus would join forces with him on the Armenian border. Marsus with his, three regular battalions and his two regiments of Syrian Greeks would be overwhelmed. Moreover, Bardanes had pledged himself by an oath sworn in the Temple before the High Priest that if by Herod's aid he won the throne from his brother (as he had now done) he would make a public acknowledgement of his debt to Herod by, sending him back all the Jews that could be found in ;the whole Parthian Empire, together with their families, flocks, and possessions, and by swearing eternal friendship with the Jewish people. The scattered sheep of Israel would return at last to the fold. They would be as many in number as the sand, on the seashore. They would occupy the cities from which they had expelled the stranger, and the infidel, and they would be a united holy people as in the days of Moses, but ruled by a greater one than Moses, a more glorious one than Solomon, namely, by Herod, the Beloved, the Anointed of the Lord.
The festival in pretended honour of my birthday was to take place in the amphitheatre at Caesarea: and wild beasts and swordfighters and racing chariots were all ready for the performance that Herod never really intended to take place. The audience was composed partly of Syrian-Greeks, and partly of Jews. They occupied different parts of the amphitheatre. Herod's throne was among his own subjects, and next to it were the seats reserved for distinguished visitors. There were no Romans present: they were all at Antioch celebrating my birthday under the presidency of Marsus. But ambassadors from Arabia were there, and the King of Iturea, and the delegation from Tyre and Sidon, and the mother and sons of the King of Adiabene, and Herod Pollio with his family. The spectators were protected against the fierce August sun by great awnings of white canvas, but over Herod's throne, which was made of silver studded with turquoise,., the awnings were purple silk.
The audience flocked in and took their seats, waiting for Herod's entrance. Trumpets sounded and presently he appeared at the southern .entrance with all his train and made a stately progress across the arena., The whole audience rose. He had on a royal robe of silver tissue worked over with polished silver roundels that flashed in the sun so brightly that it tried the eyes to look at him. On his head was a golden diadem twinkling with diamonds and in his hand a flashing silver sword. Beside him Cypros walked in royal purple, and behind her came his lovely little daughters dressed in white silk embroidered with arabesques and edged with purple and gold. Herod held his head high as he walked and smiled a kingly greeting to his, subjects. He reached his throne and mounted on it. King Herod Pollio, the ambassadors from Arabia, and the King of Iturea left their seats and came to the steps of the throne to greet him. They spoke in Hebrew: `O King, live for ever!' But to the men of Tyre and Sidon this was not enough: they felt constrained to make amends for their discourteous treatment of him in the past. They grovelled before, him.
The leader of the Tyrian pleaded in tones of the profoundest humility: `Be merciful to us, Great; King, we repent of our ingratitude.'
And the leader of the Sidonians,: `Hitherto we have reverenced you as a man, but we must now acknowledge that you are superior to mortal nature.'
Herod answered: `You are forgiven, Sidon.'
The Tyrian exclaimed: `It is the voice of a God, not of a man.'
Herod answered: `Tyre, you are forgiven.'
He raised his hand to give the signal for the rams' horns to blow, but suddenly let it drop again. For a bird had flown in from the gate by which he had himself entered and was fluttering here and there about the arena. The people watched it and shouts of surprise arose: `Look, an owl! An owl blinded by daylight.'
The owl perched on a guy-rope above Herod's left shoulder. He turned and gazed up at it. And not until then did he remember the oath he had sworn at Alexandria thirteen years before in the presence of Alexander the Alabarch and Cypros and his children, the oath to honour the living God and keep. His laws so far as in him lay, and the curse that he had called upon himself if he ever wittingly blasphemed from hardness of heart. The first and greatest commandment- of God, as spoken through Moses, was:
`THOU SHALT HAVE NONE OTHER GODS BUT ME', but when
the Tyrian had called him a God, had Herod torn his clothes and fallen on his face to avert Heaven's jealous anger? No, he had smiled at the blasphemer and said, 'Tyre, you are forgiven', and the people standing about him had taken up the cry, 'A God, not a man'. The owl was gazing down in his face. Herod turned pale. The owl hooted five times, then flapped its wings, flew up over the tiers' of seats, and disappeared beyond.
Herod said to Cypros: `The owl that visited me in the prison yard at Misenum - the same owl,' and then a fearful groan burst from his lips and he cried weakly to Helcias, his Master of Horse, successor to Silas: `Carry me out. I am ill. Let my brother the King of Chalcis take over from me the Presidency of the Games.'
Cypros clasped Herod to her: `Herod, my king and sweetheart, why do you groan? What ails you?'
Herod replied in a dreadful whisper: `The maggots are already in my flesh.'
He was carried out. The rams' horns never blew. The statues were not brought into be broken. The Jewish soldiers posted outside the theatre, prepared to enter at Herod's signal and begin the massacre of the Greeks, remained at their posts. The Games ended before they had begun. The Jewish multitude raised a great wailing and lamentation, tearing' their clothes and throwing dust on their heads. The rumour went round that Herod was dying. He was in frightful pain, but he called his brother Herod, and Helcias, and Thaumastus, and the son of the High Priest, to his bedside at the Palace and said to them: `My friends, all is over now. In five days I shall be dead. I am luckier in this than my grandfather Herod: he lived eighteen months after the pain first fastened on him. I have no complaints to make. It has been a good life. I blame only myself for what has come upon me. For six days I was saluted by the elders of Israel as the Lord's Anointed and on the seventh I foolishly allowed His name to be blasphemed without reproof. Though it was my will to enlarge His Kingdom, to the ends of the world, and purify it and bring back the lost tribes, and worship Him all the days of my life, yet because of this one sin I am rejected as my ancestor David was rejected for his sin against Uriah the Hittite. Now Jewry must wait another age until a holier Redeemer comes to accomplish what I have been proved unworthy to accomplish. Tell the confederate. kings that the key-stone has fallen from the arch, and that no help can come to them now from the Jewish nation. Tell them that I, Herod, am dying and that I charge them not to make war against Rome without me, because without me they are a rudderless boat, a headless spear, a broken arch. Helcias, see that no violence is done the Greeks. Call in the arms that have been distributed secretly to the Jews and lay them up in the Armoury at Caesarea Philippi, putting a strong guard over them. Give the Greeks back their arms and recall them to their ordinary duties. My servant Thaumastus, see that my debts are paid in full. My brother Herod, see that my dear wife Cypros and my daughters Drusilla and Mariamne come to no harm, and above all dissuade the nation from any folly. Greet the Jews of Alexandria in my name, and ask them to pardon me for having offered them such high hopes and then utterly disappointed them. Go now, and God be with you. I can speak no more.'