following year, B.C. 47, Antipater, an Idumean, was appointed by him procurator of Judæa. His second son, Herod, afterwards surnamed the Great, though only, according to Josephus, fifteen years of age,1 was made governor of Galilee. Cæsar had not completed his fiftysixth year at the time of his assassination, on the 15th of March, B.C. 44; but by the strong domination of his will, and his varied gifts? as a commander, statesman, and lawgiver, he had rescued his country from anarchy. At his fall there was a renewal of a state of civil disorder, which continued for the period of half a generation, and was only allayed by the final establishment of the empire, under his nephew Augustus.

Before the close of the year, B.C. 40, Antipater having been poisoned, Herod, at the instance of Antony and Octavianus (subsequently known as Augustus), was solemnly appointed the king of Judæa. He married Mariamne, the granddaughter of Hyrcanus, in order in some degree to be endowed in the eyes of the people with a lawful title to the throne. He established his power by deeds of unparalleled cruelty, among which was at length his attempt to extirpate the entire race of the Maccabees, not excepting his own wife and children. It was to conciliate the people alienated by his atrocities, that he expended, during a long series of years, vast sums in repairing and beautifying the temple.

The emperor Augustus (Cæsar Octavianus) came to the sole and supreme dignity in the year B.C. 27. The Roman empire then included the fairest portion of the known world, enclosed by the Danube and the Rhine, the Euphrates, and the deserts of Africa and Syria, containing a population of at least one hundred and twenty millions. The sea, well named MARE INTERNUM, lay in the midst, washing the shores of three continents; and giving to the empire, as outlined on the map, the appearance of one of those huge beasts which, in the prophecies of Daniel and John, are such favourite symbols of mighty world-powers.

1 Milman says he must have been at least from 20 to 25. (Hist. of Jews, ii., p. 60.) 2 Besides the Commentaries he wrote works which are lost, but the mere titles of which are proof of his literary culture and extensive knowledge. (1) "Orationes." As an orator, the ancients describe him as inferior only to Cicero. (Quintil., x., 1., § 114; Tac., Ann. xiii., 3; Plut., Cæs., 3; Suet., Cæs., 55.) (2)" Anticato," in two books, in reply to Cicero's "Cato." (3) "De Analogia," in two books: disquisitions on the Latin language; or, as Cicero styles it, "De Ratione Latine loquendi ; " it was written while crossing the Alps on one of his military journeys. (Cicero, Brut., 72; Pliny, H. N., vii. 30, s. 31; Quintil., i., 7, § 34.) (4) “Libri Auspiciorum,” or "Auguralia." (5) "Apophthegmata," or Dicta Collectanea :" a collection of good sayings. (6) "De Astris," in which he treated of the heavenly bodies. (7) “Poemata," including a tragedy, "Edipus." (8) "Epistolæ," of which several are preserved. (See Art. Julius Cæsar, in Dict. of Greek and Rom. Biog. and Myth., by William Smith, LL.D.)

Over the heterogeneous millions of this vast territory, Augustus, without seeming to assume unusual power, by the simple process of uniting all offices in his own person, concealing his usurpations under legal forms, engrossed and monopolized the whole. At length for the third time the temple of Janus was closed. In this time of universal peace, a few months before the death of Herod the Great, was born JESUS CHRIST, the Saviour of the world. It was the tidings of this event, brought by the arrival of the Magians from the East, which led this bloody tyrant to issue his decree for the massacre of the innocents of Bethlehem. One of his last acts was to put to death his eldest son, Antipater. Five days after, he suffered a miserable death, his body putrefying before life was extinct, rendering him an object of loathing to himself and all who attended him.

ever.

By the will of Herod his dominions were divided among his three sons. Archelaus received Judæa, Samaria, and Idumea, with the title of king, which with him was no more than an empty title, and now that the true King of Zion had come, was to pass away from Judah for Herod Antipas received Galilee and Perea; and to Philip was assigned the north-eastern portion of the country beyond the Jordan, Trachonitis. Both Archelaus and Antipas hastened to Rome, where the latter sought to have his father's will set aside, and obtain the royal dignity for himself. Augustus ratified, in all essential points, the will of Herod the Great, with the promise of continuing the title of king to Archelaus, should he be found to deserve it. His government, however, notwithstanding his large professions of moderation, proved most corrupt and tyrannical; and charges having been brought against him, he was deposed and banished, in the tenth year of his reign. His territories were attached to Syria, and governed by Roman procurators, who held their court in Cæsarea, on the Mediterranean, visiting Jerusalem on great public occasions.

Quirinius (the Cyrenius of Josephus and Luke) was the governor of Syria at this time; and Coponius was sent to exercise the office of procurator under him in the government of Judæa. Quirinius had been governor of Syria before, from a.u.c. 750 to 753, when the taxing that was going on at the birth of Jesus, and which seems to have been interrupted by the death of Herod, was completed. Thus the sceptre which Herod the Great left to Archelaus, subject to the will of the emperor, proved to be but a mere shadow, as Augustus permitted him to wear the title only by mere sufferance and conditionally, and on his failure to fulfil the conditions, soon deposed him from the government altogether. The title for ever lapsed, and the reins of government passed into the hands of Roman governors 1 Dion Cass., lv., 27; Jos. Ant., xvii., 1 (3); Wars, i., 28 (4).

and procurators. Marcus Ambivius succeeded Coponius, who was followed by Annius Rufus, by whom the office was filled at the period of the death of Augustus. After the deposition of Archelaus, and the government of Judæa had fallen to the administration of Quirinius, he appointed Annas (Ananus he is called by Josephus1) to the high priesthood. This was in A.D. 7, according to the Dionysian or common era (which, to avoid confusion, will be used in this work), the same year in which Archelaus was deposed. He continued to fill the office till the death of Augustus. This illustrious ruler lived to be seventy-five years of age, and, weighed down with cares and domestic misfortunes, died in A.D. 14. One of the most memorable epochs in the history of literature, as well as in the civil history of mankind, reached its noonday splendour during his reign. But the grand distinction of his reign was, that it was that "fulness of time" when everything had been prepared for the appearing of the great DELIVERER of the nations.

The man who swayed the sceptre during the larger portion of our Lord's life, and who was still upon the throne when JOHN went forth on the duties of his apostleship, was TIBERIUS. He was well advanced in life when he became emperor, and he held the office for twenty-three years, till A.D. 37, being nearly eighty years of age at the time of his death. He spent his closing years in infamous debauchery in the island of Capreæ, having retired altogether from the imperial city. On his accession to the throne, he appointed Valerius Gratus to the procuratorship of Judæa, to succeed Annius Rufus. Gratus at once deposed Annas from the high-priesthood. His successor, Ismael, son of Fabus, after a short time was succeeded by Eleazer, son of Annas, the old high-priest, who, after a single year, was deprived of the office, and it was given to Simon, son of Camithus, who held the office for another year; when it was conferred on Joseph Caiaphas, son-in-law of Annas, who filled the office during the remainder of the reign of Tiberius. Other sons of Annas filled this office at a still later period. Gratus administered the government eleven years, when he returned to Rome, and Pontius Pilate, whose name is so familiar in New Testament history, came as his successor, A.D. 25 or 26. Under the hated Roman yoke, the Jews clung only the more strongly to their Messianic hopes; but it was for a political deliverer they longed, who should break this yoke, and restore, only on a more splendid scale, the kingly power and state of David. Hence they were the more deeply offended by the humble form of Jesus, and the spiritual kingdom which He professed to found, and which He sought to convince the people fulfilled the Scriptures.

Ant., xviii., 2 (1).