a slow and slothful temper, made his eldest son, Phaselus, governor of
Jerusalem; but committed Galilee to his next son, Herod, who was only
fifteen, but was a youth of great mind, and soon proved his courage, and
won the love of the Syrians by freeing their country of a nest of
robbers, and slaying the captain of these, one Hezekias.

Thus Herod became known to Sextus Cæsar, a relation of the great Cæsar,
who was now president of Syria. Now, the growing reputation of Antipater
and his sons excited the envy of the principal men among the Jews,
especially as they saw that Herod was violent and bold, and was capable
of acting tyrannically. So they accused him before Hyrcanus of
encroaching on the government, and of transgressing the laws by putting
men to death without their condemnation by the sanhedrin. Protecting
Herod, whom he loved as his own son, from the sanhedrin when they would
have sentenced him to death, Hyrcanus aided him to flee to Damascus,
where he took refuge with Sextus Cæsar. When Herod received the kingdom,
he slew all the members of that sanhedrin excepting Sameas, whom he
respected because he persuaded the people to admit Herod into the city,
and he even slew Hyrcanus also.

Now, when Cæsar was come to Rome, and was ready to sail into Africa to
fight against Scipio and Cato, Hyrcanus sent ambassadors to him,
desiring the ratification of the league of friendship between them. Not
only Cæsar but the senate heaped honours on the ambassadors, and
confirmed the understanding that subsisted. But during the disorders
that arose after the death of Cæsar, Cassius came into Syria and
disturbed Judea by exacting great sums of money. Antipater sought to
gather the great tax demanded from Judea, and was foully slain by a
collector named Malichus, on whom Herod quickly took vengeance for the
murder of his father. By his energy in obtaining the required tax, Herod