And of all
who came, so say the records, not one knew another to be sure of him.
CHAPTER 16
For the king there were three great perils: the people, Caesar, and his
own family. The descendant of old John Hyrcanus of Idumaea--a Jew only
by compulsion--had no understanding of the children of Moses. He
tripped every day on the barriers of ancient law, and often his
generosity was taken for defiance. Caesar was not so hard to please.
He had vanity and laws not wholly inflexible. Herod's family, with its
evil sister, its profligate sons, its voluptuous daughters, its wives,
of whom it is enough to say they were nine, its intrigues and
jealousies, gave him greater trouble than either the kingdom or the
emperor. He built a city near Jerusalem, on the sea. Magnificent in
marble and gold, Caesarea stood for a monument of Herodian troubles.
Therein he sought to amuse the people, to pacify his kindred, and to
flatter Caesar. Its vast breakwater; its great arches through which
the sea came gently in all weather; its mosaic pavements washed daily
by the salt tide; its palaces of white marble; its great, glowing
amphitheatre--these were unique in their barbaric splendor, albeit, in
the view of the people, an offence to God.
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