oads that led to Jerusalem, which was the royal city,
both to render them easy for travelers, and to manifest the grandeur of
his riches and government. He also parted his chariots, and set them in
a regular order, that a certain number of them should be in every city,
still keeping a few about him; and those cities he called the cities
of his chariots. And the king made silver as plentiful in Jerusalem as
stones in the street; and so multiplied cedar trees in the plains
of Judea, which did not grow there before, that they were like the
multitude of common sycamore trees. He also ordained the Egyptian
merchants that brought him their merchandise to sell him a chariot, with
a pair of horses, for six hundred drachmae of silver, and he sent them
to the kings of Syria, and to those kings that were beyond Euphrates.

5. But although Solomon was become the most glorious of kings, and the
best beloved by God, and had exceeded in wisdom and riches those that
had been rulers of the Hebrews before him, yet did not he persevere in
this happy state till he died. Nay, he forsook the observation of the
laws of his fathers, and came to an end no way suitable to our foregoing
history of him. He grew mad in his love of women, and laid no restraint
on himself in his lusts; nor was he satisfied with the women of his
country alone, but he married many wives out of foreign nations;
Sidontans, and Tyrians, and Ammonites, and Edomites; and he transgressed
the laws of Moses, which forbade Jews to marry any but those that were
of their own people. He also began to worship their gods, which he did
in order to the gratification of his wives, and out of his affection
for them. This very thing our legislator suspected, and so admonished us
beforehand, that we should not marry women of other countries, lest we
should be entangled with foreign customs, and apostatize from our own;
lest we should leave off to honor our own God, and should worship their
gods. But Solomon was Gllen headlong into unreasonable pleasures, and
regarded not those admonitions; for when he had married seven hundred
wives, [19] the daughters of princes and of eminent persons, and three
hundred concubines, and those besides the king of Egypt's daughter, he
soon was governed by them, till he came to imitate their practices. He
was forced to give them this demonstration of his kindness and affection
to them, to live according to the laws of their countries. And as he
grew into year