dered it not inferior to the most famous cities; for it was twenty
furlongs in circumference. Now within, and about the middle of it, he
built a sacred place, of a furlong and a half [in circuit], and adorned
it with all sorts of decorations, and therein erected a temple, which
was illustrious on account of both its largeness and beauty. And as to
the several parts of the city, he adorned them with decorations of
all sorts also; and as to what was necessary to provide for his own
security, he made the walls very strong for that purpose, and made it
for the greatest part a citadel; and as to the elegance of the building,
it was taken care of also, that he might leave monuments of the fineness
of his taste, and of his beneficence, to future ages.

CHAPTER 9. Concerning The Famine That Happened In Judea And Syria; And
How Herod, After He Had Married Another Wife, Rebuilt Cesarea, And Other
Grecian Cities.

1. Now on this very year, which was the thirteenth year of the reign of
Herod, very great calamities came upon the country; whether they were
derived from the anger of God, or whether this misery returns again
naturally in certain periods of time [14] for, in the first place, there
were perpetual droughts, and for that reason the ground was barren, and
did not bring forth the same quantity of fruits that it used to produce;
and after this barrenness of the soil, that change of food which the
want of corn occasioned produced distempers in the bodies of men, and
a pestilential disease prevailed, one misery following upon the back
of another; and these circumstances, that they were destitute both of
methods of cure and of food, made the pestilential distemper, which
began after a violent manner, the more lasting. The destruction of
men also after such a manner deprived those that survived of all their
courage, because they had no way to provide remedies sufficient for the
distresses they were in. When therefore the fruits of that year were
spoiled, and whatsoever they had laid up beforehand was spent, there was
no foundation of hope for relief remaining, but the misery, contrary to
what they expected still increased upon them; and this not only on that
year, while they had nothing for themselves left [at the end of it],
but what seed they had sown perished also, by reason of the ground not
yielding its fruits on the second year. [15] This distress they were in
made them also, out of necessity, to eat many things tha