e they accused Herod of injuries,
and plunderings, and subversions of temples, he stood unconcerned, and
was ready to make his defense. However, Caesar gave him his right hand,
and remitted nothing of his kindness to him, upon this disturbance by
the multitude; and indeed these things were alleged the first day,
but the hearing proceeded no further; for as the Gadarens saw the
inclination of Caesar and of his assessors, and expected, as they had
reason to do, that they should be delivered up to the king, some of
them, out of a dread of the torments they might undergo, cut their
own throats in the night time, and some of them threw themselves down
precipices, and others of them cast themselves into the river, and
destroyed themselves of their own accord; which accidents seemed a
sufficient condemnation of the rashness and crimes they had been guilty
of; whereupon Caesar made no longer delay, but cleared Herod from the
crimes he was accused of. Another happy accident there was, which was
a further great advantage to Herod at this time; for Zenodorus's belly
burst, and a great quantity of blood issued from him in his sickness,
and he thereby departed this life at Antioch in Syria; so Caesar
bestowed his country, which was no small one, upon Herod; it lay between
Trachon and Galilee, and contained Ulatha, and Paneas, and the country
round about. He also made him one of the procurators of Syria, and
commanded that they should do every thing with his approbation; and, in
short, he arrived at that pitch of felicity, that whereas there were
but two men that governed the vast Roman empire, first Caesar, and then
Agrippa, who was his principal favorite, Caesar preferred no one to
Herod besides Agrippa, and Agrippa made no one his greater friend than
Herod besides Caesar. And when he had acquired such freedom, he begged
of Caesar a tetrarchy [21] for his brother Pheroras, while he did
himself bestow upon him a revenue of a hundred talents out of his own
kingdom, that in case he came to any harm himself, his brother might be
in safety, and that his sons might not have dominion over him. So when
he had conducted Caesar to the sea, and was returned home, he built him
a most beautiful temple, of the whitest stone, in Zenodorus's country,
near the place called Panlure. This is a very fine cave in a mountain,
under which there is a great cavity in the earth, and the cavern is
abrupt, and prodigiously deep, and frill of a still water; over