rtress, and
had sailed to him through a storm, to make supplication to him for
assistance.

4. Hereupon Antony was moved to compassion at the change that had been
made in Herod's affairs, and this both upon his calling to mind how
hospitably he had been treated by Antipater, but more especially on
account of Herod's own virtue; so he then resolved to get him made king
of the Jews, whom he had himself formerly made tetrarch. The contest
also that he had with Antigonus was another inducement, and that of no
less weight than the great regard he had for Herod; for he looked upon
Antigonus as a seditious person, and an enemy of the Romans; and as for
Caesar, Herod found him better prepared than Antony, as remembering
very fresh the wars he had gone through together with his father, the
hospitable treatment he had met with from him, and the entire good-will
he had showed to him; besides the activity which he saw in Herod
himself. So he called the senate together, wherein Messalas, and after
him Atratinus, produced Herod before them, and gave a full account of
the merits of his father, and his own good-will to the Romans. At the
same time they demonstrated that Antigonus was their enemy, not only
because he soon quarreled with them, but because he now overlooked the
Romans, and took the government by the means of the Parthians. These
reasons greatly moved the senate; at which juncture Antony came in, and
told them that it was for their advantage in the Parthian war that Herod
should be king; so they all gave their votes for it. And when the senate
was separated, Antony and Caesar went out, with Herod between them;
while the consul and the rest of the magistrates went before them, in
order to offer sacrifices, and to lay the decree in the Capitol. Antony
also made a feast for Herod on the first day of his reign.

CHAPTER 15.

Antigonus Besieges Those That Were In Masada, Whom Herod
Frees From Confinement When He Came Back From Rome, And
Presently Marches To Jerusalem Where He Finds Silo Corrupted
By Bribes.

1. Now during this time Antigonus besieged those that were in Masada,
who had all other necessaries in sufficient quantity, but were in want
of water; on which account Joseph, Herod's brother, was disposed to run
away to the Arabians, with two hundred of his own friends, because he
had heard that Malichus repented of his offenses with regard to Herod;
and he had been so quick as to have been gon