esents that he gave him, a
thousand talents; as also to his wife, and children, and friends, and
freed-men about five hundred: he also bequeathed to all others a great
quantity of land, and of money, and showed his respects to Salome
his sister, by giving her most splendid gifts. And this was what was
contained in his testament, as it was now altered.

CHAPTER 33.

The Golden Eagle Is Cut To Pieces. Herod's Barbarity When He
Was Ready To Die. He Attempts To Kill Himself. He Commands
Antipater To Be Slain. He Survives Him Five Days And Then
Dies.

1. Now Herod's distemper became more and more severe to him, and this
because these his disorders fell upon him in his old age, and when he
was in a melancholy condition; for he was already seventy years of age,
and had been brought by the calamities that happened to him about
his children, whereby he had no pleasure in life, even when he was in
health; the grief also that Antipater was still alive aggravated his
disease, whom he resolved to put to death now not at random, but as soon
as he should be well again, and resolved to have him slain [in a public
manner].

2. There also now happened to him, among his other calamities, a
certain popular sedition. There were two men of learning in the city
[Jerusalem,] who were thought the most skillful in the laws of their
country, and were on that account had in very great esteem all over the
nation; they were, the one Judas, the son of Sepphoris, and the other
Matthias, the son of Margalus. There was a great concourse of the young
men to these men when they expounded the laws, and there got together
every day a kind of an army of such as were growing up to be men.
Now when these men were informed that the king was wearing away
with melancholy, and with a distemper, they dropped words to their
acquaintance, how it was now a very proper time to defend the cause
of God, and to pull down what had been erected contrary to the laws of
their country; for it was unlawful there should be any such thing in
the temple as images, or faces, or the like representation of any animal
whatsoever. Now the king had put up a golden eagle over the great gate
of the temple, which these learned men exhorted them to cut down; and
told them, that if there should any danger arise, it was a glorious
thing to die for the laws of their country; because that the soul was
immortal, and that an eternal enjoyment of happiness did await su