Herod the Great: an historic drama in three parts

Introduction

. In writing the following drama, the author's object was twofold. First, to bring before the reading public, in a form which he hoped might attract thoughtful consideration, a view of one of the most remarkable epochs in the whole range of History, — and, secondly, to direct similar attention to the character and career of one of the most remarkable men of any period, either in ancient or modern times. As regards the interest which is to be found in the era when Herod the Great lived, it may be sufficient to point out that during the century immediately preceding the birth of Christ, the three great civilizations of the world, the Hebrew, Greek, and Roman, had apparently given forth the best which they were capable of producing, and were passing into various stages of corruption and decline.

The older civilizations of Egypt, Assyria, Persia, and Phœnicia, by which Hebrew, Greek, and Roman, in turn, had profited, had themselves long been decadent. But the influences, which all these great nations had exerted, appear to culminate, during the period under consideration, in a confluence of forces and phenomena specially resulting from the character and life-work of Alexander the Great, Julius Cæsar, and Herod the Great. The magnitude of Alexander's influence (not understood till long after his

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. death, though doubtless looked upon, from the Elysian Fields, by his illustrious master in statesmanship, Aristotle, with infinite satisfaction) was beginning to be more adequately appreciated at the beginning of the first century, a.d. ; while that of the Roman and Hebrew communities, which had been steadily growing with greater intensity but for a shorter period, flamed forth in concentrated power, as exhibited in the person and work of Cæsar and of Herod. Hence therefore the extra ordinary interest attaching to their lives and characters. But while Alexander, Cæsar, and Charlemagne, like our own Alfred the Great, have been singularly fortunate in their biographers, nothing can well be imagined more disastrous to the posthumous reputation of one of the world's greatest men than the fate which has befallen Herod the Great.

Like the other potentates now men tioned, he too had devoted friends, one of whom, Nicolaus, the eminent historian and orator of Damascus, was no less bent on handing down a faithful record of his illustrious master's character and achievements than Arrian, Suetonius, Plutarch, Eginhard, or Asser. Un happily, however, not a single copy of his work has survived what looks like a determined and widespread purpose to destroy its testimony, and to leave Herod's character and reputation at the mercy of his bigoted enemy, Josephus. The reason for that determination is, perhaps, not far to seek. For if the account of a massacre of infants at Bethlehem is accurately reported in the Gospel of St. Matthew (ch. ii., v. 16) (though, singularly enough, no mention is made of it by Josephus), the whole Christian Church, both among Jews and Gentiles, was inevitably impelled (independently of any other crimes), to regard Herod as a monster of wicked-

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. V ness, bent upon depriving the world, by an atrocious act of cruelty, of the Saviour and Deliverer, who was to redeem the human race from suffering, sin, and death. Some fragments, however, of the biography by Nicolaus have reached us through other historians, and even by means of Josephus himself ; who, in the judgment of com petent critics, has given in his history several quotations from Nicolaus, and has even added a few other passages, avowredly, from the same author. These prove incon testably, when taken in conjunction with facts admitted by all in ancient and modern times who have written on the period, that there was much in both the character and achievements of Herod over which the world should pause to ponder, and much deserving of admiration that must not be allowed to perish from the memory of man kind.

In evidence of these statements, the following pas sages may be quoted from Dean Stanley's " History of the Jewish Church ;" from Hausrath's " New Testament Times;" from Dean Milman's " History of the Jews;" and from Reim's "Jesus of Nazara." " He (Herod) had a splendid presence. . . . On one occasion when he sprang out of a bath where assassins had surprised him, even his naked figure was so majestic that they fled before him. Nor was he destitute of noble qualities, however much obscured by the violence of the age, and by the furious, almost frenzied, cruelty which despotic power breeds in Eastern potentates. There was a greatness of soul which might have raised him above the paltry intriguers by whom he was sur rounded. His family affections were deep and strong.

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. VI In that time of general dissolution of domestic ties it is refreshing to witness the almost extravagant tenderness with which, ' on the plain of Sharon ' and elsewhere he founded cities, towers, and fortresses to the memory of his father, mother, and beloved brother Phasael. In the lucid intervals of his darker days which beset the close of his career, nothing can be more pathetic than his remorse for his domestic crimes, nothing more genuine than his tears of affection for his grandchildren. Nor were there wanting signs of a higher culture than any Judæan prince had shown since the time 01 Solomon. He had an absolute passion for philosophy and history, and used to say that there could be nothing more useful or politic for a king than the investigation of the great events of the past.

He engaged for his private secretary Nicolaus of Damascus, one of the most accomplished scholars of the age, and author of a universal history in 144 books ; and on his long voyages to and from Rome, he loved to while away the hours by conversations on these subjects with Nicolaus, whom for this purpose he took with him on board of the same ship. One example of his own philosophic sentiment is preserved in the speech which Josephus ascribes to him, endeavouring to dispel the superstitious panic occasioned by an earthquake. How completely, too, he entered into the glories of Greek and Roman art will appear as we proceed, from the monuments which place him in the first rank of the masters of architecture in that great age of building. His contemporaries recognised in him one of those rare princely characters, who take a delight in beneficence, and in its largest possible scope. Not only in Palestine itself, but in all the cities of Asia and of Greece, which needed generous assistance, he freely

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. VII gave it. At Antioch he left his mark in the polished marble pavement of the public square, and in the cloister which surrounded it. In many of the cities of Syria and Asia Minor he founded places for athletic exercises, aqueducts, baths, fountains, and (in the modern fashion of philanthropy) annexed to them parks and gardens for public recreation. With a toleration which seems beyond his time, but which kindles an admiration even in the Jewish historian, he repaired the Temple of Apollo at Rhodes, and settled a permanent endowment on the games of Olympia, the chief surviving relic of Grecian grandeur, which he had visited on his way to Rome. . . . A chief of such largeness of mind, such generosity of disposition, such power of command, was well suited to take the lead in this distracted nation.

Viewed as we now view him, through the bloodstained atmosphere of his later life, even the dubious eulogies of Josephus are diffi cult to understand. But viewed in the light of the nobleness of his early youth, and through the magnificence of his public works, it was natural that — as in the case of our own Henry VIII. — the judgment of his contemporaries should have differed from that of posterity, that he should have been invested with something of a sacred character, as a dreamer of prophetic dreams, a special favourite of Divine Providence, and that a large party in the community should have borne his name as their most cherished badge, and regarded him as the nearest likeness which that age afforded to the Anointed Prince or Priest of the house of David, who had been expected by the earlier prophets." . . .* * Dean Stanley's "Lectures on the Jewish Church." Lecture L., pp. 412-414.

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. In another passage, from the same author, we read — "But the importance of Herod's life does not end with his personal history. He created in great part that Palestine which he left behind him as the platform on which the closing scenes of the Jewish, the opening scenes of the Christian, Church were to be enacted. . . . Few men have ever lived who, within so short a time, transformed the face of a country. That Grecian, Roman, Western colouring which Antiochus Epiphanes had vainly tried to throw over the gray hills and rough towns of Judea was accomplished by Herod the Great."* Then follows a striking description of Palestine towards the close of Herod's reign. Magnificent buildings, with other grand and useful public works, were executed by him, showing, as the eloquent lecturer proceeds to depict, the gradually increasing influence of Rome in Judea, and the blessings Herod conferred on Palestine by the ardent welcome which he gave to that influence.

How largely this state of peace and comparative (but very substantial) freedom was owing to Herod's wise and sagacious statesmanship, is obvious to the most cursory reader of his life and career. Turning now to the eminent German historian, Haus rath.f we find the following : " The latter period of the king's life had been so ex citing and terrible that it quite extinguished for the next generation all memory of the former part. The features of the king when distorted by madness were more deeply imprinted in men's minds than the picture of the clever energetic and courageous prince, which nevertheless he * Dean Stanley's " Lectureson the Jewish Church." Lecture L pp. 432-433- t Hausrath, "A History of the New Testament Times." Vol. ii. Fifth Division. Translated by Poynting and Quenzer.

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. IX once had been. He lived in popular imagination only as the man of blood. . . . He was, whatever else one may think of him, still the only king of Israel who enabled the land to obtain those natural frontiers which had hovered before the eyes of Moses and Joshua. He made, moreover, much out of this land. The Arabian frontier was, under Herod, stronger and better respected than it was even at the time when Judea had become a Roman province. Galilee he delivered from the control of robber-bands and Bedouins. The territory east of the Jordan was permanently tranquillized by settlements of Parthian, Jewish and Idumean military colonies. Alto gether, the capability of the country for defence, which was so conclusively proved in the Jewish war, was his work. "... The growth of commerce upon the coast was not less due to him.

Moreover, he had shaken an inexhaustible cornucopia filled with gifts over the Gentile world, building gymnasia in Tripolis, Damascus, Ptolemais and Nicopolis, theatres in Damascus and Sidon, an aqueduct in Laodicea, baths in Ascalon, temples in Tyre and Rhodes, colonnades in Tyre and Antioch. The towns of Byblos and Berytus owed to him their city walls ; Athens, Sparta, Nicopolis, Pergamos and Cos received ostentatious gifts or prizes for their games ; and had it not been for his permanent regal endowment the Olympian games would probably have come to an end. The Jews abroad reaped the benefit of their king's generosity, quite apart from the fact that through his influence with Augustus he enforced a strict observance everywhere of the privileges granted them by Cæsar, and made the oppression of his people's relatives by the Proconsuls of the empire a very disagreeable thing."

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. X After speaking of the strong castles and forts which Herod built in various parts of his dominions to overawe the turbulence of the disaffected among his subjects, and the aggressive spirit of his neighbours, Dean Milman in his " History of the Jews " continues thus : " But Herod did not neglect more noble and kingly means of regaining the lost affections of his Jewish subjects " (which he had never really possessed). " A long drought, followed by unproductive seasons, involved not merely Judea, but the neighbouring countries likewise in all the horrors of famine, and its usual consequences — an epidemic pestilence. The little corn that remained rotted, so that there was not enough seed to crop the ground. Herod immediately opened his treasures, secured a vast importa tion of grain from Egypt, and made constant distribution, both of food and of clothing.

Fifty thousand persons are said to have been maintained at his expense, and he even furnished corn for seed for the neighbouring inhabitants of Syria ; so that the fame of his munificence not merely created a strong reaction in his favour among his own subjects, but secured him a high degree of popularity with all the bordering states. . . . Thus terrible to his adversaries generally, courteous, affable, and bounteous to his countrymen, and to strangers. . . . Herod steadily pursued his policy of counterbalancing by a strong Grecian party, the turbulent and exclusive spirit of his Jewish subjects " (Milman's "History of the Jews," Book XL, p. no et seq.). Another German historian, Dr. Theodore Reim, in his able, if sceptical " History of Jesus of Nazara," (trans lated by Ransom) fully confirms, by his description of Herod's career, all that has been stated by the eminent historians above transcribed. Only one or two brief

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. XI passages can be quoted here, but they will suffice make this clear. In the first part of " The Sacred Ground-work," Reim says, "Like Augustus he also brought the wars of the time to an end . . . and bestowed upon the land [of Palestine] a long, almost forty years' peace. With this peace he gave the citizens . . . security and prosperity ; he destroyed the robber bands in the south and the north ; restored many overthrown cities, built new ones . . . gave to the people good ordinances and privileges. ... In fact, in these quiet times, the prosperity of the land increased so much, that Herod when he began the building of the temple, could boast, before the people, of the unprecedented increase of the wealth and revenue of the kingdom."* Then follows a description (mingled curiously with disparaging remarks on Herod's motives) of the respect he showed for the worship of God, and for the Jewish religion generally.

A little further on, after describing (though with a strong bias, as usual, against Herod derived evidently from Josephus' prejudiced narrative), the condition of Palestine during Herod's reign, and the external splendour which it was Herod's ambition to develop, Reim continues thus : — " Herod was not devoid of nobler qualities ; even although they have been forgotten by Jews and Christians. He was not merely a brave leader in war, a bold hunter and rider and a sagacious ruler ; there was in him a large-heartedness and an innate nobility of mind which enabled him to be a benefactor of his people. This fundamental characteristic of his nature, inherited from his father, is admitted by the Jewish historians times out of number, and has been shown by his affection for his father, mother and brothers ; * Pp. 239 et seq.

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. XII and also for his friends ; as well as by his beneficence in good fortune, and even in adversity. . . ."* The rest of Reim's comments on Herod's character and career are painfully distorted and decidedly unjust. But that makes his testimony to what he regards as the good and noble qualities of the man all the more valuable. Attention must also be asked to a singularly able defence of Herod by Mr. John Vickers entitled "The History of Herod, or another look at a man emerging from twenty centuries of calumny" (Williams and Nor gate). It is a book which makes no pretensions to literary excellence, but it manifests a remarkable amount of forensic acumen in exhibiting the alterant partem, in reply to the unjust aspersions cast on Herod's actions and character. The author of this drama did not meet with it until some time after he had, for the most part, formed the opinion of Herod and his deeds set forth in the present work ; but Mr. Vickers not only strongly confirms the views arrived at from other sources and considerations, but by his shrewd and sagacious sugges tions no less than by his thoughtful judgments on sundry obscure passages in the great king's career, powerfully upholds those conclusions.

As a matter of fact, however, the reputation of Herod need not, and ought not to, rest so much on the testi mony whether of prejudiced or unprejudiced disquisitions and historic essays, as on the evidence of facts admitted, as has been said above, by all who have written on Herod's life and times ; facts which are sign-posts to the historian, like the great distinguishing bones of fossil monsters which have enabled eminent palæontologists to reconstruct the whole frame and appearance of the * Pp. 239, et seq.

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. XIII animal. One could form a tolerably accurate idea, for instance, both of Sir Philip Sidney's character and career from the last action of his life, on the field of Zutphen — and of the character and mutual relations of Herod, Mariamne, and her mother from what is known concerning their actions and words at the time of Mariamne's execution, with its effect on Herod. "Ex pede Herculem " is a saying that goes far deeper than its primary purport. This is a line of research always useful in historical inquiry, but which becomes of supreme importance when a great man's history, written by one personally and intimately acquainted with him, has been lost, and the chief surviving authority is a rather un scrupulous enemy. An impartial view of Herod's life and times becomes of immense and increasing value in connection with the remarkable aspects of the epoch in which he lived.

But if anyone deems such history to be of special and world-wide interest because Herod made possible that condition of Palestine, and of the Roman Empire generally, which was necessary for the manifestation of Jesus of Nazareth and the subsequent establishment of the Christian Church, the present author at all events would not consider him to have greatly erred. From any point of view, this man's existence, what he was, and what he did, with full regard to the circum stances in which it was done, certainly presents pheno mena that must be worth studying. Here was a son of Edom, inspired with the lofty faith and indomitable spirit of the Hebrew race, with the fertile imagination and adoration for Beauty of the Greek, and the iron will, the hatred of Anarchy, and worship of Order and Law, characterizing the Roman, while all these qualities were

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. concentrated in one of the most intense natures ever created and existing in one of the most remarkable countries and periods of all historic time. Is it not worth trying to understand in what all this resulted? Something was clearly wanting, as in most other great leaders, to make Herod a true and perfect " Ring of Men"; and unquestionably there must be noted, as in the case of nearly all such men, a gradual deterioration of moral character with the advance of years, owing chiefly to the exercise of uncontrolled and irresponsible power, and, in Herod's case, to the cruel and malignant hostility of his nearest relatives. But when every deduction from Herod's real greatness, and from his moral worth, is fully and fairly made, with just allowance for the violent prejudice of the historian from whom most of the worst stories concerning him are derived, there remains ample evidence that in this man were largely combined many of the grandest moral and intellectual elements ever manifested, while always needed, in the true Ruler, Teacher, and Protector of communities and States.

The work he did was in many respects wonderfully fine and effectual — done, moreover, in the midst of such fearful hindrances, such seething disorder, wickedness and crime, such persistent deadly hostility, public and private, against himself, as few other Rulers have had to encounter ; while the beneficent results of that work lasted not only throughout his reign of forty years, but for full seventy years after his death. They were terminated only with the total destruction of the Jewish local polity by the Romans, and with the expulsion of the Jewish nation from Palestine. That this illus trious king was not the Man long foretold by prophet, patriot, and sage, the promised Deliverer, the Ruler of

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. XV the Ringdom of God, who, "in the fulness of time," should come into the world, was as sufficiently obvious, at length, to his most ardent admirers, as it was to himself. But it would be well if even now it were recognised by those who have too long been blinded to the actual facts of his history, character, and work, that this man, in the order of Providence, was raised up and endowed with the needful gifts for preparing " the way of the Lord," the advent of the Son of God, the Deliverer and Ring, " the Desire of all nations.'' The world has not been rich enough in men so truly great as Herod, king of Judea, that it can afford to consign his memory, any longer, to undiscerning detestation or ignorant neglect.* The wide-spread belief existing throughout the East in Herod's time, not by any means confined to the Jewish people (though undoubtedly originated and cherished by them), that about this period a great Deliverer, sent by Heaven, would appear in Judea, who would triumph over the enemies of the Jews, is referred to by both the leading Roman Historians, Tacitusf ("Hist.," Lib.

V., cap. 9-13) and Suetonius} ("Vesp.," cap. 4-8). These impartial authorities, independently of the continuous * Among other unfortunate misapprehensions which have served to darken the character of Herod the Great, must be reckoned the absurd ignorance of many cultivated readers of the New Testament, who give him credit for all the criminal acts committed by his son, the Herod of the Gospels. t "There was a conviction entertained by many persons that, according to the contents of ancient books of their (Jewish] priests, it would come to pass at that very time that the East would gain great power and that persons proceeding from Judea would then exercise dominion." X " A long-standing and persistent belief had been widely diffused throughout the whole of the Eastern world that certain persons proceeding from Judea were destined to exercise dominion about this time."

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. XVI and striking utterances of Hebrew prophets, amply justify and explain the references to this belief in the present drama. In an interesting and suggestive, though somewhat florid essay by Mr. J. M. Willett, of Philadelphia, U.S., entitled "Life and Times of Herod the Great," there is a chapter on " Anna the prophetess, daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher," who is mentioned in Luke ii. 36-38, which well illustrates the excited and deeply-hopeful spirit which pervaded the Jewish people at this time in all parts of the world. As Mr. Willett points out, the fervid and devout utterances of such a woman as Anna, addressed to her people when they assembled at Jerusa lem for their great annual festivals, during a long course of years, would naturally produce a corresponding state of feeling not only in the minds of the Jews themselves, but also among the various nations in whose communities they were scattered — " Parthians and Medes — dwellers in Mesopotamia ... in Libya and Rome, Jews and prose lytes, Cretans and Arabians" (Acts ii. 9-1 1).

And Mr. Willett thinks, with considerable probability, she must have been known both to Mariamne and Herod, some forty or fifty years previous to the birth of our Lord. For the historic accuracy of the religious aspirations and devotional feelings attributed to the Jewish personages of this drama, ample evidence, of course, is afforded in both the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures. At the close of the " Third Part " of this Trilogy, while preserving the strictly dramatic tone and form of the previous portion, the author has aimed at summarizing the ethical and religious conceptions and conclusions which are presented by the events of the later years of Herod's reign. It was necessary, on the one hand, to

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. XVII give such a presentation, otherwise the view taken of his character and aims in the first two parts would have been one-sided or defective ; but on the other hand, to have carried on that presentation to the end of Herod's career, and to have introduced the necessary scenes, would have involved much repetition, would have extended the drama, even for a chamber-play, to an inordinate length, and would have destroyed any pretensions to artistic merit. Considerable difficulty is of course experienced in any attempt to give, in a drama like the present, English equivalents for titles and modes of address whereby respect was manifested and dignity maintained among the Hebrew and Roman people nearly 2,000 years ago. And such attempt can be only a partial success, for, as a matter of fact, we are rather in the dark on this subject ; and yet the endeavour had to be made, in order to avoid giving a lamentably imperfect or wholly inaccurate idea of the mutual relations existing between the various characters of the drama.

As regards the principal personages and events, the play has been written in accordance with the facts sup plied by history and the necessary inferences to be drawn from them. It was written, no doubt, like many other literary compositions, in obedience to an overmastering impulse to express, in outward form, vivid and haunting ideas in the mind. But in offering it to the public, the author's hope and aim was not so much to attract the attention of those who are well read in ancient history (though its subject has, even by them, perhaps, been too much neglected), as to foster among other readers the study of Jewish, Greek, and Roman history. Many periods of great historic importance, in the lives of individuals

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. XVIII and nations, have been suitably embodied in the literary and artistic forms of Fiction with advantage both to the student of History and the readers of Fiction. The great Greek tragic poets delighted and instructed "the common people " of Hellas as well as the highly culti vated of their communities ; and the author of the present drama is only striving, " with unequal steps," to follow the example of greater and wiser men. It may be well to remind the reader that in writing a play,— whether for the stage or for chamber-reading — the author has to keep steadily in view the question whether what he writes would afford an actor those words and phrases which will best enable him to act, not those alone which might best suit a composition intended only to be read. The dramatic writer for the stage has simply to give his performers the most effective oppor tunities in his power for representing, in action and life like form, the emotions, purposes, and ideas with which his characters, at the time, are supposed to be inspired.

And although in a chamber-play much will or may be added in the way of literary beauty and effect, the author must never forget the dividing line between simply dramatic and literary excellence. The dramatist should always be looking to the root conception of dramatic composition — Spat., " to do." Actors do not legitimately come on the stage to recite, but to do and say something that develops and illustrates character, or carries forward the plot. In tragedy and higher comedy, poetry is often a beautiful or even necessary auxiliary, especially of course for the chamber-play. But these auxiliaries, like all the machinery, narrative, and every portion of the play must be kept in strict subordination to the por trayal of character, and the progress of the plot — a rule

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. XIX of Art in dramatic composition which, except as regards ength, should be observed even in soliloquies and dia logues intended for chamber-reading rather than for the stage, otherwise we may have a dramatic poem, but not a genuine drama. If some apology is required for the author's attempt, at a rather advanced age, to deal with the great subject of this drama in an artistic and dramatic form, he can only plead that in making that attempt he was inspired with the hope that, however imperfect its execu tion, it might lead abler students and writers to follow up the theme with greater power and happier results. Moreover, he has further been encouraged by the opinion of certain eminent men, who have expressed their sympathy with his work in the following words, quoted from a circular issued by them to invite attention to his proposed publication : "The importance of the period of history in which Herod the Great lived, and the value of the work which he accomplished, can hardly be exaggerated.

His own character and chequered career, with all its tragic surroundings, associated as they are with the history of two of the most remarkable peoples that have ever appeared in this world, the frequent and terrible collisions between the indomitable Jews and the colossal power of Rome, the extra ordinary malignity of Herod's domestic enemies, as well as the dignity and nobleness of some of the victims of his fury, furnish materials full of deepest significance and tragic interest. The re lation both of the man himself and of his kingdom to the mani festation of Jesus Christ, and the diffusion of Christianity, also invests the subject of this drama with peculiar interest, making it a matter of surprise and regret that the history of Herod and his times has hitherto received from the general reading public com paratively little attention. " These brief considerations, which are more fully set forth in the Introduction to the present drama, will explain the reasons