let or hinderance. Philo also tells us that he appointed a bullock and two lambs to be sacrificed daily as whole burnt-offerings to the most high God at the temple of Jerusalem, and the expenses to be defrayed out of his own revenuet: and both he and his empress Livia adorned the temple with many rich presents ".

3dly, It is also, I think, sufficiently evident from the History of Josephus, that he actually did grant what they desired. He annexed their country to the province of Syria, and placed over them a Roman governor, who was under the president of Syria. This is all that appears upon the face of their petition; and thus much, it is certain, was granted. And why may we not suppose that they obtained the spirit as well as letter of their petition, and were gratified in the end for which they so earnestly sought this alteration? Is there any thing related by Josephus which shews the contrary? Is there any one word throughout his whole history which will prove that the Jewish nation were not governed

t Leg. ad Caium, p. 1014. fin. et p. 1036, C.

" Καὶ ἡ προμάμμη σου Ιουλία Σεβαστὴ κατεκόσμησε τὸν νεὼν χρυσαῖς φιάλαις καὶ σπονδεῖοις, καὶ ἄλλων ἀναθεμάτων πολυτελεστάτων πλήθει. Agrippa in Phil. Leg. ad Caium, p. 1036, D. 'Améoxeto d' ovèè τῶν ὑπὸ τοῦ Σεβαστοῦ καὶ τῆς γυναικὸς αὐτοῦ πεμφθέντων ἀκρατοφόρων. Οἱ μὲν γὰρ Ῥωμαίων βασιλεῖς ἐτίμησάν τε καὶ προσεκόσμησαν τὸ ἱερὸν ἀεί. Jos. Bell. Jud. 1. 5. c. ult. §. 6. p. 1256, pr.

* Jos. Antiq. 1. 17, fin. et l. 18, pr. Hapñv dè xai Kupńvios els tùy Ἰουδαίων προσθήκην τῆς Συρίας γενομένην. Vitellius, president of Syria, sent Pilate to Rome to give an account of his conduct, and placed Marcellus his friend in his room. Antiq. 1. 18. c. 5. §. 2. Thus also Ummidius Quadratus, president of Syria, sent Cumanus, governor of Judæa, to Italy, to give an account of his behaviour. Antiq. 1. 20. c. 5. §. 2. p. 889, fin.

by their own laws, or that their magistrates had not the power of inflicting corporal punishments and death in the execution of their laws? Is it not natural to suppose, that had they been deprived of these rights, Josephus would have taken particular and express notice of it? Nay, was it not incumbent on him as an historian so to do? When he had before told us of the petition offered by the Jewish nation, of the great solemnity of the embassy sent therewith, of the numerous body of Jews which attended when it was presented to Augustus, and of the end for which they so eagerly desired his compliance and favourable answer; if, after this petition was granted, they found themselves disappointed in the end they proposed to themselves by offering it, and were not allowed the free use of their own laws, at least not the execution of them in all capital causes; was it not, I say, incumbent on him as an historian to have related this? Most certainly it was; and the neglect hereof is too gross an error to charge on such a writer. It is true, the petition was not granted till eight or nine years after it was presented. But this is no manner of excuse for Josephus, because the facts mentioned by him as happening during this interval of time are so very few,. and the relation of them is in so narrow a compass,

y Josephus herein differs from himself. In his Antiquities, he says Archelaus was banished in the tenth year of his reign; in the Jewish Wars, in the ninth. Antiq. 1. 17. c. ult. §. 2, 3. De Bell. Jud. 1. 2. c. 7. §. 3. Is it not possible to reconcile him thus? May he not in his Antiquities reckon his reign from the time of his father's death? in his Jewish Wars, from the time Augustus confirmed his father's will, and made him ethnarch?

N

that they could never make him forget so material a part of his History as this.

It seems, such was the friendship which Augustus had for Herod the Great, that, willing first to try how his children would behave, he postponed the petition of the Jewish nation, and divided the kingdom among three of them. The one half of it he bestowed on Archelaus, with an express charge that he should be gentle to his subjects". He He gave him the title of ethnarch, with a promise that, if he behaved worthily, he should have that of king conferred on him. But he, neglecting the charge given him, was cruel, and after a reign of nine years, being accused, was banished to Vienna, a city of Gaulb. Then Augustus literally answered the petition which the Jews offered to him nine years before. He did not prefer any other of Herod's children to the vacant ethnarchy, but joined it to the province of Syria. He nominated Quirinus, a person of the highest dignity, president of Syria, and sent him into Judæa, not only to confiscate the goods of Archelaus, and make a Roman census, i. e. a survey and enrolment of the estate and goods belonging to each person; but, as I take it, to settle the new government, and give laws to the Jews; i. e. to prescribe

2 Ἵνα ἐπιεικῶς ἀναστρέφηται πρὸς αὐτούς. Antiq. l. 17. c. ult. §. 2. p. 788. 1. 12.

a Ibid. c. 13. §. 4, pr. et de Bell. Jud. 1. 2. c. 6. §. 3, pr.

b De Bell. Jud. 1. 2. c. 7. §. 3. Antiq. 1. 17. c. ult. §. 2.

d As Pompey and Gabinius had done before him, and as the general, with the advice of the decem legati, were wont to do under the ancient republic.

what should be the authority of their magistrates, how far they should use their own laws, what should be the power of the Roman governor among them, and whatever other particulars he should think might conduce to the public weal. Coponius is sent with him to be their governor; and because he was one of the first instances (it may be the very first instance) of a procurator Cæsaris, to whom was committed merum imperiume, Josephus expressly tells us, that the power he received from Cæsar reached even to the taking away of life.

I have already observed to you that the governors of provinces were judges in all cases of sedition and treason against the Roman state, and in this respect had power over the freest countries, even such as Massilia and Nemausus. This power therefore we may be sure was in the procurator of Judæa; and it is very probable his power extended to the punishment of all public crimes. It is possible also there might lie an appeal to him from the Jewish courts, or he might have an authority given him to call whatever causes he pleased before himself. These things are uncertain to us now, because we have no account left of the settlement made by Quirinus. I have fully proved to you that the Romans

e

Probably also the first instance of a governor, under another that was governor of the province, who had the power of the sword. For Judæa was annexed to the province of Syria, and the procurator of Judæa was under the command of the governor of Syria.

* Μέχρι τοῦ κτείνειν λαβὼν παρὰ τοῦ Καίσαρος ἐξουσίαν. De Bell. Jud. 1. 2. c. 8. §. I, pr.

8 Thus much seems implied in that expression of Josephus before quoted, Ηγησόμενος Ἰουδαίων τῇ ἐπὶ πᾶσιν ἐξουσία. Antiq. 1. 18. C. I. §. I.

did not every where make the same settlements; that in some places the laws of the country were more fully observed, in other places there was a greater mixture of the Roman laws; in some countries the Roman governor had a greater, in some a less power. What the precise bounds were in Judæa we are altogether ignorant. But that Augustus did grant to the Jews the use of their own laws, and that this was continued to them by the succeeding emperors, is fully evident from many passages in Josephus.

SECT. IX.

Passages from Josephus and Philo, proving that the Romans did grant to the Jews the execution of their own laws even in capital cases.

THE high priest Ananus, in the speech he makes to the people to stir them up against the zealots, has this expression: "For if we must suit words to

things, one shall perchance find that the Romans "have been the establishers and confirmers of our "laws, and that our enemies are those within"." With what propriety could the Romans be called the establishers or the confirmers of the Jewish laws, if they took from them the execution? Every one knows, that, unless penalties are executed, laws are useless. Could those who rendered them useless, who indeed destroyed them, be fitly and properly called Be Baràs, the confirmers or establishers of them? And it is well worth the remarking, that Ananus was at this time afraid of speaking in commendation of the Romans; that what he says is ut

Η Καὶ γὰρ ἂν εἰ ἑτοίμους δεῖ τοῖς πράγμασι τὰς κλήσεις ἐφαρμόζειν, τάχα ἂν εὕροι τὶς Ῥωμαίους μὲν ἡμῖν βεβαιωτὰς τῶν νόμων, πολεμίους δὲ Tous evdov. Bell. Jud. 1. 6. c. 6. §. 2. p. 1173. l. 32.