by Lew Wallace
CHAPTER I
It is necessary now to carry the reader forward twenty-one years,to the beginning of the administration of Valerius Gratus, the fourthimperial governor of Judea--a period which will be remembered asrent by political agitations in Jerusalem, if, indeed, it be notthe precise time of the opening of the final quarrel between theJew and the Roman.
In the interval Judea had been subjected to changes affecting herin many ways, but in nothing so much as her political status. Herodthe Great died within one year after the birth of the Child--diedso miserably that the Christian world had reason to believe himovertaken by the Divine wrath. Like all great rulers who spendtheir lives in perfecting the power they create, he dreamed oftransmitting his throne and crown--of being the founder of adynasty. With that intent, he left a will dividing his territoriesbetween his three sons, Antipas, Philip, and Archelaus, of whomthe last was appointed to succeed to the title. The testament wasnecessarily referred to Augustus, the emperor, who ratified all itsprovisions with one exception: he withheld from Archelaus the titleof king until he proved his capacity and loyalty; in lieu thereof,he created him ethnarch, and as such permitted him to govern nineyears, when, for misconduct and inability to stay the turbulentelements that grew and strengthened around him, he was sent intoGaul as an exile.
Caesar was not content with deposing Archelaus; he struck the peopleof Jerusalem in a manner that touched their pride, and keenly woundedthe sensibilities of the haughty habitues of the Temple. He reducedJudea to a Roman province, and annexed it to the prefecture of Syria.So, instead of a king ruling royally from the palace left by Herodon Mount Zion, the city fell into the hands of an officer of thesecond grade, an appointee called procurator, who communicated withthe court in Rome through the Legate of Syria, residing in Antioch.To make the hurt more painful, the procurator was not permitted toestablish himself in Jerusalem; Caesarea was his seat of government.Most humiliating, however, most exasperating, most studied, Samaria,of all the world the most despised--Samaria was joined to Judea asa part of the same province! What ineffable misery the bigotedSeparatists or Pharisees endured at finding themselves elbowedand laughed at in the procurator's presence in Caesarea by thedevotees of Gerizim!
In this rain of sorrows, one consolation, and one only, remained tothe fallen people: the high-priest occupied the Herodian palace inthe market-place, and kept the semblance of a court there. What hisauthority really was is a matter of easy estimate. Judgment of lifeand death was retained by the procurator. Justice was administered inthe name and according to the decretals of Rome. Yet more significant,the royal house was jointly occupied by the imperial exciseman, and allhis corps of assistants, registrars, collectors, publicans, informers,and spies. Still, to the dreamers of liberty to come, there was acertain satisfaction in the fact that the chief ruler in the palacewas a Jew. His mere presence there day after day kept them remindedof the covenants and promises of the prophets, and the ages whenJehovah governed the tribes through the sons of Aaron; it was tothem a certain sign that he had not abandoned them: so their hopeslived, and served their patience, and helped them wait grimly theson of Judah who was to rule Israel.
Judea had been a Roman province eighty years and more--ample timefor the Caesars to study the idiosyncrasies of the people--time enough,at least, to learn that the Jew, with all his pride, could be quietlygoverned if his religion were respected. Proceeding upon that policy,the predecessors of Gratus had carefully abstained from interferingwith any of the sacred observances of their subjects. But he chosea different course: almost his first official act was to expelHannas from the high-priesthood, and give the place to Ishmael,son of Fabus.
Whether the act was directed by Augustus, or proceeded fromGratus himself, its impolicy became speedily apparent. The readershall be spared a chapter on Jewish politics; a few words uponthe subject, however, are essential to such as may follow thesucceeding narration critically. At this time, leaving originout of view, there were in Judea the party of the nobles andthe Separatist or popular party. Upon Herod's death, the twounited against Archelaus; from temple to palace, from Jerusalem toRome, they fought him; sometimes with intrigue, sometimes with theactual weapons of war. More than once the holy cloisters on Moriahresounded with the cries of fighting-men. Finally, they drove himinto exile. Meantime throughout this struggle the allies had theirdiverse objects in view. The nobles hated Joazar, the high-priest;the Separatists, on the other hand, were his zealous adherents.When Herod's settlement went down with Archelaus, Joazar sharedthe fall. Hannas, the son of Seth, was selected by the nobles to fillthe great office; thereupon the allies divided. The induction of theSethian brought them face to face in fierce hostility.
In the course of the struggle with the unfortunate ethnarch,the nobles had found it expedient to attach themselves to Rome.Discerning that when the existing settlement was broken up someform of government must needs follow, they suggested the conversionof Judea into a province. The fact furnished the Separatists anadditional cause for attack; and, when Samaria was made part ofthe province, the nobles sank into a minority, with nothing tosupport them but the imperial court and the prestige of theirrank and wealth; yet for fifteen years--down, indeed, to thecoming of Valerius Gratus--they managed to maintain themselvesin both palace and Temple.
Hannas, the idol of his party, had used his power faithfully inthe interest of his imperial patron. A Roman garrison held theTower of Antonia; a Roman guard kept the gates of the palace;a Roman judge dispensed justice civil and criminal; a Romansystem of taxation, mercilessly executed, crushed both cityand country; daily, hourly, and in a thousand ways, the peoplewere bruised and galled, and taught the difference between alife of independence and a life of subjection; yet Hannas keptthem in comparative quiet. Rome had no truer friend; and he madehis loss instantly felt. Delivering his vestments to Ishmael,the new appointee, he walked from the courts of the Temple intothe councils of the Separatists, and became the head of a newcombination, Bethusian and Sethian.
Gratus, the procurator, left thus without a party, saw the fireswhich, in the fifteen years, had sunk into sodden smoke begin toglow with returning life. A month after Ishmael took the office,the Roman found it necessary to visit him in Jerusalem. When fromthe walls, hooting and hissing him, the Jews beheld his guardenter the north gate of the city and march to the Tower ofAntonia, they understood the real purpose of the visit--a fullcohort of legionaries was added to the former garrison, and thekeys of their yoke could now be tightened with impunity. If theprocurator deemed it important to make an example, alas for thefirst offender!
