II.  His Attitude toward Rome.  Herod’s policy was loyalty at any cost to the man who at the moment ruled Rome.  During the first part of his reign Antony’s power on the eastern Mediterranean was still in the ascendancy.  Notwithstanding the powerful intrigues of Cleopatra, Herod succeeded in retaining the favor of his patron.  When the battle of Actium in 32 B.C. revealed Antony’s weakness, Herod forthwith cast off his allegiance, and his treachery was one of the chief forces that drove Antony to suicide.  Octavian, who henceforth under the title of Augustus attained to the complete control of Rome, recognized in Herod a valuable servant.  Herod’s title as king of the Jews was confirmed, and Augustus gradually increased his territory until it included practically all of Palestine with the exception of certain Greek cities along the coast and east of the Jordan.  Herod’s task was to preserve peace in the land thus intrusted to him and to guard the eastern border of the empire against its Parthian foes.  This task he faithfully performed.

III.  His Building Activity.  The spirit and policy of Augustus were clearly reflected in Herod’s court and kingdom.  When his position was firmly established, Herod devoted himself to magnificent building enterprises.  In Antioch, Athens, and Rhodes, he reared great public buildings.  Jerusalem, his capital, was provided with a theatre and amphitheatre, and other buildings that characterize the Graeco-Roman cities of the period.  The two crowning achievements of Herod’s reign were the rebuilding of Samaria and Caesarea, as its port on the Mediterranean coast.  Both of these cities were renamed in honor of his patron Augustus.  On the acropolis of Samaria he built a huge Roman temple, the foundations of which have recently been uncovered by the American excavators.  The city itself was encircled by a colonnade, over a mile long, consisting of pillars sixteen feet in height.  Caesarea, like Samaria, was adorned with magnificent public buildings, including a temple, a theatre, a palace, and an amphitheatre.  The great breakwater two hundred feet wide that ran out into the open sea was one of the greatest achievements of that building age.  By these acts Herod won still further the favor of Augustus and the admiration of the Eastern world.

IV.  His Attitude toward His Subjects.  The peace which Herod brought to Palestine was won at the point of the sword.  The fear which he felt for his subjects was surpassed only by the fear which he inspired in them.  He was unscrupulous and merciless in cutting down all possible rivals.  The treacherous murder of Aristobulus iii, the grandson of Hyrcanus, and last of all the murder of the inoffensive and maimed Hyrcanus, are among the darkest deeds in Herod’s bloody reign.  The power of the sanhedrin, the Jewish national representative body, was almost completely crushed.  Following the policy of Augustus, Herod developed a complex system of spies, or espionage, so that, like an Oriental