the Jordan to the southward of the Sea of Galilee, called Perea.  Antipas was the Herod under whose sway Jesus lived in Galilee, and who executed John the Baptist.  He was a man of passionate temper, with the pride and love of luxury of his father.  Having Jews to govern, he held, as his father had done, to a show of Judaism, though at heart he was as much of a pagan as Philip.  He, too, loved building, and Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee was built by him for his capital.  His unscrupulous tyranny and his gross disregard of common righteousness appear in his relations with John the Baptist and with Herodias, his paramour.  Jesus described him well as “that fox” (Luke xiii. 32), for he was sly, and worked often by indirection.  While his father had energy and ability which command a sort of admiration, Antipas was not only bad but weak.

4.  Both Philip and Antipas reigned until after the death of Jesus, Philip dying in A.D. 34, and Antipas being deposed several years later, probably in 39.  Archelaus had a much shorter rule, for he was deposed in A.D. 6, having been accused by the Jews of unbearable barbarity and tyranny,—­a charge in which Antipas and Philip joined.  The territory of Archelaus was then made an imperial province of the second grade, ruled by a procurator appointed from among the Roman knights.  In provinces under an imperial legate (propraetor) the procurator was an officer for the administration of the revenues; in provinces of the rank of Judea he was, however, the representative of the emperor in all the prerogatives of government, having command of the army, and being the final resort in legal procedure, as well as supervising the collection of the customs and taxes.  Very little is known of the procurators appointed after the deposition of Archelaus, until Tiberius sent Pontius Pilate in A.D. 26.  He held office until he was deposed in 36.  Josephus gives several examples of his wanton disregard of Jewish prejudice, and of his extreme cruelty.  His conduct at the trial of Jesus was remarkably gentle and judicial in comparison with other acts recorded of his government; yet the fear of trial at Rome, which finally induced him to give Jesus over to be crucified, was thoroughly characteristic; in fact, his downfall resulted from a complaint lodged against him by certain Samaritans whom he had cruelly punished for a Messianic uprising.

5.  There were two sorts of Roman taxes in Judea:  direct, which were collected by salaried officials; and customs, which were farmed out to the highest bidder.  The direct taxes consisted of a land tax and a poll tax, in the collection of which the procurator made use of the local Jewish courts; the customs consisted of various duties assessed on exports, and they were gathered by representatives of men who had bought the right to collect these dues.  The chiefs as well as their underlings are called publicans in our New Testament, although the name strictly applies only to the chiefs.  These tax-gatherers, small and great, were everywhere despised and execrated, because, in addition to their subserviency to a hated government, they had a reputation, usually deserved, for all sorts of extortion.  Because of this evil repute they were commonly drawn from the unscrupulous among the people, so that the frequent coupling of publicans and sinners in the gospels probably rested on fact as much as on prejudice.