Herodias | Page 9

a man of low stature, who spoke Greek, advanced with a firm
step and begged that the great lord would honour Jerusalem with a visit.
Vitellius replied that he should probably go to Jerusalem soon.
Eleazar, who had a crooked nose and a long beard, put forth a claim, in
behalf of the Pharisees, for the mantle of the high priest, held in the
tower of Antonia by the civil authorities.
Then the Galileans came forward and denounced Pontius Pilate. On one

occasion, they said, a mad-man went seeking in a cave near Samaria for
the golden vases that had belonged to King David, and Pontius Pilate
had caused several inhabitants of that region to be executed. In their
excitement all the Galileans spoke at once, Mannaeus's voice being
heard above all others. Vitellius promised that the guilty ones should be
punished.
Fresh vociferations now broke out in front of the great gates, where the
soldiers had hung their shields. Their coverings having now been
removed, on each shield a carving of the head of Caesar could be seen
on the umbo, or central knob. To the Jews, this seemed an evidence of
nothing short of idolatry. Antipas harangued them, while Vitellius, who
occupied a raised seat within the shadow of the colonnade, was
astonished at their fury. Tiberius had done well, he thought, to exile
four hundred of these people to Sardinia. Presently the Jews became so
violent that he ordered the shields to be removed.
Then the multitude surrounded the proconsul, imploring him to abolish
certain unjust laws, asking for privileges, or begging for alms. They
rent their clothing and jostled one another; and at last, in order to drive
them back, several slaves, armed with long staves, charged upon them,
striking right and left. Those nearest the gates made their escape and
descended to the road; others rushed in to take their place, so that two
streams of human beings flowed in and out, compressed within the
limits of the gateway.
Vitellius demanded the reason for the assembling of so great a throng.
Antipas explained that they had been invited to come to a feast in
celebration of his birthday; and he pointed to several men who, leaning
against the battlements, were hauling up immense basket-loads of food,
fruits, vegetables, antelopes, and storks; large fish, of a brilliant shade
of blue; grapes, melons, and pyramids of pomegranates. At this sight,
Aulus left the courtyard and hastened to the kitchens, led by his taste
for gormandizing, which later became the amazement of the world.
As they passed the opening to a small cellar, Vitellius perceived some
objects resembling breast-plates hanging on a wall. He looked at them
with interest, and then demanded that the subterranean chambers of the

fortress be thrown open for his inspection. These chambers were cut
into the rocky foundation of the castle, and had been formed into vaults,
with pillars set at regular distances. The first vault opened contained
old armour; the second was full of pikes, with long points emerging
from tufts of feathers. The walls of the third chamber were hung with a
kind of tapestry made of slender reeds, laid in perpendicular rows.
Those of the fourth were covered with scimitars. In the middle of the
fifth cell, rows of helmets were seen, the crests of which looked like a
battalion of fiery serpents. The sixth cell contained nothing but empty
quivers; the seventh, greaves for protecting the legs in battle; the eighth
vault was filled with bracelets and armlets; and an examination of the
remaining vaults disclosed forks, grappling-irons, ladders, cords, even
catapults, and bells for the necks of camels; and as they descended
deeper into the rocky foundation, it became evident that the whole mass
was a veritable honeycomb of cells, and that below those already seen
were many others.
Vitellius, Phineas, his interpreter, and Sisenna, chief of the publicans,
walked among these gloomy cells, attended by three eunuchs bearing
torches.
In the deep shadows hideous instruments, invented by barbarians, could
be seen: tomahawks studded with nails; poisoned javelins; pincers
resembling the jaws of crocodiles; in short, the tetrarch possessed in his
castle munitions of war sufficient for forty thousand men.
He had accumulated these weapons in anticipation of an alliance
against him among his enemies. But he bethought him that the
proconsul might believe, or assert, that he had collected this armoury in
order to attack the Romans; so he hastened to offer explanations of all
that Vitellius had observed.
Some of these things did not belong to him at all, he said: many of
them were necessary to defend the place against brigands and
marauders, especially the Arabs. Many of the objects in the vault had
been the property of his father, and he had allowed them to remain