Salome was married to Philip in the fifteenth year of her age. She had no children by Philip; but three sons by her next husband. We may infer, therefore, that she was married to him not long before his death. Let us suppose they were married in the eighteenth of Tiberius. If Salome was fifteen in the eighteenth of his reign, she would be eleven in the fourteenth ; when John the Baptist was put to death. Herodias, the mother of Salome, was betrothed to her first husband, Herod the son of the second Mariamne, as I shewed before P, in U. C. 749: when she was probably two years old. And that this match was consummated accordingly we have the assurance of Josephus ; and there is no reason whatever to call the fact in question. The marriage of Herod and the second Mariamne, we have seen', was placed by Jose Ejusdem xxxviii. Λέκτρα σοι ἀντὶ γάμων ἐπιτύμβια, παρθένε κούρη, | ἐστόρεσαν παλάμαις πενθαλέαις γενέται. ] καὶ σὺ μὲν ἀμπλακίας βιότου καὶ μόχθον Ἐλευθοῦς | ἔκφυγες· οἱ δὲ γόων πικρὸν ἔχουσι νέφος. | δω δεκέτιν γὰρ μοῖρα, Μακηδονίη, σε καλύπτει, | κάλλεσιν ὁπλοτέρην, ἤdeσi ynpaλény. Ibid. iv. 73. Pauli Silentiarii lxxxiii. ènì tỷ lồíạ Ovyarpì, ĥs õvoμa Makedovía. Nondum annos quatuordecim impleverat, . . . jam destinata erat egregio juveni, jam electus nuptiarum dies. Berenice, the sister of the younger Agrippa, was sixteen when she was married to her uncle Herod of Chalcis; and her sister Drusilla was fifteen or sixteen when she was married to Azizus m. If Aristobulus, the brother of the first Mariamne, was only sixteen 1 Pliny, Epistolæ, v. 16. U. C. 717". Mariamne his sister, who was married to Herod the same year, could not be more than seventeen; and perhaps was only fifteen. In like manner it is capable of proof that Julia, the daughter of Augustus, was married to her first husband, Marcellus, either in her fourteenth or her fifteenth year; Agrippina, the mother of Nero, was married to Domitius Ahenobarbus at a similar age; Drusilla, another of the daughters of Germanicus, was married to Cassius Longinus in her sixteenth year; and Julia, or Livilla, her youngest sister, to Marcus Vinicius in her fifteenth; and Octavia, the daughter of Claudius, was married to Nero in her twelfth. On this subject cf. Dissertation xii. vol. i. 399. m Ant. Jud. xix. ix. 1. xx. vii. 1. n xv. ii. 6. p Dissertation xiv. vol. i, 493, • De Bello Jud. i. xxviii. 2. Ant. xvii. i. 2. r Dissertation v. vol. i. 257, 258. phus, U.C. 733; in which case no child could have been born from it before U. C. 734. If a child was then born, he would be only fifteen years old, U. C. 749, when Herodias was probably two; and he would be only twenty-nine, U. C. 763, when Herodias was probably sixteen. And the age of thirty was as common an age of marriage for males, as the age of fifteen or sixteen was for females. It is probable, then, that they were married U. C. 763 or 764: and as Herodias had only one child by her first husband, and none, that we read of, by her second, it is very probable that she might not bear even that one child early. If this child was eleven in the fourteenth of Tiberius, she must have been born in the third; which would be seven years after U. C. 763, and six years after U. C. 764. Moreover, if Herodias herself was but sixteen or seventeen, U. C. 763 or 764, three or four years before the first of Tiberius, she would not be more than thirty-two or thirty-three in the twelfth or the thirteenth at which time she would be still a young woman, and capable of captivating a second husband. Herod Agrippa, the brother of this Herodias, was educated at Rome, in company with Drusus, the son of Tiberius: Berenice his mother, and Antonia the aunt of Drusus, having been intimate friends. Upon the death of Drusus, which happened U. C. 776. Tib. x. ineunte, or ix. exeuntet *, the emperor forbade his son's acquaintances his presence; that his grief for his loss might not be renewed by seeing them, and by conversing with them as before. The fact is, that U. C. 779, about midsummer, consequently in the latter half * There is a coin of this Drusus extant, which proves him to have been alive when he enter s Ant. Jud. xviii. vi. 1. VOL. III. ed on the second year of his t Tacitus, Ann. iv. 8. Dio, lvii. 22. 24. of his twelfth year, Tiberius retired first to Campania, and ultimately in the course of the next year to Capreæ" and this is what Josephus here alludes to. Agrippa soon after this, being reduced to great distress, retired to Malatha in Idumæav. How long he continued there does not appear. But when his difficulties were daily becoming greater, and he was beginning to think of suicide, his wife Cyprus, who had accompanied him, at length represented his state by letter to his sister Herodias Ηρώδῃ τῷ τετράρχη συνοι κούσῃ. We have here, then, an intimation that this couple were united in marriage at a time, which may very probably be conjectured as neither earlier than the thirteenth, nor later than the fourteenth or fifteenth of Tiberius; in one or other of which years this application must have been made. My opinion is that it was in the last, U. C. 782, at which time the city of Tiberias, whensoever it began to be built, was now complete; for Agrippa had a dwelling assigned him there, and was made 'Ayopavóμos or Edile of it. St. John's Gospel, vi. 1. 23, at the beginning of our Lord's third year, which was U. C. 782. ineunte, clearly supposes the same thing. Agrippa did not stay long in this dependent situation; and, Ant. xviii. v. 3. he returned it is said to Rome, ἐνιαυτῷ πρότερον ἢ τελευτῆσαι Τιβέριον. If this, however, is to be understood of the first return since he last left it, posterior to the death of Drusus, Josephus is at variance with himself. For in this case, Agrippa returned some time soon after U.C. 789. ineuntem; for Tiberius died U.C. 790. ineunte. Now on leaving Tiberias, he retired for a time to u Tacitus, Ann. iv. 57. 59. 67. Suetonius, Tiberius, 39, 40. Cf. Tacitus, Ann. iv. 62. v Ant. Jud. xviii. vi. 2. the court of Flaccus, the president of Syria : nor was it until after residing there some time, and a misunderstanding which at last arose between himself and Flaccus, that he finally departed, by way of Egypt, (as Philo also attests,) to Rome. Consequently, Flaccus was alive when Agrippa left Syria. But Flaccus was not alive after the nineteenth of Tiberius; for he died in office at the beginning of his twentieth year, U. C. 786, as is proved by one of the coins of Antioch, which bears his name, compared with the above quoted passage from Tacitusz: and he was succeeded early in the course of U. C. 787, by Vitellius a*. Agrippa then could not have left Syria later than U. C. 786. ineunte, which would be four years, and not one year, before U.C. 790. ineuntem. Josephus himself shews that in the twentieth of Tiberius, which answers partly to U. C. 786. and partly to U. C. 787. Vitellius, and no longer Flaccus, was now in office in Syria. Nor indeed is it probable that the particulars which begin to be related from the time of this return, to the date of the death of Tiberius, could all have been comprehended in a single year; especially as the imprisonment of Agrippa alone occupied six months of the interval dt. He * It is true, Vitellius was consul U. C. 787. but the consulate, at this time, was held only for a few months. might consequently still be dispatched into Syria by the middle of the same year: and this is implied by Suetonius, (loc. cit.) when he describes him as Ex consulatu Syriæ præpositus. + Besides, when he first returned, Tiberius was at Capreæe. According to Suetoniusf, he did not stir from the Villa Jovis in that island, for nine months after the death of Sejanus, which was XV. kal. of November g, October 18. U. C. 784. Tib. xviii. ineunte. and while he was still there, U. C. w Ant. Jud. xviii. vi. 2. x Ibid. 3. Philo Judæus, ii. 521. 1. 25-28. Adversus Flaccum. y Tacitus, Ann. vi. 27. z Eckhel, iii. 279. a Suetonius, Vitellius, 2. Tacitus, Ann. vi. 32. Pliny, H. N. xv. 21. b Ant. Jud. xviii. iv. 5. 6. d Ibid. 7. De Bello, ii. ix. 5. e Ant. xviii. f Tiberius, 65. g Tacitus, Ann. vi. 25. Cf. Dio, lviii. 12. vi. 4. c xviii. vi. 4-10. It is asserted by Josephus, that Herod the tetrarch fell in love with Herodias, as he was entertained in for. He was actually repairing But 784. or 785. he must have sent to Capreæ, when he fell sick and died. It would seem, then, that the only time when Agrippa could have found the emperor at Capreæ before the death of Flaccus, was either in his eighteenth year, between U.C. 784 and U.C. 785. medium, or just at the middle of his nineteenth, U. C. 786. ineunte. And this is confirmed by the mention of Tiberius' soon after coming to Tusculum; for that was the visit to Tusculum which Dio placed U. C. 787; and Agrippa had been some time arrived before it. u The mention of Piso as prefect of the citys when Agrippa's servant Eutychus was brought to trial, if this was the same Piso who died in office, U. C. 785. medio;t would prove the return of Agrippa to have been earlier than U. C. 785. medio; were it not that a certain Piso is still spoken of as prefect " in the last year of Tiberius. According to Dio, and by an obvious correction of the text, Ælius Lamia succeeded to Piso U. C. 785. and according to Tacitus, Lamia also must have died in office, U.C. 786w. The next prefect, according to Seneca, was i Annales, vi. I. k Ibid. 15. 20. 1 Ibid. 1. m lviii. 20. 21. 24. n Annales, vi. 15. o Dio, lviii. 24. p Ibid. 25. Tacitus, Ann. vi. 39. Cf. 20. For three years, consequently, though not at Rome, still he was absent from Capreæ. Hence, Plutarch, viii. 377. De Exsilio: Tißépios de Kaîσap ἐν Καπρέαις ἑπτὰ ἔτη διῃτήθη μέχρι τῆς τελευτῆς—would admit of explanation. q Dio, lviii. 28. Tacitus, Ann. vi. 50. Suetonius, Tiberius, 72. 73. r Ant. xviii. vi. 6. s xviii. vi. 5. t Tacitus, Ann. vi. 10. 11. Dio, lviii. 19. 20. u Ant. xviii. vi. 10. v Annales, vi. 27. w Horace, i. xxvi. and iii. xvii. are both addressed to Ælius Lamia; and were written about U. C. 731. Cf. also Epp. i. xiv. 6. and Carminum i. xxxvi. 7; the last of which implies that Lamia was then a young man ; so that he might be alive, but he would necessarily be very old, U. C. 785. x Epistolæ, 83. §. 13. Josephus also shews that he was in Campania six months before his death; and though he supposes him to have returned to Capreæ prior to that event, this is a mistake easily accounted h Suetonius, Caius, 10. 8. |