there are habitations of such a structure as are well worth
seeing, both on other accounts, and also on account of the water which
is brought thither from a great way off, and at vast expenses, for the
place itself is destitute of water. The plain that is about this citadel
is full of edifices, not inferior to any city in largeness, and having
the hill above it in the nature of a castle.

5. And now, when all Herod's designs had succeeded according to his
hopes, he had not the least suspicion that any troubles could arise in
his kingdom, because he kept his people obedient, as well by the fear
they stood in of him, for he was implacable in the infliction of his
punishments, as by the provident care he had showed towards them, after
the most magnanimous manner, when they were under their distresses. But
still he took care to have external security for his government as a
fortress against his subjects; for the orations he made to the cities
were very fine, and full of kindness; and he cultivated a seasonable
good understanding with their governors, and bestowed presents on every
one of them, inducing them thereby to be more friendly to him, and
using his magnificent disposition so as his kingdom might be the better
secured to him, and this till all his affairs were every way more
and more augmented. But then this magnificent temper of his, and that
submissive behavior and liberality which he exercised towards Caesar,
and the most powerful men of Rome, obliged him to transgress the customs
of his nation, and to set aside many of their laws, and by building
cities after an extravagant manner, and erecting temples,--not in Judea
indeed, for that would not have been borne, it being forbidden for us to
pay any honor to images, or representations of animals, after the manner
of the Greeks; but still he did thus in the country [properly] out of
our bounds, and in the cities thereof [17] The apology which he made to
the Jews for these things was this: That all was done, not out of his
own inclinations, but by the commands and injunctions of others, in
order to please Caesar and the Romans, as though he had not the Jewish
customs so much in his eye as he had the honor of those Romans, while
yet he had himself entirely in view all the while, and indeed was very
ambitious to leave great monuments of his government to posterity;
whence it was that he was so zealous in building such fine cities, and
spent such vast sums of money upon t