e him, who was sent thither by Caesar, and
Antony, and the senate; for that he would take care to have their wants
supplied that very day. After the making of which entreaty, he went
hastily into the country, and brought thither so great an abundance
of necessaries, that he cut off all Silo's pretenses; and in order to
provide that for the following days they should not want supplies, he
sent to the people that were about Samaria [which city had joined itself
to him] to bring corn, and wine, and oil, and cattle to Jericho. When
Antigonus heard of this, he sent some of his party with orders to
hinder, and lay ambushes for these collectors of corn. This command was
obeyed, and a great multitude of armed men were gathered together about
Jericho, and lay upon the mountains, to watch those that brought the
provisions. Yet was Herod not idle, but took with him ten cohorts, five
of them were Romans, and five were Jewish cohorts, together with
some mercenary troops intermixed among them, and besides those a few
horsemen, and came to Jericho; and when he came, he found the city
deserted, but that there were five hundred men, with their wives and
children, who had taken possession of the tops of the mountains; these
he took, and dismissed them, while the Romans fell upon the rest of the
city, and plundered it, having found the houses full of all sorts of
good things. So the king left a garrison at Jericho, and came back, and
sent the Roman army into those cities which were come over to him, to
take their winter quarters there, viz. into Judea, [or Idumea,] and
Galilee, and Samaria. Antigonus also by bribes obtained of Silo to let a
part of his army be received at Lydda, as a compliment to Antonius.

CHAPTER 16.

Herod Takes Sepphoris And Subdues The Robbers That Were In
The Caves; He After That Avenges Himself Upon Macheras, As
Upon An Enemy Of His And Goes To Antony As He Was Besieging
Samosata.

1. So the Romans lived in plenty of all things, and rested from war.
However, Herod did not lie at rest, but seized upon Idumea, and kept it,
with two thousand footmen, and four hundred horsemen; and this he did by
sending his brother Joseph thither, that no innovation might be made by
Antigonus. He also removed his mother, and all his relations, who had
been in Masada, to Samaria; and when he had settled them securely, he
marched to take the remaining parts of Galilee, and to drive away the
garrisons placed t