Free Claudius the God by Robert Graves Page A

celebrate this, Herod Agrippa, my friend, with the best wine in the camp.’ They were just eating a most cheerful meal together, Herod being in his best form and telling the governor what a good fellow he was, and how considerately he had behaved, and how happy they would all be now that Caligula was. Emperor, when news came that Tiberius was not dead after all This put the governor into a great state of alarm. He decided that Herod had arranged for this false message to be brought just to get him into trouble. ‘Back to your chain this instant,’ he shouted angrily, ‘and never expect me to trust you again.’ So Herod had to get up from the table and go gloomily back to his cell. But, as you will again recall, Macro had not allowed Tiberius to enjoy his new lease of life for very long but had gone into the Imperial bedchamber and smothered him with a pillow. So again the news came that Tiberius was dead, this time really dead. But the governor kept Herod chained up all night. He was not taking any risks.
    Caligula wished to release Herod at once, but curiously enough it was my mother who prevented him from doing so. She was at Baiae, close to Misenum. She told him that until Tiberius’s funeral was over it would be indecent to release anyone who had’ been imprisoned by him on a charge of treason. It would look much better if Herod, though allowed to return to his house at Rome, were to remain for a time under open arrest. So this was done. Herod went home but still had his warder with him and was expected to wear prison dress. When the official mourning for Tiberius was at an end, Caligula sent Herod a message telling him to shave and put on clean clothes and come to dine with him the next day at the Palace. Herod’s troubles seemed over at last.
    I do not think that I mentioned the death, three years before this, of Herod’s uncle Philip: he left a widow - Salome, Herodias’s daughter, reputed the most beautiful woman in the Near East. When the news of Philip’s death reached Rome, Herod had immediately spoken to the freedman who was most in Tiberius’s confidence where Eastern questions were concerned, and persuaded him to do something for him.’ The freedman was to remind Tiberius that Philip had left no children, and was to suggest that his tetrarchy of Bashan should be given to no other member of the Herod family but be temporarily attached, for administrative purposes, to the province of Syria. The freedman was on no account to remind Tiberius of the royal revenues of the tetrarchy, which amounted to 160,000 gold pieces a year. Should Tiberius take his advice and instruct him to write a letter informing the Governor of Syria that the tetrarchy would now pass under his jurisdiction, he was to smuggle in a postscript to the effect that the royal revenues must be allowed to accumulate until a successor to Philip should be appointed. Herod was reserving Bashan and its revenues for his own use. So it happened that when, at the dinner to which he had invited Herod, Caligula gratefully rewarded him for his sufferings by granting him the tetrarchy complete with revenues, with the title of king thrown in too, Herod found himself very well off indeed. Caligula also called for the chain which Herod had worn in prison and gave him an exact replica of it, link for link, in the purest gold. A few days later Herod, who had not forgotten to secure the old German’s release and to get the coachman condemned for perjury, deprived of his freedom, and whipped nearly to death, sailed joyfully to, the East to take over his new kingdom. Cypros went with him, more joyful even than he. During Herod’s imprisonment she had been looking thoroughly ill and miserable, for she was the most faithful wife in the world and even refused to eat. or drink anything better than the prison rations that her husband was drawing. She stayed at the house of Herod’s younger brother, Herod Pollio.
    This happy pair, then, Herod and Cypros,