ABSTRACT
. The complex interests and external brilliancy of Herod’s long reign engage naturally the complete attention of the historian. Augustus and the Roman officials, Herod and his court, the high-priest and the Jewish nobles, the Greeks and their Hellenistic cities, are all factors in a problem whose outworking in the days of the Idumean king was of absorbing interest. An interest yet deeper, however, centres in the life of the people, for that life, inspired by stern ambitions and quickened by large hopes, was also working out issues of earnest import. Except when in moments of indignation a righteous spirit flamed forth against the heathenish deeds of Herod, the nation’s life moved quietly and with the monotony of every-day routine. It was a still, strong current revealing its depth and power only against the obstacles that were at times thrown defiantly in its way. These times of opposition are, therefore, of more than passing interest. They are indices, exponents, of that inward development which is, after all, the essential part of a nation’s history. As the critical moments of antagonism measure the force of a nation’s inner life, so the institutions which are dear to it reveal the quality of that life and the literature which comes out of it, its trend or direction. Power, quality, direction,—these are the characteristics the knowledge of which enables one to speak of the inner life of a nation.
