Chapter 16

For the king there were three great perils: the people, Caesar, and his
own family. The descendant of old John Hyrcanus of Idumaea--a Jew only
by compulsion--had no understanding of the children of Moses. He
tripped every day on the barriers of ancient law, and often his
generosity was taken for defiance. Caesar was not so hard to please.
He had vanity and laws not wholly inflexible. Herod's family, with its
evil sister, its profligate sons, its voluptuous daughters, its wives,
of whom it is enough to say they were nine, its intrigues and
jealousies, gave him greater trouble than either the kingdom or the
emperor. He built a city near Jerusalem, on the sea. Magnificent in
marble and gold, Caesarea stood for a monument of Herodian troubles.
Therein he sought to amuse the people, to pacify his kindred, and to
flatter Caesar. Its vast breakwater; its great arches through which
the sea came gently in all weather; its mosaic pavements washed daily
by the salt tide; its palaces of white marble; its great, glowing
amphitheatre--these were unique in their barbaric splendor, albeit, in
the view of the people, an offence to God.

Among those who dwelt in Caesarea was Elpis, eighth wife of the king,
with her daughter Salome, whose praises had been sung at the banquet of
Antipater. Both were renowned for beauty and the splendor of their
dress. Salome had the colors of the far north, and that perfect and
voluptuous contour found only in marble figures of Venus, above the
great purple sea, and, below it, in the daughters of men. She was
tall, shapely, full blooded. They called her Salome, child of the sun,
because she had the dark of night in her large eyes, the tints of
morning in her cheeks, and the gold of noonday in her hair.

When Manius came to seek her hand the king said, with a smile: "My
noble youth, she is for the like of Achilles--a man of heroic heart and
size. Have you no fear of her?"

Quickly Manius replied: "Know you not, O king! my fathers fought with
Achilles?"

"But they had the protection of the gods," said Herod, with a smile.
"However, you may find her favor sufficient. I have heard her speak
fair of you."

Now a quarrel had arisen between Elpis and a sister of Herod. So,
therefore, to calm a tempest, the adroit king had sent his eighth wife
to live by the sea.

It was a day near the nones of October, when the tribune went to
Caesarea with Manius. There in a great palace, erected by the king,
they met the two renowned women. It was a fête day and the gay people
of Herod's court were in attendance. Salome was dancing, tabret in
hand, her form showing through a robe of transparent silk as the two
entered. Once before, at