Herod  himself  had  long  been  married  to  the  daughter  of  Aretas,  Emir
of  Arabia  Petrsea,  but  this  did  not  prevent  him  from  courting  an  adul-
terous alliance  with  Herodias,  and  she  consented  to  become  his  wife,  on
condition  that  the  daughter  of  the  Arabian  prince  was  divorced.  But  the
latter,  suspecting  her  husband's  guilty  passion,  did  not  wait  to  be  divorced,
and  indignantly  fled  to  the  castle  of  Machaerus,  and  thence  to  her  father's
rocky  fortress  at  Petra,  who  forthwith  assembled  an  army  to  avenge
her  wrongs,  and  defeated  Herod  in  a  decisive  battle  (Jos.  Ant.  v.  i ).
18.  For  John  had  said}    Herod  was  probably  on  his  way  to  meet  his
father-in-law,    when   he    first  encountered   the   Baptist,    who,  in    the
presence   of  the  Galilean  king,  proved   himself  no  "  reed  shaken  by
the  wind"  (Luke  vii.  24),  but  boldly  denounced  the  royal  crimes  (Luke
iii.    19),  and  declared  the  marriage  unlawful.      For  this  outspoken
faithfulness  he  was  flung  into  prison,  probably  in  the  castle  of  Machserus
or  "the  Black  Fortress,"  which  Herod's  father  had  built  in  one  of  the
most  abrupt  wddys  to  the  east  of  the  Dead  Sea,  to  overawe  the  wild
Arab  tribes  of  the  neighbourhood.     Though  originally  in  the  possession
of  Aretas,  Herod  had  probably  seized  the  fortress  after  the  departure  of
his  first  wife  to  her  father's  stronghold  at  Petra  (Jos.  Ant.  xvm.  5.2).
