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Meanwhile, B.C. 27103, the senate of Rome had conferred upon Octavius the title of Augustus, the august, the divine, and soon in every part of the empire temples began to rise in honour of the divinity of the Emperor. Herod resolved not to be behindhand in adulation towards his patron, and, all being now dead who had any claims to the crown, he devoted himself to the introduction of foreign customs into the country. Though fully aware of the intensely national feelings of his subjects, he resolved to lose no opportunity of breaking down the wall of partition between them and the surrounding nations.

He introduced, therefore, public exhibitions and spectacles of all kinds; erected a theatre within, an amphitheatre without, the walls of Jerusalem; instituted quinquennial games, which were celebrated on a scale of the most lavish magnificence; invited to his capital the professors of every kind of gymnastic exercises, and did not even shrink from exhibiting in the city of David shows of gladiators and combats with wild beasts.