:

This man thrust himself into the king's presence, with the greatest freedom and desired to speak with him alone, which the king permitted him to do. He then said, "Since I am

not able, O king, to bear up under so great a concern as I feel, I have preferred the use of this bold liberty that I now take; which may be for thy advantage, if thou mindest to get any profit by it, before my own safety. Whither is thy understanding gone, and left thy soul empty?— Whither is that extraordinary sagacity of thine gone, whereby thou hast performed so many and such glorious actions? Whence comes this solitude, and desertion of thy friends and relations: of whom I cannot but determine, that they are neither thy friends and relations while they overlook such horid wickedness in thy once happy kingdom. Dost not thou perceive what is doing? Wilt thou slay these two young men, born of thy queen, who are accomplished with every virtue in the highest degree, and leave thyself destitute in thy old age: but exposed to one son, who hath very ill managed the hopes thou hast given him? and to relations, whose death thou hast so often resolved on thyself? Dost not thou take notice, that the very silence of the multitude at once sees the crime, and abhors the fact? The whole army and its officers have commiseration on the poor unhappy youths; and hatred against those that are the actors in this matter."These words the king heard; and for some time with good temper. But when Tero plainly touched upon the bad behaviour and perfidiousness of his domestics, he was moved at it. But Tero went on farther; and by degrees used an unbounded military freedom of speech. Nor was he so well disciplined as to accommodate himself to the time. So Herod was greatly disturbed; and seeming to be rather reproached by this speech, than to be hearing what was for his advantage; while he learned hereby, that both the soldiers abhorred the thing he was about, and the officers had indignation at it; he gave order that all whom Tero had named, and Tero himself, should be bound and kept in prison.

When this was over, one Trypho, who was the king's barber, came and told Herod, that Tero would have often persuaded him, to cut his throat: for that by this means he should be

among the chief of Alexander's friends, and receive great rewards from him. When he had said this, the king gave order that Tero, and his son, and the barber, should be tortured: which was done accordingly. But while Tero bore up himself, his son, seeing his father already in a sad case, and without hope of deliverance, and perceiving what would be the consequence of his terrible sufferings, said, that if the king would free him and his father from those torments, for what he should say, he would tell the very truth. And when the king had given his word to do so, he said, there was an agreement made, that Tero should lay violent hands on the king: because it was easy for him to come to him when he was alone: and that if, when he had done the thing, he should suffer death for it, as was not unlikely, it would be an act of generosity done in favour of Alexander. This was what Tero's son said; and thereby freed his father from the distress he was in. But uncertain it is, whether he had been thus forced to speak what was true; or whether it were a mere contrivance to procure his own and his father's deliverance from their miseries.

As for Herod, if he had before any doubt about the slaughter of his sons, there was now no longer any room left in his soul for it. But he had banished whatsoever might afford the least suggestion of reasoning better about this matter. So he made haste to bring his purpose to a conclusion. He also brought out three hundred of the officers, that were under an accusation, as also Tero, and his son, and the barber that accused them, before an assembly; and brought an accusation against them all, whom the multitude stoned, with whatsoever came to hand, and thereby slew them. Alexander also and Aristobulus were brought to Sebaste, by their father's command, and there strangled. But their dead bodies were, in the night time, carried to Alexandrium; where their uncle by the mother's side, and the greatest part of their ancestors, had been deposited.

And now perhaps it may not seem unreasonable to some, that such an inveterate hatred might increase so much on both sides, as to proceed farther, and to overcome nature. But it may justly deserve consideration, whether it be laid to the charge of the young men, that they gave such an occasion to their fa

ther's anger, and led him to do what he did: and, by going on long in the same way, put things past remedy, and brought him to use them so unmercifully. Or whether it be to be laid to the father's charge, that he was so hard-hearted, and so very tender in the desire of government, and of other things that would tend to his glory, that he would take no one into a partnership with him; so that whatsoever he would have done himself might continue immoveable. Or indeed whether fortune have not greater power than all prudent reasonings. Whence we* are persuaded that human actions are thereby determined beforehand, by an inevitable necessity, and we call her Fate, because there is nothing which is not done by her. Wherefore I suppose it will be sufficient to compare this notion with that other which attributes somewhat to ourselves; and renders men not unaccountable for the different conduct of their lives: which notion is no other than the philosophical determination of our ancient law. Accordingly, of the two other causes of this sad event, any body may lay the blame on the young men, who acted by youthful vanity, and pride of their royal birth; that they should bear to hear the calunnies that were raised against their father whilst certainly they were not equitable judges of the actions of his life; but ill natured in suspecting, and intemperate in speaking of them; and on both accounts easily caught by those that observed them, and revealed them, to gain faYet cannot their father be thought unworthy of excuse, as to that horrid impiety which he was guilty of; while he ventured, without any certain evidence of their treacherous designs against him, and without any certain proofs that they had made preparations for such attempt, to kill his own sons;† who were very comely, and the darlings of other men; and no way deficient in their conduct; whether it were in hunting, in warlike exercises, or in speaking upon occasional topics of discourse. For

vour.

* Josephus here speaks of the Pharisees, as a sect; not of himself, as an individual; as will appear in the sequel.

+ Strong indeed ought to be the accusation to justify an action so repulsive of the first and strongest feelings of nature. It can scarcely be apprehended, but that fear and jealousy predominated over affection and duty. B.

VOL. III.

in all these they were skilful; and especially Alexander, who was the eldest. For certainly it had been sufficient, even though he had condemned them, to have kept them alive in bonds; or to let them live at a distance from his dominions, in banishment; while he was surrounded by the Roman forces, which were a strong security to him; whose help would prevent his suffering any thing by a sudden onset, or by open force. But for him to kill them on the sudden, in order to gratify his own passion, was a demonstration of insufferable impiety. He also was guilty of so great a crime in his elder age. Nor will the delays that he made, and the length of time in which the thing was done, plead at all for his excuse. For when a man is on a sudden amazed, and in commotion of mind, and then commits a wicked action; although this be a heavy crime, yet is it a thing that frequently happens. But to do it upon deliberation, and after frequent attempts, and as frequent puttings off, to undertake it at last, and accomplish it, was the action of a murderous mind; and such as was not easily moved from that which is evil. And this temper he showed in what he did afterward; when he did not spare those that seemed to be the best beloved of his friends that were left. Wherein, though the justice of the punishment caused those that perished to be the less pitied, yet was the barbarity of the man here equal; in that he did not abstain from their slaughter also. But of those persons we shall have occa sion to discourse more hereafter.

THE

ANTIQUITIES

OF

THE JEWS.

BOOK XVII.

Containing an Interval of Fourteen Years.

FROM THE DEATH OF ALEXANDER AND ARISTOBULUS, TO THE BANISHMENT OF ARCHELAUS.

CHAP. I.

ANTIPATER IS HATED BY ALL THE JEWISH NATION, FOR THE SLAUGHTER OF HIS BRETHREN; BUT INGRATIATES HIMSELF WITH THE ROMANS, BY HIS LIBERAL PRESENTS.-ALSO CONCERNING HEROD'S WIVES AND CHILDREN.

WHEN Antipater had thus taken off his brethren, and had brought his father into the highest degree of impiety, till he was haunted with furies for what he had done, his hopes did not succeed to his mind, as to the rest of his life. For although he were delivered from his fear of his brethren being his rivals as to the government; yet did he find it a very hard thing, and almost impracticable, to come at the kingdom, because the hatred of the nation against him on that account was become so very great. And besides this very disagreeable circumstance, the affair of the soldiery grieved him still more; who were alienated from him; from which yet these kings derived all the safety which they had, whenever they found the nation desirous of innovation. And all this danger was drawn upon him by his destruction of his brethren. However, he governed the nation