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"by her words and actions; that the fines which he had laid had not been paid, and the offenders had escaped punishment by her means; and that nothing which had of late "been done had been done without her: for which reason "Pheroras would do well, if he would, of his own accord, "and by his own command, and not at my entreaty, or as "following my opinion, put this his wife away, as one that " will still be the occasion of war between thee and me. And "now Pheroras, if thou valuest thy relation to me, put this "wife of thine away: for by this means thou wilt continue "to be a brother to me, and wilt abide in thy love to me." Then said Pheroras, (although he were pressed hard by the former words,) that "As he would not do so unjust a thing as to renounce his brotherly relation to him, so would he not leave off his affection for his wife: that he would ra"ther choose to die than to live, and be deprived of a wife "that was so dear unto him." Hereupon Herod put off his anger against Pheroras on these accounts, although he himself thereby underwent a very uneasy punishment. However, he forbade Antipater and his mother to have any conversation with Pheroras, and bid them to take care to avoid the assemblies of the women: which they promised to do; but still got together when occasion served, and both Pheroras and Antipater had their own merry meetings. The report went also, that Antipater had criminal conversation with Pheroras's wife; and that they were brought together by Antipa

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ter's mother.

2. But Antipater had now a suspicion of his father, and was afraid that the effects of his hatred to him might increase: so he wrote to his friends at Rome, and bid them to send to Herod, that he would immediately send Antipater to Cæsar; which, when it was done, Herod sent Antipater thither, and sent most noble presents along with him; as also his testament, wherein Antipater was appointed to be his successor : and that if Antipater should die first, his [Herod Philip] son by the high-priest's daughter, should succeed. And, together with Antipater, there went to Rome, Sylleus the Arabian, although he had done nothing of all that Cæsar had enjoined him. Antipater also accused him of the same crimes of which he had been formerly accused by Herod. Sylleus was also accused by Aretas, that without his consent, he had slain many of the chief of the Arabians at Petra; and particularly Soemus, a man that deserved to be honoured by all men; and that he had slain Fabatus, a servant of Cæsar's. These were the things of which Sylleus was accused, and that on the occasion following: There was one Corinthus belonging to Herod, of the guards of the king's body, and one who

was greatly trusted by him. Sylleus had persuaded this man with the offer of a great sum of money, to kill Herod; and he had promised to do it. When Fabatus had been acquainted with this, for Sylleus had himself told him of it, he informed the king of it; who caught Corinthus, and put him to the torture, and thereby got out of him the whole conspiracy. He also caught two other Arabians, who were discovered by Corinthus; the one the head of a tribe, and the other a friend to Sylleus, who both were by the king brought to the torture, and confessed that they were come to encourage Corinthus not to fail of doing what he had undertaken to do; and to assist him with their own hands in the murder, if need should require their assistance. So Saturninus, upon Herod's discovering the whole to him, sent them to Rome.

3. At this time, Herod commanded Pheroras, that since he was so obstinate in his affection for his wife, he should retire into his own tetrarchy; which he did very willingly, and sware many oaths that he would not come again, till he heard that Herod was dead. And indeed, when, upon a sickness of the king's, he was desired to come to him before he died, that he might intrust him with some of his injunctions, he had such a regard to his oath, that he would not come to him: yet did not Herod so retain his hatred to Pheroras, but remitted of his purpose [not to see him,] which he before had, and that for such great causes as have been already mentioned: but as soon as he began to be ill, he came to him, and this without being sent for; and when he was dead, he took care of his funeral, and had his body brought to Jerusalem and buried there, and appointed a solemn mourning for him. This [death of Pheroras] became the origin of Antipater's misfortunes, although he were already sailed for Rome, God now being about to punish him for the murder of his brethren. I will explain the history of this matter very distinctly, that it may be for a warning to mankind, that they take care of conducting their whole lives by the rules

of virtue.

CHAP. IV.

Pheroras's wife is accused by his freed men, as guilty of poisoning him; and how Herod, upon examination of the matter by torture, found the poison; but so that it had been prepared for himself by his son Antipater: and, upon an enquiry by torture, he discovered the dangerous designs of Antipater.

§ 1. As

soon as Pheroras was dead, and his funeral was over, two of Pheroras's freed-men who were much esteemed

by him, came to Herod, and entreated him not to leave the murder of his brother without avenging it, but to examine into such an unreasonable and unhappy death. When he was moved with these words, for they seemed to him to be true, they said, That "Pheroras supped with his wife the day be"fore he fell sick, and that a certain potion was brought "him in such a sort of food as he was not used to eat; but "that when he had eaten he died of it: that this potion was "brought out of Arabia by a woman, under pretence indeed "as a love potion, for that was its name, but in reality to "kill Pheroras; for that the Arabian women are skilful in "making such poisons: and the woman to whom they as"cribe this, was confessedly a most intimate friend of one of "Sylleus's mistresses; and that both the mother and the sis❝ter of Pheroras's wife had been at the places where she "lived, and had persuaded her to sell them this potion, and "had come back and brought it with them the day before "that of his supper." Hereupon the king was provoked, and put the women slaves to the torture, and some that were free with them and as the fact did not yet appear, because none of them would confess it; at length one of them, under her utmost agonies, said no more but this, That "she prayed "that God would send the like agonies upon Antipater's "mother, who had been the occasion of these miseries to all "of them." This prayer induced Herod to increase the women's tortures, till thereby all was discovered: "Their mer

ry meetings, their secret assemblies, and the disclosing of "what he had said to his son alone, unto Pheroras's wo"men." (Now what Herod had charged Antipater to conceal, was, the gift of an hundred talents to him not to have any conversation with Pheroras.) "And what hatred he "bore to his father; and that he complained to his mother "how very long his father lived; and that he was himself al"most an old man, insomuch, that if the kingdom should "come to him, it would not afford him any great pleasure; "and that there were a great many of his brothers, or bro"thers' children, bringing up, that might have hopes of the "kingdom as well as himself, all which made his own hopes "of it uncertain; for that even now, if he should himself not

*His wife, her mother and sister.

It seems to me, by this whole story put together, that Pheroras was not him. self poisoned, as is commonly supposed; for Antipater had persuaded him to poison Herod, ch. v. § 1. which would fall to the ground, if he were himself poisoned; nor could the poisoning of Pheroras serve any design that appears now going forward; it was only the supposal of two of his freed-men, that this love-potion, or poison, which they knew was brought to Pheroras's wife, was made use of for poisoning him; whereas it appears to have been brought for her busband to poison Herod withal, as the future examinations demonstrate.

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live, Herod had ordained that the government should be "conferred, not on his son, but rather on a brother. He also had accused the king of great barbarity, and of the slaughter of his sons; and that it was out of the fear he was "c under, lest he should do the like to him, that made him contrive this his journey to Rome, and Pheroras contrive "to go to his own tetrarchy."

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2. These confessions agreed with what his sister had told him, and tended greatly to corroborate her testimony, and to free her from the suspicion of her unfaithfulness to him. So the king having satisfied himself of the spite which Doris, Antipater's mother, as well as himself, bore to him, took away from her all her fine ornaments, which were worth many talents; and then sent her away, and entered into friendship with Pheroras's women. But he who most of all irritated the king against his son, was one Antipater, the procurator of Antipater the king's son, who when he was tortured, among other things said, That Antipater had prepared a deadly potion and given it to Pheroras, with his desire that he would give it to his father during his absence, and when he was too remote to have the least suspicion cast upon him thereto relating; that Antiphilus, one of Antipater's friends, brought that potion out of Egypt; and that it was sent to Pheroras by Theudion, the brother of the mother of Antipater the king's son, and by that means came to Pheroras's wife, her husband having given it her to keep. And when the king asked her about it, she confessed it; and as she was running to fetch it, she threw herself down from the house-top; yet did she not kill herself, because she fell upon her feet by which means, when the king had comforted her, and had promised her and her domestics pardon, upon condition of their concealing nothing of the truth from him, but had threatened her with the utmost miseries if she proved ungrateful, [and concealed any thing;] so she promised and swore that she would speak out every thing, and tell after what manner every thing was done; and said what many took to be entirely true, That "the potion was brought out of Egypt by Anti"philus; and that his brother, who was a physician, bad pro"cured it; and that when Theudion brought it us, she kept "it upon Pheroras's committing it to her; and that it was "prepared by Antipater for thee. When, therefore, Phe"roras was fallen sick, and thou camedst to him, and took"edst care of him, and when he saw the kindness thou hadst "for him, his mind was overborne thereby." So he called me to him, and said to me, "O woman! Antipater hath cir"cumvented me in this affair of his father and my brother, by persuading me to have a murderous intention to him,

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"and procuring a potion to be subservient thereto: do thou, "therefore, go and fetch my potion, (since my brother appears to have still the same virtuous disposition towards "me which he had formerly, and I do not expect to live "long myself, and that I may not defile my forefathers by "the murder of a brother) and burn it before my face: that "accordingly she immediately brought it, and did as her "husband bade her; and that she burnt the greatest part of "the potion; but that a little of it was left, that if the king, "after Pheroras's death, should treat her ill, she might poison herself, and thereby get clear of her miseries." Upon her saying thus, she brought out the potion, and the box in which it was, before them all. Nay, there was another brother of Antiphilus's, and his mother also, who, by the extremity of pain and torture, confessed the same things, and owned the box [to be that which had been brought out of Egypt.] The high-priest's daughter also, who was the king's wife, was accused to have been conscious of all this, and had resolved to conceal it; for which reason Herod divorced her, and blotted her son out of his testament, wherein he had been mentioned as one that was to reign after him; and he took the high priesthood away from his father-in-law, Simeon the son of Boethus, and appointed Mattathias the son of Theophilus, who was born at Jerusalem, to be high-priest in his

room.

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3. While this was doing, Bathyllus, also Antipater's freedman, came from Rome, and, upon the torture, was found to have brought another potion, to give it into the hands of Antipater's mother, and of Pheroras, that if the former potion did not operate upon the king, this at least might carry bim off. There came also letters from Herod's friends at Rome, by the approbation and at the suggestion of Antipater, to accuse Archelaus and Philip, as if they calumniated their father on account of the slaughter of Alexander and Aristobulus, and as if they commiserated their deaths, and as if, because they were sent for home, (for their father had already recalled them,) they concluded they were themselves also to be destroyed. These letters had been procured by great rewards, by Antipater's friends; but Antipater himself wrote to his father about them, and laid the heaviest things to their charge; yet did he entirely excuse them of any guilt, and said, they were but young men, and so imputed their words to their youth. But he said, that he had himself been very busy in the affair relating to Sylleus, and in getting interest among the great men; and on that account had bought splendid ornaments to present them withal, which cost him two hundred talents. Now, one may wonder how it came about,

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