one that comes near them does but revolve this in bis mind, that if he prove a good man, he fhall receive a reward from me, that if he proves feditious, his ill-intended complaifance ball get him nothing from him to whom it is fhewn, I fuppofe they will all be of my fide, that is of my fons fide; for it will be for their advantage that I reign, and that I be at concord with them. But do you, O my good children, reflect apon the holiness of nature itself, by whofe means natural affection is preserved, even among wild beafts; in the next place, reflect upon Cæfar, who hath made this reconciliation among us; and, in the third place, reflect upon me who entreat you to do what I have power to command you; continue brethren. I give you royal garments, and royal honours; and I pray to God to prelerve what I have determined, in cafe you be at concord one with another." When the king had thus fpoken, and had faluted every one of his fons after an oblig. ing manner, he difmiffed the multitude; fome of which gave their affent to what he had said, and wifhed it might take effect accordingly; but for thofe who wifhed for a change of affairs, they pretended they did not fo much as hear what he faid.

CHAP. XXIV.

The malice of Antipater and Deris. Alexander is very uneafy on Glaphyra's account. Herod Pardons Pheroras whom he fufpected and Salome whom he knew to make Mifchief among them. Herod's Eunuchs are Tortured, and Alexander is bound

BUT

UT now the quarrel that was between them, fill accompanied these brethren when they parted, and the fufpicions they had one of the other grew worfe. Alexander and Ariftobulus were much grieved that the privilege of the firit-born was confirmed to Antipater; as was Antipater very angry at his brethren, that they were to fucceed him. But then this last being of a difpofition that was mutable and politic, he knew how to hold his tongue and ufed a great deal of cunning, and thereby concealed the hatred he bore to them; while the former, depending on the nobility of their births, had every thing upon their tongues which was in their minds. Many alfo there were who provoked them farther, and many of their [feeming] friends infinuated them felves into their ac quaintance, to fpy out what they did. Now every thing that was faid by Alexander was presently brought to Antipater, and from Antipater it was brought to Herod with additions. Nor could the young man fay any thing in the fimplicity of his heart, without giving offence, but what he faid was still turned to calumny against him. And it he had been at any time a little tree in his converfation, great imputations were

forged from the fmalleft occafions. Antipater alfo was perpetually fetting fome to provoke him to fpeak, that the lies he raifed of him might feem to have fome foundation of truth; and if, among the many ftories that were given out, but one of them could be proved true, that was fuppofed to imply the reft to be true alfo. And as to Antipater's friends. they were all either naturally fo cautious in fpeaking, or had been fo far bribed to conceal their thoughts, that nothing of thefe grand fecrets got abroad by their means. Nor fhould one be mif taken if he called the life of Antipater a mystery of wickednefs; for he either corrupted Alexander's acquaintance with money, or got into their favour by flatteries; by which two means he gained all his defigns, and brought them to betray their mafter, and to fteal away, and reveal what he either did or faid. Thus did he act a part very cunningly in all points, and wrought himfelt a paffage by his calumnies with the greatest fhrewdnefs; while he put on a tace as if he were a kind brother to Alexander and Ariftobulus, but fuborned other men to inform of what they did to Herod. And when any thing was told againft Alexander, he would come in and pretend to be of his fide,] and would begin to contradict what was faid; but would afterward contrive matters fo privately, that the king fhould have an indignation at him. His general aim was this, to lay a plot, and to make it believed that Alexander lay in wait to kill his father; for nothing afforded fo great a confirmation to these calumnies as did Antipater's apologies for him.

2. By thefe methods Herod was inflamed, and, as much as his natural affection to the young men did every day diminish fo much did it increase towards Antipater. The courtiers alfo inclined to the fame conduct fome of their own accord, and others by the king's injunction, as particularly d d Ptolemy, the king's dearest friend, as alfo the king's brethren, and all his children; for Antipater was all in all: And what was the bittereft part of all to Alexander, Antipater's mother was alfo all in all; he was one that gave counsel against them, and was more harth than a flepmother, and one that hated the queen's fons more than is ufual to hate fons-in-law. All men did therefore already pay their relpects to Antipater, in hopes of advantage; and it was the king's command which alienated every body [from the brethren, he having given this charge to his moft intimate friends, that they thould not come near, nor pay any regard to Alexander, or to his friends. Herod was alfo become terrible, not only to his domeftics about the court, but to his friends abroad; for Cæfar had given fuch a privilege to no other king as he had given to him, which was this, that he might fetch back any one that fled from him, e ven out of a city that was not under his own jurifdiction. Now the young men were not acquainted with the calumnies raifed against him; for which reafon they could not guard

themselves against them, but fell under them; for their father did not make any public complaints against either of them; though in a little time they perceived how things were by his coldness to them, and by the great uneafinefs he fhewed upon any thing that troubled him. Antipater had alfo made their uncle Pheroras to be their enemy, as well as their aunt Salome, while he was always talking with her, as with a wife and irritating her against them. Moreover, Alexander's wife, Glaphyra, augmented this hatred against them, by deriving her nobility and genealogy [from great perfons, and pretending that he was a lady fuperior to all others in that kingdom, as being derived by her father's fide from Temenus, and by her mother's fide from Darius, the fon of Hyftafpes. She alfo frequently reproached Herod's fifter and wives, with the ignobility of their defcent; and that they were every one chofen by him for their beauty, but not for their family. Now thofe wives of his were not a few; it being of old permitted to the Jews to marry many wives; and this king delighted in many, all which hated Alexander, on account of Glaphyra's boafting and reproaches.

3. Nay, Ariftobulus had raised a quarrel between himself and Salome, who was his mother-in-law, befides the anger he had conceived at Glaphyra's reproaches; for he perpetually upbraided his wife with the meannefs of her family, and com plained, that as he had married a woman of a low family, fo had his brother Alexander married one of royal blood. At this Salome's daughter wept and told it her with this addition, that Alexander threatened the mothers of his other brethren, that when he should come to the crown, he would make them weave with their maidens, and would make thofe brothers of his country fchoolmafters, and brake this jeft upon them, that they had been very carefully inftructed to fit them for fuch an employment. Hereupon Salome could not contain her anger, but told all to Herod : Nor could her teftimony be fufpected, fince it was against her own fon-in-law. There was alfo another calumny that ran abroad, and inflamed the king's mind; for he heard that thefe fons of his were perpetually fpeaking of their mother, and, among their lamentations for her. did not abftain from curfing him; and that when he made prefents of any of Mariamne's garments to his later wives,

That it was an immemorial cuftom among the Jews, and their forefathers the patriarchs, to have fometimes more wives, or wives and concubines, than one at the fame time, and that this polygamy was not directly forbidden in the law of Mofes, is evident; but that polygamy was ever properly and diftinctly permitted in that law of Mofes, in the places here cited by Dean Aldrich, Deut. xvii. 6. 7. or xxi. 15, or indeed any where else, does not appear to me. And what our Savour fays about the common jewish divorces, which may lay much greater claim to fuch a permiffion than polygamy, feems to me true in this cale alfo; that Mofes for the hardness of their hearts, iuffered them to have feveral wives at the laine ime, but that from the beginning it was not fo," Mit, xix. 8. Mark x 5.

thefe threatened, that in a little time, inftead of royal garments, they would clothe them in no better than hair cloth.

4. Now upon thefe accounts, though Herod was fomewhat afraid of the young mens high spirit, yet did he not despair of reducing them to a better mind; but before he went to Rome, whither he was now going by fea, he called them to him, and partly threatened them a little, as a king; but for the main, he admonifhed them as a father, and exhorted them to love their brethren, and told them that he would pardon their former offences, if they would amend for the time to come. But they refuted the calumnies that had been raifed of them, and faid they were falfe, and alledged that their actions were fufficient for their vindication; and faid withal, that he himlelf ought to fhut his ears against fuch tales, and not be too easy in believ ing them for that there would never be wanting those that would tell lies to their difadvantage, as long as any would give ear to them.

5 When they had thus foon pacified him, as being their fa ther, they got clear of the prefent fear they were in. Yet did they fee occafion for forrow in fome time afterward; for they knew that Salome, as well as their uncle Pheroras were their enemies; who were both of them heavy and fevere perfons, and efpecially Pheroras, who was a partner with Herod in all the affairs of the kingdom, excepting his diadem. He had also an hundred talents of his own revenue, and enjoyed the advantage of all the land beyond Jordan, which he had received as a gift from his brother, who had afked of Cæfar to make him a tetrarch, as he was made accordingly. Herod had alfo given him a wife, out of the royal family, who was no other than his own wife's fifter, and after her death had folemnly efpoufed to him his own eldest daughter, with a dowry of three hundred talents; but Pheroras refufed to confummate this roy al marriage, out of his affection to a maid fervant of his. Upon which account Herod was very angry, and gave that daughter in marriage to a brother's fon of his jofeph, who was flain afterward by the Parthians; but in fome time he laid afide his anger against Pheroras, and pardoned him, as one not able to overcome his foolish paffion for the maid- fervant.

6. Nay, Pheroras had been accused long before, while the queen [Mariamnej was alive, as it he were in a plot to poifon Herod; and there came then fo great a number of informers, that Herod himself, though he was an exceeding lover of his brethren, was brought to believe what was faid, and to be afraid of it alfo: And when he had brought many of thofe that were under fufpicion to the torture, he came at last to Pheroras's own friends; none of which did openly confefs the crime, but they owned that he had made preparation to take her whom he loved, and ran away to the Parthians. Coftobarus alío, the husband of Salome, to whom the king had given her in marriage, after her former husband had been put to death for

adultery, was inftrumental in bringing about this contrivance and flight of his. Nor did Salome efcape all calumny upon herfell; for her brother Pheroras accused her, that she had made an agreement to marry Silleus, the procurator of Obodas, king of Arabia, who was at bitter enmity with Herod; but when she was convicted of this, and of all that Pheroras had accufed her, fhe obtained her pardon. The king alfo pardoned Pheroras himself the crimes he had been accused of.

7. But the ftorm of the whole family was removed to Alexander, and all of it refted upon his head. There were three eunuchs who were in the highest esteem with the king, as was plain by the offices they were in about him; for one of them was appointed to be his butler, another of them got his fupper ready for him, and the third put him into bed, and lay down by him. Now Alexander had prevailed with these men by large gifts to let him ufe them after an abfcene manner: Which, when it was told to the king, they were tortured, and found guilty, and prefently conteffed the criminal converfation he had with them. They alfo difcovered the promises by which they were induced fo to do, and how they were deluded by Alexander, who had told them, That "they ought not to fix their hopes upon Herod, an old man, and one fo lhameless as to colour his hair, unless they thought that would make him young again; but that they ought to fix their attention to him, who was to be his fucceffor in the kingdom, whether he would or not; and who in no long time would avenge himfelt on his enemies, and make his friends happy and bleffed, and themselves in the first place: That the men of power did already pay respects to Alexander privately, and that the captains of the foldiery, and the officers did fecretly come to him."

8. Thele confeffions did fo terrify Herod, that he durft not immediately publish them; but he fent fpies abroad privately by night and by day, who fhould make a clofe inquiry after all that was done and faid; and when any were but fufpected [of treafon], he put them to death, infomuch that the palace was full of horribly unjuft proceedings; for every body forged calumnies, as they were themfelves in a flate of enmity or hatred against others; and many there were who abuled the king's bloody paffion to the difadvantage of thofe with whom they had quarrels, and lies were eafily believed, and punishments were inflicted fooner than the calumnies were forged; he who had just then been accufing another, was acculed himfelf, and was led away to execution together with him whom he had convicted; for the danger the king was in of his lite made examinations be very thort. He alfo proceeded to fuch a degree of bitterness, that he could not look on any of thole that were not accused with a pleasant countenance, but was in the moit barbarous difpofition towards his own friends. Accordingly he forbade a great many of them to come to court, VOL. III. L