that pest of his family, and forger of all this vile accusation, Eurycles, his saviour and his benefactor, and gave him a reward of fifty talents. Upon which he pre vented any accurate accounts that could come of what he had done, by going immediately into Cappadocia, and there he got money of Archelaus, having the impudence to pretend that he had reconciled Herod to Alexander. He thence passed over into Greece, and used what he had thus wickedly gotten to the like wicked purposes. Accordingly, he was twice accused before Cæsar, that he had filled Achaia with sedition, and had plundered its cities; and so he was sent into banishment. And thus was he punished for what wicked actions he had been guilty of about Aristobulus and Alexander.

5. But it will be now worth while to put Euaratus of Cos in opposition to this Spartan; for as he was one of Alexander's most intimate friends, and came to him in his travels at the same time that Eurycles came, so the king put the ques tion to him, whether those things of which Alexander was accused were true? He assured him upon oath, that he had never heard any such things from the young men yet did this testimony avail nothing for the clearing those miserable crea. tures; for Herod was only disposed and most ready to hearken to what made against them; and every one was most agreeable to him that would believe they were guilty, and showed their indignation at them.

CHAP. XXVII.

Herod, by Casar's Direction, accuses his Sons at Berytus. They are not produced before the Court, but yet are condemned: and in a little Time they are sent to

Sebaste, and strangled there.

1. MOREOVER, Salome exasperated Herod's cruelty against his sons; for Aristobulus was desirous to bring her, who was his mother-in-law, and his aunt, into the like dangers with themselves; so he sent to her, to take care of her own safety, and told her, that the king was preparing to put her to death, on account of the accusation that was laid against her, as if when she formerly endeavoured to marry herself to Sylleus the Arabian, she had discovered the king's grand seerets to him, who was the king's enemy: and this it was that came as the last storm, and entirely sunk the young men, when they were in great danger before. For Salome came running to the king, and informed him of what admonition had been given her; whereupon he could bear no longer, but commanded both the young men to be bound, and kept the one asunder from the other. He also sent Volumnius, the general of his army, to Cæsar immediately, as also his friend Olympus with him, who carried the information in writing along with them. Now as soon as these had sailed to Rome, and delivered the king's letters to Cæsar, Cæsar was mightily troubled at the case of the young men: yet did not he think he ought to take the power from the father of condemning his sons; so he wrote back to him, and appointed him to have the power over his sons; but said withal, that "he would do well to make an examination into this matter of the plot laid against him in a public court, and to take for his assessors his own kindred and the governors of the province: and if those sons be found guilty, to put them to death; but if they appear to have thought of no more than flying away from him, that he should moderate their punishment."

2. With these directions Herod complied, and came to Berytus, where Cæsar had ordered the court to be assembled, and got the judicature together. The presidents sat first, as Caesar's letter had appointed, who were Saturninus and Pedanius, and their lieutenants that were with them, with whom was the procu Fator Volumnius also; next to them sat the king's kinsmen and friends, with Sa home also, and Pheroras; after whom sat the principal men of all Syria, except

ing Archelaus; for Herod had a suspicion of him, because he was Alexander's father-in-law. Yet did not he produce his sons in open court; and this was done very cunningly, for he knew well enough that had they but appeared only, they would certainly have been pitied; and if withal they had been suffered to speak, Alexander would easily have answered what they were accused of; but they were in custody at Platane, a village of the Sidonians.

3. So the king got up, and inveighed against his sons as if they were present: and as for that part of the accusation that they had plotted against him, he urged it but faintly, because he was destitute of proofs; but he insisted before the as sessors on the reproaches, and jests, and injurious carriage, and ten thousand the like offences against him, which were heavier than death itself; and when nobody contradicted him, he moved them to pity his case, as though he had been con. demned himself, now he had gained a bitter victory against his sons. So he asked every one's sentence, which sentence was first of all given by Saturninus, and was this, that he condemned the young men, but not to death; for that it was not fit for him, who had three sons of his own now present, to give his vote for the destruction of the sons of another. The two lieutenants also gave the like vote, some others there were also who followed their example; but Volumnius began to vote on the more melancholy side, and all those that came after him condemned the young men to die, some out of flattery and some out of hatred to Herod, but none out of indignation at their crimes. And now all Syria and Judea was in great expectation, and waited for the last act of this tragedy; yet did nobody suppose that Herod would be so barbarous as to murder his children: however, he carried them away to Tyre, and thence sailed to Cæsarea, and deliberated with himself what sort of death the young men should suffer.

4. Now there was a certain old soldier of the king's whose name was Tero, who had a son that was very familiar with, and a friend to Alexander, and who himself particularly loved the young men. This soldier was in a manner dis. tracted out of the excess of the indignation he had at what was doing; and at first he cried out aloud as he went about,-"That justice was trampled under foot; that truth was perished, and nature confounded; and that the life of man was full of iniquity," and every thing else that passion could suggest to a man who spared not his own life; and at last he ventured to go to the king, and said,-" Truly, I think thou art a most miserable man, when thou hearkenest to most wicked wretches, against those that ought to be dearest to thee; since thou hast fre. quently resolved that Pheroras and Salome should be put to death, and yet be. lievest them against thy sons; while these, by cutting off the succession of thine own sons, leave all wholly to Antipater, and thereby choose to have thee such a king as may be thoroughly in their own power. However, consider whether this death of Antipater's brethren will not make him hated by the soldiers; for there is nobody but commiserates the young men, and of the captains a great many show their indignation at it openly." Upon his saying this, he named those that had such indignation: but the king ordered those men, with Tero himself and his son, to be seized upon immediately.

5. At which time there was a certain barber, whose name was Trypho. This man leaped out from among the people in a kind of madness, and accused himself, and said, "This Tero endeavoured to persuade me also to cut thy throat with my razor, when I trimmed thee, and promised that Alexander should give me large presents for so doing." When Herod heard this, he examined Tero, with his son and the barber, by the torture; but as the others denied the accusa. tions, and he said nothing farther, Herod gave order that Tero should be racked more severely; but his son, out of pity to his father, promised to discover the whole to the king, if he would grant [that his father should be no longer tortured:} when he had agreed to this, he said, that "his father, at the persuasion of Alexander, had an intention to kill him.' Now some said this was forged, in order o free his father from his torments, and some said it was true.

1

6. And now Herod accused the captains and Tero in an assembly of the peo. ple and brought the people together in a body against them; and, accordingly, there were they put to death, together with [Trypho] the barber: they were killed by the pieces of wood and the stones that were thrown at them. He also sent his sons to Sebaste, a city not far from Cæsarea, and ordered them to be there strangled; and as what he had ordered was executed immediately, so he commanded that their dead bodies should be brought to the fortress Alexandrium, to be buried with Alexander, their grandfather by the mother's side. And this was the end of Alexander and Aristobulus.

CHAP. XXVIII.

How Antipater is hated of all Men; and how the King espouses the Sons of those that had been slain to his Kindred; but that Antipater made him change them

for other Women. Of Herod's Marriages and Children.

§ 1. Bur an intolerable hatred fell upon Antipater from the nation, though he had now an indisputable title to the succession; because they all knew that he was the person who contrived all the calumnies against his brethren. However, he began to be in a terrible fear, as he saw the posterity of those that had been lain growing up; for Alexander had two sons by Glaphyra, Tigranes and Alex. ander; and Aristobulus had Herod, and Agrippa, and Aristobulus his sons, with Herodias and Mariamne his daughters, and all by Bernice, Salome's daughter; as for Glaphyra, Herod, as soon as he had killed Alexander, sent her back, to. gether with her portion, to Cappadocia. He married Bernice, Aristobulus's daughter, to Antipater's uncle by his mother; and it was Antipater, who in order to reconcile her to him, when she had been at variance with him, contrived this match: he also got into Pheroras's favour, and into the favour of Cæsar's friends, by presents, and other ways of obsequiousness, and sent no small sums of money to Rome: Saturninus also, and his friends in Syria, were all well replenished with the presents he made them; yet the more he gave the more he was hated, as not making these presents out of generosity, but spending his money out of fear. Ac. cordingly, it so fell out, that the receivers bore him no more good will than before, but that those to whom he gave nothing were his more bitter enemies. However, he bestowed his money every day more and more profusely, on observing that, contrary to his expectations, the king was taking care about the orphans, and discovering at the same time his repentance for killing their fathers, by his commiseration of those that sprang from them.

2. Accordingly, Herod got together his kindred and friends, and set before them the children, and with his eyes full of tears, said thus to them.-"It was an unlucky fate that took away from me these children's fathers, which children are recommended to me by that natural commiseration which their orphan condition requires: however, I will endeavour, though I have been a most unfortunate fa. ther, to appear a better grandfather, and to leave these children such curators after myself as are dearest to me. I, therefore, betroth thy daughter, Pheroras, to the elder of these brethren, the children of Alexander, that thou mayest be obliged to take care of them. I also betroth to thy son, Antipater, the daughter of Aristobulus: be thou, therefore, a father to that orphan, and my son Herod [Philip] shall have her sister, whose grandfather, by the mother's side, was high priest. And let every one that loves me be of my sentiments in these dispositions,' which none that hath an affection for me will abrogate. And I pray God that he will join these children together in marriage, to the advantage of my kingdom and of my posterity, and may he look down with eyes more serene upon them, than he looked upon their fathers."

3. While he spake these words, he wept, and joined the children's right hands

together, after which he embraced them every one after an affectionate manner, and dismissed the assembly Upon this, Antipater was in great disorder imme. diately, and lamented publicly at what was done; for he supposed that this dignity which was conferred on these orphans was for his own destruction, even in his father's lifetime; and that he should run another risk of losing the governmen if Alexander's sons should have both Archelaus [a king] and Pheroras a tetrarchi o support them. He also considered how he was himself hated by the nation, and how they pitied these orphans; how great affection the Jews bare to those brethren of his when they were alive, and how gladly they remembered them now they had perished by his means. So he resolved by all the ways possible to get these espousals dissolved.

4. Now he was afraid of going subtilely about this matter with his father, who was hard to be pleased, and was presently moved upon the least suspicion: so he ventured to go to him directly, and to beg of him before his face, not to deprive him of that dignity which he had been pleased to bestow upon him, and that he might not have the bare name of a king, while the power was in other persons; for that he should never be able to keep the government, if Alexander's son was to have both his grandfather Archelaus and Pheroras for his curators; and he besought him earnestly, since there were so many of the royal family alive, that he would change those [intended] marriages. Now the king had nine* wives, and children by seven of them; Antipater was himself born of Doris, and Herod [Philip] of Mariamne, the high priest's daughter; Antipas also, and Archelaus, were by Malthace, the Samaritan, as was his daughter Olympias, which his bro ther Joseph'st son had married; by Cleopatra of Jerusalem he had Herod and Philip, and by Pallas Phasaelus; he had also two daughters, Roxana and Salome, the one by Phedra, and the other by Elpis; he had also two wives that had no children, the one his first cousin, and the other his niece; and besides these he had two daughters, the sisters of Alexander and Aristobulus, by Mariamue. Since, therefore, the royal family was so numerous, Antipater prayed him to change these [intended] marriages.

5. When the king perceived what disposition he was in towards these orphans, he was angry at it, and a suspicion came into his mind, as to those sons whom he had put to death, whether that had not been brought about by the false tales of Antipater; so at that time he made Antipater a long and a peevish answer, and bid him be gone. Yet was he afterwards prevailed upon cunningly by his flatteries, and changed the marriages: he married Aristobulus's daughter to him, and his son to Pheroras's daughter.

6. Now one may learn in this instance how very much this flattering Antipater could do, even what Salome in the like circumstances could not do: for when she who was his sister, and who by the means of Julia, Cæsar's wife, earnestly desired leave to be married to Sylleus the Arabian, Herod swore he would esteem her his bitter enemy, unless she would leave off that project: he also caused her, against her own consent, to be married to Alexas, a friend of his; and that one of her daughters should be married to Alexas's son, and the other to Antipater's uncle by the mother's side. And for the daughters the king had by Mariamne, the one was married to Antipater, his sister's son, and the other to his brother's son Phasaelus.

* Dean Aldrich takes notice here, that those nine wives of Herod were alive at the same time; and that if the celebrated Marianine, who was now dead, be reckoned, those wives were in all ten. [Yet i is remarkable that he had no more than fifteen children by them all.]

↑ To prevent confusion, it may not be amiss, with Dean Aldrich, to distinguish between four Josepha in the history of Herod. 1. Joseph, Herod's uncle, and the [second] husband of his sister Salome, slais by Herod, on account of Mariamne. 2. Joseph, Herod's questor, or treasurer, slajn on the same ac Count. 3. Joseph, Herod's brother, slain in battle against Antigonus. 4. Joseph, Herod's nephew, the Queband of Olympias, mentioned in this place.

Antipater becomes intolerable.

tament with him.

CHAP. XXIX.

He is sent to Rome, and carries Herod's Tes Pheroras leaves his brother, that he may keep his He dies at Home.

Wife.

1. Now when Antipater had cut off the hopes of the orphans, and had contracted such affinities as would be most for his own advantange, he proceeded briskly, as having a certain expectation of the kingdom; and as he had now as surance added to his wickedness he became intolerable; for not being able to avoid the hatred of all people, he built his security upon the terror he struck into them. Pheroras also assisted him in his designs, looking upon him as already fixed in the kingdom. There was also a company of women in the court, which excited new disturbances; for Pheroras's wife, together with her mother and sister, as also Antipater's mother, grew very impudent in the palace. She also was so insolent as to affront the king's two daughters,* on which account the king hated her to a great degree; yet although these women were hated by him, they domineered over others: there was only Salome who opposed their good agree. ment, and informed the king of their meetings, as not being for the advantage of his affairs. And when those women knew what calumnies she had raised against them, and how much Herod was displeased, they left off their public meetings and friendly entertainments of one another: nay, on the contrary, they pretend. ed to quarrel one with another when the king was within hearing. The like dissimulation did Antipater make use of, and when matters were public, he op. posed Pheroras; but still they had private cabals and merry meetings in the night-time; nor did the observation of others do any more than confirm their mutual agreement. However, Salome knew every thing they did, and told every thing to Herod.

2. But he was inflamed with anger at them, and chiefly at Pheroras's wife, for Salome had principally accused her. So he got an assembly of his friends and kindred together, and there accused this woman of many things, and parti cularly of the affronts she had offered his daughters; and that she had supplied the Pharisees with money, by way of rewards for what they had done against him, and had procured his brother to become his enemy, by giving him love potions. At length he turned his speech to Pheroras, and told him, that "he would give him his choice of these two things, whether he would keep in with him his bro. ther, or with his wife?" And when Pheroras said that he would die† rather than forsake his wife, Herod not knowing what to do farther in that matter, turned his speech to Antipater, and charged him to have no intercourse either with Phero. ras's wife, or with Pheroras himself, or with any one belonging to her. Now though Antipater did not transgress that his injunction publicly, yet did he in se. cret come to their night meeting; and because he was afraid that Salome ob. served what he did, he procured, by the means of his Italian friends, that he might go and live at Rome: for when they wrote that it was proper for Antipa. ter to be sent to Cæsar for some time, Herod made no delay, but sent him, and that with a splendid attendance and a great deal of money, and gave him his tes. • These daughters of Herod, whom Pheroras's wife affronted, were Salome and Roxane, two virgins, who were born to him of his two wives, Elpis and Phedra. See Herod's genealogy, Antiq. B. xvii. ch. 1 sect. 3.

This strange obstinacy of Pheroras in retaining his wife, who was one of a low family, and refusing to marry one nearly related to Herod, though he so earnestly desired it, as also that wife's admis. sion to the counsels of the other great court ladies, together with Herod's own importunity as to Pheroras's divorce and other marriage, all so remarkable here or in the Antiquities, B. xvii. ch. ii. sect. 4, and ch. ii. sect. 3, cannot be well accounted for, but on the supposal that Pheroras believed, and Herod suspect. ed, that the Pharisees' prediction, as if the crown of Judea should be translated from Herod to Pheroras's posterity, and that most probably to Pheroras's posterity by this his wife, also would prove true. See Antiq. B xvii. ch. ii. sect. 4. and ch. iii. sect. 1.