Book 1, chapters 23 and 24 of The Wars of the Jews. The Wars of the Jews by Josephus. Translated by William Whiston. Book 1, chapters 23 and 24. Chapter 23 Calomnes against the sons of Maryomne. Antipaterus preferred before them. They are accused before Caesar, and Herod is reconciled to them. Now Maryomne's sons were heirs to that hatred which had been borne their mother, and when they considered the greatness of Herod's crimes towards her, they were suspicious of him as an enemy of theirs, and this first while they were educated at Rome, but still more when they were returned to Judea. This temper of theirs increased upon them as they grew up to be men, and when they were come to an age fit for marriage, the one of them married their aunt Salome's daughter, which Salome had been the accuser of their mother. The other married the daughter of Archelaus, king of Cappadocia. And now they used boldness in speaking, as well as bore hatred in their minds. Now those that calomnated them took a handle from such their boldness, and certain of them spake now more plainly to the king that they were treacherous designs laid against him by both his sons, and that he was Senate-law to Archelaus. Relying upon his father-in-law was preparing to fly away in order to accuse Herod before Caesar, and when Herod's head had been long enough filled with these Calomnes, he brought Antipater, whom he had by Doris, into favor again, as a defense to him against his other sons, and began all the ways he possibly could to prefer him before them. But these sons were not able to bear this change in their affairs. But when they saw him, that was born of a mother of no family, the nobility of their birth made them unable to contain their indignation. But when soever they were uneasy, they showed the anger they had at it. And as these sons did day after day improve in their anger, Antipater already exercised all his own abilities, which were very great in flattering his father, and in contriving many sorts of Calomnes against his brethren, while he told some stories of them himself, and put it upon other proper persons to raise other stories against them, till at length he entirely cut his brethren off from all hopes of succeeding to the kingdom. For he was already publicly put into his father's will as his successor. Accordingly he was sent with royal ornaments and other marks of royalty to Caesar, accepting the diadem. He was also able in time to introduce his mother again into Mariamne's bed. The two sorts of weapons he made use of against his brethren were flattery and Calomne, whereby he brought matters privately to such a pass that the king had thoughts of putting his sons to death. So, the father drew Alexander as far as Rome, and charged him with an attempt of poisoning him before Caesar. Alexander could hardly speak for lamentation, but having a judge that was more skillful than Antipater, and more wise than Herod, he modestly avoided laying any imputation upon his father, but with great strength of reason, confuted the Calomnes late against him, and when he had demonstrated the innancy of his brother, who was in the like danger with himself, he at last bewailed the craftiness of Antipater, and the disgrace that they were under. He was enabled also to justify himself, not only by a clear conscience which he carried with him, but by his eloquence, for he was a shrewd man in making speeches. And upon his saying at last that if his father objected this crime to them, it was in his power to put them to death. He made all the audience weep, and he brought Caesar to that pass as to eject the accusations and to reconcile their father to them immediately. But the conditions of this reconciliation were these, that they should in all things be obedient to their father, and that he should have power to leave the kingdom to which of them he pleased. After this the king came back from Rome, and seemed to have forgiven his sons upon these accusations, but still so that he was not without suspicions of them. They were followed by Antipater, who was the fountainhead of those accusations. Yet he did not openly discover his hatred to them, as revering him that they had reconciled them. But as Herod, sailed by Cilicia, he touched at Eleusa, where Archelaus treated them in the most obliging manner, and gave him thanks for the deliverance of his son-in-law, and was much pleased at their reconciliation. And this the more, because he had formally written to his friends at Rome that they should be assisting to Alexander at his trial. So he conducted Herod, as far as Zephyrum, and made him presence to the value of thirty talons. Now when Herod was come to Jerusalem, he gathered the people together, and presented to them his three sons, and gave them an apologetic account of his absence, and thanked God greatly, and thanked Caesar greatly also for settling his house when it was under disturbances, and had procured concord among his sons, which was of greater consequence than the kingdom itself. And which I will render still more firm, for Caesar hath put into my power to dispose of the government, and to appoint my successor. Accordingly, in the way of requital for his kindness, and in order to provide for mine own advantage, I do declare that these three sons of mine shall be kings. In the first place I pray for the approbation of God to what I am about. And in the next place I desire your approbation also. The age of one of them, and the nobility of the other two, shall procure them the succession. Nay, indeed, my kingdom is so large that it may be sufficient for more kings. Now do you keep those in their places whom Caesar hath joined, and their father hath appointed. And do not you pay undo or unequal respects to them, but to everyone according to the prerogative of their births. For he that pays such respects unduly, well, thereby not make him that is honored beyond what his age requires so joyfully. So as he will make him that is dishonored, sorrowful. As for the kindred and friends that are to converse with them, I will appoint to each of them, and will so constitute them, so that they may be securities for their concord, as well knowing that the old tempers of those with whom they converse will produce quarrels and contentions among them. But if these with whom they converse be of good tempers, they will preserve their natural affections for one another. But still I desire not these only, but all the captains of my army, have for the present their hopes placed on me alone, for I do not give away my kingdom to these sons, but give them royal honors only. Whereby it will come to pass that they will enjoy the sweet parts of government as rulers themselves, but that the burden of administration will rest upon myself whether I will or not, and let everyone consider what age I am of, how I have conducted my life, what piety I have exercised, for my age is not so great that men may expect the end of my life, nor have I indulged such a luxurious way of living as cuts men off when they are young. And we have been so religious towards God that we, have reason to hope we, may arrive at a very great age. But for such as cultivate a friendship with my sons, or so to aim in my destruction, they shall be punished by me on their account. I am not one who envy my own children, and therefore forbid men to pay them great respect. But I know that such extravagant respects are the way to make them insolent. And if everyone that comes near them does but revolve this in his mind, that if he proves a good man he shall receive a reward from me, but that if he proves seditious his ill-intended complacence shall get him nothing from him to whom it is shown. I suppose they will all be of my side, that is, of my son's side, for it will be for their advantage that I reign, and that I be a concord with them. But do you, O my good children, reflect upon the holiness of nature itself, by whose means natural affection is preserved even among wild beasts. In the next place, reflect upon Caesar, who hath made this reconciliation amongst 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 honors. I pray to God to preserve what I have determined, in case you be a concord with one another. When the king had thus spoken, and had saluted every one of his sons after an obliging manner, he dismissed the multitude, some of which gave their assent to what he had said, and wished it might take effect accordingly. But for those who wished a change of affairs they pretended that they did not so much as hear what he had said. CHAPTER XXIV The malice of Antipater and Doris. Alexander is very uneasy on Glaphyrus' account. He had pardons for Doris, whom he suspected, and Salome, whom he knew to make mischief among them. Herod's eunuchs are tortured, and Alexander is bound. But now the quarrel which was between them still accompanied these brethren when they parted, and the suspicions that they had one of the other grew worse. Alexander and Aristobulus were much grieved that the privilege of the firstborn was confirmed to Antipater. So was Antipater very angry at his brethren that they were to succeed him. But then this last being of a disposition that was mutable and politic, he knew how to hold his tongue, and used 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 everything upon their tongues which was in their minds. Many also were those who provoked them further, and many of their seeming friends insinuated themselves into their acquaintance to spy out what they did. Now everything that was said by Alexander was presently brought to Antipater, and from Antipater was brought to Herod with additions. Nor could the young man say anything in the simplicity of his heart without giving offence, but what he said was still turned a calumny against him, and if he had been at any time a little free in his conversation great imputations were forged from the smallest occasions. Antipater also was perpetually setting some to provoke him to speak, that the lies he raised of him might seem to have some foundation of truth, and if, among the many stories that were given out, but one of them could be proved true, that was supposed to imply the rest to be true also. And so, to Antipater's friends, they were all naturally so cautious in speaking, or had been so far bribed to conceal their thoughts, that nothing of these grand secrets got abroad by their means. Nor should one be mistaken if he caused the life of Antipater a mystery of wickedness. For he either corrupted Alexander's acquaintance with money, or got into their favor by flatteries, by which two means he gained all his designs, and brought them to betray their master, and to steal away, and to reveal what he either said or did. Thus did he act apart very cunningly in all points, and brought himself a passage by his calamities with the greatest truteness. While he put on a face as if he were a kind brother to Alexander and Aristobulus, but some borne other men to inform of what they did to Herod, and when anything was told against Alexander he would come in and pretend to be of his side, and would begin to contradict what was said, but what afterwards can thrive matters so privately that the king should 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 so great a confirmation to these calamities as did Antipater's apologies for him. By these methods Herod was inflamed, and as much as his natural affection to the young men did every day diminish, so much did it increase towards Antipater. The courtiers also inclined to the same conduct, some of their own accord, and others by the king's injunction, as particularly did Ptolemy, the king's dearest friend, as also the king's brethren, and all his children, for Antipater was all in all. And what was the bitterest part of all to Alexander? Antipater's mother was also all in all. She was one that gave counsel against them, and was more harsh than a stepmother, and one that hated the queen's sons more than is usual to hate sons-in-law. All men did, therefore, already pay their respects to Alexander 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 most intimate friends, that they should not come near, nor pay any regard to Alexander or to his friends. Herod was also become terrible, not only to his domestics about the court, but to his friends abroad. For Caesar had given such 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, even out of a city that was not under his own jurisdiction. Now the young men were not acquainted with the Calomnes raised against them, for which reason 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 towards them, and by the great uneasiness he showed upon anything that troubled him. Antipater had also made their uncle Ferrorus to be their enemy, as well as their aunt Salome, while he was talking with her as with a wife and irritating her against them. Moreover Alexander's wife, Glaphira, augmented this hatred against them by deriving her nobility and genealogy from great persons, and pretending that she was a lady superior to all others in that kingdom, as being derived by her father's side from Teminus, and by her mother's side from Darius, the son of Hytaspis. She also frequently reproached Herod's sister and wives with the ignomility of their descent, and that they were every one chosen by him for their beauty, but not for their family. Now those wives of his were not a few, it being of old permitted to the Jews to marry many wives, and this king delighting in many, all which hated Alexander on account of Glaphira's boasting and reproaches. Nay, Aristobulus had raised a quarrel between himself and Salome, who was his mother-in-law, and besides the anger he had conceived at Glaphira's reproaches, for he perpetually uprated his wife with the meanness of her family, and complained that as he had married a woman of a low family, so 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 own brethren, that when he should come to the crown he would make them weave with their maidens, it would make those brothers of his country's school-masters, and break this just upon them, that they had been very carefully instructed to fit them for such an employment. Hereupon Salome could not contain her anger, but told all to Herod, nor could her testimony be suspected, since it was against her own son-in-law. It was also another calamity, which ran abroad in inflame the king's mind, for he had heard that these sons of his were perpetually speaking to their mother, and among their lamentations for her did not abstain from cursing him, and that when he made presents of any of Maryamne's garments to his later wives, these threatened that in no little time, instead of royal garments, they would close theft in no better than haircloth. Now upon these accounts, though Herod was somewhat afraid of a young man's high spirit, yet he did not despair of reducing them to a much better mind. But before he went to Rome, whether he was now going by sea, he called them to him, and partly threatened them a little, as a king, but for the maid he admonished them as a father, and exhorted them to love their brethren, and told them that he would pardon their former offenses, if they would amend for the time to come. But they refuted the calamities that had been raised to them, and said that they were false, and alleged that their actions were sufficient for their vindication, and said with all that he himself ought to shut his ears against such tales, and would not be too easy in believing them, for that there would never be wanting those who would tell lies to their disadvantage as long as any would give ear to them. When they had thus pacified him, as being their father, they got clear of the present fear that they were in, yet did they see occasion for sorrow in some time afterward, for they knew that Salome, as well as their uncle, Fauroris, were their enemies, who both of them heavy and severe persons, and especially Fauroris, who was a partner with Herod in all the affairs of the kingdom, accepting the diadem. She had also a hundred talents of his own revenue, and enjoyed the advantage of all the land beyond the Jordan. Nay, Fauroris had been accused long before, while the Queen, Maryamne, was alive, as if he were in a plot to poison Herod, and there came then so great a number of informers that Herod himself, though he was an exceeding lover of his brethren, was brought to believe what they said, and to be afraid of it also. And when he had brought many of those who were under suspicion to the torture, he came at last to Fauroris's own friends, none of whom did openly confess the crime, but they owned that he had made preparations to take her whom he loved and run away to the Parthians. Costobaris, too, the husband of Salome, to whom the King had given her in marriage, after the her former husband had been put to death for adultery, was instrumental in bringing about this contrivance and flight of his. Fauroris did Salome escape all calamity upon herself, for her brother Fauroris accused her that she had made an agreement to marry Silios, the procurator of Obadus, the King of Arabia, who was at bitter enmity with Herod. But when she was convicted of this, and all that Fauroris had accused her of, she obtained her pardon. The King also pardoned Fauroris himself the crimes he had been accused of. But the storm of the whole family was removed to Alexander, and all of it rested 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 supper 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 use them after an obscene manner, which, when it was told to the King, they were tortured and found guilty, and presently confessed the criminal conversation he had with them. They also discovered the promises by which they were induced to do so, and how they were dislooted by Alexander, who had told them that they ought not to fix their hopes upon Herod, an old man, and one so shameless as to color his hair, unless they thought they would make him young again, but that they ought to fix their attention to him who was to be his successor in the kingdom, whether he would or not, and who in no time would advantage himself on his enemies, and make his friends happy and blessed, and themselves in the first place, that the man of power did already pay respects to Alexander, privately, and that the captives of the soldiery and the officers did secretly come to him. These confessions did so terrify Herod, that he durst not immediately publish them. But he sent spies abroad privately, by day and by night, who should make a close inquiry after all that was done and said, and when any were but suspected of treason, he put them to death, in so much that the palace was full of horribly unjust proceedings, for everybody forged calamities, as they were themselves in a state of enmity or hatred against others, and many there were who abused the king's bloody passion to the disadvantage of those with whom they had quarrels, and lies were easily believed, and punishments were inflicted sooner than the calamities were forged. He who had just then been accusing another was accused himself, and was led away to execution together with him whom he had convicted, for the danger the king was in of, his life, made examinations be very short. He also proceeded to such a degree of bitterness that he could not look on any of those who were not accused with a pleasant countenance, but was in the most barbarous disposition towards his own friends. Accordingly he forbade a great many of them. To come to court, and to those whom he had not the power to punish actually, he spiked harshly. But for antipater he insulted Alexander. Now he was under his misfortunes, and got a stout company of his kindred together, and raised all sorts of calamity against him. And for the king he was brought to such a degree of terror by these prodigious slanders and contrivances that he fancied he saw Alexander coming to him with a drawn sword in his hand. So he caused him to be seized upon immediately, and bound, and fell to examining his friends by torture, many of whom died under the torture, but would discover nothing. Nor say anything against their consciences, but some of them being forced to speak falsely by the pains they endured, said that Alexander and his brother Aristobulus plotted against him, and waited for an opportunity to kill him as he was hunting, and then fly away to Rome. These accusations, though they were of an incredible nature, and only framed upon the great distress that they were in, were readily believed by the king, who thought it some comfort to him, after he had bound his son, that it might appear he had not done it unjustly. CHAPTERS XXV and XXXVI Archelaus procures a reconciliation between Alexander, Feroas, and Herod. Now as to Alexander, since he perceived it impossible to persuade his father that he was innocent, he resolved to meet his calamities, however severe so ever they were. So he composed four books against his enemies, and confessed that he had been in a plot, but declared with all that the greatest part of the courtiers were in a plot with him, and chiefly Feroas and Salome, nay that Salome once came and forced him to lie with her in the night-time, whether he would or no. These books were put into Herod's hands, and made a great clamour against the men in power. And now it was that Archelaus came hastily into Judea, being affrighted for his son-in-law and his daughter, and he came as a proper assistant, and in a very prudent manner, and by a stratagem he obliged the king not to execute what he had threatened. For when he was come to him he cried out, Where in the world is this wretched son-in-law of mine? Where shall I see the head of him which contrived to murder his father? Which I will tear to pieces, with my own hands. I will do the same also to my daughter, who hath such a fine husband. For although she be not a partner in the plot, yet by being the wife of such a creature, she is polluted. And I cannot but admire at thy patience, against whom this plot is laid. If Alexander be still alive, for as I come with what haste I could from Cappadocia I expected to find him put to death for his crimes long ago. But still, in order to make an examination of thee about my daughter, whom, out of regard to thee and by dignity, I had espoused to him in marriage. But now we must take counsel about them both. And if thy paternal affection be so great that thou canest punish thy son, who hath plotted against thee, let us change our right hands, and let us succeed to the other in expressing our rage upon this occasion. When he had made this papus declaration he got Herod to remit of his anger, though he were in disorder, who thereupon gave him the books which Alexander had composed to be read by him. And as he came to every head, he considered of it, together with Herod. So Archelaus took hence the occasion for that stratagem which he made use of, and by degrees he laid the blame on those men whose names are in those books, and esp. of Von Ferorus. And when he saw that the king believed him, to be an earnest, he said, We must consider whether the young man be not himself plotted against by such a number of wicked wretches, and not thou plotted against by the young man. For I cannot see any occasion for his falling into so horrid a crime, since he enjoys the advantages of royalty already, and has the expectation of being one of thy successors. I mean this, unless there were some persons that persuade him to it, and such persons as make an ill use of the faculty, they know there is to persuade young men. For by such persons not only young men are sometimes imposed upon, but old men also, and by them sometimes are the most illustrious families and kingdoms overturned. Herod assented to what he had said, and by degrees abated of his anger against Alexander, but was more angry at Fororus, for the principal subject of the four books was Fororus, who, perceiving that the king's inclinations changed on a sudden, and that Archelaus's friendship could do everything with him, and that he had no honorable method of preserving himself, he procured his safety by his impudence. So he left Alexander and had recourse to Archelaus, who told him that he did not see how he could get him excused, now that he was directly caught in so many crimes. Whereby it was evidently demonstrated that he had plotted against the king, and had been in the cause of those misfortunes, which the young man was now under, unless he could moreover leave off his cunning navery and his denials of what he was charged with all, and confess the charge, and implore pardon of his brother, who still had a kindness for him, but that, if he would do so, he would afford him all the assistance he was able. With this advice Fororus complied, and putting himself into such a habit as might most move compassion, he came with black cloth upon his body, and tears in his eyes, and threw himself down at Herod's feet, and begged his pardon for what he had done, and confessed that he had acted very wickedly, and was guilty of everything that he had been accused of, and lamented that disorder of his mind and distraction, which, his love to a woman, he said, had brought him to. So when Archelaus had brought Fororus to accuse and bear witness against himself, he then made an excuse for him, and mitigated Herod's anger towards him, and this by using certain domestical examples. For that, when he had suffered much greater mischief from a brother of his own, he preferred the obligations of nature before the passion of revenge, because it is in kingdoms, as it is in gross bodies, where some member or other is ever swelled by the body's weight, in which case it is not proper to cut off such member, but to heal it by a gentle method of cure. Upon Archelaus saying this, and much more to the same purpose, Herod's displeasure against Fororus was mollified. Yet he did persevere in his own indignation against Alexander, and said that he would have his daughter divorced, and taken away from him, and this till he had brought Herod to that pass, that, contrary to his former behavior to him, he petitioned Archelaus for the young man, and that he would let his daughter continue to espouse to him. But Archelaus made him strongly believe that he would permit Herod to be married to anyone else, but not to Alexander, because he looked upon it as a very valuable advantage, that the revelation they had contracted by that affinity, and the privileges that went along with it, might be preserved. And when the king said that his son would take it for a great favor to him, if he would not dissolve that marriage, especially since they had already children between the young man and her, and since that wife of his was so well beloved by him, and that as while she remains his wife she would be a great preservative to him, and keep him from offending, as he had formerly done, so if she should be once torn away from him, she would be the cause of his falling into despair, because such young man's attempts are best mollified when they are diverted from them by settling their affections at home. So Archelaus complied with what Herod desired, but not without difficulty, and was both himself reconciled to the young man, and reconciled his father to him also. However, he said he must, by all means, be sent to Rome to discourse with Caesar, because he had already written a full account to him of this whole manner. Thus a period was put to Archelaus's stratagem, whereby he delivered his son-in-law out of the dangers he was in, but when these reconciliations were over, they spent their time in feastings and agreeable entertainments. And when Archelaus was going away, Herod made him a present of seventy talents, with a golden throne set with precious stones, and some eunuchs, and a concubine who was called Panikius. He also paid due honors to every one of his friends according to their dignity. In like manner did all the kings kindred by his command make glorious presents to Archelaus, and, as he was conducted on his way by Herod in his nobility, as far as Antioch. CHAPTER XXVI How Euryklies Calamnated the Sons of Mariamni, and how Euroratus of costs, apology for them, had no effect. Now a little time afterward there came into Judea, a man that was much superior to Archelaus's stratagems, who did not only overturn that reconciliation that had been so wisely made with Alexander, but proved the occasion of his ruin. He was a Lachydemonian, and his name was Euryklies. FOOTNOAT This vile fellow, Euryklies the Lachydemonian, seems to have been the same who was mentioned by Plutarch, as, twenty-five years before, a companion to Mark Antony, and as living with Herod, whence he might easily insinuate himself into the acquaintance of Herod's sons, Antipater and Alexander, as Usher, Hudson, and Spanheim justly suppose. The reason why his being a Spartan, rendered him acceptable to the Jews, as we here see he was, is visible from the public records of the Jews and Spartans, owning those Spartans to be the kin to the Jews, and deriving from their common ancestor, Abraham, the first patriarch of the Jewish nation. END FOOTNOAT He was so corrupt a man, that out of the desire of getting money, he chose to live under a king, for Greece could not suffice his luxury. He presented Herod with splendid gifts, as a bait, which he laid in order to compass his ends, and quickly received them back again manifold. Yet did he esteem bear gifts as nothing, unless he imbrewed the kingdom, in blood by his purchases. Accordingly he imposed upon the king by flattering him, and by talking subtly to him, and also by the lying in coniums, which he made upon him. For he soon perceived Herod's blindside, as he said and did everything that might please him, and thereby became one of his most intimate friends, for both the king, and all that that were about him, had a great regard for this Spartan, on account of his country. Now, as soon as this fellow perceived the rotten parts of the family, and what quarrels the brothers had with one another, and in what disposition the father was towards each of them, he chose to take his lodgings at first in the house of Antipater, but deluded Alexander but with the pretence of friendship to him, and falsely claimed to be an old acquaintance of Archelaus, for which reason he was presently admitted into Alexander's familiarity as a faithful friend. He also soon recommended himself to his brother, Aristubulus, and when he had thus made trial of these several persons, he imposed upon one of them, by one method, and upon another by another. But he was principally hired by Antipater, and so betrayed Alexander, and this by reproaching Antipater, because, while he was the eldest son, he overlooked the intrigues of those who stood in the way of his expectations, and by reproaching Alexander, because he was born of a queen, and was married to a king's daughter, permitted one that was born of a mean woman to lay claim to the succession, and this when he had Archelaus to support him in the most complete manner. Nor was his advice thought to be other than faithful by the young man, because of the pretended friendship with Archelaus, on which account it was that Alexander lamented to him Antipater's behavior in regard to himself, and this without concealing anything from him, and how it was no wonder if Herod, after he had killed their mother, should deprive them of her kingdom. Upon this Euryklies pretended to commiserate his condition and to grieve with him. He also, by a bait that he had laid for him, procured Aristobulus to say the same things. Thus that he invagal between the two brothers to make complaints of their father, and then went to Antipater and carried these grand secrets to him. He also added a fiction of his own, as if his brothers had laid a plot against him, and were almost ready to come upon him with their drawn swords. For this intelligence he received a great sum of money, and on that account he commended Antipater before his father, and at length undertook the work of bringing Alexander and Aristobulus to their graves, and accused them before their father. So he came to Herod, and told him that he would save his life, as a requital for the favors he had received from him, and he would preserve his light of life by way of retribution for his kind entertainment. For that sword had long been wetted, and Alexander's right hand had long stretched out against him. But that he had laid impediments in his way, prevented his speed, and that, by pretending to assist him in his design, how Alexander said that Herod was not contented to reign in a kingdom that belonged to others, and to make dilapidations in their mother's government after he had killed her. And besides all this that he had introduced a spurious successor, and proposed to give the kingdom of their ancestors to that pestilent fellow Antipater, and that he would now appease the ghosts of Hercanus and Mariamni by taking vengeance on him. For that it was not fit for him to take secession to the government from such a father without bloodshed. That many things happen every day to provoke him to do so, in so much that he can say nothing at all, but it affords occasion for calamity against him. For that, if any mention be made of nobility of birth, even in other cases, he is abused unjustly, while his father would say that nobody, to be sure, is of noble birth but Alexander, and that his father was inglorious for what of such nobility. If there be at any time hunting, he says nothing. He gives offense, and if he commands anybody, they take it in way of jest. They also find their father unmercifully severe, and they have no natural affection for any of them but for Antipater, on which accounts if this plot does not take, he is very willing to die, but that in case he kills his father, he hath sufficient opportunities for saving himself. In the first place he hath Archelaus, his father-in-law to whom he can easily fly, and in the next place he hath Caesar, who had never known Herod's character to this day, for that he shall not appear then before him with that dread he used to do when his father was there to terrify him, and that he will not then produce the accusations that concerned himself alone, but would in the first place openly insist on the calamities of their nation, and how they are taxed to death, and in what ways of luxury and wicked practices that wealth is spent which was gotten by bloodshed.  When Uricles had made this portentous speech, he greatly commended Antipater, as the only child that had an affection for his father, and on that account was an impediment to the other's plot against him. Here upon the king, who had hardly repressed his anger upon the former accusations, was exasperated to an incurable degree. At which time Antipater took another occasion to send in other persons to his father, to accuse his brethren, and to tell him that they had privately discoursed with Ducundus and Terenus, who had been masters of the horse to the king, but for some offenses had been put out of that honorable employment. Herod was in a very great rage at these informations, and presently ordered those men to be tortured, yet did not they confess anything of what the king had been informed. But a certain letter was produced, as written by Alexander to the governor of a castle, to desire him to receive him and arrest Abulus into the castle when he had killed his father, and to give them weapons, and what other assistance he could, upon that occasion. Alexander said that this letter was a forgery of Delfantis. This Delfantis was the king's secretary, a bold man, and cunning and counterfeiting anyone's hand, and after he had counterfeited a great number, he was at last put to death for it. Herod did also order the governor of the castle to be tortured, but got nothing out of him of what the accusation suggested. However, although Herod found the proofs too weak, he gave order to keep his sons kept in custody, for till now they had been at liberty. He also called that pest of his family, and forger of all this vile accusation, uricles, his savior, and benefactor, and gave him a reward of fifty talents, upon which he prevented 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 Caesar, that he had filled Achia with sedition, and had plundered its cities, and so he was sent into banishment. And thus he was punished for that wicked actions he had been guilty of about Aristobulus and Alexander. But it will be worth while to put a erotus of costs 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 uricles came, so that the king put the question 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. Nor did this testimony avail nothing for the clearing of those miserable creatures, for Herod was only disposed and most ready to hearken to what made against them, and everyone was most agreeable to him that would believe they were guilty and showed their indignation at them. BOOK 1 CHAPTERS 27 and 28 Herod by Caesar's direction accuses his sons at a erotus. They are not produced before the courts, but yet are condemned, and in a little time they are sent to Sebasté and strangled there. 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 formally endeavored to marry herself to Salius, the Arabian, she had discovered the king's grand secrets 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 Caesar immediately, as also his friend Olympus with him, who carried the informations in writing along with him. Now as soon as they had sailed to Rome and delivered the king's letters to Caesar, Caesar was mightily troubled at the case of the young men. Yet he did not think he ought to take 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 with all that he would do well to make an examination into this matter of the plot against him in a public court, and to take for his excessors his own kindred and the governors of the province. 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. With these directions Herod complied, and came to Beirutus, where Caesar had ordered the court to be assembled, and got the judicature together. The president sat first, as Caesar's letters had appointed, who were Satraninus and Pidanius, and their lieutenants that were with them, with whom was the procurator Volumnius also. Next to them sat the king's kinsmen and friends, with Salome also, and Ferrorus, after whom sat the principal men of all Syria, excepting Archelaus, for Herod had a suspicion of him, because he was Alexander's father-in-law. Yet he did not 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 with all they were suffered to speak, Alexander could have easily answered what they were accused of, but they were in custody of Plataine, a village of the Sedantans. So the king got up, and invaded 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 assessors, on their reproaches, and jests, and injurious carriage, and ten thousand the like offenses 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 condemned himself. Now he had gained a bitter victory against his sons. So he asked every one sentence, which sentence was first of all given by Satroninus, and was this, that he condemned the young men but not to death, for that was not fit for them, 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, and some others there were also who followed their example. But Voluminus 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 Caesarea, and deliberated with himself what sort of death the young men should suffer. Now there was a certain old soldier of the kings, whose name was Tarot, 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 distracted, out of the excess of the indignation he had at what he was doing. And at first he cried out aloud, as he went about that justice was trampled underfoot. That truth was perished, and nature confounded, and that the life of man was full of iniquity, and everything else that passion could suggest to a man who had 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 harkenest to the most wicked wretches, against those that ought to be the dearest to thee. Since thou hast frequently resolved that forurus and salame should be put to death, and yet believest 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 added openly. Upon his saying this he named those that had such indignation, but the king ordered those men, with tarot himself and his son, to be seized upon immediately. At which time there was a certain barber, whose name was Trifo. This man leaped out from among the people in a kind of madness and accused himself, saying, This tarot, endeavored 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 tarot, with his son and the barber, by the torture, but as the others denied the accusation he said nothing further. Herod gave order that tarot should be racked most severely, but his son, out of pity to his father, promised to discover the hole to the king if he would grant that his father should no longer be 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 to free his father from his torments, and some said that it was true. And now Herod accused the captains, and tarot, in an assembly of the people, and he brought the people together in a body against them, and accordingly they were put to death, together with Trifo the barber. They were killed by the pieces of wood and stones that were thrown at them. He also sent his sons to Sebaste, a city not far from Caesarea, and ordered them 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. Chapter 28 How Intipotur is hated of all men, and how the king expouses the sons of those who had been slain to his kindred, but that Intipotur made him change them for other women, of Herod's marriages and children. But an intolerable hatred fell upon Intipotur from the nation, though he had now an indisputable title to the secession, because they all knew that he was the person who contrived all the Calomnes against his brethren. However, he began to be in a terrible fear as he saw the posterity of those who had been slain growing up. For Alexander had two sons by Glaphira, Tigranes and Alexander, 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 Glaphira, Herod, as soon as he had killed Alexander, sent her back, together with her portion to Cappadocia. He married Bernice, Aristobulus' daughter, to Intipotur's uncle by his mother. And it was Intipotur who, in order to reconcile her to him, when she had been at variance with him, contrived this match. He also got into Pharoah's favor, and into the favor of Caesar's friends, by presence, in other ways of obsequiousness, and sent no small sums of money to Rome. Santroninus 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. Accordingly it so fell out that the receivers bore him no more goodwill 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. 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 for me these children's fathers, which children are recommended to me by their natural commiseration, which their orphan condition requires. However, I will endeavor, though I have been a most unfortunate father, to appear a better grandfather, and to leave these children such curators after myself as are dearest to me. I therefore betroth thy daughter, Fauroris, to the elder of these children, the children of Alexander, that thou may beest be obliged to take care of them. I also betroth thy son, Antipater, to 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. 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 immediately and lamented publicly at what was done, for he's supposed that his 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 government, if Alexander's son should have both Archelaus, a king, and Ferrorus, a tetrarch, to support them. He also considered how he was himself hated by the nation, and how they pitied these orphans, how great affection the Jews bared to those brethren of his when they were alive, and how gladly they remembered them now that they had perished by his means. So he resolved by all the ways possible to get these espousals dissolved. Now he was afraid of going subtly about the manner with his father, who was hard to be pleased, and was presently moved upon the least suspicion.  For that he should never be able to keep the government if Alexander's son was to have both his grandfather Archelaus and Ferrorus for his curators, and he basalt him earnestly, since there was so many of the royal family alive, that he would change those intended marriages. Now the king had nine wives. Footnote. Dean Aldrich takes notice here that these nine wives of Herod were alive at the same time, and that if the celebrated Mary Omni, who was now dead, be reckoned, those wives were in all ten. Yet it is remarkable that he had no more than fifteen children by them all. End footnote. And children by seven of them. And temperature was himself born of Doris, and Herod Philip of Mary Omni, the high priest's daughter. Antipas, also, and Archelaus, were by Malthusse, the Samaritan, as was his daughter Olympias, which his brother Joseph's son had married. Footnote. To prevent confusion it may not be amiss with Dean Aldrich to distinguish between the four Joseph's in the history of Herod. Joseph, Herod's uncle, and the second husband of his sister Salome, slain by Herod on account of a Mary Omni. Two, Joseph, Herod's quister, or treasurer, slain on the same account. Three, Joseph, Herod's brother, slain in battle against antagonists. Four, Joseph, Herod's nephew, the husband of Olympias mentioned in this place. And footnote. By Cleopatra of Jerusalem he had Herod and Philip, by Pallas, for Salius. He had also two daughters, Roxana and Salome, the one by Phaedra, 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 Mary Omni. Since, therefore, the royal family was so numerous, Antipater prayed him to change these intended marriages. 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 they had not been brought about by the false tales of Antipater. And so at that time he made Antipater a long and peevish answer and bid him be gone. Yet he was afterwards prevailed upon cunningly by his flatteries and changed the marriages. He married Aristobulus' daughter to him and his son to Feroris' daughter. 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, Caesar's wife, earnestly desired, leave to be married to Silius the Arabian, Herod swore that 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 Alexis, a friend of his, and that one of her daughters should be married to Alexis' son and the other to Antipater's uncle by the mother's side. And for the daughters the king had by Maryomne, the one who was married to Antipater, his sister's son, and the other to his brother's son, Fasilius. End of Book 1, Chapters 27 and 28 Chapter 29 Antipater becomes intolerable. He is sent to Rome and carries Herod's testament with him. Fauroris leaves his brother that he may keep his wife. He dies at home. Now when Antipater had cut off the hopes of the orphans, and had contracted such affinities as would be most for his own advantage, he proceeded briskly, as having a certain expectation of the kingdom. And as he had now assurance 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. Fauroris 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 Fauroris'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. Footnote. These daughters of Herod, whom Fauroris's wife affronted, were Solemne and Roxana, two virgins who were born to him of his two wives, Elphide and Phaedra. End footnote. 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 Solemne who opposed their good agreement, and informed the king of their meetings, as not being for the advantage of his affairs. And when those women knew what columnities 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 pretended to quarrel one with another while the king was within hearing. The like dissimulation did Antipater make use of, and when matters were public he opposed Fauroris, 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, Solemne knew everything they did, and told everything to Herod. But he was inflamed with anger at them, and chiefly at Fauroris's wife, for Solemne had principally accused her. So he got an assembly of his friends and kindred together, and there accused this woman of many things, and particularly of the affront 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 Fauroris, and told him that he would give him his choice of these two things, whether he would keep in with his brother or with his wife. And when Fauroris said that he would die rather than forsake his wife, Herod, not knowing what to do further in that matter, turned his speech to Antipater, and charged him to have no intercourse, either with Fauroris's wife or with Fauroris himself, or with any one belonging to her. Now, though, Antipater did not transgress that his injunction publicly, yet did he in secret come to their night-meetings, and because he was afraid that Solemne observed what he did, he procured, by the means of his Italian friends, so that he might go and live at Rome. For when they wrote that it was proper for Antipater to be sent to Caesar 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 testament to carry with him. Wherein Antipater had the kingdom bequeathed to him, and wherein Herod was named for Antipater's successor.  Soleus also, the Arabian, sailed to Rome, without any regard to Caesar's injunctions, and this in order to oppose Antipater with all his might, as to that lawsuit which Nicholas had with him before. This Soleus had a great contest with Aretes his own king, for he had slain many others of Aretes's friends, and particularly Sochemus, the most potent man in the city, Petra. Moreover, he had prevailed with Phovatus, who was Herod's steward, by giving him a great sum of money, to assist him against Herod. But when Herod gave him more, he induced him to leave Silchus, and by this means he demanded of him all that Caesar had required of him to pay. But when Soleus paid nothing of what he was to pay, and did also accuse Phovatus to Caesar, and said that he was not a steward for Caesar's advantage, but for Herod's, Phovatus was angry at him on that account, but was still in very great esteem with Herod, and discovered Soleus's grand secrets, and told the king that Soleus had corrupted Corinthus, one of the guards of his body, by bribing him, and of whom he must therefore have a care. Accordingly the king complied, for this Corinthus, though he was brought up in Herod's kingdom, yet he was by birth an Arabian, so the king ordered him to be taken up immediately, and not only him, but two other Arabians who were caught with him, the one of them was Soleus's friend, the other the head of a tribe. These last, being put to the torture, confessed that they had prevailed with Corinthus, for a large sum of money, to kill Herod, and when they had been further examined before Saturn in us, the president of Syria, they were sent to Rome. However, Herod did not leave off importuning Fauroris, but proceeded to force him to pit away his wife. Footnote. This strange obscenity of Fauroris 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 admission to the councils of the other great court-ladies, together with Herod's own importunity as to Fauroris's divorce and other marriage, also remarkable here, be well accounted for, but on the supposal that Fauroris believed, and Herod suspected, that the Pharisees' prediction, as if the crown of Judea should be translated from Herod to Fauroris's posterity, and that most probably to Fauroris's posterity by this, his wife, also would prove true. Footnote. Yet he could not devise any way by which he could bring the woman herself to punishment, though he had many causes of hatred to her. To let length he was in such great uneasiness at her, that he cast both her and his brother out of his kingdom. Fauroris took this inquiry very patiently, and went away into his own tetrarchy, pariah beyond Jordan, and swore that there should be but one end put to his flight, and that should be Herod's death, and that he would never return while he was alive. Nor indeed would he return when his brother was sick, although he earnestly sent for him to come to him, because he had a mind to leave some injunctions with him before he died, but Herod unexpectedly recovered. A little afterward Fauroris himself fell sick when Herod showed a great moderation, for he came to him, and pitied his case, and took care of him. But his affection did him no good, for Fauroris died a little afterward. Now though Herod had so great an affection for him to the last day of his life, yet was a report spread abroad that he had killed him by poison. However, he took care to have his dead body carried to Jerusalem, and appointed a very great mourning to the whole nation for him, and bestowed a most pompous funeral upon him. And this was the end that one of Alexander's and Aristobolis's murderers came to. CHAPTER XXX When Herod made inquiry about Fauroris's death a discovery was made that Antipater had prepared a poisonous draft for him. Herod cast Doris and her accomplices, as also Mariamne, out of the palace, and blots her son Herod out of his testament. But now the punishment was transferred unto the original author, Antipater, and took its rise from the death of Fauroris, for certain of his freedmen came with the sad countenance to the king, and told him that his brother had been destroyed by poison, and that his wife had brought him somewhat that was prepared after an unusual manner, and that upon his eating it he presently fell into his distemper, that Antipater's mother and sister, two days before, brought a woman out of Arabia that was skillful in mixing such drugs, that she might prepare a love potion for Fauroris, and that instead of a love potion she had given him deadly poison, and that this was done by the management of Soleus who was acquainted with that woman. The king was deeply affected with so many suspicions, and had the maid servants and some of the free women also tortured, one of which cried out in her agonies, May that God that governs the earth and the heaven punish this author of all these our miseries, Antipater's mother. The king took a handle from this confession, and proceeded to inquire further into the truth of the matter. So this woman discovered the friendship of Antipater's mother to Fauroris, and Antipater's woman as also their secret meetings, that Fauroris and Antipater had drunk with them for a whole night together, as they returned from the king, and would not suffer anybody, either man's servant or maid's servant, to be there, while one of the free women discovered the matter. Upon this Herod tortured the maid servants every one by themselves separately, who all unanimously agreed in the foregoing discoveries, and that accordingly by agreement they went away, Antipater to Rome and Fauroris to Paria, for that they often times talked one another thus, that after Herod had slain Alexander and Aristobulus he would fall upon them, and upon their wives, because after he, Mary Omni, and her children he would spare nobody, and that for this reason it was best to get as far off the wild beast as they were able, and that Antipater often times lamented his own case before his mother, and said to her that he had already gray hairs upon his head, and that his father grew younger again every day, and that perhaps death would overtake him before he should begin to be king and earnest, and that in case Herod should die, which yet nobody knew when it would be, the enjoyment of the succession would certainly be but for a little time, for that these heads of Hydra, the sons of Alexander and Aristobulus, were growing up, that he was deprived by his father of the hopes of being succeeded by his children, for that his successor after his death was not to be any one of his own sons, but Herod, the son of Mary Omni, that in this point Herod was plainly distracted, to think that his testament should therein take place, for he would take care that not one of his posterities should remain, because he was, of all fathers, the greatest hater of his children. Yet does he hate his brother still worse, whence it was that he a while ago gave himself a hundred talents, that he should not have any intercourse with Fauroris? And when Fauroris said, Where in have we done him any harm? Antipater replied, I wish he would but deprive us of all we have, and leave us naked and alive only. But it is indeed impossible to escape this wild beast, who is thus given to murder, who will not permit us to love any person openly, though we be together privately. Yet may we be so openly too, if we have but the courage in the hands of men. These things were said by the women upon the torture, as also that Fauroris resolved to fly with them to Peria. Now Herod gave credit to all they said, on account of the affair of the hundred talents, for he had no discourse with anybody about them, but only with Antipater. So he vented his anger first of all against Antipater's mother, and took away from her all the ornaments which he had given her, which cost a great many talents, and cast her out of the palace a second time. He also took care of Fauroris's women after their tortures, as being now reconciled to them. But he was in great consternation himself, and inflamed upon every suspicion, and had many innocent persons led to the torture, out of his fear lest he should leave any guilty person untortured. And now it was that he betook himself to examine Antipater of Samaria, who was the steward of his son Antipater, and upon torturing him, he learned that Antipater had sent for a potion of deadly poison for him out of Egypt by Antiphilus, a companion of his. That Thudio, the uncle of Antipater, had it from him, and delivered it to Fauroris. For that Antipater had charged him to take his father off while he was at Rome, and so free him from the suspicion of doing it himself. That Fauroris also committed this potion to his wife. Then did the king send for her, and bid her bring to him what she had received immediately. So she came out of her house, as if she would bring it with her, but threw herself down from the top of the house, in order to prevent any examination and torture from the king. However, it came to pass, as it seems by the providence of God, when he intended to bring Antipater to punishment, that she fell not upon her head, but upon other parts of her body and escaped. The king, when she was brought to him, took care of her, for she was at first quite senseless upon her fall, and asked her why she had thrown herself down, and gave her his oath, that if she would speak the real truth he would excuse her from punishment. But that if she concealed anything he would have her body torn to pieces by torments, and leave no part of it to be buried. Upon this the woman paused a little, and then said, Why do I spare to speak of these grand secrets now Fauroris is dead? That would only tend to save Antipater, who is all our destruction. Here then, O king, and be thou, and God himself, who cannot be deceived, witnesses to the truth of what I am going to say. When thou didst sit weeping by Fauroris as he was dying, then it was that he called me to him and said, My dear wife, I have been greatly mistaken as to the disposition of my brother towards me, and have hated him that is so affectionate to me, and have contrived to kill him who is in such disorder for me before I am dead. As for myself I receive the recompense of my impiety, but do thou bring what poison was left with us by Antipater, and which thou keepest in order to destroy him, and consume it immediately in the fire in my sight, that I may not be liable to the avenger in the invisible world. This I brought as he bid me, and emptied the greatest part of it into the fire, but reserved a little of it for my own use against an uncertain futurity, and out of my fear of thee. When she had said this she brought the box, which had a small quantity of this potion in it, but the king let her alone and transferred the tortures to Antiphaelus's mother and brother, who both confessed that Antiphaelus brought the box out of Egypt, and that they had received the potion from a brother of his who was a physician at Alexandria. Then did the ghosts of Alexander and Aristobelus go round all the palace, and become the inquisitors and discoverers of what could not otherwise have been found out, and brought such as were the freest from suspicion to be examined. Whereby it was discovered that Mary Omni, the high priest's daughter, was conscious of this plot, and her very brothers, when they were tortured, declared it so to be. Whereupon the king avenged this insulin attempt of the mother upon her son, and blotted Herod, whom he had by her, out of his treatment, who had been before named therein a successor to Antiphaelus. CHAPTER 31 Antiphaelus is convicted by Bethelus, but he still returns from Rome without knowing it. Herod brings him to his trial. After these things were over, Bethelus came under examination, in order to convict Antiphaelus, who proved the concluding attestation to Antiphaelus's designs, for indeed he was no other than his freedman. This man came, and brought another deadly potion, the poison of afts, and the juices of other serpents, that if the first potion did not do the business, Verorus and his wife might be armed with this also to destroy the king. He brought also, in addition to Antiphaelus' insulin attempt against his father, which was the letters which he wrote, against his brethren, Arkelus and Philip, which were the king's sons, and educated at Rome, being yet youths but of generous dispositions. Antiphaelus set himself to get rid of these as soon as he could, that they might not be prejudicial to his troops, and to that end he forged letters against them in the name of his friends at Rome. Some of these he corrupted by bribes to write how they grossly reproached their father, and it openly bewail Alexander and Aristobolis, and were uneasy at their being recalled, for their father had already sent for them, which was the very thing that troubled Antiphaelus. Nay, indeed, while Antiphaelus was in Judea, and before he was upon his journey to Rome, he gave money to have the like letters against them sent from Rome, and then came to his father, who as yet had no suspicion of him, and apologized for his brethren, and alleged on their behalf that some of the things contained in those letters were false, and others of them were only youthful errors. Yet at the same time that he expended a great deal of his money, by making presents to such as wrote against his brethren, did he aim to bring his accounts into confusion, by buying costly garments and carpets of various contextures, with silver and gold cups, and a great many more curious things. That so, among the view great expenses laid out upon such furniture, he might conceal the money he had used in hiring men, to write the letters, for he brought in an account of his expenses amounting to two hundred talents, his main pretence for which was file lawsuit he had been in with Solaus. So while all his rogueries, even those of a lesser sort also, were covered by his greater villainy, while all the examinations by torture proclaimed his attempt to murder his father, and the letters proclaimed his second attempt to murder his brethren, yet did know one of these that came to Rome inform him of his misfortunes in Judea, although seven months had intervened between his conviction and his return, so great was the hatred which they all bore to him. And perhaps they were the ghosts of those brethren of his that had been murdered that stopped the mouths of those that intended to have told him. He then wrote from Rome and informed his friends that he would soon come to them, and how he was dismissed with honour by Caesar. Now the king, being desirous to get this plotter against him into his hands, and being also afraid lest he should some way come to the knowledge how his affair stood and be upon his guard, he dissembled his anger in his epistle to him, as in other points he wrote kindly to him, and desired him to make haste, because if he came quickly he would then lay aside the complaints he had against his mother, for antipoder was not ignorant that his mother had been expelled out of the palace. However, he had before received a letter which contained an account of the death of Fauroris at Terenum, footnote, this Terenum has coins still extant, as Relland informs us here in his note, in footnote, and made great lamentations at it, for which some commended him as being for his own uncle, though probably this confusion arose on account of his having thereby failed in his plot, on his father's life, and his tears were more for the loss of him that was to have been a subservient therein than for an uncle, Fauroris. Moreover, a sort of fear came upon him as to his designs, lest the poison should have been discovered. However, when he was in Cilicia, he received the aforementioned epistle from his father, and made great haste accordingly. But when he had sailed to Cilendris, a suspicion came into his mind relating to his mother's misfortunes, as if his soul foreboded some mischief to itself. Those therefore of his friends which were the most considerate advised him not rashly to go to his father, till he had learned what were the occasions why his mother had been ejected, because they were afraid that he might be involved in the columnaries that had been cast upon his mother, but those that were less considerate, and had more regard to their own desires of seeing their native country than to Antipater's safety, persuaded him to make haste home, and not, by delaying his journey, afford his father ground for an ill suspicion, and give a handle to those that raised stories against him. For in that case anything which had been moved to his disadvantage it was owing to his absence, which durst not have been done had he been present. And they said it was absurd to deprive himself of certain happiness for the sake of an uncertain suspicion, and not return to his father, and take the royal authority upon him, which was in a state of fluctuation on his account only. Antipater complied with this last advice, for Providence hurried him on to his destruction, so he passed over the sea, and landed at Sebastus, the haven of Caesarea. And here he found a perfect and unexpected solitude, while everybody avoided him, and nobody durst come at him, for he was equally hated by all men. And now that hatred had liberty to show itself, and the dread men were in at the king's anger made men keep from him, for the whole city of Jerusalem was filled with the rumours about Antipater, and Antipater himself was the only person who was ignorant of them. For as no man was dismissed more magnificently when he began his voyage to Rome, so was no man now received back with greater ignominy. And indeed he began already to suspect what misfortunes there were in Herod's family, yet did he cunningly conceal his suspicion, and while he was inwardly ready to die for fear, he put on a forced boldness of countenance. Nor could he fly any wither, nor had he any way of emerging out of the difficulties which encompassed him. Nor indeed had he even there any certain intelligence of the affairs of the royal family, by reason of the threats the king had given out. Yet had he some small hopes of better tidings, for perhaps nothing had been discovered, or if any discovery had been made, perhaps he should be able to clear himself by impudence and artful tricks, which were the only things he relied upon for his deliverance. And with these hopes did he screen himself till he came to the palace, without any friends with him, for these were affronted and shut out at the first gate. Now Verus, the president of Syria, happened to be in the palace at this juncture, so Antipater went into his father, and putting on a bold face he came near to salute him. But Herod stretched out his hands and turned his head away from him and cried out, even this is an indication of a parasite, to be desirous to get me into his arms when he is under such heinous accusations. God confound thee, thou vile wretch, do not touch me, till thou hast cleared thyself of these crimes that are charged upon thee. I appoint thee a court where thou art to be judged, and this Verus, who is very seasonably here, to be thy judge, and get thou thy defence ready against to-morrow, for I give thee so much time to prepare suitable excuses for thyself. And as Antipater was so confounded that he was able to make no answer to this charge, he went away, but his mother and wife came to him and told him of all the evidence they had gotten against him. Hereupon he recollected himself, and considered what defence he should make against the accusations. CHAPTER XXXII. Antipater is accused before Varus, and is convicted of laying a plot against his father by the strongest evidence. Herod puts off his punishment till he should be recovered, and in the meantime alters his testament. Now the day following the king assembled a court of his kinsmen and friends, and called in Antipater's friends also. Herod himself with Varus were the presidents, and Herod called for all the witnesses, and ordered them to be brought in, among whom some of the domestic servants of Antipater's mother were brought in also, who had but a little while before been caught as they were carrying the following letter from her to her son. Since all those things have been already discovered to thy father, do not thou come to him, unless thou canst procure some assistance from Caesar. When this and the other witnesses were introduced Antipater came in, and falling on his face before his father's feet he said, Father, I beseech thee, do not condemn me beforehand, but let thy ears be unbiased, and attend to my defence, for if thou wilt give me leave I will demonstrate that I am innocent. Hereupon Herod cried out to him to hold his peace, and spake thus to Varus. I cannot but think that thou, Varus, and every other upright judge, will determine that Antipater is a vile wretch. I am also afraid that thou wilt abhor my ill fortune, and judge me also myself worthy of all sorts of Calomy for begetting such children. Yet while I ought rather to be pitied, who have been so affectionate a father to such wretched sons, for when I had settled a kingdom on my former sons, even when they were young, and when, besides the charges of their education at Rome, I had made them the friends of Caesar, and made them envied by other kings, I found them plotting against me. These have been put to death, and that in great measure for the sake of Antipater, for as he was then young and appointed to be my successor I took care chiefly to secure him from danger. But this profligate wild beast, when he had been over and above satiated with that patience which I showed him, he made use of that abundance I had given him against myself, for I seemed to him to live too long, and he was very uneasy at the old age I was arrived at. Nor could he stay any longer, but would be a king by pariside. And justly I am served by him for bringing him back out of the country to court, when he was of no esteem before, and for thrusting out those sons of mine that were born of the queen, and for making him a successor to my dominions. I confessed to the Ovaris, the great folly I was guilty, for I provoked those sons of mine to act against me, and cut off their just expectations for the sake of Antipater. And indeed, what kindness did I do them, that could equal what I have done to Antipater? I have in a manner yielded up my royal while I am alive, and whom I have openly named for the successor to my dominions in my testament, and given him a yearly revenue of his own of fifty talents, and supplied him with money to an extravagant degree out of my own revenue. And when he was about to sail to Rome, I gave him three talents, and recommended him, and him alone of all my children to Caesar, as his father's deliverer. Now, what crimes were those other sons of mine guilty of, like these of Antipater? And what evidence was there brought against them so strong, as there is to demonstrate this son to have plotted against me? Yet does this pariside presume to speak for himself, and hopes to obscure the truth by his cunning tricks? Thou, Ovaras, must guard thyself against him, for I know the wild beast, and I foresee how plausibly he will talk, and his counterfeit lamentation. This was he who extorted me to have a care of Alexander when he was alive, and not to entrust my body with all men. This was he who came to my very bed, and looked about lest any one should lay snares for me. This was he who took care of my sleep, and secured me from fear of danger, who comforted me under the trouble I was in upon the slaughter of my sons, and looked to see what affection my surviving brethren bore me. This was my protector and the guardian of my body. And when I call to mind, Ovaras, his craftiness upon every occasion, and his art of dissembling, I can hardly believe that I am still alive, and wonder how I have escaped such a deep plotter of mischief. However, since some fate or other makes my house desolate, and perpetually raises up those that are dearest to me against me, I will with tears lament my hard fortune, and privately groan under my lonesome condition. Yet I am resolved that no one who thirsts after my blood shall escape punishment, although the evidence should extend itself to all my sons. Upon Herod's saying this, he was interrupted by the confusion he was in, but ordered Nicholas, one of his friends, to produce the evidence against Antipater. But in the meantime Antipater lifted up his head, for he lay on the ground before his father's feet, and cried out aloud, O thou father, hast made my apology for me, for how can I be a parasite, whom thou thyself confessest to have always had for thy guardian?  Then how could it be that I, who was so subtle in other matters, should here be so mad as not to understand that it was not easy that he who committed so horrid a crime should be concealed from men, but impossible that he should be concealed from the Judge of Heaven, who sees all things and is present everywhere?  And indeed, what was there that could possibly provoke me against thee? Could the hope of being king do it? I was king already. Could I suspect hatred from thee? No. Was I not beloved by thee? And what other fear could I have? Nay, by preserving thee safe I was a terror to others. Did I want money? No. For who was able to expend so much as myself? Indeed, Father, had I been the most excrual of all mankind, and had I had the soul of the most cruel wild beast, must I not have been overcome with the benefits thou hadst bestowed upon me? Whom, as thou thyself sayest, thou broughtest into the palace? Whom thou didst prefer before so many of thy sons? Whom thou madeest a king in thine own lifetime, and, by the vast magnitude of the other advantages thou bestowed upon me, thou madeest me an object of envy? O miserable man, that thou shouldst undergo this bitter absence, and thereby afford a great opportunity for envy to arise against thee, and a long space for such as were laying designs against thee? Yet was I absent, Father, on thy affairs, that Soleus might not treat thee with contempt in thine old age? Rome is a witness to my filial affection, and so is Caesar, the ruler of the habitable earth, who often times called me Philopatra. Take care of the letters he had sent thee, they are more to be believed than the Calumnes raised here. These letters are my only apology, these I use as the demonstration of that natural affection I have to thee. Remember that it was against my own choice that I sailed to Rome, as knowing the latent hatred that was in the kingdom against me. It was thou, O Father, however unwillingly, who hast been my ruin, by forcing me to allow time for Calumnes against me, and envy at me. However I am come hither, and I am ready to hear the evidence there is against me. If I be a parasite, I have passed by land and by sea, without suffering any misfortune on either of them. But this method of trial is no advantage to me, for it seems, O Father, that I am already condemned, both before God and before thee. And as I am already condemned, I beg that thou wilt not believe the others that have been tortured, but let fire be brought to torment me, let the racks march through my bowels, have no regard to any lamentations that this polluted body can make, for if I be a parasite I ought not to die without torture. Thus did Antipater cry out with lamentation and weeping, and moved all the rest, and Varus in particular, to commiserate his case. Herod was the only person whose passion was too strong to permit him to weep, as knowing that the testimonies against him were true. And now it was that, at the king's command, Nicholas, when he had premised a great deal about the craftiness of Antipater, and had prevented the effects of their commiseration to him, afterwards brought in a bitter and large accusation against him, ascribing all the wickedness that had been in the kingdom to him, and especially the murder of his brethren, and demonstrated that they had perished by the columnies he had raised against them. He also said that he had laid designs against them that were still alive, as if they were laying plots for the succession, and said he, how can it be supposed that he who prepared a poison for his father should abstain from mischief as to his brethren? He then proceeded to convict him of the attempt to poison Herod, and gave an account in order of the several discoveries that had been made, and had great indignation as to the affair of Ferrorus, because Antipater had been for making him murder his brother, and had corrupted those that were dearest to the king, and filled the whole palace with wickedness. And when he had insisted on many other accusations, and the proofs for them, he left off. Then Varus bid Antipater make his defence, but he lay along in silence and said no more but this, God is my witness that I am entirely innocent. So Varus asked for the potion, and gave it to be drunk by a condemned malifactor, who was then in prison, who died upon the spot. So Varus, when he had a very private discourse with Herod, and had written an account of this assembly to Caesar, went away after a day's stay. The king also bound Antipater, and sent away to inform Caesar of his misfortunes. Now after this it was discovered that Antipater had laid a plot against Salome, also, for one of Antiphilus's domestic servants came, and brought letters from Rome, from a maid-servant of Julia, Caesar's wife, whose name was Achme. By her a message was sent to the king, that she had found a letter written by Salome, among Julia's papers, and had sent it to him privately, out of her good will to him. This letter of Salome contained the most bitter approaches of the king, and the highest accusations against him. Antipater had forged this letter, and had corrupted Achme, and persuaded her to send it to Herod. This was proved by her letter to Antipater, for thus did this woman write to him, as thou desirest I have written a letter to thy father, and have sent that letter, and am persuaded that the king will not spare his sister when he reads it. Thou wilt do well to remember what thou hast promised when all is accomplished. When this epistle was discovered, and what the epistle forged against Salome contained, a suspicion came into the king's mind that perhaps the letters against Alexander were also forged. He was moreover greatly disturbed, and in a passion, because he had almost slain his sister on Antipater's account. He did no longer delay therefore to bring him to punishment for all his crimes. Yet when he was eagerly pursuing Antipater, he was restrained by a severe distemper he fell into. However, he sent all accounts to Caesar about Achme, and the contrivances against Salome. He sent also for his testament and altered it, and therein made Antipas king, as taking no care of Arkelas and Philip, because Antipater had blasted their reputations with him. But he bequeathed to Caesar, besides other presence that he gave him, a thousand talents, as also to his wife and children and friends, and freedmen, about five hundred. He also bequeathed to all others a great quantity of land and of money, and showed his respects to Salome his sister, by giving her most splendid gifts. And this was what was contained in his testament, as it was now altered. CHAPTER XXXIII. The golden eagle is cut to pieces. Herod's barbarity when he was ready to die. He attempts to kill himself. He commands Antipater to be slain. He survives him five days and then dies. Now Herod's distemper became more and more severe to him, and this because these disorders fell upon him in his old age, and when he was in a melancholy condition, for he was already seventy years of age, and had been brought by the calamities that had happened to him about his children, whereby he had no pleasure in life, even when he was in health, the grief also that Antipater was still alive aggravated his disease, whom he resolved to put to death now not at random, but as soon as he should be well again, and resolved to have him slain in a public manner. There also now happened to him, among his other calamities, a certain popular sedition. There were two men of learning in the city, Jerusalem, who were thought the most skillful in the laws of their country, and were on that account held in very great esteem all over the nation. They were the one Judas, the son of Sephorus, the other Mattbias, the son of Margolis. There was a great concourse of the young men to these men when they expounded the laws, and there got together every day a kind of army of such as were growing up to be men. Now when these men were informed that the king was wearing away with melancholy, and with a distemper, they dropped words to their acquaintance, how it was now a very proper time to defend the cause of God, and to pull down what had been erected contrary to the laws of their country, for it was unlawful there should be any such thing in the temple as images or faces or the like representation of any animal whatsoever. Now the king had put up a golden eagle over the great gate of the temple, which these learned men extorted them to cut down, and told them that if there should any danger arise it was a glorious thing to die for the laws of their country, because that the soul was immortal, and that an eternal enjoyment of happiness did await such as died on that account, while the mean spirited and those that were not wise enough to show a right love of their souls preferred a death by a disease, before that which is the result of a virtuous behavior. At the same time that these men made this speech to their disciples, a rumor was spread about that the king was dying, which made the young men set about the work with greater boldness. They therefore let themselves down from the top of the temple with thick cords, and this at midday, and while a great number of people were in the temple, and cut down that golden eagle with axes. This was presently told to the king's captain of the temple, who came running with a great body of soldiers, and caught about forty of the young men, and brought them to the king. And when he asked them, first of all, whether they had been so hardy as to cut down the eagle, they confessed that they had done so. And when he asked him by whose command they had done it, they replied, at the command of the law of their country. And when he further asked them how they could be so joyful when they were to be put to death, they replied, because they should enjoy greater happiness after they were dead. Since in these two sections we have an evident account of the Jewish opinion in the days of Josephus about a future happy state, the resurrection of the dead, as in the New Testament, John 11 24, I shall here refer to the other places in Josephus, before he became a Catholic Christian, which concerned the same matters. Of the war, Book II, Chapter 8, Section XI, Book III, Chapter 8, Section IV, Book VII, Chapter VI, Section VII, Contra Apion, Book II, Section XIII, where we may observe that none of these passages are in his books of antiquities, written peculiarly for the use of the Gentiles, to whom he thought it not proper to insist on topics so much out of their way as these were. Nor is this observation to be omitted here, especially on account of the sensible difference we have now before us, in Josephus's reason of the used by the rabbins to persuade their scholars to hazard their lives for the vindication of God's law against images by Moses, as well as of the answers those scholars made to Herod, when they were caught and ready to die for the same. I mean as compared with the parallel arguments and answers represented in the antiquities. A like difference between Jewish and Gentile notions the reader will find in my notes on antiquities. See the like also in the case of the three Jewish sects in the antiquities, and compared with this in his wars of the Jew. Or does St. Paul himself reason to Gentile and Athens, Acts 17, 16 through 34, as he does to Jews in his epistle? End footnote. At this the king was in such an extravagant passion that he overcame his disease for the time and went out and spake to the people wherein he made a terrible accusation against those men as being guilty of sacrilege and as making greater attempts under pretense of their law, and he thought they deserved to be punished as impious persons, whereupon the people were afraid lest a great number should be found guilty and desired that when he had first punished those that put him upon this work and then those that were caught in it he would leave off his anger as to the rest. With this the king complied, though not without difficulty, and ordered those that had let themselves down together with their rabbins to be burnt alive and delivered the rest that were caught to the proper officers to be put to death by them. After this the distemper seized upon his whole body and greatly disordered all its parts with various symptoms, for there was a gentle fever upon him and an intolerable itching all over the surface of his body and continual pains in his colon and dropsicle tourannouts about his feet and an inflammation of the abdomen and a putrification of his privy-member that produced worms, besides which he had a difficulty of breathing upon him and could not breathe but when he sat upright and had a convulsion of all his members in so much that the diviners said these diseases were a punishment upon him for what he had done to the rabbins. Yet did he struggle with his numerous disorders and still had a desire to live and hoped for recovery and considered of several methods of cure. Accordingly he went over Jordan and made use of those hot baths at Callerhoe, which ran into the lake as Faltitis, but are themselves sweet enough to be drunk. And here the physicians thought proper to bathe his whole body in warm oil by letting it down into a large vessel full of oil, whereupon his eyes failed him and he came and went as if he was dying, and as a tumult was then made by his servants at their voice he revived again. Yet did he after this despair of recovery and gave orders that each soldier should have fifty drakma apiece and that his commanders and friends should have great sums of money given them. He then returned back and came to Jericho in such a melancholy state of body as almost threatened him with present death, when he proceeded to attempt a horrid wickedness, for he had got together the most illustrious men of the whole Jewish nation, out of every village, into a place called the Hippodrome, and there shut them in. He then called for his sister Salome and her husband Alexis and made this speech to them. I know well enough that the Jews will keep a festival upon my death, however it is in my power to be mourned for on other accounts and to have a splendid funeral, if you will but be subservient to my commands. Do you but take care to send soldiers to encompass these men that are now in custody and slay them immediately upon my death, and then all Judea and every family of them will weep at it, whether they will or know. These were the commands he gave them, when there came letters from his ambassadors at Rome, whereby information was given that Acme was put to death at Caesar's command and that Antipater was condemned to die. However, they wrote with all that if Herod had a mind rather to banish him, Caesar permitted him to do so. So he for a little while revived and had a desire to live, but presently he was overborn by his pains and was disordered by want of food and by a convulsive cough and endeavored to prevent a natural death. So he took an apple and asked for a knife, for he used to pair apples and eat them. He then looked round about to see that there was nobody to hinder him and lift up his right hand as if he would stab himself. But Akibius, his first cousin, came running to him and held his hand and hindered him from so doing, on which occasion a very great lamentation was made in the palace as if the king were expiring. As soon as ever Antipater heard that, he took courage and with joy in his looks besought his keepers for a sum of money to lose him and let him go. But the principal keeper of the prison did not only obstruct him in that his intention, but ran and told the king what his design was. Hereupon the king cried out louder than his distemper would well bear and immediately sent some of his guards in slew Antipater. He also gave orders to have him buried at Hercanium and altered his testament again, and therein made Arkelas, his eldest son, and the brother of Antipas, his successor, and made Antipas tetrarch. So Herod, having survived the slaughter of his son five days, died, having reigned thirty-four years since he had caused Antigonus to be slain, and obtained his kingdom, but thirty-seven years since he had been made king by the Romans. Now, as for his fortune it was prosperous in all other respects. If ever any other man could be so, since from a private man he obtained the kingdom and kept it so long and left it to his own sons, but still in his domestic affairs he was a most unfortunate man. Now, before the soldiers knew of his death, Solomey and her husband came out and dismissed those that were in bonds, whom the king had commanded to be slain, and told them that he had altered his mind, and would have every one of them sent to their own homes. When these men were gone, Solomey told the soldiers, the king was dead, and got them and the rest of the multitude together to an assembly in the amphitheater at Jericho, where Ptolemy, who was entrusted by the king with his signet ring, came before them, and spake of the happiness the king had attained, and comforted the multitude, and read the epistle which had been left for the soldiers, wherein he earnestly extorted them to bear good will to his successor, and after he had read the epistle he opened and read his testament, wherein Philip was to inherit Traconitus and the neighboring countries, and Antipas was to be tetrarch, as we said before, and Archelus was made king. He had also been commanded to carry Herod's ring to Caesar, and the settlements he had made sealed up, because Caesar was to be lord of all the settlements he had made, and was to confirm his testament, and he ordered that the dispositions he had made were to be kept as they were in his former testament. So there was an acclamation made to Archelus to congratulate him upon his advancement, and the soldiers with the multitude went round about in troops, and promised him their good will, and besides prayed to God to bless his government. After this they betook themselves to prepare for the king's funeral, and Archelus omitted nothing of magnificence therein, but brought out all the royal ornaments to augment the pomp of the deceased. There was a beer, all of gold, embroidered with precious stones, and a purple bed of various contextual, with the dead body upon it, covered with purple, and a diadem was put upon his head, and a crown of gold above it, and a scepter in his right hand, and near to the beer were Herod's sons, and a multitude of his kindred, next to which came his guards, and the regimen of Thracians, the Germans also, and Gauls, all accounted as if they were going to war. But the rest of the army went foremost, armed, and following their captains and officers in a regular manner, after whom five hundred of his domestic servants and freedmen followed, with sweet spices in their hands, and the body was carried two hundred furlongs to Herodium, where he had given order to be buried. And this shall suffice for the conclusion of the life of Herod.