The Murder Of Aristobulus And Hyrcanus, The High Priests, As
Also Of Mariamne The Queen.
1. However, fortune was avenged on Herod in his external great
successes, by raising him up domestical troubles; and he began to have
wild disorders in his family, on account of his wife, of whom he was so
very fond. For when he came to the government, he sent away her whom
he had before married when he was a private person, and who was born at
Jerusalem, whose name was Doris, and married Mariamne, the daughter of
Alexander, the son of Aristobulus; on whose account disturbances arose
in his family, and that in part very soon, but chiefly after his return
from Rome. For, first of all, he expelled Antipater the son of Doris,
for the sake of his sons by Mariamne, out of the city, and permitted him
to come thither at no other times than at the festivals. After this
he slew his wife's grandfather, Hyrcanus, when he was returned out of
Parthin to him, under this pretense, that he suspected him of plotting
against him. Now this Hyrcanus had been carried captive to Barzapharnes,
when he overran Syria; but those of his own country beyond Euphrates
were desirous he would stay with them, and this out of the commiseration
they had for his condition; and had he complied with their desires,
when they exhorted him not to go over the river to Herod, he had not
perished: but the marriage of his granddaughter [to Herod] was his
temptation; for as he relied upon him, and was over-fond of his own
country, he came back to it. Herod's provocation was this,--not that
Hyrcanus made any attempt to gain the kingdom, but that it was fitter
for him to be their king than for Herod.
2. Now of the five children which Herod had by Mariamne, two of them
were daughters, and three were sons; and the youngest of these sons was
educated at Rome, and there died; but the two eldest he treated as those
of royal blood, on account of the nobility of their mother, and because
they were not born till he was king. But then what was stronger than all
this was the love that he bare to Mariamne, and which inflamed him every
day to a great degree, and so far conspired with the other motives, that
he felt no other troubles, on account of her he loved so entirely. But
Mariamne's hatred to him was not inferior to his love to her. She had
indeed but too just a cause of indignation from what he had done,
while her boldness proceeded from his affection to her; so she openly
reproached him with what he had done to her grandfather Hyrcanus, and to
her brother Aristobulus; for he had not spared this Aristobulus, though
he were but a child; for when he had given him the high priesthood at
the age of seventeen, he slew him quickly after he had conferred that
dignity upon him; but when Aristobulus had put on the holy vestments,
and had approached to the altar at a festival, the multitude, in great
crowds, fell into tears; whereupon the child was sent by night to
Jericho, and was there dipped by the Galls, at Herod's command, in a
pool till he was drowned.
3. For these reasons Mariamne reproached Herod, and his sister and
mother, after a most contumelious manner, while he was dumb on account
of his affection for her; yet had the women great indignation at her,
and raised a calumny against her, that she was false to his bed;
which thing they thought most likely to move Herod to anger. They also
contrived to have many other circumstances believed, in order to make
the thing more credible, and accused her of having sent her picture into
Egypt to Antony, and that her lust was so extravagant, as to have thus
showed herself, though she was absent, to a man that ran mad after
women, and to a man that had it in his power to use violence to her.
This charge fell like a thunderbolt upon Herod, and put him into
disorder; and that especially, because his love to her occasioned him to
be jealous, and because he considered with himself that Cleopatra was a
shrewd woman, and that on her account Lysanias the king was taken off,
as well as Malichus the Arabian; for his fear did not only extend to the
dissolving of his marriage, but to the danger of his life.
4. When therefore he was about to take a journey abroad, he committed
his wife to Joseph, his sister Salome's husband, as to one who would be
faithful to him, and bare him good-will on account of their kindred; he
also gave him a secret injunction, that if Antony slew him, he should
slay her. But Joseph, without any ill design, and only in order to
demonstrate the king's love to his wife, how he could not bear to think
of being separated from her, even by death itself, discovered this grand
secret to her; upon which, when Herod was come back, and as they talked
together, and he confirmed his love to her by many oaths, and assured
her that he had never such an affection for any other woman as he had
for her--"Yes," says she, "thou didst, to be sure, demonstrate thy love
to me by the injunctions thou gavest Joseph, when thou commandedst him
to kill me." 37
5. When he heard that this grand secret was discovered, he was like a
distracted man, and said that Joseph would never have disclosed that
injunction of his, unless he had debauched her. His passion also made
him stark mad, and leaping out of his bed, he ran about the palace after
a wild manner; at which time his sister Salome took the opportunity
also to blast her reputation, and confirmed his suspicion about Joseph;
whereupon, out of his ungovernable jealousy and rage, he commanded both
of them to be slain immediately; but as soon as ever his passion was
over, he repented of what he had done, and as soon as his anger was
worn off, his affections were kindled again. And indeed the flame of his
desires for her was so ardent, that he could not think she was dead, but
would appear, under his disorders, to speak to her as if she were
still alive, till he were better instructed by time, when his grief and
trouble, now she was dead, appeared as great as his affection had been
for her while she was living.