How Eurycles <a href="#linknote-40" name="linknoteref-40"
id="linknoteref-40">40</a> Calumniated The Sons Of Mariamne; And How
Euaratus Of Cos's Apology For Them Had No Effect.
1. Now a little afterward there came into Judea a man that was much
superior to Arehelaus'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 Lacedemonian, and his name was
Eurycles. 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 bare gifts as nothing, unless he imbrued the
kingdom in blood by his purchases. Accordingly, he imposed upon the king
by flattering him, and by talking subtlely to him, as also by the lying
encomiums which he made upon him; for as he soon perceived Herod's blind
side, so he said and did every thing that might please him, and thereby
became one of his most intimate friends; for both the king and all that
were about him had a great regard for this Spartan, on account of his
country. 41
2. Now as soon as this fellow perceived the rotten parts of the family,
and what quarrels the brothers had one with another, and in what
disposition the father was towards each of them, he chose to take his
lodging at the first in the house of Antipater, but deluded Alexander
with a pretense 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 Aristobulus. 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 who 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 his pretended friendship
with Archelaus; on which account it was that Alexander lamented to him
Antipater's behavior with regard to himself, and this without concealing
any thing from him; and how it was no wonder if Herod, after he had
killed their mother, should deprive them of her kingdom. Upon this
Eurycles pretended to commiserate his condition, and to grieve with him.
He also, by a bait that he laid for him, procured Aristobulus to say the
same things. Thus did he inveigle both the 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 would preserve his light [of life] by way
of retribution for his kind entertainment; for that a sword had been
long whetted, and Alexander's right hand had been 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; but besides all this, that he introduced a spurious
successor, and proposed to give the kingdom of their ancestors to that
pestilent fellow Antipater:--that he would now appease the ghosts of
Hyrcanus and Mariamne, by taking vengeance on him; for that it was not
fit for him to take the succession to the government from such a father
without bloodshed: that many things happen every day to provoke him so
to do, insomuch that he can say nothing at all, but it affords occasion
for calumny 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 want of such nobility. If they be
at any time hunting, and he says nothing, he gives offense; and if he
commends any body, they take it in way of jest. That they always find
their father unmercifully severe, and 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 kill 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;
what sort of persons they are that get our riches, and to whom those
cities belong upon whom he bestows his favors; that he would have
inquiry made what became of his grandfather [Hyrcanus], and his mother
[Mariamne], and would openly proclaim the gross wickedness that was in
the kingdom; on which accounts he should not be deemed a parricide.
3. When Eurycles 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.
Hereupon 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 Jucundus and Tyrannus, who had once 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 any thing 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 Aristobulus 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 Diophantus. This Diophantus was the king's secretary, a
bold man, and cunning in counterfeiting any one'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 accusations suggested.
4. However, although Herod found the proofs too weak, he gave order to
have 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, Eurycles, 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 Achaia with sedition, and had plundered its cities; and so he was
sent into banishment. And thus was he punished for what wicked actions
he had been guilty of about Aristobulus and Alexander.
5. But it will now be worth while to put Euaratus of Cos in opposition
to this Spartan; for as he was one of Alexander's most intimate friends,
and came to him in his travels at the same time that Eurycles came;
so the king put the 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; yet did this testimony
avail nothing for the clearing those miserable creatures; for Herod was
only disposed and most ready to hearken to what made against them, and
every one was most agreeable to him that would believe they were guilty,
and showed their indignation at them.