How Antipater Is Hated Of All Men; And How The King Espouses
The Sons Of Those That Had Been Slain To His Kindred; But
That Antipater Made Him Change Them For Other Women. Of
Herod's Marriages, And Children.
1. But an intolerable hatred fell upon Antipater from the nation, though
he had now an indisputable title to the succession, because they all
knew that he was the person who contrived all the calumnies against
his brethren. However, he began to be in a terrible fear, as he saw the
posterity of those that had been slain growing up; for Alexander had two
sons by Glaphyra, 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 Glaphyra,
Herod, as soon as he had killed Alexander, sent her back, together with
her portion, to Cappadocia. He married Bernice, Aristobulus's daughter,
to Antipater's uncle by his mother, and it was Antipater who, in
order to reconcile her to him, when she had been at variance with him,
contrived this match; he also got into Pheroras's favor, and into
the favor of Caesar's friends, by presents, and other ways of
obsequiousness, and sent no small sums of money to Rome; Saturninus
also, and his friends in Syria, were all well replenished with the
presents he made them; yet the more he gave, the more he was hated, as
not making these presents out of generosity, but spending his money out
of fear. Accordingly, it so fell out that the receivers bore him no more
good-will than before, but that those to whom he gave nothing were his
more bitter enemies. However, he bestowed his money every day more and
more profusely, on observing that, contrary to his expectations, the
king was taking care about the orphans, and discovering at the same time
his repentance for killing their fathers, by his commiseration of those
that sprang from them.
2. Accordingly, Herod got together his kindred and friends, and set
before them the children, and, with his eyes full of tears, said thus
to them: "It was an unlucky fate that took away from me these
children's fathers, which children are recommended to me by that natural
commiseration which their orphan condition requires; however, I will
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, Pheroras,
to the elder of these brethren, the children of Alexander, that thou
mayst be obliged to take care of them. I also betroth to thy son,
Antipater, the daughter of Aristobulus; be thou therefore a father to
that orphan; and my son Herod [Philip] shall have her sister, whose
grandfather, by the mother's side, was high priest. And let every one
that loves me be of my sentiments in these dispositions, which none that
hath an affection for me will abrogate. And I pray God that he will join
these children together in marriage, to the advantage of my kingdom, and
of my posterity; and may he look down with eyes more serene upon them
than he looked upon their fathers."
3. While he spake these words he wept, and joined the children's
right hands together; after which he embraced them every one after an
affectionate manner, and dismissed the assembly. Upon this, Antipater
was in great disorder immediately, and lamented publicly at what was
done; for he supposed that this dignity which was conferred on these
orphans was for his own destruction, even in his father's lifetime, and
that he should run another risk of losing the government, if Alexander's
sons should have both Archelaus [a king], and Pheroras 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 bare
to those brethren of his when they were alive, and how gladly they
remembered them now they had perished by his means. So he resolved by
all the ways possible to get these espousals dissolved.
4. Now he was afraid of going subtlely about this matter with his
father, who was hard to be pleased, and was presently moved upon the
least suspicion: so he ventured to go to him directly, and to beg of
him before his face not to deprive him of that dignity which he had been
pleased to bestow upon him; and that he might not have the bare name of
a king, while the power was in other persons; for that he should never
be able to keep the government, if Alexander's son was to have both his
grandfather Archelaus and Pheroras for his curators; and he besought him
earnestly, since there were so many of the royal family alive, that he
would change those [intended] marriages. Now the king had nine wives, 42
and children by seven of them; Antipater was himself born of Doris, and
Herod Philip of Mariamne, the high priest's daughter; Antipas also and
Archelaus were by Malthace, the Samaritan, as was his daughter Olympias,
which his brother Joseph's 43 son had married. By Cleopatra of Jerusalem
he had Herod and Philip; and by Pallas, Phasaelus; he had also two
daughters, Roxana and Salome, the one by Phedra, and the other by Elpis;
he had also two wives that had no children, the one his first cousin,
and the other his niece; and besides these he had two daughters, the
sisters of Alexander and Aristobulus, by Mariamne. Since, therefore,
the royal family was so numerous, Antipater prayed him to change these
intended marriages.
5. When the king perceived what disposition he was in towards these
orphans, he was angry at it, and a suspicion came into his mind as to
those sons whom he had put to death, whether that had not been brought
about by the false tales of Antipater; so that at that time he made
Antipater a long and a peevish answer, and bid him begone. Yet was he
afterwards prevailed upon cunningly by his flatteries, and changed the
marriages; he married Aristobulus's daughter to him, and his son to
Pheroras's daughter.
6. Now one may learn, in this instance, how very much this flattering
Antipater could do,--even what Salome in the like circumstances could
not do; for when she, who was his sister, and who, by the means of
Julia, Caesar's wife, earnestly desired leave to be married to Sylleus
the Arabian, Herod swore he would esteem her his bitter enemy, unless
she would leave off that project: he also caused her, against her own
consent, to be married to Alexas, a friend of his, and that one of
her daughters should be married to Alexas's son, and the other to
Antipater's uncle by the mother's side. And for the daughters the king
had by Mariamne, the one was married to Antipater, his sister's son, and
the other to his brother's son, Phasaelus.