This text is part of:
Search the Perseus Catalog for:
View text chunked by:
[253]
Costobarus was an Idumean by birth, and one of principal dignity
among them, and one whose ancestors had been priests to the Koze, whom
the Idumeans had [formerly] esteemed as a god; but after Hyrcanus had made
a change in their political government, and made them receive the Jewish
customs and law, Herod made Costobarus governor of Idumea and Gaza, and
gave him his sister Salome to wife; and this was upon the slaughter of
[his uncle] Joseph, who had that government before, as we have related
already. When Costobarus had gotten to be so highly advanced, it pleased
him and was more than he hoped for, and he was more and more puffed up
by his good success, and in a little while he exceeded all bounds, and
did not think fit to obey what Herod, as their ruler, commanded him, or
that the Idumeans should make use of the Jewish customs, or be subject
to them. He therefore sent to Cleopatra, and informed her that the Idumeans
had been always under his progenitors, and that for the same reason it
was but just that she should desire that country for him of Antony, for
that he was ready to transfer his friendship to her; and this he did, not
because he was better pleased to be under Cleopatra's government, but because
he thought that, upon the diminution of Herod's power, it would not be
difficult for him to obtain himself the entire government over the Idumeans,
and somewhat more also; for he raised his hopes still higher, as having
no small pretenses, both by his birth and by these riches which he had
gotten by his constant attention to filthy lucre; and accordingly it was
not a small matter that he aimed at. So Cleopatra desired this country
of Antony, but failed of her purpose. An account of this was brought to
Herod, who was thereupon ready to kill Costobarus; yet, upon the entreaties
of his sister and mother, he forgave him, and vouchsafed to pardon him
entirely; though he still had a suspicion of him afterward for this his
attempt.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.