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[516]
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.
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