This text is part of:
Search the Perseus Catalog for:
View text chunked by:
[567]
NOW when Antipater had cut off the hopes of the orphans, and had
contracted such affinities as would be most for his own advantage, he proceeded
briskly, as having a certain expectation of the kingdom; and as he had
now assurance added to his wickedness, he became intolerable; for not being
able to avoid the hatred of all people, he built his security upon the
terror he struck into them. Pheroras also assisted him in his designs,
looking upon him as already fixed in the kingdom. There was also a company
of women in the court, which excited new disturbances; for Pheroras's wife,
together with her mother and sister, as also Antipater's mother, grew very
impudent in the palace. She also was so insolent as to affront the king's
two daughters, 1
on which account the king hated her to a great degree; yet although these
women were hated by him, they domineered over others: there was only Salome
who opposed their good agreement, and informed the king of their meetings,
as not being for the advantage of his affairs. And when those women knew
what calumnies she had raised against them, and how much Herod was displeased,
they left off their public meetings, and friendly entertainments of one
another; nay, on the contrary, they pretended to quarrel one with another
when the king was within hearing. The like dissimulation did Antipater
make use of; and when matters were public, he opposed Pheroras; but still
they had private cabals and merry meetings in the night time; nor did the
observation of others do any more than confirm their mutual agreement.
However, Salome knew every thing they did, and told every thing to Herod.
1 These daughters of Herod, whom Pheroras's wife affronted, were Salome and Roxana, two virgins, who were born to him of his two wives, Elpide and Phedra. See Herod's genealogy, Antiq. B. XVII. ch. 1. sect. 3.
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.