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1. So Claudius sent Felix, the brother of Pallas, to take care of
the affairs of Judea; and when he had already completed the
twelfth year of his reign, he bestowed upon Agrippa the tetrarchy
of Philip and Batanea, and added thereto Trachonites, with Abila;
which last had been the tetrarchy of Lysanias; but he took from
him Chalcis, when he had been governor thereof four years. And
when Agrippa had received these countries as the gift of Caesar,
he gave his sister Drusilla in marriage to Azizus, king of Emesa,
upon his consent to be circumcised; for Epiphanes, the son of
king Antiochus, had refused to marry her, because, after he had
promised her father formerly to come over to the Jewish religion,
he would not now perform that promise. He also gave Mariamne in
marriage to Archelaus, the son of Helcias, to whom she had
formerly been betrothed by Agrippa her father; from which
marriage was derived a daughter, whose name was Bernice.
2. But for the marriage of Drusilla with Azizus, it was in no
long time afterward dissolved upon the following occasion: While
Felix was procurator of Judea, he saw this Drusilla, and fell in
love with her; for she did indeed exceed all other women in
beauty; and he sent to her a person whose name was Simon one
of his friends; a Jew he was, and by birth a Cypriot, and one who
pretended to be a magician, and endeavored to persuade her to
forsake her present husband, and marry him; and promised, that if
she would not refuse him, he would make her a happy woman.
Accordingly she acted ill, and because she was desirous to avoid
her sister Bernice's envy, for she was very ill treated by her on
account of her beauty, was prevailed upon to transgress the laws
of her forefathers, and to marry Felix; and when he had had a son
by her, he named him Agrippa. But after what manner that young
man, with his wife, perished at the conflagration of the mountain
Vesuvius, in the days of Titus Caesar, shall be related
hereafter.
3. But as for Bernice, she lived a widow a long while after the
death of Herod [king of Chalcis], who was both her husband and
her uncle; but when the report went that she had criminal
conversation with her brother, [Agrippa, junior,] she persuaded
Poleme, who was king of Cilicia, to be circumcised, and to marry
her, as supposing that by this means she should prove those
calumnies upon her to be false; and Poleme was prevailed upon,
and that chiefly on account of her riches. Yet did not this
matrimony endure long; but Bernice left Poleme, and, as was said,
with impure intentions. So he forsook at once this matrimony, and
the Jewish religion; and, at the same time, Mariamne put away
Archclaus, and was married to Demetrius, the principal man among
the Alexandrian Jews, both for his family and his wealth; and
indeed he was then their alabarch. So she named her son whom she
had by him Agrippinus. But of all these particulars we shall
hereafter treat more exactly.
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