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1. As king Herod was very zealous in the administration of his
entire government, and desirous to put a stop to particular acts
of injustice which were done by criminals about the city and
country, he made a law, no way like our original laws, and which
he enacted of himself, to expose house-breakers to be ejected out
of his kingdom; which punishment was not only grievous to be
borne by the offenders, but contained in it a dissolution of the
customs of our forefathers; for this slavery to foreigners, and
such as did not live after the manner of Jews, and this necessity
that they were under to do whatsoever such men should command,
was an offense against our religious settlement, rather than a
punishment to such as were found to have offended, such a
punishment being avoided in our original laws; for those laws
ordain, that the thief shall restore fourfold; and that if he
have not so much, he shall be sold indeed, but not to foreigners,
nor so that he be under perpetual slavery, for he must have been
released after six years. But this law, thus enacted, in order to
introduce a severe and illegal punishment, seemed to be a piece
of insolence of Herod, when he did not act as a king, but as a
tyrant, and thus contemptuously, and without any regard to his
subjects, did he venture to introduce such a punishment. Now this
penalty, thus brought into practice, was like Herod's other
actions, and became a part of his accusation, and an occasion of
the hatred he lay under.
2. Now at this time it was that he sailed to Italy, as very
desirous to meet with Caesar, and to see his sons who lived at
Rome; and Caesar was not only very obliging to him in other
respects, but delivered him his sons again, that he might take
them home with him, as having already completed themselves in the
sciences; but as soon as the young men were come from Italy, the
multitude were very desirous to see them, and they became
conspicuous among them all, as adorned with great blessings of
fortune, and having the countenances of persons of royal dignity.
So they soon appeared to be the objects of envy to Salome, the
king's sister, and to such as had raised calumnies against
Mariamne; for they were suspicious, that when these came to the
government, they should be punished for the wickedness they had
been guilty of against their mother; so they made this very fear
of theirs a motive to raise calumnies against them also. They
gave it out that they were not pleased with their father's
company, because he had put their mother to death, as if it were
not agreeable to piety to appear to converse with their mother's
murderer. Now, by carrying these stories; that had indeed a true
foundation [in the fact], but were only built on probabilities as
to the present accusation, they were able to do them mischief,
and to make Herod take away that kindness from his sons which he
had before borne to them; for they did not say these things to
him openly, but scattered abroad such words, among the rest of
the multitude; from which words, when carried to Herod, he was
induced [at last] to hate them, and which natural affection
itself, even in length of time, was not able to overcome; yet was
the king at that time in a condition to prefer the natural
affection of a father before all the suspicions and calumnies his
sons lay under. So he respected them as he ought to do, and
married them to wives, now they were of an age suitable thereto.
To Aristobulus he gave for a wife Bernice, Salome's daughter; and
to Alexander, Glaphyra, the daughter of Archelaus, king of
Cappadocia.
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