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1. However, fortune was avenged on Herod in his external great
successes, by raising him up domestical troubles; and he began to
have wild disorders in his family, on account of his wife, of
whom he was so very fond. For when he came to the government, he
sent away her whom he had before married when he was a private
person, and who was born at Jerusalem, whose name was Doris, and
married Mariamne, the daughter of Alexander, the son of
Aristobulus; on whose account disturbances arose in his family,
and that in part very soon, but chiefly after his return from
Rome. For, first of all, he expelled Antipater the son of Doris,
for the sake of his sons by Mariamne, out of the city, and
permitted him to come thither at no other times than at the
festivals. After this he slew his wife's grandfather, Hyrcanus,
when he was returned out of Parthin to him, under this pretense,
that he suspected him of plotting against him. Now this Hyrcanus
had been carried captive to Barzapharnes, when he overran Syria;
but those of his own country beyond Euphrates were desirous he
would stay with them, and this out of the commiseration they had
for his condition; and had he complied with their desires, when
they exhorted him not to go over the river to lierod, he had not
perished: but the marriage of his granddaughter [to Herod] was
his temptation; for as he relied upon him, and was over-fond of
his own country, he came back to it. Herod's provocation was
this, - not that Hyrcanus made any attempt to gain the kingdom,
but that it was fitter for him to be their king than for Herod.
2. Now of the five children which Herod had by Mariamne, two of
them were daughters, and three were sons; and the youngest of
these sons was educated at Rome, and there died; but the two
eldest he treated as those of royal blood, on account of the
nobility of their mother, and because they were not born till he
was king. But then what was stronger than all this was the love
that he bare to Mariamne, and which inflamed him every day to a
great degree, and so far conspired with the other motives, that
he felt no other troubles, on account of her he loved so
entirely. But Mariamne's hatred to him was not inferior to his
love to her. She had indeed but too just a cause of indignation
from what he had done, while her boldness proceeded from his
affection to her; so she openly reproached him with what he had
done to her grandfather Hyrcanus, and to her brother Aristobulus;
for he had not spared this Aristobulus, though he were but a
child; for when he had given him the high priesthood at the age
of seventeen, he slew him quickly after he had conferred that
dignity upon him; but when Aristobulus had put on the holy
vestments, and had approached to the altar at a festival, the
multitude, in great crowds, fell into tears; whereupon the child
was sent by night to Jericho, and was there dipped by the Galls,
at Herod's command, in a pool till he was drowned.
3. For these reasons Mariamne reproached Herod, and his sister
and mother, after a most contumelious manner, while he was dumb
on account of his affection for her; yet had the women great
indignation at her, and raised a calumny against her, that she
was false to his bed; which thing they thought most likely to
move Herod to anger. They also contrived to have many other
circumstances believed, in order to make the thing more credible,
and accused her of having sent her picture into Egypt to Antony,
and that her lust was so extravagant, as to have thus showed
herself, though she was absent, to a man that ran mad after
women, and to a man that had it in his power to use violence to
her. This charge fell like a thunderbolt upon Herod, and put him
into disorder; and that especially, because his love to her
occasioned him to be jealous, and because he considered with
himself that Cleopatra was a shrewd woman, and that on her
account Lysanias the king was taken off, as well as Malichus the
Arabian; for his fear did not only extend to the dissolving of
his marriage, but to the danger of his life.
4. When therefore he was about to take a journey abroad, he
committed his wife to Joseph, his sister Salome's husband, as to
one who would be faithful to him, and bare him good-will on
account of their kindred; he also gave him a secret injunction,
that if Antony slew him, he should slay her. But Joseph, without
any ill design, and only in order to demonstrate the king's love
to his wife, how he could not bear to think of being separated
from her, even by death itself, discovered this grand secret to
her; upon which, when Herod was come back, and as they talked
together, and he confirmed his love to her by many oaths, and
assured her that he had never such an affection for any other
woman as he had for her, - " Yes," says she, "thou didst, to be
sure, demonstrate thy love to me by the injunctions thou gavest
Joseph, when thou commandedst him to kill me."
5. When he heard that this grand secret was discovered, he was
like a distracted man, and said that Joseph would never have
disclosed that injunction of his, unless he had debauched her.
His passion also made him stark mad, and leaping out of his bed,
he ran about the palace after a wild manner; at which time his
sister Salome took the opportunity also to blast her reputation,
and confirmed his suspicion about Joseph; whereupon, out of his
ungovernable jealousy and rage, he commanded both of them to be
slain immediately; but as soon as ever his passion was over, he
repented of what he had done, and as soon as his anger was worn
off, his affections were kindled again. And indeed the flame of
his desires for her was so ardent, that he could not think she
was dead, but would appear, under his disorders, to speak to her
as if she were still alive, till he were better instructed by
time, when his grief and trouble, now she was dead, appeared as
great as his affection had been for her while she was living.
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