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1. Archelaus went down now to the sea-side, with his mother and
his friends, Poplas, and Ptolemy, and Nicolaus, and left behind
him Philip, to be his steward in the palace, and to take care of
his domestic affairs. Salome went also along with him with her
sons, as did also the king's brethren and sons-in-law. These, in
appearance, went to give him all the assistance they were able,
in order to secure his succession, but in reality to accuse him
for his breach of the laws by what he had done at the temple.
2. But as they were come to Cesarea, Sabinus, the procurator of
Syria, met them; he was going up to Judea, to secure Herod's
effects; but Varus, [president of Syria,] who was come thither,
restrained him from going any farther. This Varus Archelaus had
sent for, by the earnest entreaty of Ptolemy. At this time,
indeed, Sabinus, to gratify Varus, neither went to the citadels,
nor did he shut up the treasuries where his father's money was
laid up, but promised that he would lie still, until Caesar
should have taken cognizance of the affair. So he abode at
Cesarea; but as soon as those that were his hinderance were gone,
when Varus was gone to Antioch, and Archclaus was sailed to Rome,
he immediately went on to Jerusalem, and seized upon the palace.
And when he had called for the governors of the citadels, and the
stewards [of the king's private affairs], he tried to sift out
the accounts of the money, and to take possession of the
citadels. But the governors of those citadels were not unmindful
of the commands laid upon them by Archelaus, and continued to
guard them, and said the custody of them rather belonged to
Caesar than to Archelaus.
3. In the mean time, Antipas went also to Rome, to strive for the
kingdom, and to insist that the former testament, wherein he was
named to be king, was valid before the latter testament. Salome
had also promised to assist him, as had many of Archelaus's
kindred, who sailed along with Archelaus himself also. He also
carried along with him his mother, and Ptolemy, the brother of
Nicolaus, who seemed one of great weight, on account of the great
trust Herod put in him, he having been one of his most honored
friends. However, Antipas depended chiefly upon Ireneus, the
orator; upon whose authority he had rejected such as advised him
to yield to Archelaus, because he was his elder brother, and
because the second testament gave the kingdom to him. The
inclinations also of all Archelaus's kindred, who hated him, were
removed to Antipas, when they came to Rome; although in the first
place every one rather desired to live under their own laws
[without a king], and to be under a Roman governor; but if they
should fail in that point, these desired that Antipas might be
their king.
4. Sabinus did also afford these his assistance to the same
purpose by letters he sent, wherein he accused Archelaus before
Caesar, and highly commended Antipas. Salome also, and those with
her, put the crimes which they accused Archelaus of in order, and
put them into Caesar's hands; and after they had done that,
Archelaus wrote down the reasons of his claim, and, by Ptolemy,
sent in his father's ring, and his father's accounts. And when
Caesar had maturely weighed by himself what both had to allege
for themselves, as also had considered of the great burden of the
kingdom, and largeness of the revenues, and withal the number of
the children Herod had left behind him, and had moreover read the
letters he had received from Varus and Sabinus on this occasion,
he assembled the principal persons among the Romans together, (in
which assembly Caius, the son of Agrippa, and his daughter
Julias, but by himself adopted for his own son, sat in the first
seat,) and gave the pleaders leave to speak.
5. Then stood up Salome's son, Antipater, (who of all Archelaus's
antagonists was the shrewdest pleader,) and accused him in the
following speech: That Archelaus did in words contend for the
kingdom, but that in deeds he had long exercised royal authority,
and so did but insult Caesar in desiring to be now heard on that
account, since he had not staid for his determination about the
succession, and since he had suborned certain persons, after
Herod's death, to move for putting the diadem upon his head;
since he had set himself down in the throne, and given answers as
a king, and altered the disposition of the army, and granted to
some higher dignities; that he had also complied in all things
with the people in the requests they had made to him as to their
king, and had also dismissed those that had been put into bonds
by his father for most important reasons. Now, after all this, he
desires the shadow of that royal authority, whose substance he
had already seized to himself, and so hath made Caesar lord, not
of things, but of words. He also reproached him further, that his
mourning for his father was only pretended, while he put on a sad
countenance in the day time, but drank to great excess in the
night; from which behavior, he said, the late disturbance among
the multitude came, while they had an indignation thereat. And
indeed the purport of his whole discourse was to aggravate
Archelaus's crime in slaying such a multitude about the temple,
which multitude came to the festival, but were barbarously slain
in the midst of their own sacrifices; and he said there was such
a vast number of dead bodies heaped together in the temple, as
even a foreign war, that should come upon them [suddenly], before
it was denounced, could not have heaped together. And he added,
that it was the foresight his father had of that his barbarity
which made him never give him any hopes of the kingdom, but when
his mind was more infirm than his body, and he was not able to
reason soundly, and did not well know what was the character of
that son, whom in his second testament he made his successor; and
this was done by him at a time when he had no complaints to make
of him whom he had named before, when he was sound in body, and
when his mind was free from all passion. That, however, if any
one should suppose Herod's judgment, when he was sick, was
superior to that at another time, yet had Archelaus forfeited his
kingdom by his own behavior, and those his actions, which were
contrary to the law, and to its disadvantage. Or what sort of a
king will this man be, when he hath obtained the government from
Caesar, who hath slain so many before he hath obtained it!
6. When Antipater had spoken largely to this purpose, and had
produced a great number of Archelaus's kindred as witnesses, to
prove every part of the accusation, he ended his discourse. Then
stood up Nicolaus to plead for Archelaus. He alleged that the
slaughter in the temple could not be avoided; that those that
were slain were become enemies not to Archelaus's kingdom, only,
but to Caesar, who was to determine about him. He also
demonstrated that Archelaus's accusers had advised him to
perpetrate other things of which he might have been accused. But
he insisted that the latter testament should, for this reason,
above all others, be esteemed valid, because Herod had therein
appointed Caesar to be the person who should confirm the
succession; for he who showed such prudence as to recede from his
own power, and yield it up to the lord of the world, cannot be
supposed mistaken in his judgment about him that was to be his
heir; and he that so well knew whom to choose for arbitrator of
the succession could not be unacquainted with him whom he chose
for his successor.
7. When Nicolaus had gone through all he had to say, Archelaus
came, and fell down before Caesar's knees, without any noise; -
upon which he raised him up, after a very obliging manner, and
declared that truly he was worthy to succeed his father. However,
he still made no firm determination in his case; but when he had
dismissed those assessors that had been with him that day, he
deliberated by himself about the allegations which he had heard,
whether it were fit to constitute any of those named in the
testaments for Herod's successor, or whether the government
should be parted among all his posterity, and this because of the
number of those that seemed to stand in need of support
therefrom.
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