THE WARS OF THE JEWS
OR
THE HISTORY OF THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM
Book I: Chapter 26
HOW EURYCLES 40 CALUMNIATED THE SONS OF
MARIAMNE; AND HOW EUARATUS OF COSTS APOLOGY FOR THEM
HAD NO EFFECT.
1. NOW a little afterward there came
into Judea a man that was much superior to Arehelaus’s
stratagems, who did not only overturn that
reconciliation that had been so wisely made with
Alexander, but proved the occasion of his ruin. He was
a Lacedemonian, and his name was Eurycles. He was so
corrupt a man, that out of the desire of getting
money, he chose to live under a king, for Greece could
not suffice his luxury. He presented Herod with
splendid gifts, as a bait which he laid in order to
compass his ends, and quickly received them back again
manifold; yet did he esteem bare gifts as nothing,
unless he imbrued the kingdom in blood by his
purchases. Accordingly, he imposed upon the king by
flattering him, and by talking subtlely to him, as
also by the lying encomiums which he made upon him;
for as he soon perceived Herod’s blind side, so he
said and did every thing that might please him, and
thereby became one of his most intimate friends; for
both the king and all that were about him had a great
regard for this Spartan, on account of hiscountry. 41
2. Now as soon as this fellow perceived the rotten
parts of the family, andwhat quarrels the brothers had
one with another, and in what disposition the father
was towards each of them, he chose to take his lodging
at the first in the house of Antipater, but deluded
Alexander with a pretense of friendship to him, and
falsely claimed to be an old acquaintance of
Archelaus; for which reason he was presently admitted
into Alexander’s familiarity as a faithful friend. He
also soon recommended himself to his brother
Aristobulus. And when he had thus made trial of these
several persons, he imposed upon one of them by one
method, and upon another by another. But he was
principally hired by Antipater, and so betrayed
Alexander, and this by reproaching Antipater, because,
while he was the eldest son he overlooked the
intrigues of those who stood in the way of his
expectations; and by reproaching Alexander, because he
who was born
of a queen, and was married to a king’s daughter,
permitted one that was born of a mean woman to lay
claim to the succession, and this when he had
Archelaus to support him in the most complete manner.
Nor was his advice thought to be other than faithful
by the young man, because of his pretended friendship
with Archelaus; on which account it was that Alexander
lamented to him Antipater’s behavior with regard to
himself, and this without concealing any thing from
him; and how it was no wonder if Herod, after he had
killed their mother, should deprive them of her
kingdom. Upon this Eurycles pretended to commiserate
his condition, and to grieve with him. He also, by a
bait that he laid for him, procured Aristobulus to say
the same things. Thus did he inveigle both the
brothers to make complaints of their father, and then
went to Antipater, and carried these grand secrets to
him. He also added a fiction of his own, as if his
brothers had laid a plot against him, and were almost
ready to come upon him with their drawn swords. For
this intelligence he received a great sum of money,
and on that account he commended Antipater before his
father, and at length undertook the work of bringing
Alexander and Aristobulus to their graves, and accused
them before their father. So he came to Herod, and
told him that he would save his life, as a requital
for the favors he had received from him, and would
preserve his light [of life] by way of retribution for
his kind entertainment; for that a sword had been long
whetted, and Alexander’s right hand had been long
stretched out against him; but that he had laid
impediments in his way, prevented his speed, and that
by pretending to assist him in his design: how
Alexander said that Herod was not contented to reign
in a kingdom that belonged to others, and to make
dilapidations in their mother’s government after he
had killed her; but besides all this, that he
introduced a spurious successor, and proposed to give
the kingdom of their ancestors to that pestilent
fellow Antipater: — that he would now appease the
ghosts of Hyrcanus and Mariamne, by taking vengeance
on him; for that it was not fit for him to take the
succession to the government from such a father
without bloodshed: that many things happen every day
to provoke him so to do, insomuch that he can say
nothing at all, but it affords occasion for calumny
against him; for that if any mention be made of
nobility of birth, even in other cases, he is abused
unjustly, while his father would say that nobody, to
be sure, is of noble birth but Alexander, and that his
father was inglorious for want of such nobility. If
they be at any time hunting, and he says nothing, he
gives offense; and if he commends any body, they take
it in way of jest. That they always find their father
unmercifully severe, and have no natural affection for
any of them but for Antipater; on which accounts, if
this plot does not take, he is very willing to die;
but that in case he kill his father, he hath
sufficient opportunities for saving himself. In the
first place, he hath Archelaus his father-in-law to
whom he can easily fly; and in the next place, he hath
Caesar, who had never known Herod’s character to this
day; for that he shall not appear then before him with
that dread he used to do when his father was there to
terrify him; and that he will not then produce the
accusations that concerned himself alone, but would,
in the first place, openly insist on the calamities of
their nation, and how they are taxed to death, and in
what ways of luxury and wicked practices that wealth
is spent which was gotten by bloodshed; what sort of
persons they are that get our riches, and to whom
those cities belong upon whom he bestows his favors;
that he would have inquiry made what became of his
grandfather [Hyrcanus], and his mother [Mariamne], and
would openly proclaim the gross wickedness that was in
the kingdom; on which accounts he should not be deemed
a parricide. 3. When Eurycles had made this portentous
speech, he greatly commendedAntipater, as the only
child that had an affection for his father, and on
that account was an impediment to the other’s plot
against him. Hereupon the king, who had hardly
repressed his anger upon the former accusations, was
exasperated to an incurable degree. At which time
Antipater took another occasion to send in other
persons to his father to accuse his brethren, and to
tell him that they had privately discoursed with
Jucundus and Tyrannus, who had once been masters of
the horse to the king, but for some offenses had been
put out of that honorable employment. Herod was in a
very great rage at these informations, and presently
ordered those men to be tortured; yet did not they
confess any thing of what the king had been informed;
but a certain letter was produced, as written by
Alexander to the governor of a castle, to desire him
to receive him and Aristobulus into the castle when he
had killed his father, and to give them weapons, and
what other assistance he could, upon that occasion.
Alexander said that this letter was a forgery of
Diophantus. This Diophantus was the king’s secretary,
a bold man, and cunning in counterfeiting any one’s
hand; and after he had counterfeited a great number,
he was at last put to death
for it. Herod did also order the governor of the
castle to be tortured, but got nothing out of him of
what the accusations suggested.
4. However, although Herod found the proofs too
weak, he gave order tohave his sons kept in custody;
for till now they had been at liberty. He also called
that pest of his family, and forger of all this vile
accusation, Eurycles, his savior and benefactor, and
gave him a reward of fifty talents. Upon which he
prevented any accurate accounts that could come of
what he had done, by going immediately into Cappadocia,
and there he got money of Archelaus, having the
impudence to pretend that he had reconciled Herod to
Alexander. He thence passed over into Greece, and used
what he had thus wickedly gotten to the like wicked
purposes. Accordingly, he was twice accused before
Caesar, that he had filled Achaia with sedition, and
had plundered its cities; and so he was sent into
banishment. And thus was he punished for what wicked
actions he had been guilty of about Aristobulus and
Alexander.
5. But it will now be worth while to put Euaratus
of Cos in opposition tothis Spartan; for as he was one
of Alexander’s most intimate friends, and came to him
in his travels at the same time that Eurycles came; so
the king put the question to him, whether those things
of which Alexander was accused were true? He assured
him upon oath that he had never heard any such things
from the young men; yet did this testimony avail
nothing for the clearing those miserable creatures;
for Herod was only disposed and most ready to hearken
to what made against them, and every one was most
agreeable to him that would believe they were guilty,
and showed their indignation at them.
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