The Drowning of Aristobulus

So King Herod at once took the high priesthood away from Ananelus. As we said before, Ananelus was not a native of this country but one of the Jews who had been carried captive beyond the Euphrates; for not a few tens of thousands of this people had been carried off and lived around Babylonia, and it was from there that Ananelus came. He was of the stock of the high priests, and had long been a particular friend of Herod’s. When Herod first became king he gave him that office, and now he removed him from it again in order to quiet the troubles in his family, though what he did was plainly unlawful; for at no other time had anyone who once held that office been deprived of it. It was Antiochus Epiphanes who first broke that law: he deposed Jesus and made his brother Onias high priest in his place. Aristobulus was the second to do so, when he took the office from his brother Hyrcanus; and this Herod was the third, who took that high office away from Ananelus and gave it to this young man Aristobulus in his place. [a]

Herod now seemed to have healed the divisions in his family. Still he did not remain free of suspicion, as would have been natural after a reconciliation. Since Alexandra had already made attempts at stirring up change, he feared she would go further if she found a fit opportunity. So he ordered her to live in the palace and to do nothing on her own authority. Her guards were so watchful that nothing she did in her private life from day to day was hidden. All these hardships wore down her patience little by little, and she began to hate Herod. She had a woman’s pride to the utmost degree, and she was deeply indignant at the suspicious guard kept around her; she would rather suffer anything at all than be deprived of her freedom of speech and live in slavery and terror under the pretense of a guard of honor. [d]

So she sent to Cleopatra, complained at length of the circumstances she was in, and begged her to do all she could to help her. Cleopatra advised her to slip away secretly with her son and come to her in Egypt. The advice pleased her, and she devised this plan for getting away. She had two coffins made, as if two dead bodies were to be carried out, and she put herself in one and her son in the other, and ordered those of her servants who knew her intentions to carry them away by night. From there their road was to run to the seacoast, where a ship was ready to carry them to Egypt. But Aesop, one of her servants, happened to run into Sabion, one of her friends, and spoke to him about the matter, thinking he already knew of it. Sabion had formerly been Herod’s enemy, and was thought to be one of those who had plotted against Antipater and given him the poison. When he learned this, he expected that the discovery would turn Herod’s hatred into kindness, so he told the king of Alexandra’s secret scheme. Herod let her go ahead with carrying out her plan and caught her in the very act. Still he passed over her offense. Though he very much wanted to, he did not dare to punish her severely, for he knew that Cleopatra, out of her hatred for him, would not stand for having Alexandra accused; so he made a show of forgiving them as if from generosity of soul and consideration. But he fully resolved to get rid of this young man by one means or another. He thought, though, that he would more likely escape notice if he did not do it at once, or immediately after what had just happened.

Now when the Feast of Tabernacles came around, a festival very much observed among us, he let those days pass, and both he and the rest of the people spent them in great merriment. Yet the envy that arose in him at this time drove him to hurry what he was about. For this youth Aristobulus, who was now in his seventeenth year, went up to the altar according to the law to offer the sacrifices, wearing the ornaments of his high priesthood. As he performed the sacred rites he appeared exceedingly handsome, taller than young men usually are at that age, and his face showed much of the noble family he came from. A warm zeal and affection for him showed itself among the people, and the memory of the deeds of his grandfather Aristobulus was fresh in their minds. Their feelings so far got the better of them that they could not keep from showing how they were inclined toward him. They rejoiced and were overcome all at once, and mingled good wishes with the joyful acclamations they raised to him, until the goodwill of the crowd became all too plain; and they proclaimed the blessings they had received from his family more rashly than was fitting under a monarchy. [f]

Upon all this, Herod resolved to complete what he had intended against the young man. So when the festival was over and he was feasting at Jericho with Alexandra, who was entertaining them there, he was very pleasant with the young man, drew him on into carefree drinking, and was ready to play and frolic with him to please him. The place was hotter than usual by nature, so they gathered and soon went out, restless from the heat; and as they stood by the swimming pools, of which there were large ones around the palace, they went to cool off, since it was the middle of a hot day. At first they only watched Herod’s servants and acquaintances as they swam. But after a while the young man, at Herod’s urging, went into the water among them, and those of Herod’s acquaintances whom he had appointed to do it ducked him as he swam and held him under the water, in the dark of the evening, as if it were only in play; and they did not stop until he was completely drowned. So Aristobulus was murdered, having lived not quite eighteen years and having held the high priesthood only one year; and Ananelus now received the high priesthood back again.

When this sad event was reported to the women, their joy quickly turned to lamentation at the sight of the dead body lying before them, and their grief knew no bounds. The city too, as the news spread, was in very great grief; every family took this calamity as though it had not happened to someone else, but as though one of their own had been killed. But Alexandra was more deeply affected, because she knew he had been killed deliberately. Her sorrow was greater than anyone else’s because she knew how the murder had been done. Yet she had to bear up under it, foreseeing a greater evil that might otherwise follow. Many times she came near to killing herself with her own hand, but she held herself back, in the hope that she might live long enough to avenge the unjust murder committed so secretly. She even resolved to try to live longer and to give no occasion for anyone to think she suspected her son had been killed on purpose, supposing that in this way she might be in a position to avenge it at the right moment. So she restrained herself, so as not to be noticed harboring any such suspicion. Herod, for his part, worked to keep anyone outside from believing that the boy’s death was caused by any design of his. For this purpose he not only used the ordinary signs of mourning but also wept and showed real distress of soul; and perhaps his feelings did overcome him on this occasion, when he saw the boy’s face, so young and so beautiful, even though his death was supposed to serve his own security. But plainly he was contriving all this as a defense of himself. As for the funeral, he took care that it should be very magnificent: he made great preparations for a tomb to lay the body in, provided a great quantity of spices, and buried many ornaments with him, until even the women in their deep sorrow were astonished at it and in this way received some comfort. [j]

Yet nothing of this kind could overcome Alexandra’s grief; the memory of this pitiful affair made her sorrow both deep and stubborn. So she wrote to Cleopatra an account of this treachery and of how her son had been murdered. Cleopatra, who had long been eager to give her whatever satisfaction she could, and who pitied Alexandra’s misfortunes, made the case her own. She would not let Antony rest but pressed him to punish the boy’s murder: it was an unworthy thing, she said, that Herod, whom he had made king of a kingdom that in no way belonged to him, should be guilty of such horrible crimes against those who were truly of royal blood. Antony was persuaded by these arguments. When he came to Laodicea he sent orders for Herod to come and defend himself for what he had done to Aristobulus, since such a treacherous plot was ill done if he had any hand in it. Herod was now afraid, both of the accusation and of Cleopatra’s ill will toward him, which was such that she was always trying to make Antony hate him. So he decided to obey the summons, for he had no possible way to avoid it. He left his uncle Joseph in charge of his government and the public affairs, and gave him a secret order that if Antony should kill him, Joseph was to kill Mariamne at once. He said that he loved this wife of his tenderly and feared the injury that would be done him if, after his death, she should be married to some other man because of her beauty. But at bottom his hint meant only this: that Antony had fallen in love with her, having earlier heard something of her beauty. So when Herod had given Joseph this order, having no sure hope of escaping with his life, he went away to Antony.

Now as Joseph managed the public affairs of the kingdom, he was for that reason very often with Mariamne, both because his business required it and because of the respect he owed the queen. He would often let himself talk about Herod’s kindness and great love for her. And when the women, especially Alexandra, would turn his talk into feminine teasing, Joseph was so overeager to prove the king’s feelings that he went so far as to mention the order he had received, and drew from it his proof that Herod could not live without her, and that if he should come to some bad end, he could not bear to be separated from her even after he was dead. That is what Joseph said. But the women, naturally, did not take this as a sign of Herod’s strong love for them but of his harsh treatment of them, since they could not escape destruction and a tyrant’s death even when he himself was dead. And this saying became the ground of the women’s severe suspicions about him afterward.

At this time a rumor went around the city of Jerusalem among Herod’s enemies that Antony had tortured Herod and put him to death. This rumor naturally disturbed those around the palace, and the women most of all. So Alexandra tried to persuade Joseph to leave the palace and flee with them to the standards of the Roman legion, which was then camped around the city as a guard for the kingdom under the command of Julius. In this way, she argued, if any disturbance should break out around the palace, they would be safer, having the Romans on their side. Besides, they hoped to obtain the highest power if Antony once saw Mariamne; through her they would recover the kingdom and lack nothing they could reasonably hope for, because of their royal descent. [k]

But while they were in the middle of these deliberations, letters came from Herod about all his affairs, which proved contrary to the rumor and to what they had expected. When he had come to Antony, he quickly regained his favor by the presents he had brought with him from Jerusalem, and by talking with him he soon brought him to give up his anger toward him, so that Cleopatra’s persuasions had less force than the arguments and gifts Herod brought to win back his friendship. For Antony said it was not good to call a king to account for the affairs of his government, since at that rate he could be no king at all; those who had given him that authority ought to let him use it. He said the same thing to Cleopatra as well: it would be best for her not to meddle busily in the acts of the king’s government. Herod wrote an account of these things and enlarged on the other honors he had received from Antony: how Antony had him sit beside him when he heard cases, and had him to dinner every day, and how he enjoyed these favors from him in spite of the bitter accusations Cleopatra brought against him. She, he wrote, greatly coveted his country and earnestly begged Antony to give her the kingdom, and worked with all her might to get him out of the way; but he still found Antony just toward him, and no longer feared harsh treatment from him. He would soon be returning, with a firmer assurance than ever of Antony’s support for his reign and his management of public affairs. And Cleopatra’s greed had no hope left, since Antony had given her Coele-Syria instead of what she had wanted; in that way he had both pacified her and freed himself from her pleas to have Judea given to her. [l]

When these letters arrived, the women gave up their attempt to flee to the Romans, which they had considered while Herod was thought to be dead. Yet their plan did not stay secret. When the king had escorted Antony on his way against the Parthians and returned to Judea, both his sister Salome and his mother told him of Alexandra’s intentions. Salome added something more against her own husband Joseph, though it was nothing but slander: that he had often committed adultery with Mariamne. Her reason for saying this was that she had long borne her a grudge; for when they quarreled with one another, Mariamne spoke very freely and taunted the rest with their low birth. Herod, whose love for Mariamne was always very warm, was at once disturbed by this and could not bear the torments of jealousy; yet his love for her still kept him from doing anything rash to her. But his fierce love and jealousy together made him question Mariamne privately about this matter of Joseph. She denied it on her oath, and said everything an innocent woman could possibly say in her own defense, so that little by little the king was persuaded to drop the suspicion and gave up his anger at her. Overcome by his passion for his wife, he apologized to her for having seemed to believe what he had heard about her, thanked her many times for her modest conduct, and declared the extraordinary love and tenderness he had for her, until at last, as often happens between lovers, they both burst into tears and embraced each other with the greatest tenderness. [m]

But as the king gave her more and more assurances that he believed in her faithfulness, and tried to draw her into the same confidence in him, Mariamne said, “And yet was not that order you gave, that if any harm came to you from Antony I should die with you, though I had given no cause for it, a sign of your love for me?” When these words had escaped her, the king was shocked. He let her go from his arms at once, cried out, tore his hair with his own hands, and said that now he had clear proof that Joseph had committed adultery with his wife; for Joseph would never have repeated what Herod had told him alone in private unless there had been great intimacy and firm trust between them. In this passion he came close to killing his wife; but, still overborne by his love for her, he held back his rage, though not without lasting grief and unrest of mind. However, he gave orders to kill Joseph without letting him come into his presence; and as for Alexandra, he had her bound and kept under guard as the cause of all this trouble.