The Murder of Antipater

At this time the great war broke out among the Romans, after Cassius and Brutus had treacherously killed Caesar, who had held power for three years and seven months. The murder caused a tremendous upheaval. The powerful men split into factions, and each went, following his own hopes, to whatever side he thought would serve him. Cassius came into Syria to take over the forces around Apamea. There he reconciled Murcus with Bassus and with the legions that were at odds, and freed Apamea from its siege. Then, taking command of the army himself, he went around levying tribute on the cities, exacting more than they could pay. [a] The Jews were ordered to contribute seven hundred talents. Antipater, fearing Cassius’s threats, divided the task of raising the money among his sons and some of his associates, to be done quickly, and among them even Malichus, one of his enemies; so pressing was the need. Herod was the first to appease Cassius, bringing his share from Galilee, a hundred talents, and for this he became one of his closest friends. Cassius scolded the others for their slowness and vented his anger on the cities themselves. He enslaved the people of Gophna and Emmaus and two other towns of lesser note, and he was moving to kill Malichus for not having been quick in his collecting. But Antipater prevented the ruin of Malichus and of the other cities by quickly appeasing Cassius with a hundred talents. [c]

Yet once Cassius had gone, Malichus did not remember what he owed Antipater. Instead he contrived a plot against the man who had saved him so often, eager to remove the obstacle to his crimes. Antipater, fearing the man’s power and cunning, crossed the Jordan to gather an army to defend himself against the plot. Malichus was found out, but he got the better of Antipater’s sons by sheer impudence. Phasael, the commander of the garrison of Jerusalem, and Herod, who had charge of the weapons, were so completely taken in by his many excuses and oaths that he persuaded them to reconcile him with their father. So he was saved once again by Antipater, who talked Murcus, then governor of Syria, out of putting Malichus to death for his revolutionary schemes. When war broke out between Cassius and Brutus on one side and the young Caesar and Antony on the other, Cassius and Murcus raised an army from Syria. Because Herod seemed likely to be of great service in supplying it, they put him in charge of all Syria and gave him a force of infantry and cavalry, and Cassius promised that when the war was over he would make him king of Judea as well. But it turned out that the son’s power and prospects brought about the father’s ruin. Malichus, alarmed at them, bribed one of the royal cupbearers to give Antipater poison. So Antipater fell victim to Malichus’s lawlessness and died after a banquet. He had been an energetic man in conducting affairs, and he had recovered the government for Hyrcanus and kept it safe for him. [d]

When the people were angry with Malichus on suspicion of the poisoning, he denied it and persuaded them. He also made himself stronger by raising armed men, for he did not expect Herod to stay quiet. And indeed Herod at once arrived with an army to avenge his father. But his brother Phasael advised him not to go after the man openly, since that would throw the people into sedition. So for the moment Herod accepted Malichus’s defense and declared that he cleared him of suspicion, and he gave his father a splendid funeral. Then he turned to Samaria, which was torn by sedition, and restored order in the city. After that, at the time of a festival, he returned to Jerusalem with his armed men. Hyrcanus, urged on by Malichus, who feared his approach, sent word forbidding him to bring foreigners in among the people of the country while they were purifying themselves. But Herod scorned both the pretext and the man who gave the order, and came in by night. Again Malichus came to him and wept for Antipater, and Herod, barely holding back his rage, answered pretense with pretense. In letters to Cassius he lamented his father’s murder, and Cassius, who hated Malichus for other reasons as well, wrote back telling him to pursue his father’s murderer, and secretly ordered the tribunes under him to help Herod in a just deed. [g]

When Cassius took Laodicea, the men of power gathered there from every quarter, bringing gifts and crowns, and Herod fixed on this occasion for his revenge. Malichus suspected it. When he reached Tyre he decided to smuggle out his son, who was a hostage among the Tyrians, and he himself prepared to flee into Judea. Despair of saving himself drove him to think of greater things: he hoped to rouse the nation to revolt against the Romans while Cassius was taken up with the war against Antony, and to depose Hyrcanus easily and become king himself. But fate laughed at his hopes. Herod foresaw his intention and invited him and Hyrcanus to dinner. Then he sent some of the servants standing by him inside, as if to see to the preparations for the meal, but in fact to tell the tribunes in advance to go out to the ambush. Remembering Cassius’s orders, they went out sword in hand to the beach in front of the city, and there they surrounded Malichus and killed him with many wounds. Hyrcanus fainted on the spot from shock and fell, and when he had barely come to himself he asked Herod who had killed Malichus. One of the tribunes answered that it was by Cassius’s order. “Then Cassius has saved both me and my country,” he said, “by killing the man who plotted against us both.” Whether Hyrcanus really thought so, or said it from fear, going along with what had been done, was not clear. At any rate, this is how Herod punished Malichus. [i]