Alexander Before Caesar

Mariamne’s sons inherited their mother’s hatred. When they thought about the horror of Herod’s crime against her, they looked on their father with suspicion, as an enemy. This began while they were being educated at Rome, and grew stronger once they had returned to Judea, and the feeling grew with them as they became men. When they reached the age to marry, one of them married the daughter of their aunt Salome, the very woman who had accused their mother, and the other married the daughter of Archelaus, king of Cappadocia. Now they added outspokenness to their hatred. Their slanderers seized on this boldness as an opening, and some of them now told the king more openly that both his sons were plotting against him, and that the one who was Archelaus’s son-in-law, trusting in his father-in-law, was even preparing to flee so as to accuse Herod before Caesar. When Herod’s head had been filled with these slanders long enough, he brought back Antipater, his son by Doris, as a kind of fortress built against his sons, and began to favor him over them in every way he could. [a]

The sons could not bear this change. When they saw the son of a mother of common birth advancing, the nobility of their own birth would not let them master their indignation, and whenever something galled them they let their anger show. So they gave more offense day after day, while Antipater was by now being courted for his own sake. He was extremely skillful at flattering his father, and he contrived all sorts of slanders against his brothers, inventing some of the stories himself and setting suitable people to spread others, until he had cut his brothers off entirely from any hope of the throne. He was already named his father’s successor, and openly, in the will. He was even sent to Caesar like a king, with the royal dress and every other mark of royalty except the diadem. In time he was strong enough to bring his mother back into Mariamne’s bed. The two weapons he used against his brothers were flattery and slander, and with them he quietly worked the king around to thinking of putting his sons to death. [b]

So their father dragged Alexander all the way to Rome and charged him before Caesar with trying to poison him. Alexander had at last found a chance to speak out his grievances, and a judge more experienced than Antipater and wiser than Herod. He modestly passed over his father’s faults, but he refuted the slanders against himself with great force. When he had shown that his brother, who shared his danger, was innocent too, he went on to lament Antipater’s villainy and the disgrace they had been brought into. Besides a clear conscience he had the power of speech to help him, for he was a most able speaker. At the end he said that their father was free to put them to death if he chose to press this charge, and with that he brought the whole audience to tears. He so moved Caesar that he dismissed the accusations and reconciled Herod to his sons on the spot. The terms of the reconciliation were that they should obey their father in everything, and that he should be free to leave the kingdom to whichever of them he wished. [c]

After this the king came back from Rome. He seemed to have acquitted his sons of the charges, but he was not rid of his suspicion, for Antipater, the source of all the hatred, went along with him. Antipater did not show his hostility openly, out of respect for Caesar, who had made the peace. As Herod sailed along the coast of Cilicia he put in at Eleusa, where Archelaus entertained him warmly. Archelaus thanked him for sparing his son-in-law and was delighted at the reconciliation, all the more because he had earlier written to his friends at Rome to stand by Alexander at his trial. He escorted Herod as far as Zephyrium and gave him presents worth as much as thirty talents. [e]

When Herod reached Jerusalem, he called the people together, stood his three sons before them, and gave an account of why he had been away. He gave many thanks to God, and many to Caesar too, for setting his troubled house in order and giving his sons something worth more than a kingdom, harmony with one another — “which I myself,” he said, “will bind still more firmly. For Caesar has made me master of the government and judge of my successor, and I, while seeing to my own interest, will repay his kindness. I declare these three sons of mine kings. I ask God first to approve my decision, and then I ask you to approve it too. The age of the one and the noble birth of the other two give them a claim to the succession; and the kingdom is large enough for more than one. Those whom Caesar has united and their father appoints, you must uphold. Do not give them honors unfairly or unequally, but to each according to his seniority. Whoever honors a son beyond what his age warrants will not please him nearly as much as he will hurt the one who is slighted. I will choose the relatives and friends who are to keep company with each of them, and make them guarantors of their harmony. I know very well that factions and quarrels are bred by the malice of companions, and that if companions are good men, they keep brothers’ affection alive. But I ask not only these, but also the officers of my army, to place their hopes in me alone for the present. I am not handing my sons the kingdom, only the honor of kingship. They will enjoy its pleasures as rulers, but the weight of affairs rests on me, whether I want it or not. Let everyone consider my age, the way I have lived, and my piety. I am not so old that my end may soon be expected, nor have I given myself to the luxury that cuts off even young men; and we have served God so faithfully that we may hope to reach a very great age. Anyone who pays court to my sons with a view to my overthrow will answer to me for their sake as well. It is not out of envy of my own children that I check the eagerness shown toward them. I do it because I know that such attentions feed the rashness of young men. If everyone who comes near them will only bear in mind that if he is a good man he will have his reward from me, but if he stirs up faction his malice will gain him nothing even from the one he courts, then I believe they will all be on my side, which is to say on my sons’ side. For it is to their advantage that I rule, and to mine that they live in harmony. As for you, my good sons: think first of sacred nature, which keeps affection alive even among wild beasts; then think of Caesar, who made our reconciliation; and third, think of me, who ask of you what I have the right to command. Remain brothers. I give you royal robes and royal attendance from this day, and I pray God to uphold my decision, if you live in harmony.” When he had said this and embraced each of his sons warmly, he dismissed the crowd. Some of them joined their prayers to what he had said; but those who wanted a change of affairs pretended they had not even heard it. [g]