Antipater’s Poison Uncovered

The punishment now passed over to the man who had started it all, Antipater, and it began with the death of Pheroras. Some of Pheroras’s freedmen came to the king looking downcast and told him that his brother had been killed by poison. His wife, they said, had served him something prepared in an unusual way, and as soon as he ate it he fell into his illness. Two days before, her mother and her sister had brought in a woman from Arabia who was skilled in drugs, to prepare a love potion for Pheroras; but instead of that she had given him a deadly poison. Syllaeus had arranged it, for he knew the woman. [a]

The king, struck by more suspicions than one, had the maidservants tortured, and some of the free women as well. One of them cried out in her agony, “May God, who rules the earth and the heaven, punish the one who has caused us all these miseries — Antipater’s mother!” The king seized on this beginning and pressed on toward the truth. The woman then revealed the friendship of Antipater’s mother with Pheroras and his women, and their secret meetings; and that Pheroras and Antipater, on their way back from the king, would drink with those women the whole night long, allowing no one, neither manservant nor maidservant, to be present. It was one of the free women who disclosed all this. [c]

Herod then had the slave women tortured one by one, each separately. All of them told the same story as before, and added that it was by agreement that Antipater had gone off to Rome and Pheroras to Perea. For the two of them had often said to each other that after Alexander and Aristobulus, Herod would turn on them and on their wives; having not spared Mariamne and her children, he would spare no one else, so it was best to get as far away from the wild beast as they could. Antipater, they said, had often complained to his mother that he himself was already gray while his father grew younger every day, and that death might well overtake him before he ever began to be king in earnest. And even if Herod should die someday — and when would that be? — his enjoyment of the succession could only be brief. For the heads of the Hydra were sprouting up: the sons of Aristobulus and Alexander. His father had robbed him even of hope for his own children, since the successor he had written down to follow him was not one of Antipater’s sons but Herod, the son of Mariamne. In this, Antipater said, the old man was quite in his dotage if he thought his will would stand, for he himself would see to it that not one of that line was left. Herod was the greatest hater of his children of any father who ever lived, but a far greater hater of his brother: why, he had lately given Antipater a hundred talents on condition that he not speak with Pheroras. And when Pheroras said, “What harm have we done him?” Antipater answered, “I wish he would strip us of everything and leave us naked, but alive! But there is no escaping so murderous a beast, under whom a man may not even love anyone openly. Now we meet in secret; but we will be able to meet openly, if we ever have the spirit and the hands of men.” [d]

These were the things the women said under torture, and also that Pheroras had planned to flee with them to Petra. Herod believed everything they said because of the hundred talents, for he had spoken about that money to no one but Antipater. His fury broke first upon Doris, Antipater’s mother. He stripped her of all the jewelry he had given her, which was worth many talents, and drove her out of the palace a second time. Pheroras’s women, on the other hand, he cared for after their tortures, now that he was reconciled to them. But he was shaken with fear and flared up at every suspicion, and he dragged many innocent people to torture, afraid that he might pass over someone who was guilty. [g]

Next he turned to Antipater the Samaritan, who managed Antipater’s affairs. Under torture this man revealed that Antipater had sent to Egypt for a deadly poison to use against Herod, through one of his companions, Antiphilus; that Theudion, Antipater’s uncle, had received it from Antiphilus and handed it to Pheroras; for Antipater had instructed Pheroras to kill Herod while he himself was in Rome, out of reach of suspicion; and that Pheroras had given the poison to his wife to keep. The king sent for her at once and ordered her to bring what she had received. She went out as if to fetch it, but threw herself from the roof to escape the questioning and the king’s torments. Yet by the providence, it seems, of God, who was pursuing Antipater, she fell not on her head but on other parts of her body, and survived. She was carried to the king, who had her revived, for the fall had stunned her. He asked her why she had thrown herself down, and swore that if she told the truth he would release her from all punishment; but if she held anything back, he would waste her body away under torture and leave nothing of it for burial. [h]

The woman paused a little, and then said, “Why should I keep these secrets any longer, now that Pheroras is dead? Only to save Antipater, who has ruined us all? Listen, king — and may God, who cannot be deceived, be witness with you to the truth of what I say. When you sat weeping beside Pheroras as he was dying, he called me to him and said, ‘Wife, I was badly mistaken about my brother’s feelings toward me. I hated a man who loves me so much, and I planned to kill one who is so overcome with grief for me before I am even dead. As for me, I am receiving the penalty for my wickedness. But bring the poison Antipater left with us, which you are keeping to use against him, and destroy it quickly before my eyes, so that I do not carry the avenging spirit with me even into Hades.’ I brought it as he told me, and emptied most of it into the fire while he watched; but I kept a little for myself, against an uncertain future and out of fear of you.” [j]

With that she brought out the box, which held just a small amount of the poison. The king let her be and turned the tortures on Antiphilus’s mother and brother. They admitted that Antiphilus had brought the box from Egypt, and said they had received the poison from a brother of his who practiced medicine in Alexandria. The ghosts of Alexander and Aristobulus went the rounds of the whole palace, searching out and revealing what was hidden, and dragging into the inquiry even those farthest from suspicion. So it was found that Mariamne, the high priest’s daughter, was also privy to the plot; for her brothers, under torture, revealed it. The king punished the son for his mother’s audacity: Herod, his son by her, who had been named as successor after Antipater, he struck out of his will. [k]