to him, he was conducted into the
city [Alexandria], and was retained there by Cleopatra; yet was she not
able to prevail with him to stay there, because he was making haste to
Rome, even though the weather was stormy, and he was informed that the
affairs of Italy were very tumultuous, and in great disorder.

3. So he set sail from thence to Pamphylia, and falling into a violent
storm, he had much ado to escape to Rhodes, with the loss of the
ship's burden; and there it was that two of his friends, Sappinas and
Ptolemeus, met with him; and as he found that city very much damaged
in the war against Cassius, though he were in necessity himself, he
neglected not to do it a kindness, but did what he could to recover it
to its former state. He also built there a three-decked ship, and
set sail thence, with his friends, for Italy, and came to the port of
Brundusium; and when he was come from thence to Rome, he first related
to Antony what had befallen him in Judea, and how Phasaelus his brother
was seized on by the Parthians, and put to death by them, and how
Hyrcanus was detained captive by them, and how they had made Antigonus
king, who had promised them a sum of money, no less than a thousand
talents, with five hundred women, who were to be of the principal
families, and of the Jewish stock; and that he had carried off the women
by night; and that, by undergoing a great many hardships, he had escaped
the hands of his enemies; as also, that his own relations were in danger
of being besieged and taken, and that he had sailed through a storm, and
contemned all these terrible dangers of it, in order to come, as soon as
possible, to him, who was his hope and only succor at this time.

4. This account made Antony commiserate the change that had happened
in Herod's condition; [26] and reasoning with himself that this was a
common case among those that are placed in such great dignities, and
that they are liable to the mutations that come from fortune, he was
very ready to give him the assistance he desired, and this because he
called to mind the friendship he had had with Antipater because Herod
offered him money to make him king, as he had formerly given it him to
make him tetrarch, and chiefly because of his hatred to Antigonus; for
he took him to be a seditious person, and an enemy to the Romans. Caesar
was also the forwarder to raise Herod's dignity, and to give him his
assistance in what he desired, on account of the toils