taken to consult
withal, Alexandra, out of the great joy she had at this unexpected
promise, and out of fear from the suspicions she lay under, fell a
weeping; and made the following apology for herself; and said, that as
to the [high] priesthood, she was very much concerned for the disgrace
her son was under, and so did her utmost endeavors to procure it for
him; but that as to the kingdom, she had made no attempts, and that if
it were offered her [for her son], she would not accept it; and that now
she would be satisfied with her son's dignity, while he himself held the
civil government, and she had thereby the security that arose from his
peculiar ability in governing to all the remainder of her family; that
she was now overcome by his benefits, and thankfully accepted of this
honor showed by him to her son, and that she would hereafter be entirely
obedient. And she desired him to excuse her, if the nobility of her
family, and that freedom of acting which she thought that allowed her,
had made her act too precipitately and imprudently in this matter. So
when they had spoken thus to one another, they came to an agreement, and
all suspicions, so far as appeared, were vanished away.

CHAPTER 3. How Herod Upon His Making Aristobulus High Priest Took Care
That He Should Be Murdered In A Little Time; And What Apology He Made To
Antony About Aristobulus; As Also Concerning Joseph And Mariamne.

1. So king Herod immediately took the high priesthood away from
Ananelus, who, as we said before, was not of this country, but one of
those Jews that had been carried captive beyond Euphrates; for there
were not a few ten thousands of this people that had been carried
captives, and dwelt about Babylonia, whence Ananelus came. He was one
of the stock of the high priests [4] and had been of old a particular
friend of Herod; and when he was first made king, he conferred that
dignity upon him, and now put him out of it again, in order to quiet the
troubles in his family, though what he did was plainly unlawful, for at
no other time [of old] was any one that had once been in that dignity
deprived of it. It was Antiochus Epiphanes who first brake that law,
and deprived Jesus, and made his brother Onias high priest in his stead.
Aristobulus was the second that did so, and took that dignity from his
brother [Hyrcanus]; and this Herod was the third, who took that
high office away [from Arianflus], and gave it to this young man,
Aris