but after some time, when he thought the
heat of his brother's affections was over, he blamed him for his former
conduct, and desired him to take his second daughter, whose name was
Cypros. Ptolemy also advised him to leave off affronting his brother,
and to forsake her whom he had loved, for that it was a base thing to be
so enamored of a servant, as to deprive himself of the king's good-will
to him, and become an occasion of his trouble, and make himself hated
by him. Pheroras knew that this advice would be for his own advantage,
particularly because he had been accused before, and forgiven; so he put
his wife away, although he already had a son by her, and engaged to
the king that he would take his second daughter, and agreed that the
thirtieth day after should be the day of marriage; and sware he would
have no further conversation with her whom he had put away; but when the
thirty days were over, he was such a slave to his affections, that he no
longer performed any thing he had promised, but continued still with his
former wife. This occasioned Herod to grieve openly, and made him angry,
while the king dropped one word or other against Pheroras perpetually;
and many made the king's anger an opportunity for raising calumnies
against him. Nor had the king any longer a single quiet day or hour, but
occasions of one fresh quarrel or another arose among his relations, and
those that were dearest to him; for Salome was of a harsh temper, and
ill-natured to Mariamne's sons; nor would she suffer her own daughter,
who was the wife of Aristobulus, one of those young men, to bear a
good-will to her husband, but persuaded her to tell her if he said any
thing to her in private, and when any misunderstandings happened, as is
common, she raised a great many suspicions out of it; by which means she
learned all their concerns, and made the damsel ill-natured to the young
man. And in order to gratify her mother, she often said that the young
men used to mention Mariamne when they were by themselves; and that they
hated their father, and were continually threatening, that if they had
once got the kingdom, they would make Herod's sons by his other wives
country schoolmasters, for that the present education which was
given them, and their diligence in learning, fitted them for such an
employment. And as for the women, whenever they saw them adorned with
their mother's clothes, they threatened, that instead of their present
gaudy apparel