thren, and hadst the boldness to call thy father a wild beast; while
thou hadst thyself a mind more cruel than any serpent, whence thou
sentest out that poison among thy nearest kindred and greatest
benefactors, and invitedst them to assist thee and guard thee, and didst
hedge thyself in on all sides, by the artifices of both men and women,
against an old man, as though that mind of thine was not sufficient of
itself to support so great a hatred as thou baredst to him. And here
thou appearest, after the tortures of free-men, of domestics, of men
and women, which have been examined on thy account, and after the
informations of thy fellow conspirators, as making haste to contradict
the truth; and hast thought on ways not only how to take thy father out
of the world, but to disannul that written law which is against thee,
and the virtue of Varus, and the nature of justice; nay, such is that
impudence of thine on which thou confidest, that thou desirest to be put
to the torture thyself, while thou allegest that the tortures of those
already examined thereby have made them tell lies; that those that have
been the deliverers of thy father may not be allowed to have spoken the
truth; but that thy tortures may be esteemed the discoverers of truth.
Wilt not thou, O Varus! deliver the king from the injuries of his
kindred? Wilt not thou destroy this wicked wild beast, which hath
pretended kindness to his father, in order to destroy his brethren;
while yet he is himself alone ready to carry off the kingdom
immediately, and appears to be the most bloody butcher to him of them
all? for thou art sensible that parricide is a general injury both to
nature and to common life, and that the intention of parricide is not
inferior to its perpetration; and he who does not punish it is injurious
to nature itself."

6. Nicolaus added further what belonged to Antipater's mother, and
whatsoever she had prattled like a woman; as also about the predictions
and the sacrifices relating to the king; and whatsoever Antipater had
done lasciviously in his cups and his amours among Pheroras's women; the
examination upon torture; and whatsoever concerned the testimonies of
the witnesses, which were many, and of various kinds; some prepared
beforehand, and others were sudden answers, which further declared and
confirmed the foregoing evidence. For those men who were not acquainted
with Antipater's practices, but had concealed them out of fear, when
they sa