ad received from him, and would preserve his light [of life] by way
of retribution for his kind entertainment; for that a sword had been
long whetted, and Alexander's right hand had been long stretched out
against him; but that he had laid impediments in his way, prevented his
speed, and that by pretending to assist him in his design: how Alexander
said that Herod was not contented to reign in a kingdom that belonged to
others, and to make dilapidations in their mother's government after
he had killed her; but besides all this, that he introduced a spurious
successor, and proposed to give the kingdom of their ancestors to that
pestilent fellow Antipater:--that he would now appease the ghosts of
Hyrcanus and Mariamne, by taking vengeance on him; for that it was not
fit for him to take the succession to the government from such a father
without bloodshed: that many things happen every day to provoke him so
to do, insomuch that he can say nothing at all, but it affords occasion
for calumny against him; for that if any mention be made of nobility
of birth, even in other cases, he is abused unjustly, while his father
would say that nobody, to be sure, is of noble birth but Alexander, and
that his father was inglorious for want of such nobility. If they be
at any time hunting, and he says nothing, he gives offense; and if he
commends any body, they take it in way of jest. That they always find
their father unmercifully severe, and have no natural affection for
any of them but for Antipater; on which accounts, if this plot does not
take, he is very willing to die; but that in case he kill his father, he
hath sufficient opportunities for saving himself. In the first place, he
hath Archelaus his father-in-law to whom he can easily fly; and in the
next place, he hath Caesar, who had never known Herod's character to
this day; for that he shall not appear then before him with that dread
he used to do when his father was there to terrify him; and that he
will not then produce the accusations that concerned himself alone,
but would, in the first place, openly insist on the calamities of their
nation, and how they are taxed to death, and in what ways of luxury and
wicked practices that wealth is spent which was gotten by bloodshed;
what sort of persons they are that get our riches, and to whom those
cities belong upon whom he bestows his favors; that he would have
inquiry made what became of his grandfather [Hyrcanus], and his mother
[M