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473]
By these methods Herod was inflamed, and as much as his natural affection
to the young men did every day diminish, so much did it increase towards
Antipater. The courtiers also inclined to the same conduct, some of their
own accord, and others by the king's injunction, as particularly did Ptolemy,
the king's dearest friend, as also the king's brethren, and all his children;
for Antipater was all in all; and what was the bitterest part of all to
Alexander, Antipater's mother was also all in all; she was one that gave
counsel against them, and was more harsh than a step-mother, and one that
hated the queen's sons more than is usual to hate sons-in-law. All men
did therefore already pay their respects to Antipater, in hopes of advantage;
and it was the king's command which alienated every body [from the brethren],
he having given this charge to his most intimate friends, that they should
not come near, nor pay any regard, to Alexander, or to his friends. Herod
was also become terrible, not only to his domestics about the court, but
to his friends abroad; for Caesar had given such a privilege to no other
king as he had given to him, which was this, - that he might fetch back
any one that fled from him, even out of a city that was not under his own
jurisdiction. Now the young men were not acquainted with the calumnies
raised against them; for which reason they could not guard themselves against
them, but fell under them; for their father did not make any public complaints
against either of them; though in a little time they perceived how things
were by his coldness to them, and by the great uneasiness he showed upon
any thing that troubled him. Antipater had also made their uncle Pheroras
to be their enemy, as well as their aunt Salome, while he was always talking
with her, as with a wife, and irritating her against them. Moreover, Alexander's
wife, Glaphyra, augmented this hatred against them, by deriving her nobility
and genealogy [from great persons], and pretending that she was a lady
superior to all others in that kingdom, as being derived by her father's
side from Temenus, and by her mother's side from Darius, the son of Hystaspes.
She also frequently reproached Herod's sister and wives with the ignobility
of their descent; and that they were every one chosen by him for their
beauty, but not for their family. Now those wives of his were not a few;
it being of old permitted to the Jews to marry many wives,
1
and this king delighting in many; all which hated Alexander, on account
of Glaphyra's boasting and reproaches.