nd when he answered that he had
received letters, but those of salutation only; and when he asked
further, whether he had not received any presents from him? and when he
had replied that he had received no more than four horses to ride on,
which Malchus had sent him; they pretended that Herod charged these upon
him as the crimes of bribery and treason, and gave order that he should
be led away and slain. And in order to demonstrate that he had been
guilty of no offense, when he was thus brought to his end, they alleged
how mild his temper had been, and that even in his youth he had never
given any demonstration of boldness or rashness, and that the case was
the same when he came to be king, but that he even then committed the
management of the greatest part of public affairs to Antipater; and that
he was now above fourscore years old, and knew that Herod's government
was in a secure state. He also came over Euphrates, and left those who
greatly honored him beyond that river, though he were to be entirely
under Herod's government; and that it was a most incredible thing that
he should enterprise any thing by way of innovation, and not at
all agreeable to his temper, but that this was a plot of Herod's
contrivance.

4. And this was the fate of Hyrcanus; and thus did he end his life,
after he had endured various and manifold turns of fortune in his
lifetime. For he was made high priest of the Jewish nation in the
beginning of his mother Alexandra's reign, who held the government nine
years; and when, after his mother's death, he took the kingdom himself,
and held it three months, he lost it, by the means of his brother
Aristobulus. He was then restored by Pompey, and received all sorts
of honor from him, and enjoyed them forty years; but when he was again
deprived by Antigonus, and was maimed in his body, he was made a captive
by the Parthians, and thence returned home again after some time, on
account of the hopes that Herod had given him; none of which came to
pass according to his expectation, but he still conflicted with many
misfortunes through the whole course of his life; and, what was the
heaviest calamity of all, as we have related already, he came to an end
which was undeserved by him. His character appeared to be that of a man
of a mild and moderate disposition, and suffered the administration of
affairs to be generally done by others under him. He was averse to much
meddling with the public, nor had shrewdness