men, pleaded for assistance, and the more
so on this account, that Alexander had made their defense with dexterity
and prudence; nay, they did not themselves any longer continue in
their former countenances, which had been bedewed with tears, and cast
downwards to the ground, but now there arose in them hope of the best;
and the king himself appeared not to have had foundation enough to build
such an accusation upon, he having no real evidence wherewith to correct
them. Indeed he wanted some apology for making the accusation; but
Caesar, after some delay, said, that although the young men were
thoroughly innocent of that for which they were calumniated, yet had
they been so far to blame, that they had not demeaned themselves towards
their father so as to prevent that suspicion which was spread abroad
concerning them. He also exhorted Herod to lay all such suspicions
aside, and to be reconciled to his sons; for that it was not just to
give any credit to such reports concerning his own children; and that
this repentance on both sides might still heal those breaches that had
happened between them, and might improve that their good-will to one
another, whereby those on both sides, excusing the rashness of their
suspicions, might resolve to bear a greater degree of affection towards
each other than they had before. After Caesar had given them this
admonition, he beckoned to the young men. When therefore they were
disposed to fall down to make intercession to their father, he took
them up, and embraced them, as they were in tears, and took each of them
distinctly in his arms, till not one of those that were present, whether
free-man or slave, but was deeply affected with what they saw. [5]

5. Then did they return thanks to Caesar, and went away together; and
with them went Antipater, with an hypocritical pretense that he rejoiced
at this reconciliation. And in the last days they were with Caesar,
Herod made him a present of three hundred talents, as he was then
exhibiting shows and largesses to the people of Rome; and Caesar made
him a present of half the revenue of the copper mines in Cyprus, and
committed the care of the other half to him, and honored him with other
gifts and incomes; and as to his own kingdom, he left it in his own
power to appoint which of his sons he pleased for his successor, or to
distribute it in parts to every one, that the dignity might thereby
come to them all. And when Herod was disposed to make s