tion of his brethren. However,
he governed the nation jointly with his father, being indeed no other
than a king already; and he was for that very reason trusted, and the
more firmly depended on, for the which he ought himself to have been put
to death, as appearing to have betrayed his brethren out of his concern
for the preservation of Herod, and not rather out of his ill-will to
them, and, before them, to his father himself: and this was the accursed
state he was in. Now all Antipater's contrivances tended to make his way
to take off Herod, that he might have nobody to accuse him in the vile
practices he was devising: and that Herod might have no refuge, nor any
to afford him their assistance, since they must thereby have Antipater
for their open enemy; insomuch that the very plots he had laid against
his brethren were occasioned by the hatred he bore his father. But at
this time he was more than ever set upon the execution of his attempts
against Herod, because if he were once dead, the government would now
be firmly secured to him; but if he were suffered to live any longer, he
should be in danger, upon a discovery of that wickedness of which he had
been the contriver, and his father would of necessity then become his
enemy. And on this account it was that he became very bountiful to his
father's friends, and bestowed great sums on several of them, in order
to surprise men with his good deeds, and take off their hatred against
him. And he sent great presents to his friends at Rome particularly,
to gain their good-will; and above all to Saturninus, the president of
Syria. He also hoped to gain the favor of Saturninus's brother with
the large presents he bestowed on him; as also he used the same art
to [Salome] the king's sister, who had married one of Herod's chief
friends. And when he counterfeited friendship to those with whom he
conversed, he was very subtle in gaining their belief, and very cunning
to hide his hatred against any that he really did hate. But he could not
impose upon his aunt, who understood him of a long time, and was a woman
not easily to be deluded, especially while she had already used
all possible caution in preventing his pernicious designs. Although
Antipeter's uncle by the mother's side was married to her daughter, and
this by his own connivance and management, while she had before been
married to Aristobulus, and while Salome's other daughter by that
husband was married to the son of Callea