ught
Antipas preferable to Archelaus, and so joined with him, in order to
procure the kingdom for him. Sabinus also, by letters, accused Archelaus
to Caesar.

5. Now when Archelaus had sent in his papers to Caesar, wherein he
pleaded his right to the kingdom, and his father's testament, with the
accounts of Herod's money, and with Ptolemy, who brought Herod's seal,
he so expected the event; but when Caesar had read these papers, and
Varus's and Sabinus's letters, with the accounts of the money, and what
were the annual incomes of the kingdom, and understood that Antipas had
also sent letters to lay claim to the kingdom, he summoned his friends
together, to know their opinions, and with them Caius, the son of
Agrippa, and of Julia his daughter, whom he had adopted, and took him,
and made him sit first of all, and desired such as pleased to speak
their minds about the affairs now before them. Now Antipater, Salome's
son, a very subtle orator, and a bitter enemy to Archelaus, spake first
to this purpose: That it was ridiculous in Archelaus to plead now to
have the kingdom given him, since he had, in reality, taken already
the power over it to himself, before Caesar had granted it to him; and
appealed to those bold actions of his, in destroying so many at the
Jewish festival; and if the men had acted unjustly, it was but fit the
punishing of them should have been reserved to those that were out of
the country, but had the power to punish them, and not been executed by
a man that, if he pretended to be a king, he did an injury to Caesar, by
usurping that authority before it was determined for him by Caesar; but
if he owned himself to be a private person, his case was much worse,
since he who was putting in for the kingdom could by no means expect to
have that power granted him, of which he had already deprived Caesar [by
taking it to himself]. He also touched sharply upon him, and appealed
to his changing the commanders in the army, and his sitting in the royal
throne beforehand, and his determination of law-suits; all done as if he
were no other than a king. He appealed also to his concessions to those
that petitioned him on a public account, and indeed doing such things,
than which he could devise no greater if he had been already settled
in the kingdom by Caesar. He also ascribed to him the releasing of
the prisoners that were in the hippodrome, and many other things, that
either had been certainly done by him, or were be