of
him before his face not to deprive him of that dignity which he had been
pleased to bestow upon him; and that he might not have the bare name of
a king, while the power was in other persons; for that he should never
be able to keep the government, if Alexander's son was to have both his
grandfather Archelaus and Pheroras for his curators; and he besought him
earnestly, since there were so many of the royal family alive, that he
would change those [intended] marriages. Now the king had nine wives,
[42] and children by seven of them; Antipater was himself born of Doris,
and Herod Philip of Mariamne, the high priest's daughter; Antipas also
and Archelaus were by Malthace, the Samaritan, as was his daughter
Olympias, which his brother Joseph's [43] son had married. By Cleopatra
of Jerusalem he had Herod and Philip; and by Pallas, Phasaelus; he had
also two daughters, Roxana and Salome, the one by Phedra, and the other
by Elpis; he had also two wives that had no children, the one his first
cousin, and the other his niece; and besides these he had two daughters,
the sisters of Alexander and Aristobulus, by Mariamne. Since, therefore,
the royal family was so numerous, Antipater prayed him to change these
intended marriages.

5. When the king perceived what disposition he was in towards these
orphans, he was angry at it, and a suspicion came into his mind as to
those sons whom he had put to death, whether that had not been brought
about by the false tales of Antipater; so that at that time he made
Antipater a long and a peevish answer, and bid him begone. Yet was he
afterwards prevailed upon cunningly by his flatteries, and changed the
marriages; he married Aristobulus's daughter to him, and his son to
Pheroras's daughter.

6. Now one may learn, in this instance, how very much this flattering
Antipater could do,--even what Salome in the like circumstances could
not do; for when she, who was his sister, and who, by the means of
Julia, Caesar's wife, earnestly desired leave to be married to Sylleus
the Arabian, Herod swore he would esteem her his bitter enemy, unless
she would leave off that project: he also caused her, against her own
consent, to be married to Alexas, a friend of his, and that one of
her daughters should be married to Alexas's son, and the other to
Antipater's uncle by the mother's side. And for the daughters the king
had by Mariamne, the one was married to Antipater, his sister's son, and
the other to his