eized to
himself, and so hath made Caesar lord, not of things, but of words. He
also reproached him further, that his mourning for his father was only
pretended, while he put on a sad countenance in the day time, but drank
to great excess in the night; from which behavior, he said, the late
disturbance among the multitude came, while they had an indignation
thereat. And indeed the purport of his whole discourse was to aggravate
Archelaus's crime in slaying such a multitude about the temple, which
multitude came to the festival, but were barbarously slain in the midst
of their own sacrifices; and he said there was such a vast number of
dead bodies heaped together in the temple, as even a foreign war, that
should come upon them [suddenly], before it was denounced, could not
have heaped together. And he added, that it was the foresight his father
had of that his barbarity which made him never give him any hopes of the
kingdom, but when his mind was more infirm than his body, and he was not
able to reason soundly, and did not well know what was the character of
that son, whom in his second testament he made his successor; and this
was done by him at a time when he had no complaints to make of him whom
he had named before, when he was sound in body, and when his mind was
free from all passion. That, however, if any one should suppose Herod's
judgment, when he was sick, was superior to that at another time, yet
had Archelaus forfeited his kingdom by his own behavior, and those his
actions, which were contrary to the law, and to its disadvantage.
Or what sort of a king will this man be, when he hath obtained the
government from Caesar, who hath slain so many before he hath obtained
it!

6. When Antipater had spoken largely to this purpose, and had
produced a great number of Archelaus's kindred as witnesses, to prove
every part of the accusation, he ended his discourse. Then stood up
Nicolaus to plead for Archelaus. He alleged that the slaughter in the
temple could not be avoided; that those that were slain were become
enemies not to Archelaus's kingdom, only, but to Caesar, who was to
determine about him. He also demonstrated that Archelaus's accusers
had advised him to perpetrate other things of which he might have been
accused. But he insisted that the latter testament should, for this
reason, above all others, be esteemed valid, because Herod had therein
appointed Caesar to be the person who should confirm the succession; f