From the Taking of Jerusalem by Antiochus Epiphanes to the Death of Herod the Great - Flavius Josephus

eldest son he overlooked the intrigues of those who stood in the way of his
expectations; and by reproaching Alexander, because he who was born of a
queen, and was married to a king's daughter, permitted one that was born of a
mean woman to lay claim to the succession, and this when he had Archelaus
to support him in the most complete manner. Nor was his advice thought to
be other than faithful by the young man, because of his pretended friendship
with Archelaus; on which account it was that Alexander lamented to him
Antipater's behavior with regard to himself, and this without concealing any
thing from him; and how it was no wonder if Herod, after he had killed their
mother, should deprive them of her kingdom. Upon this Eurycles pretended
to commiserate his condition, and to grieve with him. He also, by a bait that
he laid for him, procured Aristobulus to say the same things. Thus did he
inveigle both the brothers to make complaints of their father, and then went
to Antipater, and carried these grand secrets to him. He also added a fiction
of his own, as if his brothers had laid a plot against him, and were almost
ready to come upon him with their drawn swords. For this intelligence he
received a great sum of money, and on that account he commended Antipater
before his father, and at length undertook the work of bringing Alexander
and Aristobulus to their graves, and accused them before their father. So he
came to Herod, and told him that he would save his life, as a requital for the
favors he had received from him, and would preserve his light [of life] by
way of retribution for his kind entertainment; for that a sword had been long
whetted, and Alexander's right hand had been long stretched out against him;
but that he had laid impediments in his way, prevented his speed, and that by
pretending to assist him in his design: how Alexander said that Herod was
not contented to reign in a kingdom that belonged to others, and to make
dilapidations in their mother's government after he had killed her; but besides
all this, that he introduced a spurious successor, and proposed to give the
kingdom of their ancestors to that pestilent fellow Antipater: - that he would
now appease the ghosts of Hyrcanus and Mariamne, by taking vengeance on
him; for that it was not fit for him to take the succession to the government
from such a father without bloodshed: that many things happen every day to
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