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

Chapter 32
Antipater Is Convicted of Laying a Plot Against his
Father
1. Now the day following the king assembled a court of his kinsmen and
friends, and called in Antipater's friends also. Herod himself, with Varus,
were the presidents; and Herod called for all the witnesses, and ordered them
to be brought in; among whom some of the domestic servants of Antipater's
mother were brought in also, who had but a little while before been caught,
as they were carrying the following letter from her to her son: "Since all
those things have been already discovered to thy father, do not thou come to
him, unless thou canst procure some assistance from Caesar." When this and
the other witnesses were introduced, Antipater came in, and falling on his
face before his father's feet, he said, "Father, I beseech thee, do not condemn
me beforehand, but let thy ears be unbiassed, and attend to my defense; for if
thou wilt give me leave, I will demonstrate that I am innocent."
2. Hereupon Herod cried out to him to hold his peace, and spake thus to
Varus: "I cannot but think that thou, Varus, and every other upright judge,
will determine that Antipater is a vile wretch. I am also afraid that thou wilt
abhor my ill fortune, and judge me also myself worthy of all sorts of
calamity for begetting such children; while yet I ought rather to be pitied,
who have been so affectionate a father to such wretched sons; for when I had
settled the kingdom on my former sons, even when they were young, and
when, besides the charges of their education at Rome, I had made them the
friends of Caesar, and made them envied by other kings, I found them
plotting against me. These have been put to death, and that, in great measure,
for the sake of Antipater; for as he was then young, and appointed to be my
successor, I took care chiefly to secure him from danger: but this profligate
wild beast, when he had been over and above satiated with that patience
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