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

thee! Yet was I absent, father, on thy affairs, that Sylleus might not treat thee
with contempt in thine old age. Rome is a witness to my filial affection, and
so is Caesar, the ruler of the habitable earth, who oftentimes called me
Philopater. (1) Take here the letters he hath sent thee, they are more to be
believed than the calumnies raised here; these letters are my only apology;
these I use as the demonstration of that natural affection I have to thee.
Remember that it was against my own choice that I sailed [to Rome], as
knowing the latent hatred that was in the kingdom against me. It was thou, O
father, however unwillingly, who hast been my ruin, by forcing me to allow
time for calumnies against me, and envy at me. However, I am come hither,
and am ready to hear the evidence there is against me. If I be a parricide, I
have passed by land and by sea, without suffering any misfortune on either
of them: but this method of trial is no advantage to me; for it seems, O father,
that I am already condemned, both before God and before thee; and as I am
already condemned, I beg that thou wilt not believe the others that have been
tortured, but let fire be brought to torment me; let the racks march through
my bowels; have no regard to any lamentations that this polluted body can
make; for if I be a parricide, I ought not to die without torture." Thus did
Antipater cry out with lamentation and weeping, and moved all the rest, and
Varus in particular, to commiserate his case. Herod was the only person
whose passion was too strong to permit him to weep, as knowing that the
testimonies against him were true.
4. And now it was that, at the king's command, Nicolaus, when he had
premised a great deal about the craftiness of Antipater, and had prevented the
effects of their commiseration to him, afterwards brought in a bitter and large
accusation against him, ascribing all the wickedness that had been in the
kingdom to him, and especially the murder of his brethren; and demonstrated
that they had perished by the calumnies he had raised against them. He also
said that he had laid designs against them that were still alive, as if they were
laying plots for the succession; and (said he) how can it be supposed that he
who prepared poison for his father should abstain from mischief as to his
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