6. The son of Jason, sent to Rome to renew friend- ship and alliance between the Jews and Romans : he is named in the decree of the senate directed to the Jews in the ninth year of Hyrcanus's pontificate, B.C. 60 (Josephus, Ant. xiv, 8, 5).
7. The son of Dositheus, another Jewish ambassa- dor on the same occasion (Josephus, ib.). Perhaps identical with the following.
8. The son of Theodoras, sent to Rome by Hyrca- nus to renew his alliance with the senate. He is named in the decree of the senate addressed to the magistrates of Ephesus, made in the consulship of Dolabella (B.C. 43), which specified that the Jews should not be forced into military service, because they could not bear arms on the Sabbath-day, nor have, at all times, such provisions in the armies as were author- ized by their law (Josephus, Ant. xiv, 10, 10 and 11).
9. A son of Herod the Great by Mariamne. The history of this prince, which is given by Josephus (Ant. xv, xvi; War, i, 22-27), can hardly he sep- arated from that of Aristobulus, his brother and com- panion in misfortune. After the tragical death of their mother, Mariamne (Josephus, Ant. xv, 7), Herod sent them to Rome to be educated in a manner suita- ble to their rank (ib. 10, 1). Augustus allowed them an apartment in his palace, intending this mark of his consideration as a compliment to their father Herod. On their return to Judaea (ib. xvi, 1, 2) the people re- ceived the princes with great joy ; but Salome, Her- od's sister, who had been the principal cause of Ma- riamne's death, apprehending that if ever the sons of the latter possessed authority she would feel the effects of their resentment, resolved by her calumnies to alien- ate the affections of their father from them. This she managed with great address, and for some time dis- covered no symptoms of ill-will. Herod married Al- exander to Glaphyra, daughter of Archelaus, king of Cappadocia, and Aristobulus to Berenice, daughter of Salome. Pheroras, the king's brother, and Salome, his sister, conspiring to destroy these j'oung princes, watched closely their conduct, and often induced them to speak their thoughts freely and forcibly concerning the manner in which Herod had put to death their mother Mariamne. Whatever they said was imme- diately reported to the king in the most odious and ag- gravated terms, and Herod, having no distrust of his brother and sister, confided in their representations as
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to his sons' intentions of revenging their mother's death. To check in some degree their loft}' spirits, he sent for his eldest son, Antipater, to court — he having been brought up at a distance from Jerusalem, because the quality of his mother was much inferior to that of Mariamne — thinking that, by thus making Aristobulus and Alexander sensible that it was in his power to pre- fer another of his sons before them, the}' would be ren- dered more circumspect in their conduct. The con- trary, however, was the case. The presence of An- tipater only exasperated the two princes, and he at length succeeded in so entirely alienating his father's affection from them, that Herod carried them to Rome to accuse them before Augustus of designs against his life, B.C. 11 (ib. 10, 7). But the young princes de- fended themselves so well, and affected the spectators so deeply with their tears, that Augustus reconciled them to their father, and sent them back to Judaea, ap- parently in perfect union with Antipater, who express- ed great satisfaction to see them restored to Herod's favor. When returned to Jerusalem Herod convened the people in the temple, and publicly declared his in- tention that his sons should reign after him — first An- tipater, then Alexander, and afterward Aristobulus. This declaration exasperated the two brothers still further, and gave new occasion to Pheroras, Salome, and Antipater to represent their disaffection to Herod. The king had three confidential eunuchs, whom he em- ployed even in affairs of great importance. These were accused of being corrupted by the money of Al- exander, and, being subjected to the rack, the extrem- ity of the torture induced them to confess that they had often been solicited by Alexander and Aristobulus to abandon Herod and join them and their party, who were ready for any undertaking in asserting their in- disputable right to the crown. One of them added that the two brothers had conspired to lay snares for their father while hunting, and were resolved, should he die, to go instantly to Rome and beg the kingdom of Augustus. Letters were produced likewise from Alexander to Aristobulus, wherein he complained that Herod had given fields to Antipater which produced an annual rent of 200 talents. This intelligence confirm- ed the fears of Herod, and rendered him suspicious of all persons about his court. Alexander was put under arrest, and his principal friends to the torture. The prince, however, was not dejected at this storm. He not only denied nothing Avhich had been extorted from his friends, but admitted even more than they had alleged against him, whether desiring to confound the credulity and suspicions of his father, or to in- volve the whole court in perplexities, from which they should be unable to extricate themselves. He conveyed letters to the king, in which he represented that to torment so many persons on his account was useless ; that, in fact, he had laid ambuscades for him ; that the principal courtiers were his accomplices, naming, in particular, Pheroras and his most intimate friends, adding that Salome came secretly to him by night, and that the whole court wished for nothing more than the moment when they might be delivered from that pain in which they were continually kept by his cruelties.