While Herod's reign could be said to be highly accomplished, his family life was decidedly something else. Josephus summed up Herod's life thus:
In most respects he enjoyed good fortune if ever a man did: he came to the throne though he was a commoner, occupied it a very long time, and left it to his own children; but in his family life he was the most unfortunate of men.
The major source of this discomfiture was his many wives (ten of them) and, therefore, many sons. His first eldest son, Antipater, was born by Doris, a commoner whom he had divorced to marry Mariamme, the granddaughter of the High Priest, Hyrcanus II, the wife he loved most intensely. Her two sons, Alexander and Aristobulus, naturally became his favourite sons. These he sent to have them educated in Rome. This had the twin effect of, first, making these two extremely proud and ambitious (and openly so) so that Herod had to call Antipater out of exile in 14 BC to make the point to the two that they were not immune to his will and, second, of stirring up Antipater's ambition for the throne and doing everything he could to advance his place in the scheme of things.
Things were made worse because, in 30 BC, Herod—giving in to the slanders of his mother and sister, Salome—had Mariamme put to death. This could not but turned the hearts of the two boys sour against their father. It did not take very much more for such a mix to turn on the machinations of poisonous intrigue and plots. The criss-crossing currents of slanders and accusations had gotten so bad that several years earlier, Herod had actually sent the two boys to Rome to face Caesar with the charge of plotting against him. At that time Caesar has counseled reconciliation, which Herod attempted with a public display of his willingness to obey Caesar. A strained peace ruled for a while but the cauldron of hatred between them soon began to boil again.
While the two younger sons were foolish in their display of their ambitions and expressions of their disdain for their father (emboldened by the favoured honour shown them by virtue of their maternal great grandfather being a former High Priest), Antipater was cunning in stealth, quietly luring their aunty Salome (and also Aristobulus' mother-in-law) into his web of intrigue. In a drama as soggy as any TV soap-opera, a barber was found who confessed that he would be well-paid by Alexander if he would only kill the King when he next shaved him. That proved the last straw. Alexander and Aristobulus were arrested, taken to Sebaste (the renamed city of Samaria), where they were strangled to death.
For the fourth time Herod now altered his will, making Antipater the sole heir to his throne. Sadly, Alexander and Aristobulus would not be the last of his sons Herod would put to death for his fear of them plotting against him.
©ALBERITH
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