Mariamme the Hasmonean
Herod Marries Mariamme during the Siege of Jerusalem
14.466–467
So [Herod] marked off the place with three bulwarks and erected defense towers, employing a great many hands for the work and cutting down the trees that surrounded the city. After he had appointed the proper men for overseeing the works, and while the army was still encamped, he himself went to Samaria for the purpose of marrying the daughter of Alexander son of Aristobulus, for he had pledged himself to her already, as I mentioned earlier.
Herod Forgives Mariamme for an Alleged Affair
15.82–87
But Herod, whose affection for Mariamme always burned hot, was immediately agitated by this and could not bear the torments of his jealousy, yet he still restrained himself from doing anything reckless to her on account of his passionate love. Urged on, nonetheless, by his intense affection and jealousy, he questioned Mariamme in private concerning these matters regarding Joseph. After she denied everything on oath and recounted everything that an innocent woman could possibly say in her own defense, little by little, the king was persuaded to drop the suspicion and let his anger toward her pass. Overcome by his passion for his wife, he apologized to her for appearing to have believed what he had heard about her and thanked her for her proper behavior. He professed the extraordinary affection and kindness he had for her, until at last, as is the usual case among lovers, they both fell into tears and embraced one another with a most tender affection. But as the king gave more and more assurances of his belief in her fidelity and endeavored to draw her to a similar confidence in him, Mariamme said, “That command you gave was not a sign of your love to me, that if any harm should come to you from Antony, then I, who had been in no way responsible for it, would perish with you.” When these words spilled out from her, the king was shocked at them and immediately released her from his arms. He cried out and tore his hair with his own hands and said that now he had an evident demonstration that Joseph had engaged in unlawful relations with his wife, for Joseph would never have uttered what he had heard in private unless there had developed a great familiarity and firm confidence between them. And while he was in this state, he would have liked to have killed his wife, but still being overcome by his love for her, he restrained his passion, though not without lasting grief and an unstable mind. [ . . . ]
Mariamme and Alexandra Are Imprisoned at Alexandrium
15.185–186
But as for Mariamme his wife, because of the misunderstanding between her, his sister, and his sister’s mother—which made it impossible for them to live together—he placed her at Alexandrium with her mother, Alexandra. He left his treasurer, Joseph, and Soemus of Iturea to take care of that fortress, since they had been very loyal to him from the beginning, and now left them to guard the women under the pretense of showing them honor. They were also instructed, should he meet with any difficulties, to kill both women, and, as far as they were able, to preserve the kingdom for his sons and his brother Pheroras. [ . . . ]
Growing Distrust between Herod and Mariamme
15.202–246
However, when he came back to his kingdom, he found his house in disorder, and his wife Mariamme and her mother Alexandra were very uneasy. For they supposed, as was easy to suspect, that they were not put into that fortress for their own personal security but rather were like those placed in a garrison for their imprisonment, having no authority over anything, neither over others nor over their own affairs. They were quite unsettled. And Mariamme, because she supposed that the king’s love for her was hypocritical and more just outward show (as an advantage to himself) than real, she regarded it as disingenuous. She also was distressed that, should he come to any harm himself, he would not allow her any hope of surviving him. She further recollected the commands he had formerly given to Joseph, so she endeavored to please her keepers, and especially Soemus, as she was well aware that all was under his power. Now at first Soemus was faithful to Herod and neglected none of the things he had placed under his command, but when the women, persistent in their words and gifts, had drawn his affections over to them, he was gradually overcome, and at length he revealed to them all the king’s injunctions, mainly because he did not expect Herod to come back with the same authority as before. So he thought he would both escape any danger from Herod and largely gratify the women, who were likely not to be overlooked in the settling of the government. Rather, they would be able to offer him abundant compensation, since they would either reign themselves or remain very close to whoever reigned. He had further grounds for hope in that, even if Herod returned having accomplished everything according to plan, he would be unable to speak contrary to his wife’s wishes, for [Soemus] knew that the king’s love for Mariamme was beyond verbal expression. These were the motives that prompted Soemus to reveal the orders that had been given him. Mariamme was very upset to hear that there was no limit to the danger she was in from Herod. She was in great distress and prayed that he might obtain no favors [from Caesar], and she considered it almost unbearable to live with him any longer. She later declared this openly, without concealing her resentment.
And now Herod, having sailed home with joy over the unexpected success he had achieved, went first of all, as was proper, to his wife, and told her, and her only, the good news, preferring her over everyone else on account of his love for her and the intimacy there had been between them. But it turned out, as he recounted his success to her, that, far from rejoicing over it, she instead found it difficult to bear. Nor was it possible for her to disguise her resentment. Because of her honor and the nobility of her birth, she groaned in response to his greeting and made it clear that she had more reason for grieving than rejoicing over his success, until not only his suspicion but also the clear signs of her dissatisfaction caused Herod to be disturbed by her. He was troubled to see that his wife’s unexpected hatred toward him was undisguised, and he was aggravated by the situation yet found it so impossible to control his love for her that he could not continue long in any one state of mind, sometimes being angry with her and other times feeling reconciled. Always switching from one passion to another, he remained at a great loss in either state. He was thus entangled between hatred and love, frequently prepared to inflict punishment on her for her insolence toward him but so deeply in love with her in his soul that he was unable to quit this woman once and for all. On the whole, while he would gladly have had her punished, he also feared that by putting her to death, he might inadvertently bring a heavier punishment upon himself at the same time.
When Herod’s sister and mother perceived that he was feeling this way about Mariamme, they believed that they now had an excellent opportunity to exercise their hatred of her. They provoked Herod to wrath by telling him long stories and false accusations about her, with the intention of inciting his hatred and jealousy at the same time. Now he neither listened to such stories unwillingly nor showed enough boldness, as if he believed such accounts, to act in any way against his wife. Still, he became increasingly ill-disposed toward her, and these passions grew more and more inflamed on both sides, with her not disguising her attitude toward him and him always vacillating between love and anger. And just when he was going to put this matter past all remedy, he heard the news that Caesar was the victor in the war, that he had conquered Egypt, and that Antony and Cleopatra were both dead. In a hurry to go meet Caesar, [Herod] left the affairs of his household in their present state. As he was setting out on his journey, however, Mariamme recommended Soemus to him, professing that she owed him a great debt of gratitude for the care he had bestowed on her, and she requested from the king a place for him in the government, which he was granted. [ . . . ]
Upon these new acquisitions, [Herod] grew even more magnificent. He accompanied Caesar as far as Antioch, but upon his return, as much as he believed his prosperity was increasing through the foreign additions that had been made him, he was all the more troubled about his own family, mainly with respect to his marriage, in which he had previously appeared to be rather fortunate. For the affection he rightfully felt for Mariamme was by no means inferior to those celebrated in history. As for her, she was in most other respects a temperate woman and faithful to him, yet she possessed something both womanish and rough in her nature and treated her husband imperiously, because she saw that he was so fond of her as to be enslaved to her. She also did not take into consideration that she lived under a king and was subject to another’s command, so she would behave disrespectfully toward him, which he usually put off jokingly and bore with moderation and good temper. She would also mock his mother and sister openly for their low birth and would speak unkindly of them, with the result that, while there had previously been disagreement and implacable hatred among the women, it had now come to even greater reproaches of one another. The suspicions increased and lasted a whole year after Herod returned from Caesar. These misfortunes, however, which had previously been kept under some control for a great while, burst out all at once on the following occasion.
Mariamme’s Execution
While the king was lying down on his bed to rest one day around noon, he called for Mariamme, out of the great affection he had always had for her. She came in accordingly but would not lie down beside him, even though he was very desirous of her company. She rejected him with scorn and added, by way of reproach, that he had caused her father and her brother to be killed. When he received this insolence unkindly and was on the verge of acting recklessly, the king’s sister Salome, observing that he was more disturbed than usual, sent for the king’s cupbearer, who had long been prepared for such a situation, and instructed him to say that Mariamme had persuaded him to help prepare a love potion for the king. If [Herod] appeared to be confused and asked what that love potion was, he was to tell him that [Mariamme] was in possession of the potion and that he was being summoned only to serve it to him, but if [Herod] did not appear to be overly concerned by the potion, he was to let the matter drop, and if he did so, no harm would come to him because of it. Once she had given him these instructions, she sent him in to deliver the speech. He entered in a composed manner, yet somewhat hastily, and said that Mariamme had given him presents and then had persuaded him to serve [Herod] a love potion. When this animated the king and he asked the nature of the love potion, [the cupbearer] said that it was a drug that she had given him whose effects he did not know, which was why he decided to give him this information, as it was the safest course he could take, both for himself and for the king. When Herod heard this, having already been in a foul mood, his indignation grew more violent, and he had Mariamme’s eunuch, who was always most faithful to her, questioned about the potion by means of torture, knowing well that it was not possible that anything small or great could be done without him. Despite enduring bodily agony, he could not say a thing concerning the matter that he was being tortured about. He stated, however, that as far as he knew, the hatred of [Herod’s] wife for him had been occasioned by what Soemus had said to her.
As he was still saying these things, Herod cried out and said that Soemus, who had in fact been most loyal to him and to his kingdom at all other times, would not have betrayed his command unless he had engaged in inappropriate relations with Mariamme. So he issued an order that Soemus be arrested and put to death immediately, but he permitted his wife to stand trial. He assembled those who were most faithful to him and laid an elaborate accusation against her for this love potion and charm, which had been alleged only by way of slander. However, he lacked self-control in his speech and was in too great a passion to give sound judgment. At length, the court was satisfied that he was affected this way, and they condemned her to death. But when the sentence was passed against her, it dawned on him and some others presiding at court that she should not be put to death so hastily but rather should be imprisoned in one of the fortresses belonging to the kingdom. Salome and her party, however, worked hard to have the woman put to death, and they persuaded the king to do so, advising this out of caution considering the uproar of the masses that would occur if she were allowed to live. Thus Mariamme was led to execution.
Now Alexandra observed how things went, and that there was little hope that she herself would escape the same treatment from Herod. So she changed her behavior, in a very indecent manner, to quite the opposite of what might have been consistent with her former boldness. For out of her desire to show how entirely ignorant she was of the crimes charged against Mariamme, she leaped out of her place and reproached her daughter in the hearing of all the people. She cried out that her daughter had been a worthless woman, ungrateful to her husband, and that her punishment came justly upon her for such insolent behavior, for she had not repaid properly the one who had been their common benefactor. When she had for some time put on this theatrical display and had acted so outrageously as to tear out her hair, this indecent and pretentious behavior, as was to be expected, was greatly condemned by the rest of those present, and this was especially made evident by the woman who was about to perish. For at first [Mariamme] offered not a single word and was not unsettled by her offensive conduct but only looked at her. Yet she did, out of a greatness of soul, demonstrate her agitation over her mother’s offense, and especially for her exposing herself so indecently. As for Mariamme herself, she went to her death with an unshaken firmness of mind, and without changing her complexion, and thereby made the nobility of her descent evident to the spectators, even in the last moments of her life.
Thus died Mariamme, a woman of most excellent character in both chastity and greatness of soul. She lacked moderation and was overly confrontational in nature, yet she possessed more than can be said in terms of the beauty of her body and her majestic appearance in conversation. And there consequently arose the greatest reason why she did not prove so agreeable to the king nor live so pleasantly with him as she might otherwise have done. For while she was treated most indulgently by the king due to his affection for her and did not expect him to subject her to severe treatment, she exercised an unmeasured degree of boldness. Moreover, that which kept afflicting her was what he had done to her relations, and she ventured to speak of all they had suffered by him. Finally, she greatly provoked both the king’s mother and sister until they became her enemies, as did he himself, the sole person whom she had mistakenly depended on for escaping any punishments.
Herod’s Grief
But once she had been put to death, the king’s affection for her was ignited in an even more extreme manner than before, which passion we have already described. For his love for her was not free from strong emotions, nor was it such as results from everyday intimacy. Rather, it was impassioned even from its very beginning, and their free form of cohabitation did not bring it into his power to manage. At this time, however, his love for Mariamme seemed to seize him in a peculiar manner, as it looked like divine vengeance on him for taking her life. He would frequently call for her and frequently lament for her in a most indecent manner. He would, moreover, contrive anything possible to divert his mind from thinking of her, undertaking drunken revelries and social gatherings for that purpose, yet none of these diversions would suffice. He therefore set aside his administration of government affairs and became so far conquered by his passion that he now even ordered his servants to call for Mariamme, as if she were still alive and could still respond to them. While he was subject to this state of mind, there came to pass a pestilence, which wiped out the greater part of the masses as well as his most highly valued friends, and it led everyone to suspect that this was brought upon them by the wrath of God, on account of what had been done, in violation of the Law, against Mariamme. This circumstance affected the king still more, until at length he forced himself to go into the desert places, and there, under pretense of going hunting, bitterly afflicted himself. Yet he had not endured his grief many days before he himself fell victim to a most severe illness. He had a burning inflammation, as well as a pain in his occipital bone, along with a change in his mental state. As for the remedies that were used, they did him no good at all, instead producing contrary results, and so at length leading him to despair. All the physicians around him—partly because the medicines they were administering for his recovery could not at all conquer the disease, and partly because his diet could be no other than what his disease inclined him to—resolved that he should eat whatever he set his mind to, and they so consigned to fortune the meager hope they had for his recovery through the power of his diet. He thus went on suffering this manner of illness while in Samaria, now called Sebaste.
Translated by William Whiston, adapted byAaron Samuels.
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 2: Emerging Judaism.
