A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

2. Daughter of Antipater, the Idumaean, by his wife Cypros, and sister to Herod the Great. Salomle and her another conceived the bitterest hatred against Herod's wife Mariamne, who, proud of her A smonaean blood, had overbearingly and imprudently contrasted it with theirs; and accordingly, in B. C. 34, on the return of Herod from Laodiceia, whither he had been summoned by Antony to answer for the murder of his brother-in-law, the young Aristobulus [ARISTOBULUS, No. 3.], they accused Mariamne of adultery with Josephus (the uncle and husband of Salome), to whose care Herod had committed his wife on his departure, and who consequently fell a victim to the jealousy of the kiing. Nor did many years elapse before, in B. C. 29, the life of Marianime herself also was sacrificed to the anger of Herod, instigated by the calumnious representations of Salome and Cypros [MARIAMNE, No. 1.] On the death of Joseplius, Salome married Costobarus, a noble Idumaean, whom Herod had made governor of Idumaea and Gaza. Soon after his marriage, Costobarus was detected in ma treasonable negotiation with Cleopatra, queen of Egypt, to whom. he offered to transfer his allegiance, if she eould prevail on Antony to add Idumnaea to her dominions; and it was only by the entreaties of Cypros and Salome that Herod was induced to spare his life. It was not long, however, before dissensions arose between Salome and her husband, whereupon she divorced him. in defiance of. the Jewish law which gave no such power to the wife, and effected his death by representing to her brother that she had repudiated him because she had discovered that he had abused the royal clemency. and was still guilty of treasonable practices. This occurred in B. C. 26.

Against the sons of Mariamne, Alexander and Aristobulus [ARISTOBULUS, No. 4.], Salome continued to cherish the same hatred with which she had persecuted their mother to her fate; and with this feeling she also strove successfully to infect her own daughter, BERENICE, whom Aristobulus, about B. C. 16, had received in marriage from Herod. The hostility was cordially reciprocated by the princes, who. however, were no match for the arts of Salome, aided too as she was by her brother Pileroras, and her nephew Antipater, and who only played into the hands of their enemies by their indiscreet violence of language. Salome did indeed herself incur for a time the displeasure of Herod, who suspected her, with good reason, of having calumniated him to his son Alexander, as harbouring evil designs towards Glaphyra, the wife of the letter, while his anger against her was further provoked by her undisguised passion for Syilaeus, the minister of Obodas, king of the Nabathaeans, and his ambassador at the Jewish court. Again, when Herod, lending a ready ear to the calumnties against his son Alexander, had thrown him into prison, the young man retaliated with charges of treason against Pheroras and Salome.

whereby the king's perplexity and tormenting suspicion were greatly increased. At length, however, the machinations of Salome and her accomplices prevailed against the princes, and succeeded in effecting their death, in B. C. 6. Nor was the favoutr of Herod ever afterwards withdrawn from his sister, who was prudent enough, indeed, to cultivate it assiduously. Thus, listening to the advice of the empress Livia, she obeyed her brother in marrying Alexas, his confidant, though sorely against her will; and she detected and put him on his guard against the treasonable designs of ANTIPATER and Pheroras. It was to her accordingly, and to her husband Alexas, as those upon whom he could best depend, that Herod, on his death-bed at Jericho, gave the atrocious order, that the Jewish nobles, whom he had sent for and shut up in the Hippodrome, should all be murdered there as soon as he breathed his last, so that his death might excite at any rate lamentations of some kind. This command, however, they did not obey. On the decease of Herod, Salome received as a bequest from him the towns of Jamnia, Azotus, and Phasaelis, besides a large quantity of money, to which Augustus added a palace at Ascalon ; and Josephus tells us that her annual income amounted altogether to 60 talents. She died during the time that M. Anmbivitus was procurator of Judea; i. e. between 10 and 13 A. D. leaving the bulk of her possessions to the empress Livia. (Strab. xvi. p.765; J. AJ 14.7, 15.3, 7, 16.1, 3, 4, 7_11, 17.1, 2_9, 11, 18.2, Bell. Jud. 1.8, 22-25, 28, 29, 32, 33, 2.6, 9; Euseb. Hist. Eccl. 1.8.)