A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Mariamne
MARIAMNE,
Daughter of Alexander and wife of Herod the Great, Tetrarch or King of Judsea, and mother of Alexander and Aristobulus, and of two daughters; was a woman of great beauty, intelligence, and powers of conversation. Her husband was so much in love with her that he never opposed her or denied her anything, but on two occasions. When he left her on dangerous errands, he gave Orders with persons high in his confidence, that she should not be allowed to survive him. Mariamne was informed of these orders, and conceived such a dislike to her husband, that on his return she could not avoid his perceiving it; nor would her pride allow her to conceal her feelings, but she openly reproached Herod with his barbarous commands. His mother and his sister Salome used every means to irritate him against his wife, and suborned the Icing's cup-bearer to accuse Mariamne of an attempt to poison her husband; she was also accused of infidelity to him. Herod, furious at these charges, had her tried for the attempt to poison him, and she was condemned and executed. Marianne met death with the greatest firmness, without even changing colour; but after her execution, which took place about B.C. 28, Herod's remorse and grief were so great, that he became for a time insane.