came on, he abode in certain villages of Judea, which when he found full
of women and children, he commanded his soldiers to strangle them, and
to cut them in pieces, and then to cast them into boiling caldrons, and
then to devour their limbs as sacrifices. This commandment was given,
that such as fled from the battle, and came to them, might suppose their
enemies were cannibals, and eat men's flesh, and might on that account
be still more terrified at them upon such a sight. And both Strabo and
Nicholaus [of Damascus] affirm, that they used these people after this
manner, as I have already related. Ptolemy also took Ptolemais by force,
as we have declared elsewhere.
CHAPTER 13. How Alexander, upon the League of Mutual Defense Which
Cleopatra Had Agreed with Him, Made an Expedition Against Coelesyria,
and Utterly Overthrew the City of Gaza; and How He Slew Many Ten
Thousands of Jews That Rebelled Against Him.
Also Concerning Antiochus Grypus, Seleucus Antiochus Cyzicenus, and
Antiochus Pius, and Others.
1. When Cleopatra saw that her son was grown great, and laid Judea
waste, without disturbance, and had gotten the city of Gaza under his
power, she resolved no longer to overlook what he did, when he was
almost at her gates; and she concluded, that now he was so much stronger
than before, he would be very desirous of the dominion over the
Egyptians; but she immediately marched against him, with a fleet at sea
and an army of foot on land, and made Chelcias and Ananias the Jews
generals of her whole army, while she sent the greatest part of her
riches, her grandchildren, and her testament, to the people of Cos 34
Cleopatra also ordered her son Alexander to sail with a great fleet to
Phoenicia; and when that country had revolted, she came to Ptolemais;
and because the people of Ptolemais did not receive her, she besieged
the city; but Ptolemy went out of Syria, and made haste unto Egypt,
supposing that he should find it destitute of an army, and soon take it,
though he failed of his hopes. At this time Chelcias, one of Cleopatra's
generals, happened to die in Celesyria, as he was in pursuit of Ptolemy.
2. When Cleopatra heard of her son's attempt, and that his Egyptian
expedition did not succeed according to his expectations, she sent
thither part of her army, and drove him out of that country; so when he
was returned out of Egypt again, he abode during the winter at Gaza, in
which time Cleopatra took the garrison that was in Ptolemais by siege,
as well as the city; and when Alexander came to her, he gave her
presents, and such marks of respect as were but proper, since under the
miseries he endured by Ptolemy he had no other refuge but her. Now there
were some of her friends who persuaded her to seize Alexander, and to
overrun and take possession of the country, and not to sit still and see
such a multitude of brave Jews subject to one man. But Ananias's counsel
was contrary to theirs, who said that she would do an unjust action if
she deprived a man that was her ally of that authority which belonged to
him, and this a man who is related to us; "for [said he] I would not
have thee ignorant of this, that what in justice thou dost to him will
make all us that are Jews to be thy enemies." This desire of Ananias
Cleopatra complied with, and did no injury to Alexander, but made a
league of mutual assistance with him at Scythopolis, a city of
Celesyria.
3. So when Alexander was delivered from the fear he was in of Ptolemy,
he presently made an expedition against Coelesyria. He also took Gadara,
after a siege of ten months. He took also Areathus, a very strong
fortress belonging to the inhabitants above Jordan, where Theodorus, the
son of Zeno, had his chief treasure, and what he esteemed most precious.
This Zeno fell unexpectedly upon the Jews, and slew ten thousand of
them, and seized upon Alexander's baggage. Yet did not this misfortune
terrify Alexander; but he made an expedition upon the maritime parts of
the country, Raphia and Anthedon, [the name of which king Herod
afterwards changed to Agrippias,] and took even that by force. But when
Alexander saw that Ptolemy was retired from Gaza to Cyprus, and his
mother Cleopatra was returned to Egypt, he grew angry at the people of
Gaza, because they had invited Ptolemy to assist them, and besieged
their city, and ravaged their country. But as Apollodotus, the general
of the army of Gaza, fell upon the camp of the Jews by night, with two
thousand foreign and ten thousand of his own forces, while the night
lasted, those of Gaza prevailed, because the enemy was made to believe
that it was Ptolemy who attacked them; but when day was come on, and
that mistake was corrected, and the Jews knew the truth of the matter,
they came back again, and fell upon those of Gaza, and slew of them
about a thousand. But as those of Gaza stoutly resisted them, and would
not yield for either their want of any thing, nor for the great
multitude that were slain, [for they would rather suffer any hardship
whatever than come under the power of their enemies,] Aretas, king of
the Arabians, a person then very illustrious, encouraged them to go on
with alacrity, and promised them that he would come to their assistance;
but it happened that before he came Apollodotus was slain; for his
brother Lysimachus envying him for the great reputation he had gained
among the citizens, slew him, and got the army together, and delivered
up the city to Alexander, who, when he came in at first, lay quiet, but
afterward set his army upon the inhabitants of Gaza, and gave them leave
to punish them; so some went one way, and some went another, and slew
the inhabitants of Gaza; yet were not they of cowardly hearts, but
opposed those that came to slay them, and slew as many of the Jews; and
some of them, when they saw themselves deserted, burnt their own houses,
that the enemy might get none of their spoils; nay, some of them, with
their own hands, slew their children and their wives, having no other
way but this of avoiding slavery for them; but the senators, who were in
all five hundred, fled to Apollo's temple, [for this attack happened to
be made as they were sitting,] whom Alexander slew; and when he had
utterly overthrown their city, he returned to Jerusalem, having spent a
year in that siege.
4. About this very time Antiochus, who was called Grypus, died 35 His
death was caused by Heracleon's treachery, when he had lived forty-five
years, and had reigned twenty-nine. 36 His son Seleucus succeeded him in
the kingdom, and made war with Antiochus, his father's brother, who was
called Antiochus Cyzicenus, and beat him, and took him prisoner, and
slew him. But after a while Antiochus, the son of Cyzicenus, who was
called Pius, came to Aradus, and put the diadem on his own head, and
made war with Seleucus, and beat him, and drove him out of all Syria.
But when he fled out of Syria, he came to Mopsuestia again, and levied
money upon them; but the people of Mopsuestia had indignation at what he
did, and burnt down his palace, and slew him, together with his friends.
But when Antiochus, the son of Cyzicenus, was king of Syria, Antiochus,
37 the brother of Seleucus, made war upon him, and was overcome, and
destroyed, he and his army. After him, his brother Philip put on the
diadem, and reigned over some part of Syria; but Ptolemy Lathyrus sent
for his fourth brother Demetrius, who was called Eucerus, from Cnidus,
and made him king of Damascus. Both these brothers did Antiochus
vehemently oppose, but presently died; for when he was come as an
auxiliary to Laodice, queen of the Gileadites, 38 when she was making
war against the Parthians, and he was fighting courageously, he fell,
while Demetrius and Philip governed Syria, as hath been elsewhere
related.
5. As to Alexander, his own people were seditious against him; for at a
festival which was then celebrated, when he stood upon the altar, and
was going to sacrifice, the nation rose upon him, and pelted him with
citrons [which they then had in their hands, because] the law of the
Jews required that at the feast of tabernacles every one should have
branches of the palm tree and citron tree; which thing we have elsewhere
related. They also reviled him, as derived from a captive, and so
unworthy of his dignity and of sacrificing. At this he was in a rage,
and slew of them about six thousand. He also built a partition-wall of
wood round the altar and the temple, as far as that partition within
which it was only lawful for the priests to enter; and by this means he
obstructed the multitude from coming at him. He also maintained
foreigners of Pisidie and Cilicia; for as to the Syrians, he was at war
with them, and so made no use of them. He also overcame the Arabians,
such as the Moabites and Gileadites, and made them bring tribute.
Moreover, he demolished Amathus, while Theodorus 39 durst not fight with
him; but as he had joined battle with Obedas, king of the Arabians, and
fell into an ambush in the places that were rugged and difficult to be
traveled over, he was thrown down into a deep valley, by the multitude
of the camels at Gadurn, a village of Gilead, and hardly escaped with
his life. From thence he fled to Jerusalem, where, besides his other ill
success, the nation insulted him, and he fought against them for six
years, and slew no fewer than fifty thousand of them. And when he
desired that they would desist from their ill-will to him, they hated
him so much the more, on account of what had already happened; and when
he had asked them what he ought to do, they all cried out, that he ought
to kill himself. They also sent to Demetrius Eucerus, and desired him to
make a league of mutual defense with them.
CHAPTER 14. How Demetrius Eucerus Overcame Alexander And Yet In A Little
Time Retired Out Of The Country For Fear; As Also How Alexander Slew
Many Of The Jews And Thereby Got Clear Of His Troubles. Concerning The
Death Of Demetrius.
1. So Demetrius came with an army, and took those that invited him, and
pitched his camp near the city Shechem; upon which Alexander, with his
six thousand two hundred mercenaries, and about twenty thousand Jews,
who were of his party, went against Demetrius, who had three thousand
horsemen, and forty thousand footmen. Now there were great endeavors
used on both sides,—Demetrius trying to bring off the mercenaries that
were with Alexander, because they were Greeks, and Alexander trying to
bring off the Jews that were with Demetrius. However, when neither of
them could persuade them so to do, they came to a battle, and Demetrius
was the conqueror; in which all Alexander's mercenaries were killed,
when they had given demonstration of their fidelity and courage. A great
number of Demetrius's soldiers were slain also.
2. Now as Alexander fled to the mountains, six thousand of the Jews
hereupon came together [from Demetrius] to him out of pity at the change
of his fortune; upon which Demetrius was afraid, and retired out of the
country; after which the Jews fought against Alexander, and being
beaten, were slain in great numbers in the several battles which they
had; and when he had shut up the most powerful of them in the city
Bethome, he besieged them therein; and when he had taken the city, and
gotten the men into his power, he brought them to Jerusalem, and did one
of the most barbarous actions in the world to them; for as he was
feasting with his concubines, in the sight of all the city, he ordered
about eight hundred of them to be crucified; and while they were living,
he ordered the throats of their children and wives to be cut before
their eyes. This was indeed by way of revenge for the injuries they had
done him; which punishment yet was of an inhuman nature, though we
suppose that he had been never so much distressed, as indeed he had
been, by his wars with them, for he had by their means come to the last
degree of hazard, both of his life and of his kingdom, while they were
not satisfied by themselves only to fight against him, but introduced
foreigners also for the same purpose; nay, at length they reduced him to
that degree of necessity, that he was forced to deliver back to the king
of Arabia the land of Moab and Gilead, which he had subdued, and the
places that were in them, that they might not join with them in the war
against him, as they had done ten thousand other things that tended to
affront and reproach him. However, this barbarity seems to have been
without any necessity, on which account he bare the name of a Thracian
among the Jews 40 whereupon the soldiers that had fought against him,
being about eight thousand in number, ran away by night, and continued
fugitives all the time that Alexander lived; who being now freed from
any further disturbance from them, reigned the rest of his time in the
utmost tranquillity.
3. But when Demetrius was departed out of Judea, he went to Berea, and
besieged his brother Philip, having with him ten thousand footmen, and a
thousand horsemen. However Strato, the tyrant of Berea, the confederate
of Philip, called in Zizon, the ruler of the Arabian tribes, and
Mithridates Sinax, the ruler of the Parthians, who coming with a great
number of forces, and besieging Demetrius in his encampment, into which
they had driven them with their arrows, they compelled those that were
with him by thirst to deliver up themselves. So they took a great many
spoils out of that country, and Demetrius himself, whom they sent to
Mithridates, who was then king of Parthia; but as to those whom they
took captives of the people of Antioch, they restored them to the
Antiochinus without any reward. Now Mithridates, the king of Parthia,
had Demetrius in great honor, till Demetrius ended his life by sickness.
So Philip, presently after the fight was over, came to Antioch, and took
it, and reigned over Syria.
CHAPTER 15. How Antiochus, Who Was Called Dionysus, And After Him Aretas
Made Expeditions Into Judea; As Also How Alexander Took Many Cities And
Then Returned To Jerusalem, And After A Sickness Of Three Years Died;
And What Counsel He Gave To Alexandra.
1. After this, Antiochus, who was called Dionysus, 41 and was Philip's
brother, aspired to the dominion, and came to Damascus, and got the
power into his hands, and there he reigned; but as he was making war
against the Arabians, his brother Philip heard of it, and came to
Damascus, where Milesius, who had been left governor of the citadel, and
the Damascens themselves, delivered up the city to him; yet because
Philip was become ungrateful to him, and had bestowed upon him nothing
of that in hopes whereof he had received him into the city, but had a
mind to have it believed that it was rather delivered up out of fear
than by the kindness of Milesius, and because he had not rewarded him as
he ought to have done, he became suspected by him, and so he was obliged
to leave Damascus again; for Milesius caught him marching out into the
Hippodrome, and shut him up in it, and kept Damascus for Antiochus
[Eucerus], who hearing how Philip's affairs stood, came back out of
Arabia. He also came immediately, and made an expedition against Judea,
with eight thousand armed footmen, and eight hundred horsemen. So
Alexander, out of fear of his coming, dug a deep ditch, beginning at
Chabarzaba, which is now called Antipatris, to the sea of Joppa, on
which part only his army could be brought against him. He also raised a
wall, and erected wooden towers, and intermediate redoubts, for one
hundred and fifty furlongs in length, and there expected the coming of
Antiochus; but he soon burnt them all, and made his army pass by that
way into Arabia. The Arabian king [Aretas] at first retreated, but
afterward appeared on the sudden with ten thousand horsemen. Antiochus
gave them the meeting, and fought desperately; and indeed when he had
gotten the victory, and was bringing some auxiliaries to that part of
his army that was in distress, he was slain. When Antiochus was fallen,
his army fled to the village Cana, where the greatest part of them
perished by famine.
2. After him 42 Arems reigned over Celesyria, being called to the
government by those that held Damascus, by reason of the hatred they
bare to Ptolemy Menneus. He also made thence an expedition against
Judea, and beat Alexander in battle, near a place called Adida; yet did
he, upon certain conditions agreed on between them, retire out of Judea.
3. But Alexander marched again to the city Dios, and took it; and then
made an expedition against Essa, where was the best part of Zeno's
treasures, and there he encompassed the place with three walls; and when
he had taken the city by fighting, he marched to Golan and Seleucia; and
when he had taken these cities, he, besides them, took that valley which
is called The Valley of Antiochus, as also the fortress of Gamala. He
also accused Demetrius, who was governor of those places, of many
crimes, and turned him out; and after he had spent three years in this
war, he returned to his own country, when the Jews joyfully received him
upon this his good success.
4. Now at this time the Jews were in possession of the following cities
that had belonged to the Syrians, and Idumeans, and Phoenicians: At the
sea-side, Strato's Tower, Apollonia, Joppa, Jamhis, Ashdod, Gaza,
Anthedon, Raphia, and Rhinocolura; in the middle of the country, near to
Idumea, Adorn, and Marissa; near the country of Samaria, Mount Carmel,
and Mount Tabor, Scythopolis, and Gadara; of the country of Gaulonitis,
Seleucia and Gabala; in the country of Moab, Heshbon, and Medaba, Lemba,
and Oronas, Gelithon, Zorn, the valley of the Cilices, and Pollo; which
last they utterly destroyed, because its inhabitants would not bear to
change their religious rites for those peculiar to the Jews. 43 The Jews
also possessed others of the principal cities of Syria, which had been
destroyed.
5. After this, king Alexander, although he fell into a distemper by hard
drinking, and had a quartan ague, which held him three years, yet would
not leave off going out with his army, till he was quite spent with the
labors he had undergone, and died in the bounds of Ragaba, a fortress
beyond Jordan. But when his queen saw that he was ready to die, and had
no longer any hopes of surviving, she came to him weeping and lamenting,
and bewailed herself and her sons on the desolate condition they should
be left in; and said to him, "To whom dost thou thus leave me and my
children, who are destitute of all other supports, and this when thou
knowest how much ill-will thy nation bears thee?" But he gave her the
following advice: That she need but follow what he would suggest to her,
in order to retain the kingdom securely, with her children: that she
should conceal his death from the soldiers till she should have taken
that place; after this she should go in triumph, as upon a victory, to
Jerusalem, and put some of her authority into the hands of the
Pharisees; for that they would commend her for the honor she had done
them, and would reconcile the nation to her for he told her they had
great authority among the Jews, both to do hurt to such as they hated,
and to bring advantages to those to whom they were friendly disposed;
for that they are then believed best of all by the multitude when they
speak any severe thing against others, though it be only out of envy at
them. And he said that it was by their means that he had incurred the
displeasure of the nation, whom indeed he had injured. "Do thou,
therefore," said he, "when thou art come to Jerusalem, send for the
leading men among them, and show them my body, and with great appearance
of sincerity, give them leave to use it as they themselves please,
whether they will dishonor the dead body by refusing it burial, as
having severely suffered by my means, or whether in their anger they
will offer any other injury to that body. Promise them also that thou
wilt do nothing without them in the affairs of the kingdom. If thou dost
but say this to them, I shall have the honor of a more glorious Funeral
from them than thou couldst have made for me; and when it is in their
power to abuse my dead body, they will do it no injury at all, and thou
wilt rule in safety." 44 So when he had given his wife this advice, he
died, after he had reigned twenty-seven years, and lived fifty years
within one.
CHAPTER 16. How Alexandra By Gaining The Good-Will Of The Pharisees,
Retained The Kingdom Nine Years, And Then, Having Done Many Glorious
Actions Died.
1. So Alexandra, when she had taken the fortress, acted as her husband
had suggested to her, and spake to the Pharisees, and put all things
into their power, both as to the dead body, and as to the affairs of the
kingdom, and thereby pacified their anger against Alexander, and made
them bear goodwill and friendship to him; who then came among the
multitude, and made speeches to them, and laid before them the actions
of Alexander, and told them that they had lost a righteous king; and by
the commendation they gave him, they brought them to grieve, and to be
in heaviness for him, so that he had a funeral more splendid than had
any of the kings before him. Alexander left behind him two sons,
Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, but committed the kingdom to Alexandra. Now,
as to these two sons, Hyrcanus was indeed unable to manage public
affairs, and delighted rather in a quiet life; but the younger,
Aristobulus, was an active and a bold man; and for this woman herself,
Alexandra, she was loved by the multitude, because she seemed displeased
at the offenses her husband had been guilty of.
2. So she made Hyrcanus high priest, because he was the elder, but much
more because he cared not to meddle with politics, and permitted the
Pharisees to do every thing; to whom also she ordered the multitude to
be obedient. She also restored again those practices which the Pharisees
had introduced, according to the traditions of their forefathers, and
which her father-in-law, Hyrcanus, had abrogated. So she had indeed the
name of the regent, but the Pharisees had the authority; for it was they
who restored such as had been banished, and set such as were prisoners
at liberty, and, to say all at once, they differed in nothing from
lords. However, the queen also took care of the affairs of the kingdom,
and got together a great body of mercenary soldiers, and increased her
own army to such a degree, that she became terrible to the neighboring
tyrants, and took hostages of them: and the country was entirely at
peace, excepting the Pharisees; for they disturbed the queen, and
desired that she would kill those who persuaded Alexander to slay the
eight hundred men; after which they cut the throat of one of them,
Diogenes; and after him they did the same to several, one after another,
till the men that were the most potent came into the palace, and
Aristobulus with them, for he seemed to be displeased at what was done;
and it appeared openly, that if he had an opportunity, he would not
permit his mother to go on so. These put the queen in mind what great
dangers they had gone through, and great things they had done, whereby
they had demonstrated the firmness of their fidelity to their master,
insomuch that they had received the greatest marks of favor from him;
and they begged of her, that she would not utterly blast their hopes, as
it now happened, that when they had escaped the hazards that arose from
their [open] enemies, they were to be cut off at home by their [private]
enemies, like brute beasts, without any help whatsoever. They said also,
that if their adversaries would be satisfied with those that had been
slain already, they would take what had been done patiently, on account
of their natural love to their governors; but if they must expect the
same for the future also, they implored of her a dismission from her
service; for they could not bear to think of attempting any method for
their deliverance without her, but would rather die willingly before the
palace gate, in case she would not forgive them. And that it was a great
shame, both for themselves and for the queen, that when they were
neglected by her, they should come under the lash of her husband's
enemies; for that Aretas, the Arabian king, and the monarchs, would give
any reward, if they could get such men as foreign auxiliaries, to whom
their very names, before their voices be heard, may perhaps be terrible;
but if they could not obtain this their second request, and if she had
determined to prefer the Pharisees before them, they still insisted that
she would place them every one in her fortresses; for if some fatal
demon hath a constant spite against Alexander's house, they would be
willing to bear their part, and to live in a private station there.
3. As these men said thus, and called upon Alexander's ghost for
commiseration of those already slain, and those in danger of it, all the
bystanders brake out into tears. But Aristobulus chiefly made manifest
what were his sentiments, and used many reproachful expressions to his
mother, [saying,] "Nay, indeed, the case is this, that they have been
themselves the authors of their own calamities, who have permitted a
woman who, against reason, was mad with ambition, to reign over them,
when there were sons in the flower of their age fitter for it." So
Alexandra, not knowing what to do with any decency, committed the
fortresses to them, all but Hyrcania, and Alexandrium, and Macherus,
where her principal treasures were. After a little while also, she sent
her son Aristobulus with an army to Damascus against Ptolemy, who was
called Menneus, who was such a bad neighbor to the city; but he did
nothing considerable there, and so returned home.
4. About this time news was brought that Tigranes, the king of Armenia,
had made an irruption into Syria with five hundred thousand soldiers, 45
and was coming against Judea. This news, as may well be supposed,
terrified the queen and the nation. Accordingly, they sent him many and
very valuable presents, as also ambassadors, and that as he was
besieging Ptolemais; for Selene the queen, the same that was also called
Cleopatra, ruled then over Syria, who had persuaded the inhabitants to
exclude Tigranes. So the Jewish ambassadors interceded with him, and
entreated him that he would determine nothing that was severe about
their queen or nation. He commended them for the respects they paid him
at so great a distance, and gave them good hopes of his favor. But as
soon as Ptolemais was taken, news came to Tigranes, that Lucullus, in
his pursuit of Mithridates, could not light upon him, who was fled into
Iberia, but was laying waste Armenia, and besieging its cities. Now when
Tigranes knew this, he returned home.
5. After this, when the queen was fallen into a dangerous distemper,
Aristobulus resolved to attempt the seizing of the government; so he
stole away secretly by night, with only one of his servants, and went to
the fortresses, wherein his friends, that were such from the days of his
father, were settled; for as he had been a great while displeased at his
mother's conduct, so he was now much more afraid, lest, upon her death,
their whole family should be under the power of the Pharisees; for he
saw the inability of his brother, who was to succeed in the government;
nor was any one conscious of what he was doing but only his wife, whom
he left at Jerusalem with their children. He first of all came to Agaba,
where was Galestes, one of the potent men before mentioned, and was
received by him. When it was day, the queen perceived that Aristobulus
was fled; and for some time she supposed that his departure was not in
order to make any innovation; but when messengers came one after another
with the news that he had secured the first place, the second place, and
all the places, for as soon as one had begun they all submitted to his
disposal, then it was that the queen and the nation were in the greatest
disorder, for they were aware that it would not be long ere Aristobulus
would be able to settle himself firmly in the government. What they were
principally afraid of was this, that he would inflict punishment upon
them for the mad treatment his house had had from them. So they resolved
to take his wife and children into custody, and keep them in the
fortress that was over the temple. 46 Now there was a mighty conflux of
people that came to Aristobulus from all parts, insomuch that he had a
kind of royal attendants about him; for in a little more than fifteen
days he got twenty-two strong places, which gave him the opportunity of
raising an army from Libanus and Trachonitis, and the monarchs; for men
are easily led by the greater number, and easily submit to them. And
besides this, that by affording him their assistance, when he could not
expect it, they, as well as he, should have the advantages that would
come by his being king, because they had been the occasion of his
gaining the kingdom. Now the elders of the Jews, and Hyrcanus with them,
went in unto the queen, and desired that she would give them her
sentiments about the present posture of affairs, for that Aristobulus
was in effect lord of almost all the kingdom, by possessing of so many
strong holds, and that it was absurd for them to take any counsel by
themselves, how ill soever she were, whilst she was alive, and that the
danger would be upon them in no long time. But she bid them do what they
thought proper to be done; that they had many circumstances in their
favor still remaining, a nation in good heart, an army, and money in
their several treasuries; for that she had small concern about public
affairs now, when the strength of her body already failed her.
6. Now a little while after she had said this to them, she died, when
she had reigned nine years, and had in all lived seventy-three. A woman
she was who showed no signs of the weakness of her sex, for she was
sagacious to the greatest degree in her ambition of governing; and
demonstrated by her doings at once, that her mind was fit for action,
and that sometimes men themselves show the little understanding they
have by the frequent mistakes they make in point of government; for she
always preferred the present to futurity, and preferred the power of an
imperious dominion above all things, and in comparison of that had no
regard to what was good, or what was right. However, she brought the
affairs of her house to such an unfortunate condition, that she was the
occasion of the taking away that authority from it, and that in no long
time afterward, which she had obtained by a vast number of hazards and
misfortunes, and this out of a desire of what does not belong to a
woman, and all by a compliance in her sentiments with those that bare
ill-will to their family, and by leaving the administration destitute of
a proper support of great men; and, indeed, her management during her
administration while she was alive, was such as filled the palace after
her death with calamities and disturbance. However, although this had
been her way of governing, she preserved the nation in peace. And this
is the conclusion of the affairs of, Alexandra.
FOOTNOTES
1 (return) [ This Alexander Bala, who certainly pretended to be the son
of Antiochus Epiphanes, and was owned for such by the Jews and Romans,
and many others, and yet is by several historians deemed to be a
counterfeit, and of no family at all, is, however, by Josephus believed
to have been the real son of that Antiochus, and by him always spoken of
accordingly. And truly, since the original contemporary and authentic
author of the First Book of Maccabees [10:1: calls him by his father's
name, Epiphanes, and says he was the son of Antiochus, I suppose the
other writers, who are all much later, are not to be followed against
such evidence, though perhaps Epiphanes might have him by a woman of no
family. The king of Egypt also, Philometor, soon gave him his daughter
in marriage, which he would hardly have done, had he believed him to be
a counterfeit, and of so very mean a birth as the later historians
pretend.]
2 (return) [ Since Jonathan plainly did not put on the pontifical robes
till seven or eight years after the death of his brother Judas, or not
till the feast of tabernacles, in the 160th of the Seleucidm, 1 Macc.
10;21, Petitus's emendation seems here to deserve consideration, who,
instead of "after four years since the death of his brother Judas,"
would have us read, "and therefore after eight years since the death of
his brother Judas." This would tolerably well agree with the date of the
Maccabees, and with Josephus's own exact chronology at the end of the
twentieth book of these Antiquities, which the present text cannot be
made to do.]
3 (return) [ Take Grotius's note here: "The Jews," says he, "were wont
to present crowns to the kings [of Syria]; afterwards that gold which
was paid instead of those crowns, or which was expended in making them,
was called the crown gold and crown tax." On 1 Macc. 10:29.]
4 (return) [ Since the rest of the historians now extant give this
Demetrius thirteen years, and Josephus only eleven years, Dean Prideaux
does not amiss in ascribing to him the mean number twelve.]
5 (return) [ It seems to me contrary to the opinion of Josephus, and of
the moderns, both Jews and Christians, that this prophecy of Isaiah,
19:19, etc., "In that day there shall be an altar to the Lord in the
midst of the land of Egypt," etc., directly foretold the building of
this temple of Onias in Egypt, and was a sufficient warrant to the Jews
for building it, and for worshipping the true God, the God of Israel,
therein. See Authent. Rec. 11. p. 755. That God seems to have soon
better accepted of the sacrifices and prayers here offered him than
those at Jerusalem, see the note on ch. 10. sect. 7. And truly the marks
of Jewish corruption or interpolation in this text, in order to
discourage their people from approving of the Worship of God here, are
very strong, and highly deserve our consideration and correction. The
foregoing verse in Isaiah runs thus in our common copies, "In that day
shall five cities in the land of Egypt speak the language of Canaan,"
[the Hebrew language; shall be full of Jews, whose sacred books were in
Hebrew,] "and swear to the Lord of hosts; one" [or the first] "shall be
called, The City of Destruction," Isaiah 19:18. A strange-name, "City of
Destruction," upon so joyful occasion, and a name never heard of in the
land of Egypt, or perhaps in any other nation. The old reading was
evidently the City of the Sun, or Heliopolis; and Unkelos, in effect,
and Symmachus, with the Arabic version, entirely confess that to be the
true reading. The Septuagint also, though they have the text disguised
in the common copies, and call it Asedek, the City of Righteousness; yet
in two or three other copies the Hebrew word itself for the Sun,
Achares, or Thares, is preserved. And since Onias insists with the king
and queen, that Isaiah's prophecy contained many other predictions
relating to this place besides the words by him recited, it is highly
probable that these were especially meant by him; and that one main
reason why he applied this prediction to himself, and to his prefecture
of Heliopolis, which Dean Prideaux well proves was in that part of
Egypt, and why he chose to build in that prefecture of Heliopolis,
though otherwise an improper place, was this, that the same authority
that he had for building this temple in Egypt, the very same he had for
building it in his own prefecture of Heliopolis also, which he desired
to do, and which he did accordingly. Dean Prideaux has much ado to avoid
seeing this corruption of the Hebrew; but it being in support of his own
opinion about this temple, he durst not see it; and indeed he reasons
here in the most injudicious manner possible. See him at the year 149.]
6 (return) [ A very unfair disputation this! while the Jewish disputant,
knowing that he could not properly prove out of the Pentateuch, that
"the place which the Lord their God shall choose to place his name
there," so often referred to in the Book of Deuteronomy, was Jerusalem
any more than Gerizzim, that being not determined till the days of
David, Antiq. B. VII. ch. 13. sect. 4, proves only, what the Samaritans
did not deny, that the temple at Jerusalem was much more ancient, and
much more celebrated and honored, than that at Gerizzim, which was
nothing to the present purpose. The whole evidence, by the very oaths of
both parties, being, we see, obliged to be confined to the law of Moses,
or to the Pentateuch alone. However, worldly policy and interest and the
multitude prevailing, the court gave sentence, as usual, on the stronger
side, and poor Sabbeus and Theodosius, the Samaritan disputants, were
martyred, and this, so far as appears, without any direct hearing at
all, which is like the usual practice of such political courts about
matters of religion. Our copies say that the body of the Jews were in a
great concern about those men [in the plural] who were to dispute for
their temple at Jerusalem, whereas it seems here they had but one
disputant, Andronicus by name. Perhaps more were prepared to speak on
the Jews' side; but the firstraying answered to his name, and overcome
the Samaritans, there was necessity for any other defender of the
Jerusalem temple.]
7 (return) [ Of the several Apollonius about these ages, see Dean
Prideaux at the year 148. This Apollonius Daus was, by his account, the
son of that Apollonius who had been made governor of Celesyria and
Phoenicia by Seleueus Philopater, and was himself a confidant of his son
Demetrius the father, and restored to his father's government by him,
but afterwards revolted from him to Alexander; but not to Demetrius the
son, as he supposes.]
8 (return) [ Dr. Hudson here observes, that the Phoenicians and Romans
used to reward such as had deserved well of them, by presenting to them
a golden button. See ch. 5. sect. 4.]
9 (return) [ This name, Demetrius Nicator, or Demetrius the conqueror,
is so written on his coins still extant, as Hudson and Spanheim inform
us; the latter of whom gives us here the entire inscription, "King
Demetrius the God, Philadelphus, Nicator."]
10 (return) [ This clause is otherwise rendered in the First Book of
Maccabees, 12:9, "For that we have the holy books of Scripture in our
hands to comfort us." The Hebrew original being lost, we cannot
certainly judge which was the truest version only the coherence favors
Josephus. But if this were the Jews' meaning, that they were satisfied
out of their Bible that the Jews and Lacedemonians were of kin, that
part of their Bible is now lost, for we find no such assertion in our
present copies.]
11 (return) [ Those that suppose Josephus to contradict himself in his
three several accounts of the notions of the Pharisees, this here, and
that earlier one, which is the largest, Of the War B. II. ch. 8. sect.
14, and that later, Antiq. B. XVIII. ch. 1. sect. 3, as if he sometimes
said they introduced an absolute fatality, and denied all freedom of
human actions, is almost wholly groundless if he ever, as the very
learned Casaubon here truly observes, asserting, that the Pharisees were
between the Essens and Sadducees, and did so far ascribe all to fate or
Divine Providence as was consistent with the freedom of human actions.
However, their perplexed way of talking about fate, or Providence, as
overruling all things, made it commonly thought they were willing to
excuse their sins by ascribing them to fate, as in the Apostolical
Constitutions, B. VI. ch. 6. Perhaps under the same general name some
difference of opinions in this point might be propagated, as is very
common in all parties, especially in points of metaphysical subtilty.
However, our Josephus, who in his heart was a great admirer of the piety
of the Essens, was yet in practice a Pharisee, as he himself informs us,
in his own Life, sect. 2. And his account of this doctrine of the
Pharisees is for certain agreeable to his own opinion, who ever both
fully allowed the freedom of human actions, and yet strongly believed
the powerful interposition of Divine Providence. See concerning this
matter a remarkable clause, Antiq. B. XVI. ch. 11. sect. 7.]
12 (return) [ This king, who was of the famous race of Arsaces, is
bethused to call them; but by the elder author of the First Maccahere,
and 1 Macc. 14:2, called by the family name Arsaces; was, the king of
the Persians and Medes, according to the land but Appion says his proper
name was Phraates. He is language of the Eastern nations. See Authent.
Rec. Part II. also called by Josephus the king of the Parthians, as the
Greeks p. 1108.]
13 (return) [ There is some error in the copies here, when no more than
four years are ascribed to the high priesthood of Jonathan. We know by
Josephus's last Jewish chronology, Antiq. B. XX. ch. 10., that there was
an interval of seven years between the death of Alcimus, or Jacimus, the
last high priest, and the real high priesthood of Jonathan, to whom yet
those seven years seem here to be ascribed, as a part of them were to
Judas before, Antiq. B. XII. ch. 10. sect. 6. Now since, besides these
seven years interregnum in the pontificate, we are told, Antiq. B. XX.
ch. 10., that Jonathan's real high priesthood lasted seven years more,
these two seven years will make up fourteen years, which I suppose was
Josephus's own number in this place, instead of the four in our present
copies.]
14 (return) [ These one hundred and seventy years of the Assyrians mean
no more, as Josephus explains himself here, than from the sara of
Seleucus, which as it is known to have began on the 312th year before
the Christian sara, from its spring in the First Book of Maccabees, and
from its autumn in the Second Book of Maccabees, so did it not begin at
Babylon till the next spring, on the 311th year. See Prid. at the year
312. And it is truly observed by Dr. Hudson on this place, that the
Syrians and Assyrians are sometimes confounded in ancient authors,
according to the words of Justin, the epitomiser of Trogus-pompeius, who
says that "the Assyrians were afterward called Syrian." B. I. ch. 11.
See Of the War, B. V. ch. 9. sect. 4, where the Philistines themselves,
at the very south limit of Syria, in its utmost extent, are called
Assyrians by Josephus as Spanheim observes.]
15 (return) [ It must here be diligently noted, that Josephus's copy of
the First Book of Maccabees, which he had so carefully followed, and
faithfully abridged, as far as the fiftieth verse of the thirteenth
chapter, seems there to have ended. What few things there are afterward
common to both, might probably be learned by him from some other more
imperfect records. However, we must exactly observe here, what the
remaining part of that book of the Maccabees informs us of, and what
Josephus would never have omitted, had his copy contained so much, that
this Simon the Great, the Maccabee, made a league with Antiochus Soter,
the son of Demetrius Soter, and brother of the other Demetrius, who was
now a captive in Parthia: that upon his coming to the crown, about the
140th year before the Christian sets, he granted great privileges to the
Jewish nation, and to Simon their high priest and ethnarch; which
privileges Simon seems to have taken of his own accord about three years
before. In particular, he gave him leave to coin money for his country
with his own stamp; and as concerning Jerusalem and the sanctuary, that
they should be free, or, as the vulgar Latin hath it, "holy and free," 1
Macc. 15:6, 7, which I take to be the truer reading, as being the very
words of his father's concession offered to Jonathan several years
before, ch. 10:31; and Antiq. B, XIII. ch. 2. sect. 3. Now what makes
this date and these grants greatly remarkable, is the state of the
remaining genuine shekels of the Jews with Samaritan characters, which
seem to have been [most of them at least] coined in the first four years
of this Simon the Asamonean, and having upon them these words on one
side, "Jerusalem the Holy;" and on the reverse, "In the Year of
Freedom," 1, or 2, or 3, or 4; which shekels therefore are original
monuments of these times, and undeniable marks of the truth of the
history in these chapters, though it be in great measure omitted by
Josephus. See Essay on the Old Test. p. 157, 158. The reason why I
rather suppose that his copy of the Maccabees wanted these chapters,
than that his own copies are here imperfect, is this, that all their
contents are not here omitted, though much the greatest part be.]
16 (return) [ How Trypho killed this Antiochus the epitome of Livy
informs us, ch. 53, viz. that he corrupted his physicians or surgeons,
who falsely pretending to the people that he was perishing with the
stone, as they cut him for it, killed him, which exactly agrees with
Josephus.]
17 (return) [ That this Antiochus, the son of Alexander Balas, was
called "The God," is evident from his coins, which Spanheim assures us
bear this inscription, "King Antiochus the God, Epiphanes the
Victorious."]
18 (return) [ Here Josephus begins to follow and to abridge the next
sacred Hebrew book, styled in the end of the First Book of Maccabees,
"The Chronicle of John [Hyrcanus's] high priesthood;" but in some of the
Greek copies," The Fourth Book of Maccabees." A Greek version of this
chronicle was extant not very long ago in the days of Sautes Pagninus,
and Sixtus Senensis, at Lyons, though it seems to have been there burnt,
and to be utterly lost. See Sixtus Senensis's account of it, of its many
Hebraisms, and its great agreement with Josephus's abridgement, in the
Authent. Rec. Part I. p. 206, 207, 208.]
19 (return) [ Hence we learn, that in the days of this excellent high
priest, John Hyrcanus, the observation of the Sabbatic year, as Josephus
supposed, required a rest from war, as did that of the weekly sabbath
from work; I mean this, unless in the case of necessity, when the Jews
were attacked by their enemies, in which case indeed, and in which
alone, they then allowed defensive fighting to be lawful, even on the
sabbath day, as we see in several places of Josephus, Antlq. B. XII. ch.
6. sect. 2; B. XIII. ch. 1. sect. 2; Of the War, B. I. ch. 7. sect. 3.
But then it must be noted, that this rest from war no way appears in the
First Book of Maccabees, ch. 16., but the direct contrary; though indeed
the Jews, in the days of Antiochus Epiphanes, did not venture upon
fighting on the Sabbath day, even in the defense of their own lives,
till the Asamoneans or Maccabees decreed so to do, 1 Macc. 2:32-41;
Antiq. B. XII. ch. 6. sect. 2.]
20 (return) [ Josephus's copies, both Greek and Latin, have here a gross
mistake, when they say that this first year of John Hyrcanus, which we
have just now seen to have been a Sabbatic year, was in the 162nd
olympiad, whereas it was for certain the second year of the 161st. See
the like before, B. XII. ch. 7. sect. 6.]
21 (return) [ This heliacal setting of the Pleiades, or seven stars,
was, in the days of Hyrcanus and Josephus, early in the spring, about
February, the time of the latter rain in Judea; and this, so far as I
remember, is the only astronomical character of time, besides one
eclipse of the moon in the reign of Herod, that we meet with in all
Josephus; the Jews being little accustomed to astronomical observations,
any further than for the uses of their calendar, and utterly forbidden
those astrological uses which the heathens commonly made of them.]
22 (return) [ Dr. Hudson tells us here, that this custom of gilding the
horns of those oxen that were to be sacrificed is a known thing both in
the poets and orators.]
23 (return) [ This account in Josephus, that the present Antiochus was
persuaded, though in vain, not to make peace with the Jews, but to cut
them off utterly, is fully confirmed by Diodorus Siculus, in Photiua's
extracts out of his 34th Book.]
24 (return) [ The Jews were not to march or journey on the sabbath, or
on such a great festival as was equivalent to the sabbath, any farther
than a sabbath day's journey, or two thousand cubits, see the note on
Antiq. B. XX. ch. 8. sect. 6.]
25 (return) [ This account of the Idumeans admitting circumcision, and
the entire Jewish law, from this time, or from the days of Hyrcanus, is
confirmed by their entire history afterward. See Antiq. B. XIV. ch. 8.
sect. 1; B. XV. ch. 7. sect. 9. Of the War, B. II. ch. 3. sect. 1; B.
IV. ch. 4. sect. 5. This, in the opinion of Josephus, made them
proselytes of justice, or entire Jews, as here and elsewhere, Antiq. B.
XIV. ch. 8. sect. 1. However, Antigonus, the enemy of Herod, though
Herod were derived from such a proselyte of justice for several
generations, will allow him to be no more than a half Jew, B. XV. ch.
15. sect. 2. But still, take out of Dean Prideaux, at the year 129, the
words of Ammouius, a grammarian, which fully confirm this account of the
Idumeans in Josephus: "The Jews," says he, are such by nature, and from
the beginning, whilst the Idumeans were not Jews from the beginning, but
Phoenicians and Syrians; but being afterward subdued by the Jews, and
compelled to be circumcised, and to unite into one nation, and be
subject to the same laws, they were called Jews." Dio also says, as the
Dean there quotes him, from Book XXXVI. p. 37, "That country is called
Judea, and the people Jews; and this name is given also to as many
others as embrace their religion, though of other nations." But then
upon what foundation so good a governor as Hyrcanus took upon him to
compel those Idumeans either to become Jews, or to leave the country,
deserves great consideration. I suppose it was because they had long ago
been driven out of the land of Edom, and had seized on and possessed the
tribe of Simeon, and all the southern parts of the tribe of Judah, which
was the peculiar inheritance of the worshippers of the true God without
idolatry, as the reader may learn from Reland, Palestine, Part I. p.
154, 305; and from Prideaux, at the years 140 and 165.]
26 (return) [ In this decree of the Roman senate, it seems that these
ambassadors were sent from the "people of the Jews," as well as from
their prince or high priest, John Hyrcanus.]
27 (return) [ Dean Prideaux takes notice at the year 130, that Justin,
in agreement with Josephus, says, "The power of the Jews was now grown
so great, that after this Antiochus they would not bear any Macedonian
king over them; and that they set up a government of their own, and
infested Syria with great wars."]
28 (return) [ The original of the Sadducees, as a considerable party
among the Jews, being contained in this and the two following sections,
take Dean Prideaux's note upon this their first public appearance, which
I suppose to be true: "Hyrcanus," says be, "went over to the party of
the Sadducees; that is, by embracing their doctrine against the
traditions of the eiders, added to the written law, and made of equal
authority with it, but not their doctrine against the resurrection and a
future state; for this cannot be supposed of so good and righteous a man
as John Hyrcanus is said to be. It is most probable, that at this time
the Sadducees had gone no further in the doctrines of that sect than to
deny all their unwritten traditions, which the Pharisees were so fond
of; for Josephus mentions no other difference at this time between them;
neither doth he say that Hyrcanna went over to the Sadducees in any
other particular than in the abolishing of all the traditionary
constitutions of the Pharisees, which our Savior condemned as well as
they." [At the year.]]
29 (return) [ This slander, that arose from a Pharisee, has been
preserved by their successors the Rabbins to these later ages; for Dr.
Hudson assures us that David Gantz, in his Chronology, S. Pr. p. 77, in
Vorstius's version, relates that Hyrcanus's mother was taken captive in
Mount Modinth. See ch. 13. sect. 5.]
30 (return) [ Here ends the high priesthood, and the life of this
excellent person John Hyrcanus, and together with him the holy
theocracy, or Divine government of the Jewish nation, and its
concomitant oracle by Urim. Now follows the profane and tyrannical
Jewish monarchy, first of the Asamoneans or Maccabees, and then of Herod
the Great, the Idumean, till the coming of the Messiah. See the note on
Antiq. B. III. ch. 8. sect. 9. Hear Strabo's testimony on this occasion,
B. XVI. p. 761, 762: "Those," says he, "that succeeded Moses continued
for some time in earnest, both in righteous actions and in piety; but
after a while there were others that took upon them the high priesthood,
at first superstitious and afterward tyrannical persons. Such a prophet
was Moses and those that succeeded him, beginning in a way not to be
blamed, but changing for the worse. And when it openly appeared that the
government was become tyrannical, Alexander was the first that set up
himself for a king instead of a priest; and his sons were Hyrcanus and
Aristobulus." All in agreement with Josephus, excepting this, that
Strabo omits the first king, Aristobulus, who reigning but a single
year, seems hardly to have come to his knowledge. Nor indeed does
Aristobulus, the son of Alexander, pretend that the name of king was
taken before his father Alexander took it himself, Antiq. B. XIV. ch. 3.
sect. 2. See also ch. 12. sect. l, which favor Strabo also. And indeed,
if we may judge from the very different characters of the Egyptian Jews
under high priests, and of the Palestine Jews under kings, in the two
next centuries, we may well suppose that the Divine Shechinah was
removed into Egypt, and that the worshippers at the temple of Onias were
better men than those at the temple of Jerusalem.]
31 (return) [ Hence we learn that the Essens pretended to have ruled
whereby men might foretell things to come, and that this Judas the Essen
taught those rules to his scholars; but whether their pretense were of
an astrological or magical nature, which yet in such religious Jews, who
were utterly forbidden such arts, is no way probable, or to any Bath
Col, spoken of by the later Rabbins, or otherwise, I cannot tell. See Of
the War, B. II. ch. 8. sect. 12.]
32 (return) [ The reason why Hyrcanus suffered not this son of his whom
he did not love to come into Judea, but ordered him to be brought up in
Galilee, is suggested by Dr. Hudson, that Galilee was not esteemed so
happy and well cultivated a country as Judea, Matthew 26:73; John 7:52;
Acts 2:7, although another obvious reason occurs also, that he was out
of his sight in Galilee than he would have been in Judea.]
33 (return) [ From these, and other occasional expressions, dropped by
Josephus, we may learn, that where the sacred hooks of the Jews were
deficient, he had several other histories then extant, [but now most of
them lost,] which he faithfully followed in his own history; nor indeed
have we any other records of those times, relating to Judea, that can be
compared to these accounts of Josephus, though when we do meet with
authentic fragments of such original records, they almost always confirm
his history.]
34 (return) [ This city, or island, Cos, is not that remote island in
the Aegean Sea, famous for the birth of the great Hippocrates, but a
city or island of the same name adjoining to Egypt, mentioned both by
Stephanus and Ptolemy, as Dr. Mizon informs us. Of which Cos, and the
treasures there laid up by Cleopatra and the Jews, see Antiq. B. XIV.
ch. 7, sect. 2.]
35 (return) [ This account of the death of Antiochus Grypus is confirmed
by Appion, Syriac. p. 132, here cited by Spanheim.]
36 (return) [ Porphyry says that this Antiochus Grypus reigned but
twenty-six years, as Dr. Hudson observes. The copies of Josephus, both
Greek and Latin, have here so grossly false a reading, Antiochus and
Antoninus, or Antonius Plus, for Antiochus Pius, that the editors are
forced to correct the text from the other historians, who all agree that
this king's name was nothing more than Antiochus Plus.]
37 (return) [ These two brothers, Antiochus and Philippus are called
twins by Porphyry; the fourth brother was king of Damascus: both which
are the observations of Spanheim.]
38 (return) [ This Laodicea was a city of Gilead beyond Jordan. However,
Porphyry says that this Antiochus Pius did not die in this battle; but,
running away, was drowned in the river Orontes. Appian says that he, was
deprived of the kingdom of Syria by Tigranes; but Porphyry makes this
Laodice queen of the Calamans;-all which is noted by Spanheim. In such
confusion of the later historians, we have no reason to prefer any of
them before Josephus, who had more original ones before him. This
reproach upon Alexander, that he was sprung from a captive, seems only
the repetition of the old Pharisaical calumny upon his father, ch. 10.
sect. 5.]
39 (return) [ This Theodorus was the son of Zeno, and was in possession
of Areathus, as we learn from sect. 3 foregoing.]
40 (return) [ This name Thracida, which the Jews gave Alexander, must,
by the coherence, denote as barbarous as a Thracian, or somewhat like
it; but what it properly signifies is not known.]
41 (return) [ Spanheim takes notice that this Antiochus Dionysus [the
brother of Philip, and of Demetrius Eucerus, and of two others] was the
fifth son of Antiochus Grypus; and that he is styled on the coins,
"Antiochus, Epiphanes, Dionysus."]
42 (return) [ This Aretas was the first king of the Arabians who took
Damascus, and reigned there; which name became afterwards common to such
Arabian kings, both at Petra and at Damascus, as we learn from Josephus
in many places; and from St. Paul, 2 Corinthians 11:32. See the note on
Antiq. B. XVI. ch. 9. sect. 4.]
43 (return) [ We may here and elsewhere take notice, that whatever
countries or cities the Asamoneans conquered from any of the neighboring
nations, or whatever countries or cities they gained from them that had
not belonged to them before, they, after the days of Hyrcanus, compelled
the inhabitants to leave their idolatry, and entirely to receive the law
of Moses, as proselytes of justice, or else banished them into other
lands. That excellent prince, John Hyrcanus, did it to the Idumeans, as
I have noted on ch. 9. sect. 1, already, who lived then in the Promised
Land, and this I suppose justly; but by what right the rest did it, even
to the countries or cities that were no part of that land, I do not at
all know. This looks too like unjust persecution for religion.]
44 (return) [ It seems, by this dying advice of Alexander Janneus to his
wife, that he had himself pursued the measures of his father Hyrcanus
and taken part with the Sadducees, who kept close to the written law,
against the Pharisees, who had introduced their own traditions, ch. 16.
sect. 2; and that he now saw a political necessity of submitting to the
Pharisees and their traditions hereafter, if his widow and family minded
to retain their monarchical government or tyranny over the Jewish
nation; which sect yet, thus supported, were at last in a great measure
the ruin of the religion, government, and nation of the Jews, and
brought them into so wicked a state, that the vengeance of God came upon
them to their utter excision. Just thus did Caiaphas politically advise
the Jewish sanhedrim, John 11:50, "That it was expedient for them that
one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish
not;" and this in consequence of their own political supposal, ver. 48,
that, "If they let Jesus alone," with his miracles, "all men would
believe on him, and the Romans would come and take away both their place
and nation." Which political crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth brought
down the vengeance of God upon them, and occasioned those very Romans,
of whom they seemed so much afraid, that to prevent it they put him to
death, actually to "come and take away both their place and nation"
within thirty-eight years afterwards. I heartily wish the politicians of
Christendom would consider these and the like examples, and no longer
sacrifice all virtue and religion to their pernicious schemes of
government, to the bringing down the judgments of God upon themselves,
and the several nations intrusted to their care. But this is a
digression. I wish it were an unseasonable one also. Josephus himself
several times makes such digressions, and I here venture to follow him.
See one of them at the conclusion of the very next chapter.]
45 (return) [ The number of five hundred thousand or even three hundred
thousand, as one Greek copy, with the Latin copies, have it, for
Tigranes's army, that came out of Armenia into Syria and Judea, seems
much too large. We have had already several such extravagant numbers in
Josephus's present copies, which are not to be at all ascribed to him.
Accordingly, I incline to Dr. Hudson's emendation here, which supposes
them but forty thousand.]
46 (return) [ This fortress, castle, citadel, or tower, whither the wife
and children of Aristobulus were new sent, and which overlooked the
temple, could be no other than what Hyrcanus I. built, [Antiq. B. XVIII
ch. 4. sect. 3,] and Herod the Great rebuilt, and called the "Tower of
Antonia," Aatiq. B. XV. ch. 11. sect. 5.]
BOOK XIV. Containing The Interval Of Thirty-Two Years.—From The Death Of
Queen Alexandra To The Death Of Antigonus.
CHAPTER 1. The War Between Aristobulus And Hyrcanus About The Kingdom;
And How They Made Anagreement That Aristobulus Should Be King, And
Hyrcanus Live A Private Life; As Also How Hyrcanus A Little Afterward
Was Persuaded By Antipater To Fly To Aretas.
1. We have related the affairs of queen Alexandra, and her death, in the
foregoing book and will now speak of what followed, and was connected
with those histories; declaring, before we proceed, that we have nothing
so much at heart as this, that we may omit no facts, either through
ignorance or laziness; 1 for we are upon the history and explication of
such things as the greatest part are unacquainted withal, because of
their distance from our times; and we aim to do it with a proper beauty
of style, so far as that is derived from proper words harmonically
disposed, and from such ornaments of speech also as may contribute to
the pleasure of our readers, that they may entertain the knowledge of
what we write with some agreeable satisfaction and pleasure. But the
principal scope that authors ought to aim at above all the rest, is to
speak accurately, and to speak truly, for the satisfaction of those that
are otherwise unacquainted with such transactions, and obliged to
believe what these writers inform them of.
2. Hyrcanus then began his high priesthood on the third year of the
hundred and seventy-seventh olympiad, when Quintus Hortensius and
Quintus Metellus, who was called Metellus of Crete, were consuls at
Rome; when presently Aristobulus began to make war against him; and as
it came to a battle with Hyrcanus at Jericho, many of his soldiers
deserted him, and went over to his brother; upon which Hyrcanus fled
into the citadel, where Aristobulus's wife and children were imprisoned
by their mother, as we have said already, and attacked and overcame
those his adversaries that had fled thither, and lay within the walls of
the temple. So when he had sent a message to his brother about agreeing
the matters between them, he laid aside his enmity to him on these
conditions, that Aristobulus should be king, that he should live without
intermeddling with public affairs, and quietly enjoy the estate he had
acquired. When they had agreed upon these terms in the temple, and had
confirmed the agreement with oaths, and the giving one another their
right hands, and embracing one another in the sight of the whole
multitude, they departed; the one, Aristobulus, to the palace; and
Hyrcanus, as a private man, to the former house of Aristobulus.
3. But there was a certain friend of Hyrcanus, an Idumean, called
Antipater, who was very rich, and in his nature an active and a
seditious man; who was at enmity with Aristobulus, and had differences
with him on account of his good-will to Hyrcanus. It is true that
Nicolaus of Damascus says, that Antipater was of the stock of the
principal Jews who came out of Babylon into Judea; but that assertion of
his was to gratify Herod, who was his son, and who, by certain
revolutions of fortune, came afterward to be king of the Jews, whose
history we shall give you in its proper place hereafter. However, this
Antipater was at first called Antipas, 2 and that was his father's name
also; of whom they relate this: That king Alexander and his wife made
him general of all Idumea, and that he made a league of friendship with
those Arabians, and Gazites, and Ascalonites, that were of his own
party, and had, by many and large presents, made them his fast friends.
But now this younger Antipater was suspicious of the power of
Aristobulus, and was afraid of some mischief he might do him, because of
his hatred to him; so he stirred up the most powerful of the Jews, and
talked against him to them privately; and said that it was unjust to
overlook the conduct of Aristobulus, who had gotten the government
unrighteously, and ejected his brother out of it, who was the elder, and
ought to retain what belonged to him by prerogative of his birth. And
the same speeches he perpetually made to Hyrcanus; and told him that his
own life would be in danger, unless he guarded himself, and got shut of
Aristobulus; for he said that the friends of Aristobulus omitted no
opportunity of advising him to kill him, as being then, and not before,
sure to retain his principality. Hyrcanus gave no credit to these words
of his, as being of a gentle disposition, and one that did not easily
admit of calumnies against other men. This temper of his not disposing
him to meddle with public affairs, and want of spirit, occasioned him to
appear to spectators to be degenerous and unmanly; while. Aristobulus
was of a contrary temper, an active man, and one of a great and generous
soul.
4. Since therefore Antipater saw that Hyrcanus did not attend to what he
said, he never ceased, day by day, to charge reigned crimes upon
Aristobulus, and to calumniate him before him, as if he had a mind to
kill him; and so, by urging him perpetually, he advised him, and
persuaded him to fly to Aretas, the king of Arabia; and promised, that
if he would comply with his advice, he would also himself assist him and
go with him. When Hyrcanus heard this, he said that it was for his
advantage to fly away to Aretas. Now Arabia is a country that borders
upon Judea. However, Hyrcanus sent Antipater first to the king of
Arabia, in order to receive assurances from him, that when he should
come in the manner of a supplicant to him, he would not deliver him up
to his enemies. So Antipater having received such assurances, returned
to Hyrcanus to Jerusalem. A while afterward he took Hyrcanus, and stole
out of the city by night, and went a great journey, and came and brought
him to the city called Petra, where the palace of Aretas was; and as he
was a very familiar friend of that king, he persuaded him to bring back
Hyrcanus into Judea, and this persuasion he continued every day without
any intermission. He also proposed to make him presents on that account.
At length he prevailed with Aretas in his suit. Moreover, Hyrcanus
promised him, that when he had been brought thither, and had received
his kingdom, he would restore that country, and those twelve cities
which his father Alexander had taken from the Arabians, which were
these, Medaba, Naballo, Libias, Tharabasa, Agala, Athone, Zoar, Orone,
Marissa, Rudda, Lussa, and Oruba.
CHAPTER 2. How Aretas And Hyrcanus Made An Expedition Against
Aristobulus And Besieged Jerusalem; And How Scaurus The Roman General
Raised The Siege. Concerning The Death Of Onias.
1. After these promises had been given to Aretas, he made an expedition
against Aristobulus with an army of fifty thousand horse and foot, and
beat him in the battle. And when after that victory many went over to
Hyrcanus as deserters, Aristobulus was left desolate, and fled to
Jerusalem; upon which the king of Arabia took all his army, and made an
assault upon the temple, and besieged Aristobulus therein, the people
still supporting Hyrcanus, and assisting him in the siege, while none
but the priests continued with Aristobulus. So Aretas united the forces
of the Arabians and of the Jews together, and pressed on the siege
vigorously. As this happened at the time when the feast of unleavened
bread was celebrated, which we call the passover, the principal men
among the Jews left the country, and fled into Egypt. Now there was one,
whose name was Onias, a righteous man he was, and beloved of God, who,
in a certain drought, had prayed to God to put an end to the intense
heat, and whose prayers God had heard, and had sent them rain. This man
had hid himself, because he saw that this sedition would last a great
while. However, they brought him to the Jewish camp, and desired, that
as by his prayers he had once put an end to the drought, so he would in
like manner make imprecations on Aristobulus and those of his faction.
And when, upon his refusal, and the excuses that he made, he was still
by the multitude compelled to speak, he stood up in the midst of them,
and said, "O God, the King of the whole world! since those that stand
now with me are thy people, and those that are besieged are also thy
priests, I beseech thee, that thou wilt neither hearken to the prayers
of those against these, nor bring to effect what these pray against
those." Whereupon such wicked Jews as stood about him, as soon as he had
made this prayer, stoned him to death.
2. But God punished them immediately for this their barbarity, and took
vengeance of them for the murder of Onias, in the manner following:
While the priests and Aristobulus were besieged, it happened that the
feast called the passover was come, at which it is our custom to offer a
great number of sacrifices to God; but those that were with Aristobulus
wanted sacrifices, and desired that their countrymen without would
furnish them with such sacrifices, and assured them they should have as
much money for them as they should desire; and when they required them
to pay a thousand drachmae for each head of cattle, Aristobulus and the
priests willingly undertook to pay for them accordingly, and those
within let down the money over the walls, and gave it them. But when the
others had received it, they did not deliver the sacrifices, but arrived
at that height of wickedness as to break the assurances they had given,
and to be guilty of impiety towards God, by not furnishing those that
wanted them with sacrifices. And when the priests found they had been
cheated, and that the agreements they had made were violated, they
prayed to God that he would avenge them on their countrymen. Nor did he
delay that their punishment, but sent a strong and vehement storm of
wind, that destroyed the fruits of the whole country, till a modius of
wheat was then bought for eleven drachmae.
3. In the mean time Pompey sent Scaurus into Syria, while he was himself
in Armenia, and making war with Tigranes; but when Scaurus was come to
Damascus, and found that Lollins and Metellus had newly taken the city,
he came himself hastily into Judea. And when he was come thither,
ambassadors came to him, both from Aristobulus and Hyrcanus, and both
desired he would assist them. And when both of them promised to give him
money, Aristobulus four hundred talents, and Hyrcanus no less, he
accepted of Aristobulus's promise, for he was rich, and had a great
soul, and desired to obtain nothing but what was moderate; whereas the
other was poor, and tenacious, and made incredible promises in hopes of
greater advantages; for it was not the same thing to take a city that
was exceeding strong and powerful, as it was to eject out of the country
some fugitives, with a greater number of Mabateans, who were no very
warlike people. He therefore made an agreement with Aristobulus, for the
reasons before mentioned, and took his money, and raised the siege, and
ordered Aretas to depart, or else he should be declared an enemy to the
Romans. So Scaurus returned to Damascus again; and Aristobulus, with a
great army, made war with Aretas and Hyrcanus, and fought them at a
place called Papyron, and beat them in the battle, and slew about six
thousand of the enemy, with whom fell Phalion also, the brother of
Antipater.
CHAPTER 3. How Aristobulus And Hyrcanus Came To Pompey In Order To Argue
Who Ought To Have The Kingdom; And How Upon The Plight Of Aristobulus To
The Fortress Alexandrium Pompey Led His Army Against Him And Ordered Him
To Deliver Up The Fortresses Whereof He Was Possessed.
1. A Little afterward Pompey came to Damascus, and marched over
Celesyria; at which time there came ambassadors to him from all Syria,
and Egypt, and out of Judea also, for Aristobulus had sent him a great
present, which was a golden vine 3 of the value of five hundred talents.
Now Strabo of Cappadocia mentions this present in these words: "There
came also an embassage out of Egypt, and a crown of the value of four
thousand pieces of gold; and out of Judea there came another, whether
you call it a vine or a garden; they call the thing Terpole, the
Delight. However, we ourselves saw that present reposited at Rome, in
the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, with this inscription, 'The gift of
Alexander, the king of the Jews.' It was valued at five hundred talents;
and the report is, that Aristobulus, the governor of the Jews, sent it."
2. In a little time afterward came ambassadors again to him, Antipater
from Hyrcanus, and Nicodemus from Aristobulus; which last also accused
such as had taken bribes; first Gabinius, and then Scaurus,—the one
three hundred talents, and the other four hundred; by which procedure he
made these two his enemies, besides those he had before. And when Pompey
had ordered those that had controversies one with another to come to him
in the beginning of the spring, he brought his army out of their winter
quarters, and marched into the country of Damascus; and as he went along
he demolished the citadel that was at Apamia, which Antiochus Cyzicenus
had built, and took cognizance of the country of Ptolemy Menneus, a
wicked man, and not less so than Dionysius of Tripoli, who had been
beheaded, who was also his relation by marriage; yet did he buy off the
punishment of his crimes for a thousand talents, with which money Pompey
paid the soldiers their wages. He also conquered the place called
Lysias, of which Silas a Jew was tyrant. And when he had passed over the
cities of Heliopolis and Chalcis, and got over the mountain which is on
the limit of Celesyria, he came from Pella to Damascus; and there it was
that he heard the causes of the Jews, and of their governors Hyrcanus
and Aristobulus, who were at difference one with another, as also of the
nation against them both, which did not desire to be under kingly'
government, because the form of government they received from their
forefathers was that of subjection to the priests of that God whom they
worshipped; and [they complained], that though these two were the
posterity of priests, yet did they seek to change the government of
their nation to another form, in order to enslave them. Hyrcanus
complained, that although he were the elder brother, he was deprived of
the prerogative of his birth by Aristobulus, and that he had but a small
part of the country under him, Aristobulus having taken away the rest
from him by force. He also accused him, that the incursions which had
been made into their neighbors' countries, and the piracies that had
been at sea, were owing to him; and that the nation would not have
revolted, unless Aristobulus had been a man given to violence and
disorder; and there were no fewer than a thousand Jews, of the best
esteem among them, who confirmed this accusation; which confirmation was
procured by Antipater. But Aristobulus alleged against him, that it was
Hyrcanus's own temper, which was inactive, and on that account
contemptible, which caused him to be deprived of the government; and
that for himself, he was necessitated to take it upon him, for fear lest
it should be transferred to others. And that as to his title [of king],
it was no other than what his father had taken [before him]. He also
called for witnesses of what he said some persons who were both young
and insolent; whose purple garments, fine heads of hair, and other
ornaments, were detested [by the court], and which they appeared in, not
as though they were to plead their cause in a court of justice, but as
if they were marching in a pompous procession.
3. When Pompey had heard the causes of these two, and had condemned
Aristobulus for his violent procedure, he then spake civilly to them,
and sent them away; and told them, that when he came again into their
country, he would settle all their affairs, after he had first taken a
view of the affairs of the Nabateans. In the mean time, he ordered them
to be quiet; and treated Aristobulus civilly, lest he should make the
nation revolt, and hinder his return; which yet Aristobulus did; for
without expecting any further determination, which Pompey had promised
them, he went to the city Delius, and thence marched into Judea.
4. At this behavior Pompey was angry; and taking with him that army
which he was leading against the Nabateans, and the auxiliaries that
came from Damascus, and the other parts of Syria, with the other Roman
legions which he had with him, he made an expedition against
Aristobulus; but as he passed by Pella and Scythopolis, he came to
Corem, which is the first entrance into Judea when one passes over the
midland countries, where he came to a most beautiful fortress that was
built on the top of a mountain called Alexandrium, whither Aristobulus
had fled; and thence Pompey sent his commands to him, that he should
come to him. Accordingly, at the persuasions of many that he would not
make war with the Romans, he came down; and when he had disputed with
his brother about the right to the government, he went up again to the
citadel, as Pompey gave him leave to do; and this he did two or three
times, as flattering himself with the hopes of having the kingdom
granted him; so that he still pretended he would obey Pompey in
whatsoever he commanded, although at the same time he retired to his
fortress, that he might not depress himself too low, and that he might
be prepared for a war, in case it should prove as he feared, that Pompey
would transfer the government to Hyrcanus. But when Pompey enjoined
Aristobulus to deliver up the fortresses he held, and to send an
injunction to their governors under his own hand for that purpose, for
they had been forbidden to deliver them up upon any other commands, he
submitted indeed to do so; but still he retired in displeasure to
Jerusalem, and made preparation for war. A little after this, certain
persons came out of Pontus, and informed Pompey, as he was on the way,
and conducting his army against Aristobulus, that Mithridates was dead,
and was slain by his son Pharmaces.
CHAPTER 4. How Pompey When The Citizens Of Jerusalem Shut Their Gates
Against Him Besieged The City And Took It By Force; As Also What Other
Things He Did In Judea.
1. Now when Pompey had pitched his camp at Jericho, [where the palm tree
grows, and that balsam which is an ointment of all the most precious,
which upon any incision made in the wood with a sharp stone, distills
out thence like a juice,] 4 he marched in the morning to Jerusalem.
Hereupon Aristobulus repented of what he was doing, and came to Pompey,
had [promised to] give him money, and received him into Jerusalem, and
desired that he would leave off the war, and do what he pleased
peaceably. So Pompey, upon his entreaty, forgave him, and sent Gabinius,
and soldiers with him, to receive the money and the city: yet was no
part of this performed; but Gabinius came back, being both excluded out
of the city, and receiving none of the money promised, because
Aristobulus's soldiers would not permit the agreements to be executed.
At this Pompey was very angry, and put Aristobulus into prison, and came
himself to the city, which was strong on every side, excepting the
north, which was not so well fortified, for there was a broad and deep
ditch that encompassed the city 5 and included within it the temple,
which was itself encompassed about with a very strong stone wall.
2. Now there was a sedition of the men that were within the city, who
did not agree what was to be done in their present circumstances, while
some thought it best to deliver up the city to Pompey; but Aristobulus's
party exhorted them to shut the gates, because he was kept in prison.
Now these prevented the others, and seized upon the temple, and cut off
the bridge which reached from it to the city, and prepared themselves to
abide a siege; but the others admitted Pompey's army in, and delivered
up both the city and the king's palace to him. So Pompey sent his
lieutenant Piso with an army, and placed garrisons both in the city and
in the palace, to secure them, and fortified the houses that joined to
the temple, and all those which were more distant and without it. And in
the first place, he offered terms of accommodation to those within; but
when they would not comply with what was desired, he encompassed all the
places thereabout with a wall, wherein Hyrcanus did gladly assist him on
all occasions; but Pompey pitched his camp within [the wall], on the
north part of the temple, where it was most practicable; but even on
that side there were great towers, and a ditch had been dug, and a deep
valley begirt it round about, for on the parts towards the city were
precipices, and the bridge on which Pompey had gotten in was broken
down. However, a bank was raised, day by day, with a great deal of
labor, while the Romans cut down materials for it from the places round
about. And when this bank was sufficiently raised, and the ditch filled
up, though but poorly, by reason of its immense depth, he brought his
mechanical engines and battering-rams from Tyre, and placing them on the
bank, he battered the temple with the stones that were thrown against
it. And had it not been our practice, from the days of our forefathers,
to rest on the seventh day, this bank could never have been perfected,
by reason of the opposition the Jews would have made; for though our law
gives us leave then to defend ourselves against those that begin to
fight with us and assault us, yet does it not permit us to meddle with
our enemies while they do any thing else.
3. Which thing when the Romans understood, on those days which we call
Sabbaths they threw nothing at the Jews, nor came to any pitched battle
with them; but raised up their earthen banks, and brought their engines
into such forwardness, that they might do execution the next day. And
any one may hence learn how very great piety we exercise towards God,
and the observance of his laws, since the priests were not at all
hindered from their sacred ministrations by their fear during this
siege, but did still twice a-day, in the morning and about the ninth
hour, offer their sacrifices on the altar; nor did they omit those
sacrifices, if any melancholy accident happened by the stones that were
thrown among them; for although the city was taken on the third month,
on the day of the fast, 6 upon the hundred and seventy-ninth olympiad,
when Caius Antonius and Marcus Tullius Cicero were consuls, and the
enemy then fell upon them, and cut the throats of those that were in the
temple; yet could not those that offered the sacrifices be compelled to
run away, neither by the fear they were in of their own lives, nor by
the number that were already slain, as thinking it better to suffer
whatever came upon them, at their very altars, than to omit any thing
that their laws required of them. And that this is not a mere brag, or
an encomium to manifest a degree of our piety that was false, but is the
real truth, I appeal to those that have written of the acts of Pompey;
and, among them, to Strabo and Nicolaus [of Damascus]; and besides these
two, Titus Livius, the writer of the Roman History, who will bear
witness to this thing. 7
4. But when the battering-engine was brought near, the greatest of the
towers was shaken by it, and fell down, and broke down a part of the
fortifications, so the enemy poured in apace; and Cornelius Faustus, the
son of Sylla, with his soldiers, first of all ascended the wall, and
next to him Furius the centurion, with those that followed on the other
part, while Fabius, who was also a centurion, ascended it in the middle,
with a great body of men after him. But now all was full of slaughter;
some of the Jews being slain by the Romans, and some by one another;
nay, some there were who threw themselves down the precipices, or put
fire to their houses, and burnt them, as not able to bear the miseries
they were under. Of the Jews there fell twelve thousand, but of the
Romans very few. Absalom, who was at once both uncle and father-in-law
to Aristobulus, was taken captive; and no small enormities were
committed about the temple itself, which, in former ages, had been
inaccessible, and seen by none; for Pompey went into it, and not a few
of those that were with him also, and saw all that which it was unlawful
for any other men to see but only for the high priests. There were in
that temple the golden table, the holy candlestick, and the pouring
vessels, and a great quantity of spices; and besides these there were
among the treasures two thousand talents of sacred money: yet did Pompey
touch nothing of all this, 8 on account of his regard to religion; and
in this point also he acted in a manner that was worthy of his virtue.
The next day he gave order to those that had the charge of the temple to
cleanse it, and to bring what offerings the law required to God; and
restored the high priesthood to Hyrcanus, both because he had been
useful to him in other respects, and because he hindered the Jews in the
country from giving Aristobulus any assistance in his war against him.
He also cut off those that had been the authors of that war; and
bestowed proper rewards on Faustus, and those others that mounted the
wall with such alacrity; and he made Jerusalem tributary to the Romans,
and took away those cities of Celesyria which the inhabitants of Judea
had subdued, and put them under the government of the Roman president,
and confined the whole nation, which had elevated itself so high before,
within its own bounds. Moreover, he rebuilt Gadara, 9 which had been
demolished a little before, to gratify Demetrius of Gadara, who was his
freedman, and restored the rest of the cities, Hippos, and Scythopolis,
and Pella, and Dios, and Samaria, as also Marissa, and Ashdod, and
Jamnia, and Arethusa, to their own inhabitants: these were in the inland
parts. Besides those that had been demolished, and also of the maritime
cities, Gaza, and Joppa, and Dora, and Strato's Tower; which last Herod
rebuilt after a glorious manner, and adorned with havens and temples,
and changed its name to Cæsarea. All these Pompey left in a state of
freedom, and joined them to the province of Syria.
5. Now the occasions of this misery which came upon Jerusalem were
Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, by raising a sedition one against the other;
for now we lost our liberty, and became subject to the Romans, and were
deprived of that country which we had gained by our arms from the
Syrians, and were compelled to restore it to the Syrians. Moreover, the
Romans exacted of us, in a little time, above ten thousand talents; and
the royal authority, which was a dignity formerly bestowed on those that
were high priests, by the right of their family, became the property of
private men. But of these matters we shall treat in their proper places.
Now Pompey committed Celesyria, as far as the river Euphrates and Egypt,
to Scaurus, with two Roman legions, and then went away to Cilicia, and
made haste to Rome. He also carried bound along with him Aristobulus and
his children; for he had two daughters, and as many sons; the one of
which ran away, but the younger, Antigonus, was carried to Rome,
together with his sisters.
CHAPTER 5. How Scaurus Made A League Of Mutual Assistance With Aretas;
And What Gabinius Did In Judea, After He Had Conquered Alexander, The
Son Of Aristobulus.
1. Scaurus made now an expedition against Petrea, in Arabia, and set on
fire all the places round about it, because of the great difficulty of
access to it. And as his army was pinched by famine, Antipater furnished
him with corn out of Judea, and with whatever else he wanted, and this
at the command of Hyrcanus. And when he was sent to Aretas, as an
ambassador by Scaurus, because he had lived with him formerly, he
persuaded Aretas to give Scaurus a sum of money, to prevent the burning
of his country, and undertook to be his surety for three hundred
talents. So Scaurus, upon these terms, ceased to make war any longer;
which was done as much at Scaurus's desire, as at the desire of Aretas.
2. Some time after this, when Alexander, the son of Aristobulus, made an
incursion into Judea, Gabinius came from Rome into Syria, as commander
of the Roman forces. He did many considerable actions; and particularly
made war with Alexander, since Hyrcanus was not yet able to oppose his
power, but was already attempting to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem,
which Pompey had overthrown, although the Romans which were there
restrained him from that his design. However, Alexander went over all
the country round about, and armed many of the Jews, and suddenly got
together ten thousand armed footmen, and fifteen hundred horsemen, and
fortified Alexandrium, a fortress near to Corem, and Macherus, near the
mountains of Arabia. Gabinius therefore came upon him, having sent
Marcus Antonius, with other commanders, before. These armed such Romans
as followed them; and, together with them, such Jews as were subject to
them, whose leaders were Pitholaus and Malichus; and they took with them
also their friends that were with Antipater, and met Alexander, while
Gabinius himself followed with his legion. Hereupon Alexander retired to
the neighborhood of Jerusalem, where they fell upon one another, and it
came to a pitched battle, in which the Romans slew of their enemies
about three thousand, and took a like number alive.
3. At which time Gabinius 10 came to Alexandrium, and invited those that
were in it to deliver it up on certain conditions, and promised that
then their former offenses should be forgiven. But as a great number of
the enemy had pitched their camp before the fortress, whom the Romans
attacked, Marcus Antonius fought bravely, and slew a great number, and
seemed to come off with the greatest honor. So Gabinius left part of his
army there, in order to take the place, and he himself went into other
parts of Judea, and gave order to rebuild all the cities that he met
with that had been demolished; at which time were rebuilt Samaria,
Ashdod, Scythopolis, Anthedon, Raphia, and Dora; Marissa also, and Gaza,
and not a few others besides. And as the men acted according to
Gabinius's command, it came to pass, that at this time these cities were
securely inhabited, which had been desolate for a long time.
4. When Gabinius had done thus in the country, he returned to
Alexandrium; and when he urged on the siege of the place, Alexander sent
an embassage to him, desiring that he would pardon his former offenses;
he also delivered up the fortresses, Hyrcania and Macherus, and at last
Alexandrium itself which fortresses Gabinius demolished. But when
Alexander's mother, who was of the side of the Romans, as having her
husband and other children at Rome, came to him, he granted her
whatsoever she asked; and when he had settled matters with her, he
brought Hyrcanus to Jerusalem, and committed the care of the temple to
him. And when he had ordained five councils, he distributed the nation
into the same number of parts. So these councils governed the people;
the first was at Jerusalem, the second at Gadara, the third at Amathus,
the fourth at Jericho, and the fifth at Sepphoris in Galilee. So the
Jews were now freed from monarchic authority, and were governed by an
aristocracy.
CHAPTER 6. How Gabinius Caught Aristobulus After He Had Fled From Rome,
And Sent Him Back To Rome Again; And How The Same Gabinius As He
Returned Out Of Egypt Overcame Alexander And The Nabateans In Battle.
1. Now Aristobulus ran away from Rome to Judea, and set about the
rebuilding of Alexandrium, which had been newly demolished. Hereupon
Gabinius sent soldiers against him, add for their commanders Sisenna,
and Antonius, and Servilius, in order to hinder him from getting
possession of the country, and to take him again. And indeed many of the
Jews ran to Aristobulus, on account of his former glory, as also because
they should be glad of an innovation. Now there was one Pitholaus, a
lieutenant at Jerusalem, who deserted to him with a thousand men,
although a great number of those that came to him were unarmed; and when
Aristobulus had resolved to go to Macherus, he dismissed those people,
because they were unarmed; for they could not be useful to him in what
actions he was going about; but he took with him eight thousand that
were armed, and marched on; and as the Romans fell upon them severely,
the Jews fought valiantly, but were beaten in the battle; and when they
had fought with alacrity, but were overborne by the enemy, they were put
to flight; of whom were slain about five thousand, and the rest being
dispersed, tried, as well as they were able, to save themselves.
However, Aristobulus had with him still above a thousand, and with them
he fled to Macherus, and fortified the place; and though he had had ill
success, he still had good hope of his affairs; but when he had
struggled against the siege for two days' time, and had received many
wounds, he was brought as a captive to Gabinius, with his son Antigonus,
who also fled with him from Rome. And this was the fortune of
Aristobulus, who was sent back again to Rome, and was there retained in
bonds, having been both king and high priest for three years and six
months; and was indeed an eminent person, and one of a great soul.
However, the senate let his children go, upon Gabinius's writing to them
that he had promised their mother so much when she delivered up the
fortresses to him; and accordingly they then returned into Judea.
2. Now when Gabinius was making an expedition against the Parthians, and
had already passed over Euphrates, he changed his mind, and resolved to
return into Egypt, in order to restore Ptolemy to his kingdom. 11 This
hath also been related elsewhere. However, Antipater supplied his army,
which he sent against Archelaus, with corn, and weapons, and money. He
also made those Jews who were above Pelusium his friends and
confederates, and had been the guardians of the passes that led into
Egypt. But when he came back out of Egypt, he found Syria in disorder,
with seditions and troubles; for Alexander, the son of Aristobulus,
having seized on the government a second time by force, made many of the
Jews revolt to him; and so he marched over the country with a great
army, and slew all the Romans he could light upon, and proceeded to
besiege the mountain called Gerizzim, whither they had retreated.
3. But when Gabinius found Syria in such a state, he sent Antipater, who
was a prudent man, to those that were seditious, to try whether he could
cure them of their madness, and persuade them to return to a better
mind; and when he came to them, he brought many of them to a sound mind,
and induced them to do what they ought to do; but he could not restrain
Alexander, for he had an army of thirty thousand Jews, and met Gabinius,
and joining battle with him, was beaten, and lost ten thousand of his
men about Mount Tabor.
4. So Gabinius settled the affairs which belonged to the city Jerusalem,
as was agreeable to Antipater's inclination, and went against the
Nabateans, and overcame them in battle. He also sent away in a friendly
manner Mithridates and Orsanes, who were Parthian deserters, and came to
him, though the report went abroad that they had run away from him. And
when Gabinius had performed great and glorious actions, in his
management of the affairs of war, he returned to Rome, and delivered the
government to Crassus. Now Nicolaus of Damascus, and Strabo of
Cappadocia, both describe the expeditions of Pompey and Gabinius against
the Jews, while neither of them say anything new which is not in the
other.
CHAPTER 7. How Crassus Came Into Judea, And Pillaged The Temple; And
Then Marched Against The Parthians And Perished, With His Army. Also How
Cassius Obtained Syria, And Put A Stop To The Parthians And Then Went Up
To Judea.
1. Now Crassus, as he was going upon his expedition against the
Parthians, came into Judea, and carried off the money that was in the
temple, which Pompey had left, being two thousand talents, and was
disposed to spoil it of all the gold belonging to it, which was eight
thousand talents. He also took a beam, which was made of solid beaten
gold, of the weight of three hundred minae, each of which weighed two
pounds and a half. It was the priest who was guardian of the sacred
treasures, and whose name was Eleazar, that gave him this beam, not out
of a wicked design, for he was a good and a righteous man; but being
intrusted with the custody of the veils belonging to the temple, which
were of admirable beauty, and of very costly workmanship, and hung down
from this beam, when he saw that Crassus was busy in gathering money,
and was in fear for the entire ornaments of the temple, he gave him this
beam of gold as a ransom for the whole, but this not till he had given
his oath that he would remove nothing else out of the temple, but be
satisfied with this only, which he should give him, being worth many ten
thousand [shekels]. Now this beam was contained in a wooden beam that
was hollow, but was known to no others; but Eleazar alone knew it; yet
did Crassus take away this beam, upon the condition of touching nothing
else that belonged to the temple, and then brake his oath, and carried
away all the gold that was in the temple.
2. And let no one wonder that there was so much wealth in our temple,
since all the Jews throughout the habitable earth, and those that
worshipped God, nay, even those of Asia and Europe, sent their
contributions to it, and this from very ancient times. Nor is the
largeness of these sums without its attestation; nor is that greatness
owing to our vanity, as raising it without ground to so great a height;
but there are many witnesses to it, and particularly Strabo of
Cappadocia, who says thus: "Mithridates sent to Cos, and took the money
which queen Cleopatra had deposited there, as also eight hundred talents
belonging to the Jews." Now we have no public money but only what
appertains to God; and it is evident that the Asian Jews removed this
money out of fear of Mithridates; for it is not probable that those of
Judea, who had a strong city and temple, should send their money to Cos;
nor is it likely that the Jews who are inhabitants of Alexandria should
do so neither, since they were in no fear of Mithridates. And Strabo
himself bears witness to the same thing in another place, that at the
same time that Sylla passed over into Greece, in order to fight against
Mithridates, he sent Lucullus to put an end to a sedition that our
nation, of whom the habitable earth is full, had raised in Cyrene; where
he speaks thus: "There were four classes of men among those of Cyrene;
that of citizens, that of husbandmen, the third of strangers, and the
fourth of Jews. Now these Jews are already gotten into all cities; and
it is hard to find a place in the habitable earth that hath not admitted
this tribe of men, and is not possessed by them; and it hath come to
pass that Egypt and Cyrene, as having the same governors, and a great
number of other nations, imitate their way of living, and maintain great
bodies of these Jews in a peculiar manner, and grow up to greater
prosperity with them, and make use of the same laws with that nation
also. Accordingly, the Jews have places assigned them in Egypt, wherein
they inhabit, besides what is peculiarly allotted to this nation at
Alexandria, which is a large part of that city. There is also an
ethnarch allowed them, who governs the nation, and distributes justice
to them, and takes care of their contracts, and of the laws to them
belonging, as if he were the ruler of a free republic. In Egypt,
therefore, this nation is powerful, because the Jews were originally
Egyptians, and because the land wherein they inhabit, since they went
thence, is near to Egypt. They also removed into Cyrene, because that
this land adjoined to the government of Egypt, as well as does Judea, or
rather was formerly under the same government." And this is what Strabo
says.
3. So when Crassus had settled all things as he himself pleased, he
marched into Parthia, where both he himself and all his army perished,
as hath been related elsewhere. But Cassius, as he fled from Rome to
Syria, took possession of it, and was an impediment to the Parthians,
who by reason of their victory over Crassus made incursions upon it. And
as he came back to Tyre, he went up into Judea also, and fell upon
Tarichee, and presently took it, and carried about thirty thousand Jews
captives; and slew Pitholaus, who succeeded Aristobulus in his seditious
practices, and that by the persuasion of Antipater, who proved to have
great interest in him, and was at that time in great repute with the
Idumeans also: out of which nation he married a wife, who was the
daughter of one of their eminent men, and her name was Cypros, 12 by
whom he had four sons, Phasael, and Herod, who was afterwards made king,
and Joseph, and Pheroras; and a daughter, named Salome. This Antipater
cultivated also a friendship and mutual kindness with other potentates,
but especially with the king of Arabia, to whom he committed his
children, while he fought against Aristobulus. So Cassius removed his
camp, and marched to Euphrates, to meet those that were coming to attack
him, as hath been related by others.
4. But some time afterward Cæsar, when he had taken Rome, and after
Pompey and the senate were fled beyond the Ionian Sea, freed Aristobulus
from his bonds, and resolved to send him into Syria, and delivered two
legions to him, that he might set matters right, as being a potent man
in that country. But Aristobulus had no enjoyment of what he hoped for
from the power that was given him by Cæsar; for those of Pompey's party
prevented it, and destroyed him by poison; and those of Cæsar's party
buried him. His dead body also lay, for a good while, embalmed in honey,
till Antony afterward sent it to Judea, and caused him to be buried in
the royal sepulcher. But Scipio, upon Pompey's sending to him to slay
Alexander, the son of Aristobulus, because the young man was accused of
what offenses he had been guilty of at first against the Romans, cut off
his head; and thus did he die at Antioch. But Ptolemy, the son of
Menneus, who was the ruler of Chalcis, under Mount Libanus, took his
brethren to him, and sent his son Philippion to Askelon to Aristobulus's
wife, and desired her to send back with him her son Antigonus, and her
daughters; the one of which, whose name was Alexandra, Philippion fell
in love with, and married her, though afterward his father Ptolemy slew
him, and married Alexandra, and continued to take care of her brethren.
CHAPTER 8. The Jews Become Confederates With Cæsar When He Fought
Against Egypt. The Glorious Actions Of Antipater, And His Friendship
With Cæsar. The Honors Which The Jews Received From The Romans And
Athenians.
1. Now after Pompey was dead, and after that victory Cæsar had gained
over him, Antipater, who managed the Jewish affairs, became very useful
to Cæsar when he made war against Egypt, and that by the order of
Hyrcanus; for when Mithridates of Pergainus was bringing his
auxiliaries, and was not able to continue his march through Pelusium,
but obliged to stay at Askelon, Antipater came to him, conducting three
thousand of the Jews, armed men. He had also taken care the principal
men of the Arabians should come to his assistance; and on his account it
was that all the Syrians assisted him also, as not willing to appear
behindhand in their alacrity for Cæsar, viz. Jamblicus the ruler, and
Ptolemy his son, and Tholomy the son of Sohemus, who dwelt at Mount
Libanus, and almost all the cities. So Mithridates marched out of Syria,
and came to Pelusium; and when its inhabitants would not admit him, he
besieged the city. Now Antipater signalized himself here, and was the
first who plucked down a part of the wall, and so opened a way to the
rest, whereby they might enter the city, and by this means Pelusium was
taken. But it happened that the Egyptian Jews, who dwelt in the country
called Onion, would not let Antipater and Mithridates, with their
soldiers, pass to Cæsar; but Antipater persuaded them to come over with
their party, because he was of the same people with them, and that
chiefly by showing them the epistles of Hyrcanus the high priest,
wherein he exhorted them to cultivate friendship with Cæsar, and to
supply his army with money, and all sorts of provisions which they
wanted; and accordingly, when they saw Antipater and the high priest of
the same sentiments, they did as they were desired. And when the Jews
about Memphis heard that these Jews were come over to Cæsar, they also
invited Mithridates to come to them; so he came and received them also
into his army.
2. And when Mithridates had gone over all Delta, as the place is called,
he came to a pitched battle with the enemy, near the place called the
Jewish Camp. Now Mithridates had the right wing, and Antipater the left;
and when it came to a fight, that wing where Mithridates was gave way,
and was likely to suffer extremely, unless Antipater had come running to
him with his own soldiers along the shore, when he had already beaten
the enemy that opposed him; so he delivered Mithridates, and put those
Egyptians who had been too hard for him to flight. He also took their
camp, and continued in the pursuit of them. He also recalled
Mithridates, who had been worsted, and was retired a great way off; of
whose soldiers eight hundred fell, but of Antipater's fifty. So
Mithridates sent an account of this battle to Cæsar, and openly declared
that Antipater was the author of this victory, and of his own
preservation, insomuch that Cæsar commended Antipater then, and made use
of him all the rest of that war in the most hazardous undertakings; he
happened also to be wounded in one of those engagements.
3. However, when Cæsar, after some time, had finished that war, and was
sailed away for Syria, he honored Antipater greatly, and confirmed
Hyrcanus in the high priesthood; and bestowed on Antipater the privilege
of a citizen of Rome, and a freedom from taxes every where; and it is
reported by many, that Hyrcanus went along with Antipater in this
expedition, and came himself into Egypt. And Strabo of Cappadocia bears
witness to this, when he says thus, in the name of Aslnius: "After
Mithridates had invaded Egypt, and with him Hyrcanus the high priest of
the Jews." Nay, the same Strabo says thus again, in another place, in
the name of Hypsicrates, that "Mithridates at first went out alone; but
that Antipater, who had the care of the Jewish affairs, was called by
him to Askelon, and that he had gotten ready three thousand soldiers to
go along with him, and encouraged other governors of the country to go
along with him also; and that Hyrcanus the high priest was also present
in this expedition." This is what Strabo says.
4. But Antigonus, the son of Aristobulus, came at this time to Cæsar,
and lamented his father's fate; and complained, that it was by
Antipater's means that Aristobulus was taken off by poison, and his
brother was beheaded by Scipio, and desired that he would take pity of
him who had been ejected out of that principality which was due to him.
He also accused Hyrcanus and Antipater as governing the nation by
violence, and offering injuries to himself. Antipater was present, and
made his defense as to the accusations that were laid against him. He
demonstrated that Antigonus and his party were given to innovation, and
were seditious persons. He also put Cæsar in mind what difficult
services he had undergone when he assisted him in his wars, and
discoursed about what he was a witness of himself. He added, that
Aristobulus was justly carried away to Rome, as one that was an enemy to
the Romans, and could never be brought to be a friend to them, and that
his brother had no more than he deserved from Scipio, as being seized in
committing robberies; and that this punishment was not inflicted on him
in a way of violence or injustice by him that did it.