MACCABEAN RULE--POMPEY'S INVASION--ROMAN POWER

MACCABEAN RULE--POMPEY'S INVASION--ROMAN POWER
With the promotion of Judas Maccabeus to be chief governor of Judea, the rule of the Hasmonean dynasty may be conveniently taken to commence, and the period which that rule embraces may be suitably introduced in a new chapter.
HIGH PRIEST ALCIMUS EXPELLED
Alcimus, the new high-priest, did not long enjoy his dignity, for his profligacy, and his attempts to revive the heathenish rites, so offended the Jews, that they expelled him.
DEMETRIUS HAS EUPATOR AND LYSIAS SLAIN
We have already noticed the refusal of the Roman senate to support the claim of Demetrius to the crown of Syria, or to allow him to depart for that country. Subsequently, acting by the advice of his friend Polybius, the historian he made his escape from Rome, and landed with a few men, only eight friends and their servants, at Tripolis in Phoenicia. Here he had the art to make it believed that his wild enterprise was sanctioned by the Romans; under which persuasion he was joined by several of his adherents, with whom he advanced toward Antioch. Here the army declared for him, and secured the persons of Antiochus Eupator and Lysias, and, in proof of their sincerity, brought them to Demetrius; but he said, “Let me not see their face!” on which hint they were slain by the soldiers, B.C. 162.
ROME ACCEPTS CROWN OF GOLD
In the preceding year one of the Roman ambassadors at the court of A. Eupator had been slain, while enforcing the treaty with Antiochus the Great, by destroying all the elephants, and all but twelve of the ships-of-war. Demetrius, anxious to have his claims recognized by Rome, sent the murderer thither, together with a present of a crown of gold. The present was accepted by the senate; but they dismissed the murderer, resolving to take some future occasion of making the whole Syrian empire responsible for the act.
NICANOR SLAIN ATTACKING MACCABEES
When Demetrius was established on the throne of Syria, the apostate Jews, with Alcimus at their head, gathered around him, and filled his ears with reports and insinuations injurious to Judas and the party of which he was the leader. As people naturally listen with pleasure to those who express conformity of views, it is not wonderful that these traitors gained the attention of the king, who could as yet know but little of the real state of affairs in his kingdom. He reappointed Alcimus as high priest, and sent a considerable military force, under the command of Bacchides, governor of Mesopotamia, to reinstate him, and to take vengeance upon those whom he had represented as equally the enemies of himself and the king. As Bacchides, accompanied by the high-priest, entered the country with professions of peace, many Jews, relying thereon, put themselves in his power, and were treacherously slain. After this Bacchides reinstated Alcimus; and intrusting the province to his charge, and leaving a force that seemed sufficient to support him, he returned to the king. Judas, who had not appeared in the field against Bacchides, came forward after he withdrew; and Alcimus, unable to offer any effectual resistance, again repaired with his complaints to the king. On this Demetrius, resolving on the utter destruction of the Maccabees, sent a large army into Judea, under the command of the same Nicanor whom Judas had defeated five years before. At first he endeavored to entrap the Jewish chief with friendly professions, but finding Judas too wary to be thus caught, hostilities commenced, and in a battle fought at Capharsalama, Nicanor was defeated with the loss of fifty thousand men. He was then forced to seek refuge in the castle of Mount Zion, until the reinforcements, for which he sent, should arrive from Syria. These were promptly supplied, and then he hazarded another battle, in which he was himself slain, and his army cut in pieces. B.C. 160.
JUDAS IS SLAIN
Now Judas, having heard of the already extensive conquests of the Romans, and having become sensible of the great controlling power which they exercised in the affairs of Western Asia and of Egypt, took the opportunity of the respite which this victory procured, to send an embassy to Rome, to solicit an alliance with that great people, and therewith protection from the Syrian government. It was part of the systematic plan of subjugation practised by that most politic body, the Roman senate, to grant liberty to those who were under foreign dominion, that they might detach them from their rulers, and afterward enslave them when fit opportunity offered.[404] The Jewish ambassadors were therefore very graciously received; an offensive and defensive alliance was readily concluded with the Jews; and a letter was immediately after written to Demetrius, commanding him to desist from persecuting them, and threatening him with war if he persisted. But before the ambassadors returned, or this letter had been received, Judas had fallen in a furious conflict with Bacchides, whom (with Alcimus) the king had sent to avenge the defeat of Nicanor and his host. With only eight hundred men, the rest having deserted him, Judas charged the Syrians, defeated their right wing and pursued them to Azotus: but the left wing, being unbroken, pursued him closely in turn; and after a most obstinate engagement the greatest of the later Jewish heroes lay dead upon the field. This was not far from Modin, his native town; and his brothers Simon and Jonathan, having concluded a truce, were enabled to deposit his remains in the family sepulcher at that place.
[404] This is the drift of Justin's remark with reference to this very transaction: “A Demetrio cum defecissent Judæi amicitia Romaporum petita, primi omnium ex Orientalibus libertatem receperunt: facile tunc Romanis de alieno largientibus” Lib xxxvi. cap. 3.
JONATHAN MADE JEWISH COMMANDER
The death of Judas restored the ascendancy to the apostate Jews, and was followed by a merciless persecution of his adherents. They were thus made strongly sensible of the want of a head, and therefore they elected Jonathan, the valiant younger brother of Judas, to be their chief and leader. He led them into the wilderness of Tekoah, and encamped at the cistern of Aspher. After some skirmishes with the Arabs in that quarter, Jonathan deemed it advisable to send the wives and children, and the most valuable property of his party, to the safe keeping of the friendly Nabateans of Mount Seir, under a convoy commanded by his brother John. This party was attacked on the way and plundered by the Arabs, and John himself was killed. For this, Jonathan soon after took a severe revenge upon the bridal procession at the marriage of one of the princesses of this same tribe, which he attacked, and slew the greater part, and took their spoils.
JONATHAN ATTACKED BY BACCHIDES
After this, Jonathan, the more effectually to secure to himself from his enemies, withdrew into the marshes formed by the overflowings of the Jordan, access to which was very difficult. Bacchides, however, made an attack on the sabbath-day upon the pass leading to the camp, and carried it by storm. The Jews defended themselves with great valor; but being oppressed by numbers, they leaped into the overflowing Jordan and swam to the other side, whither the enemy did not venture to pursue them.
The River Jordan

JUDAS MAKES TREATY WITH ROME
It was not without difficulty that Jonathan roused his adherents to the exertions which they made on this occasion. In fact there are several indications, at and before this time, that the people were becoming tired of this long struggle for their religion and liberties, and disposed to submit to circumstances, for the sake of the quiet of which they had been so many years deprived. Besides, by this time the original character of the war, as one of resistance against religious persecution, had somewhat changed. There was more of politics mixed in it; and with that change, the ardor of the orthodox Jews appears to have abated. The Syrian government had also become much more mild since the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, and under favoring circumstances, it might have been expected that the Jews would without difficulty have obtained what they sought. It was probably the knowledge of this, as well as from the consciousness that the breach was not likely to be healed by continued warfare, that latterly produced so great a reluctance to support the Maccabees, and so strong a disposition to submit to the Syrians. We may thus account not only for the circumstance which occasions this remark, but for the readiness of some of the best supporters of the Maccabees to listen to the fair promises of the Syrian generals for the desertion of Judas, before his last action, by the great body of his adherents, and for his comparative inaction on several recent occasions. To the operation of these circumstances we are also disposed to refer the anxiety of Judas to conclude a treaty with the Romans. For this step he has been blamed by some persons, who appear to have inadequately considered the circumstances. It is not clear to us that if Judas had been aware that the step he took was likely to lead to the future subjection of the country to the Romans, he would have been deterred from seeking their alliance. He did not fight for national independence, which was a moral impossibility, but for the liberty of conscience. If that had been conceded by the Syrian kings, the Jews would readily have returned to their political subjection, and were indeed anxious to do so. If therefore Judas had known the ultimate contingency of subjection to the Romans instead of the Syrians, there was nothing in that to deter him, if he felt that the Romans were likely to be more tolerant of the religious peculiarities of his nation. It is quite true that by the skilful use of circumstances which ultimately arose, the Jews were enabled to establish a modified independence--which independence the Romans destroyed. But these circumstances were not foreseen in the time of Judas, and independence was not among the objects originally contemplated. It is only in forgetfulness of those facts that any one can impute blame to Judas for the measure which he took--which measure, indeed, we cannot trace to have had any grave effect upon ultimate results. Whether the Jews had offered themselves to the notice of the Romans at this time or not, they certainly could not long have escaped the attention of that people, nor, unless events had taken an entirely different course to that which they actually took, could their subjection to the Roman yoke have been long postponed.
ALCIMUS DIES AND PEACE ENSUES
From the Jordan, Bacchides returned to Jerusalem, and was employed for some time in strengthening the fortresses of Judea, particularly the citadel at Jerusalem and the important fortresses of Gazara.[405] The sons of some of the principal persons among the Jews he took and detained in the citadel as hostages for the good conduct of their friends. But in the same year Alcimus was seized with a kind of cramp, and died in much agony, while giving orders for the demolition of the wall which separated the court of the Gentiles from that of the Israelites, so as to give the former free access to the privileged part of the temple; and Bacchides, having nothing to detain him in Judea after the death of the man on whose account the war was undertaken, withdrew from the country, and allowed the Jews two years of repose. To what extent this may have been due to the interposition of the Romans, we have no means of knowing; but the results of the application to the senate must by this time have been known both at Antioch and in Judea. Probably the death of Judas, before the return of his ambassadors, went far to neutralize the immediate effects which might have been expected from this treaty.
[405] There is some doubt respecting this place, which is so often named in the history of the Maccabees. Some think it the same as Gaza, which indeed is still called Gazara, and that is certainly a strong circumstance in its favor. Upon the whole, however, there are several passages in which the place is named which seem to refer it to the neighborhood of Joppa, and others which can not without much straining and difficulty be made to apply to Gaza. In one of a set of unpublished maps by Professor Robinson (for which we are indebted to his kindness) we find that a site named Yazur occurred in his line of route, three miles, and a half to the east of Jaffa, and we much more than suspect that this marks the site not only of the Gazara in question, but also (believing the names identical) of the Gazer which was one of the royal cities of the old Canaanites, and the same which the king of Egypt took from the Canaanites, and gave, for a dower with his daughter, to Solomon. All circumstances appear to agree with this allocation.
BACCHIDES IS DEFEATED AND MAKES PEACE
This tranquillity was not favorable to the designs of the Graecizing Jews, who laid a plot to surprise and seize Jonathan and his adherents, all in one night, throughout the land, and prevailed on Bacchides to return with the force under his command to give effect to their design (B.C. 153). A timely discovery of the plot enabled Jonathan to damp the ardor of the conspirators by putting to death fifty of the principal of them. Not, however, feeling himself in a condition to oppose Bacchides in the field, Jonathan, with his friends and his brother Simon, withdrew to the wilderness, where they so strongly repaired the dilapidated fortress of Bethbasi, that they were enabled to maintain a long siege against Bacchides, and at length to defeat him. This affair wonderfully enlightened the Syrian general, who now perceived that he had been but the tool of a faction; and, in his resentment, he put to death several of the persons who had the most actively stimulated his enterprise. At this juncture, Jonathan sent to him a deputation with proposals of peace, and Bacchides readily acceded to the terms which were offered. The treaty being concluded and sworn to by both parties, an exchange of prisoners took place, and Bacchides withdrew from the land, B.C. 156. Peace being thus happily restored, Jonathan fixed his residence at the strong post of Michmash, six miles north-by-east from Jerusalem, where he governed according to the laws of Moses, and to the extent of his power reformed the public abuses which had sprung up during the past troubles.
BALAS TAKES THRONE FROM DEMETRIUS
About the year B.C. 154, Demetrius Soter retired to a new palace which he had built near Antioch, and there abandoned himself entirely to luxury and pleasure. All business and all care was refused admission, and consequently all the responsibilities and duties of his high office were utterly neglected. Hence arose great administrative abuses, and these led to discontents, and discontents to conspiracies, which were eagerly fostered by different neighboring kings, especially by Ptolemy Philometor, king of Egypt,[406] from whom the island of Cyprus had been taken by Demetrius. They availed themselves of the services of Heraclides, who had been banished by Demetrius, and who had since lived at Rhodes; and now, at the instigation of these kings, he persuaded a young man of obscure birth, named Balas, to announce himself as the son of Antiochus Epiphanes, and as such lay claim to the throne of Syria. As soon as he had been sufficiently tutored in the part he was to act, he publicly advanced his pretensions, which were acknowledged at once by Ptolemy Philometor, by Ariarathes, king of Cappadocia, and by Attalus, king of Pergamos (B.C. 153). He was then sent to Rome, together with a true daughter of Antiochus; and although the senate soon detected the imposture, their old grudge against Demetrius, for having taken the throne of Syria without their consent, led them to recognize him, and empower him to raise forces for the recovery of a kingdom in which he could have had no just pretensions to supersede Demetrius (the son of the elder brother), even had his alleged birth been true. Balas now assumed the name of Alexander, and the title of king of Syria. He delayed not to levy troops, and sailed to Ptolemais (previously Accho), now Acre, in Palestine, where he was joined by numbers who had become disaffected to Demetrius. That infatuated person was now fairly roused from his lethargy, and came forth from his disgraceful retreat--but it was too late.
[406] As the transactions in Egypt, since they were last noticed, have not, up to this point, been necessarily involved in the current of our history, we have not allowed them to engage our notice. It may however be briefly indicated in a note, that, after their junction against Antiochus Epiphanes, quarrels arose between the two brother kings, Philometor and Physcon, which the Romans endeavored to adjust in B.C 162 by arranging that Philometor should retain Egypt and Cyprus, and that Physcon should reign in Libya and Cyrene. But they soon again were at variance respecting Cyprus, which Physcon wanted, but which Philometor resolved to retain according to the terms of the agreement. Meanwhile, as often happens in such cases, a third party (Demetrius) stepped it and appropriated to himself the disputed island Hence the enmity of Philometor to the king of Syria.
This conjuncture of affairs was highly favorable to the interests of the Jews, as, from the high military character they had now acquired, the rivals vied with each other in the honors and immunities which they offered for the assistance of Jonathan and the Jews. First, Demetrius sent a letter appointing Jonathan his general in Judea, empowering him to levy forces, and promising to release the hostages. When the contents of this letter were made known, the hostages were restored by the garrison of the citadel, and the fortresses throughout the country were given up to him by the Syrian garrisons which Bacchides had left in them. The citadel and Bethsura indeed still held out, as they were garrisoned by apostate Jews who had no other resource. Jonathan now removed from Michmash and fixed his residence at Jerusalem, which he occupied himself in repairing, and in rebuilding those walls of the temple-mount which Antiochus Eupator had cast down.
JONATHAN MADE HIGH PRIEST
On the other hand, Balas, acting probably by the advice of Ptolemy Philometor (who was well acquainted with the affairs and interests of the Jews), sent also a letter to Jonathan, in the very commencement of which he styled him “Brother,” gave him the title and rank of “Friend of the King,” appointed him to the high-priesthood, and sent him a purple robe and diadem, thereby creating him Ethnarch, or Prince of Judea. It was in the seventh month of this same year (B.C. 153) that Jonathan put on the holy robe of the high-priest, after that high office had been vacant for seven years.
DEMETRIUS SEEKS JUDAH'S LOYALTY
Demetrius did not yet despair of outbidding Balas in this struggle to gain the favor and assistance of Jonathan. The list of the exemptions, immunities, and privileges which he offered is exceedingly curious, as showing the extent and minute ramifications of the previous exactions of the Syrian government; and we have therefore introduced it entire in a note below.[407] The extravagant generosity of these offers made Jonathan and the patriots suspicious of their sincerity, and, mindful of the past sufferings they had experienced through Demetrius, they agreed to espouse the cause of Alexander.
[407] “King Demetrius unto the people of the Jews sendeth greeting. Whereas ye have kept covenant with us, and continued in our friendship, not joining yourselves with our enemies, we have heard thereof, and are glad. Wherefore now continue ye still to be faithful unto us, and we will well recompense you for the things ye do in our behalf, and will grant you many immunities, and give you rewards. And now do I free you, and for your sake I release all the Jews from tributes, and from the customs of salt, and from crown taxes. And from that which appertaineth unto me to receive for the third part of the seed, and the half of the fruit-trees, I release it from this day forth, so that they shall not be taken of the land of Judea, nor of the three governments which are added thereunto out of the country of Samaria and Galilee, from this day forth for ever more. Let Jerusalem also be holy and free, with the borders thereof, both from tenths and tributes. And as for the tower which is at Jerusalem, I yield up my authority over it, and give it to the high-priest, that he may set in it such men as he shall choose to keep it. Moreover, I freely set at liberty every one of the Jews that were carried captives out of the land of Judea into any part of my kingdom, and I will that all my officers remit the tributes even of their cattle. Furthermore, I will that all the feasts, and sabbaths, and new moons, and solemn days, and the three days before the feast, and the three days after the feast, shall be all days of immunity and freedom for all the Jews of my realm. Also no man shall have authority to meddle with them, or to molest any of them in any matter. I will further, that there be enrolled among the king's forces about thirty thousand men of the Jews, unto whom pay shall be given, as belongeth to all the king's forces. And of them shall be placed in the king's strongholds, of whom also some shall be set over the affairs of the kingdom, which are of trust; and I will that their overseers and governors be of themselves, and that they live after their own laws, even as the king hath commanded in the land of Judea. And concerning the three governments that are added to Judea from the country of Samaria, let them be joined with Judea, that they may be reckoned to be under one, nor bound to obey other authority than the high-priest's. As for Ptolemais, and the land pertaining thereto, I give it as a free gift to the sanctuary. Moreover, I give every year fifteen thousand shekels of silver out of the king's accounts to the places appertaining. And all the overplus, which the officers payed not in as in former time, henceforth shall be given toward the use of the temple. And beside this, the five thousand shekels of silver, which they took from the uses of the temple out of the accounts year by year, even those things shall be released, because they appertain to the priests that minister. And whosoever they be that flee unto the temple at Jerusalem, or be within the liberties thereof, being indebted unto the king, or for any other matter, let them be at liberty, and all that they have in my realm. For the building also and the repairing of the works of the sanctuary expenses shall be given out of the king's account. Yea, and for the building of the walls of Jerusalem, and the fortifying thereof round about, expenses shall be given out of the king's account, as also for the building of the walls of Judea.”
DEMETRIUS IS SLAIN
Next year (B.C. 152) both the kings took the field with their armies, and Demetrius, who, when sober, wanted neither courage nor conduct, defeated his rival in the first battle; but Alexander Balas, being reinforced by the kings who had put him forward, was more successful in a great battle fought the year after, in which Demetrius himself was slain.
JONATHAN MADE GOVERNOR
The successful impostor now mounted the throne of Syria, and married Cleopatra, a daughter of his great friend Ptolemy Philometor of Egypt, who himself conducted the bride to Ptolemais in Palestine, where the nuptials were celebrated with great magnificence (B.C. 150). Jonathan was present on this occasion, and, mindful of the services he had rendered during the war, both Ptolemy and Alexander treated him with distinguished honors. He was again presented with a purple robe, and appointed commander or Meridarch of Judea.
AMMONIUS RULES FOR BALAS
Alexander Balas, who had manifested considerable ability during this contest, was no sooner firmly settled on the throne, than he lapsed into the same errors which had been fatal to his predecessor. He abandoned the cares of government to his favorite Ammonius, that he might enjoy a luxurious life undisturbed. This minister put to death all the members of the royal family he could get into his power. But there still lived in Cnidus two sons of Demetrius, the elder of whom, Demetrius II, surnamed Nicator, landed at Cilicia in B.C. 148, and soon collected a great army with which to assert his right to the crown. He also gained over to his interest Apollonius the governor of Coele-Syria, whose first proof of attachment to his new master was to invade Judea, which still adhered to the cause of Alexander. Jonathan came down from the mountains into the plain of the coast, and after taking Joppa, before his eyes, defeated Apollonius with terrible loss. Ashdod he then subdued, and Ashkelon opened wide her gates to receive the conqueror. For this essential service he received from Alexander a golden clasp or buckle, such as only members of the royal family might wear; and the town and territory of Ekron, near the coast, was alsobestowed upon him. The king himself remained shut up to Antioch, awaiting the succors which he expected from his father-in-law of Egypt. Philometor came indeed; but having discovered a plot formed against his life by the favorite Ammonius, and the infatuated Balas refusing to deliver up that guilty minister, Ptolemy testified his resentment by taking away his daughter, and bestowing her on Demetrius, whose cause he thenceforth espoused. This decided the contest. Ammonius was slain by the citizens, and A. Balas only avoided a similar fate by flight. The character which Ptolemy Philometor bore among the Syrians for justice and clemency was so high, that they pressed him to accept the vacant crown. But this he prudently declined, and recommended the rightful heir to their choice. The next year Alexander appeared again, in a condition to make one more struggle for the crown. He was defeated, and fled into Arabia, where an emir, with whom he sought shelter, rendered his name, Zabdiel, infamous by the murder of his guest, whose head he sent to the king of Egypt. That monarch himself died the same year (B.C. 146). He left one son, a child, who was put to death by Physcon, who now reigned sole king of Egypt.
Ashkelon

JONATHAN BESIEGES CITADEL
In Judea, Jonathan now employed himself in besieging the citadel of Jerusalem, which still remained in the hands of the apostate Jews and the Syrians, and which had so long proved a serious annoyance to the inhabitants of the city. Complaint of this operation having reached Demetrius, he cited Jonathan to Ptolemais to answer for his conduct. He went; but left orders that the siege should be vigorously prosecuted in his absence. He took with him valuable presents for the king, by which and other means he so won his favor, that he not only confirmed him in the high-priesthood and all his other honors, but also ratified the offers of his father, which Jonathan had once declined for the friendship of Balas. As the citadel still held out, Jonathan urged the king to withdraw the garrisons from it and from Bethsura; which Demetrius promised to do, provided the Jews would send a reinforcement to put down a dangerous disturbance which had broken out at Antioch; for the new king had already managed, by his gross misconduct and cruelty, to alienate the affections of both his Syrian subjects and Egyptian allies. The Jews rendered the required service. But when Demetrius deemed himself secure, and without further need of them, he behaved with great ingratitude. He demanded all the taxes, tolls, and tributes which he had promised to remit, and thus succeeded in alienating the Jews as much as his other subjects.
DEMETRIUS DEFEATED
Alexander Balas left a son called Antiochus, whom the Arabian emir Zabdiel had retained in his hands when he slew the father; and he was persuaded by Tryphon (the former governor of Antioch under A. Balas) to send the young prince with him to lay claim to the throne of Syria. Antiochus was joyfully received by the malcontents, and by the numerous soldiers whom the false economy of Demetrius had disbanded. In a pitched battle, Demetrius was defeated, his elephants were taken, and Antioch was lost, B.C. 144.
TRYPHON MAKES OFFER TO JONATHAN
As soon as Antiochus VI, surnamed Theos, had been crowned, his guardian Tryphon (for Antiochus was but a child) wrote in his name to invite the adhesion of Jonathan; and offered in return to observe faithfully all the promises which Demetrius had broken, and to appoint his brother Simon the royal governor of the district extending from the mountains between Tyre and Ptolemais to the borders of Egypt. These conditions were accepted by Jonathan, who, with the assistance of the Syrian forces, expelled the hostile garrison from Gaza, Bethsura, and Joppa; but the citadel of Jerusalem still held out for Demetrius.
JONATHAN RENEWS ROME AND GREEK ALLIANCE
With due regard to the past and the future, Jonathan deemed it advisable at this time to seek a renewal of the alliance with the Romans. The ambassadors were received at Rome with favor, and dismissed with assurances of friendship. On their return they (as the ambassadors of Judas had formerly done) visited the Spartans, and concluded a league with them, under some notion which the Jews entertained that the Spartans were of the stock of Abraham.
TRYPHON SLAYS JONATHAN AND BALAS
Tryphon had contemplated the advancement of the son of Alexander Balas, merely as a means of intruding himself into the throne of Syria. Things were now, in his judgment, ripe for the removal of the young king, and for his own intrusion, when he found that Jonathan was likely to prove an obstacle to the execution of his design. He therefore invaded Palestine, and had advanced as far as Bethshan, when, being intimidated by the appearance of Jonathan with forty thousand men, he pretended that his mission was entirely of a friendly nature--and that he had entered the country to put him in possession of Ptolemais. He played this part so naturally that the Jewish hero was deceived, and dismissed his army, saving three thousand men, two thousand of whom he left in Galilee, and advanced with the other thousand to take possession of Ptolemais. He had no sooner entered that city than the gates were shut, his men cut in pieces, and himself laden with chains. Not long after he was put to death by the perfidious Tryphon, who next slew his young master and set on his brows the Syrian crown.
SIMON BECOMES HIGH PRIEST
The Jews, whose prospects had lately been so fair, were filled with consternation when they heard of the captivity and subsequent murder of Jonathan. But Simon, the brother of Jonathan, who had already been enabled to prove himself a true Maccabee, called them together in the temple, encouraged them to make a vigorous defence, and offered to become their high-priest and leader in the room of his brother. He said--“Since all my brethren are slain for Israel's sake, and I alone am left, far be it from me to spare my own life in any time of trouble.” The offer was gladly accepted by the people, and he was unanimously elected to succeed Jonathan: and, seeing he had sons of high promise, it was decided that the honors to which Simon was called should be inherited by his descendants. The form of expression is however remarkable, as showing that some doubts were entertained as to the strict legality of this procedure. It is said, “The Jews and the priests were well pleased that Simon should be their governor and priest [he and his sons] for ever, until there should arise a faithful prophet to show them what they should do.”
MACCABEES IGNORE DIVINE OFFICE REQUIREMENTS
We are free to express our own opinion that the three brothers, Judas, Jonathan, and Simon, were men of great ability and unquestionable courage; and we believe they sincerely desired the welfare of their country, and to preserve the purity of religious worship, to promote which objects they would at any time have shed their last blood. But we think also that Judas is the only one of the brothers of whose high moral principle or disinterestedness much can be said. From the time that Jonathan accepted the high-priesthood, and various personal honors, from Alexander Balas, it is easy to detect in most of the alternations of policy a leaning to that course which included the aggrandizement of the family and the promotion of its chiefs. We do not say or think that they would knowingly have sacrificed any public object to their own aggrandizement. But the disposition to seek or prefer that particular good to our country which comprehends honor or power to ourselves, belongs to a lower class of minds and principles than that which refuses wealth or power in connection with any public service, lest the motive of that service might be suspected. It must also be said, that the disposition of the later Maccabees to play fast and loose between the competitors for the Syrian crown, and equally to accept the favors which rival kings offered, when it was impossible to perform equally to both the conditions which were expected in return, is not entitled to much praise.
Had Jonathan and Simon been perfectly disinterested men, the obvious duty imposed upon them by the Law would have been to direct the attention of the Jews and of the Syrian king to Onias, then in Egypt, as the rightful high-priest, of the elder branch of the family of Aaron, who was unsuspected of any idolatrous taint, and whose abilities were of no common order: and the promises of the continuance of the scepter of Judah to the house of David, should have induced Simon, at least, when affairs were taking a turn favorable to the independence of the nation, to direct the hopes of Israel toward some able member of that illustrious house. But it is time to return to follow the course of our narrative.
SIMON BURIES JONATHAN
Simon removed the corpse of his illustrious brother from Boscana, in Gilead, where he was slain, to the family sepulcher at Modin, where he subsequently erected a noble mausoleum, which was still standing in the time of Eusebius and Jerome.
SIMON NOTIFIES ROME AND GREECE OF EVENTS
At the first opportunity, Simon sent an embassy to Rome and Lacedaemon to announce to the senate the death of his brother, and his own succession to his dignities, and to seek a renewal of the alliance. Both nations received the ambassadors with honor, expressed the usual regret, and the usual congratulations, and readily renewed the treaty, with the terms of which graven on brass the deputation returned.
SIMON BUILDS DEFENSES
The first care of Simon was to put the country in a state of defence, by repairing the fortresses and furnishing them with provisions. As the conflict between Tryphon and Demetrius still continued, and it was the unhappiness of the Jews that their position did not allow them to remain neutral, there were many sufficient causes to induce them to prefer the side of Demetrius, notwithstanding the ill-treatment they had formerly received from him. This personage, although nearly the whole of. Syria was lost to him, remained in luxurious repose at Laodicea, whither Simon sent ambassadors to him, with a crown of gold, to treat about the renewal of the former terms of accommodation. To this Demetrius, in his fallen estate, most gladly agreed, confirming solemnly all the immunities and privileges specified in his father's letter to Jonathan, with an act of amnesty for all past offences. These privileges were so great that they may be said to have raised the nation to a state of independence. The Jews themselves certainly considered that they were by this act delivered from the Syrian yoke; and therefore this first year of Simon's reign (B.C. 143), as high-priest and ethnarch, or, in short, as Prince of the Jews, they signalized by making it an epoch from which to compute their times. This era is used on the coins of Simon, as well as by Josephus and the author of the first book of Maccabees.
SIMON TAKES FORTRESSES
The next care of Simon was to reduce the strong fortresses that still held out, Gaza he took, and expelled the idolatrous inhabitants; and the citadel of Jerusalem, which had so long been a thorn in the sides of the Maccabees, was compelled by the famine which a rigorous blockade produced, to surrender in B.C. 142. Aware of the valor of his son John, Simon made him captain-general of his forces, and sent him to reside in Gazara on the sea-coast; while he made the temple-mount at Jerusalem his own residence. This he strongly fortified; and his palace probably stood on the site which the castle of Antonia afterward occupied.
SIMON GAINS FULL HONORS
Having thus gained complete possession of the country, and the rights and liberties of the nation being established, a great council of the nation was held at Jerusalem, which testified its gratitude by confirming to Simon all his honors, and, in more distinct terms than before, entailed them on his descendants. This decree of the assembly was graven on brass, and fixed to a monument which was erected in the temple-court.
ROME ORDERS ALL TO ACCEPT JEWS AND FRIENDS
Anxious to have the independence conceded by Demetrius recognized by the Romans, another embassy was sent to the senate, with a present of a shield of gold, weighing one thousand mince, equal, at the lowest computation, to fifty thousand pounds sterling. The deputation was well received, and the present graciously accepted. Their suit was granted, and missions were sent by the senate to the kings of Egypt, Pergamos, Cappadocia, Syria (Demetrius), and Parthia, and to all the cities and states of Greece, Asia Minor, and of the isles in alliance with the Romans, to engage them to treat the Jews as their friends and allies, B.C. 141.
DEMETRIUS LOSES CLEOPATRA TO SIDETES
In the same year Demetrius, whose cause appeared to be lost in the west, was invited to the east by large promises of support in any attempt he might make to bring back the Parthians to their allegiance. He was at first successful, but was in the end surprised and made prisoner by the Parthians. In this war he was assisted by a body of Jews under the command of John the son of Simon, whose exploits in Hyrcania procured him the honorary surname of Hyrcanus. As for Demetrius, he was well treated by the Parthian king, Arsaces V, otherwise called Mithridates; who indeed first took care to exhibit him in different parts of his empire, but afterward sent him into Hyrcania, where he treated him with the respect due to his rank, and even gave him his daughter Rhodoguna in marriage. Meanwhile his cause in Syria was maintained against Tryphon by his wife Cleopatra, who had shut herself up, with her children, in Seleucia on the Orontes; and a powerful force, composed of persons discontented with the government of Tryphon, was gathering around her, when she heard that her captive husband had married Rhodoguna. This offended her pride, and was also calculated to weaken her party. Therefore, from both policy and revenge, she sent to Antiochus, the brother of Demetrius who was then at Rhodes, and made him the offer of her hand and of the kingdom. Antiochus VII, who, from his passion for hunting, received the surname of Sidetes (“the hunter”), eagerly accepted the proposal, and delayed not to assume the title of king of Syria, although as yet unable to proceed to the continent, B.C. 141.
SIDETES ASKS FOR JEWISH ASSISTANCE TO TAKE SYRIA
The next year (B.C. 140) Antiochus wrote “from the isles of the sea,” being still at Rhodes, “to Simon the high-priest and ethnarch, and to the people of the Jews,” announcing his intention of coming speedily to recover the dominions of his father from the usurper Tryphon; and, to secure their assistance, confirming all the privileges granted by former kings, together with the royal privilege of coining money, which seems the only one which former kings had withheld, or which seemed wanting to complete the sort of secondary independence which they had by this time acquired.
TRYPHON PUT TO DEATH
The year after (B.C. 139) Antiochus landed in Syria to attack Tryphon, with whose tyrannies the people and even the soldiers had become completely weary. On the appearance of Sidetes he was deserted by most of his forces, and he therefore fled to Dora (south of Carmel) on the coast of Palestine. Antiochus pursued and besieged him there; but he fled by ship to Orthosia, a maritime town of Phoenicia and, again, thence to Apamea, where he was taken and put to death.
Finding with how much more facility than he had been prepared to expect, the kingdom fell to him, Antiochus, very soon after his landing, formed the intention of reducing to their former complete subjection to the Syrian crown, the provinces and cities which had availed themselves of the troubled reigns of his predecessors to acquire such independence as the Jews had established. This was an intention which any king in those times was likely to have formed with reference to privileges so recent, and so much extorted by temporary emergencies, and by which the power and dignity of the crown were so seriously impaired. Antiochus probably considered his own acts more binding than the treaties obtained from the usurper Balas, or from the distressed Demetrius; yet even his own letter, written in the expectation of needing the aid which the event proved that he did not require, was not likely to be considered by him any strong bar to the execution of his design.
SIDETES IS REPULSED BY JUDAH
His intentions were indicated on his first arrival in Palestine, to besiege Tryphon in Dora. Simon then sent two thousand men to assist him in the siege, with a good supply of warlike stores and engines, but the king declined to receive them, and sent over to Jerusalem one of his generals, named Athenobius, with a requisition for the surrender of Joppa, Gazara, and the citadel of Jerusalem, which belonged to the Syrian crown, or else to pay five hundred talents for each of the former, and five hundred more for the arrears of tribute from those cities beyond the limits of Judea, of which the Jews had gained possession, and on account of ravages which they had committed in his dominions. This demand was skilfully framed to steer clear of any points comprehended in the treaties or in the letter of Antiochus himself, and the demand seems upon the whole as moderate as could be framed consistently with the intention of retaining some hold upon the country. Writers call the answer of Simon “wise.” It appears to us rather feeble. He denied that the Jews held any possessions but what belonged to their fathers, and which they had found opportunity to recover. With regard to the fortified towns of Joppa and Gazara, he called attention to the injuries which the people had been continually receiving from those places, as justifying the measures he had taken; but he was willing to give the king one hundred talents for the right of possession. Athenobius returned with this answer to the king, to whom also he gave a very flaming account of the state and splendor in which Simon lived, and of the large quantities of gold and silver plate which appeared in his house and at his table. At this the king was so moved, that he sent an army under Cendebeus to invade Judea: but he was met and defeated by John Hyrcanus and Judas, the two sons of Simon; and the Syrians were expelled the country.
PTOLEMY KILLS SIMON
The peace purchased by this victory was not of long duration. Simon availed himself of it to make a tour of inspection through the country, in the course of which he arrived at Jericho, where he took up his abode in the caste of his son-in-law Ptolemy, who was governor there. This Ptolemy, desiring to secure the government to himself, caused the old man and his two sons, Mattathias and Judas, to be treacherously murdered at an entertainment. He also sent a party to destroy John Hyrcanus at Gazara; but John had timely warning, and fled to Jerusalem, where he was readily recognized by the people as the successor of his father in the high-priesthood, and in the principality of Judea. Then Ptolemy, against whom the people of Jerusalem shut their gates, fled to a fortress near Jericho, and thence to Zeno, the prince of Philadelphia (Rabbath-Amnion), probably to await there the arrival of Antiochus, to whom he had sent, desiring the assistance of an army to reduce Judea again to the Syrian yoke. But his name occurs in history no more; whence it is probable that although Antiochus may have liked the crime, he hated the criminal, and would afford him no countenance. However, the king marched a large army into Judea in B.C. 135, and having ravaged the country, advanced to besiege Hyrcanus in Jerusalem, which was soon reduced to great extremities for want of provisions, which had been scarce that year. On the approach of the feast of Tabernacles in autumn, Hyrcanus besought a week's truce for the celebration of the feast; and this was not only granted by Antiochus, but he furnished the victims required for sacrifice, which could not be procured within the city. Finally, he concluded a peace with the Jews, when it was to his power to extirpate them from the country, and he was exhorted by many to do so, but generously refused. He was content to dismantle Jerusalem, and to bind them to pay tribute (not for their proper country, but) for Joppa and other towns beyond the limits of Judea, which they had either taken by arms or held by the grants of his predecessors.
SIDETES KILLED
Four years after (B.C. 131), Antiochus Sidetes marched with a great army against the Parthians, under the pretence of delivering his brother Demetrius. Hyrcanus accompanied him in this expedition, and left him victorious in three battles over the Parthian king Phraates, which put A. Sidetes in possession of Babylonia, Media, and the other revolted provinces, and confined the Parthians within the original limits of their own kingdom. But while the Syrian army was dispersed in winter quarters, the Parthians, assisted by the natives, conspired against them, and slew them all in one whole day; Antiochus himself perished in the massacre, and scarcely a man remained to bear back to Syria the report of the catastrophe.
DEMETRIUS TAKES SYRIAN THRONE
Upon this Phraates sent to re-take Demetrius, whom, after having been vanquished in the former campaign, he had liberated, and sent back to Syria, to create such a diversion there as might induce Antiochus to relinquish his enterprise. But Demetrius made such speed that he escaped the pursuit, and, on his re-appearance in Syria, coupled with the news of the death of his brother, he was enabled to recover his throne without much difficulty.
HYRCANUS SUBDUES REGION
Hyrcanus neglected not to avail himself of the confusion into which the Syrian empire fell, and the loss of strength which it sustained after the downfall of A. Sidetes. He got possession of several towns on the sea-coast, and beyond Jordan, and annexed them to his territories. He also rendered himself more completely independent; for after this neither he nor his descendants paid any more tribute, service, or homage to the kings of Syria. Next Hyrcanus invaded Samaria. He took Shechem, the chief seat of the Samaritans, and demolished the temple which they had built on mount Gerizim. However, they continued to have an altar on the spot, on which they have offered sacrifices, according to the Levitical law, even to this day. After this, Hyrcanus invaded and subdued the Idumeans, to whom he offered the alternative of either relinquishing their idolatries and embracing the Jewish religion, or else of leaving the country into which they had intruded, and seeking a settlement elsewhere. They preferred the former alternatives, and as proselytes, gradually became so incorporated with the Jews as to be counted one people with them; and at length the name itself was lost, or absorbed in that of the Jews.[408]
[408] The rabbins indeed have long spoken and still speak of Edom and the Edomites as existing. But these are merely feigned and well understood names for denoting, not Edom, but Rome and Christendom, and not the Edomites, but the Christians of the Roman empire, and of the states into which that empire broke up, for fear of incurring the displeasure of the nations among which they dwelt, if they said of them, with-out disguise, all they wished to say.
PHYSCON'S FAMILY AND DEATH
The course of events now again calls our attention to Egypt. That country was still ruled by Ptolemy Physcon, whose gross and beast-like person bore the very impress of that cruel and voluptuous character which belonged to him. We gladly hurry over the revolting theme which his character and conduct offer, merely to mention that Cleopatra, the sister of the late Philometor and himself, became the wife of the former, by whom he had a son, and two daughters, both of the name of Cleopatra. After the death of Philometor, his young son was slain by Physcon, who also married the widow, his own sister. Of the two daughters, one was that Cleopatra who was married to Alexander Balas, king of Syria, then to Demetrius Nicanor, then to Antiochus Sidetes, and after the return of Demetrius became his wife again. Her sister, the other Cleopatra, was defiled by her uncle Physcon, who afterward repudiated his wife (her mother and his own sister), and married this young princess. His oppressions and cruelties toward his subjects were so severe, that at last they could bear them no longer, but rose against him, and compelled him to flee to Cyprus. The people then entrusted the government to his sister and divorced wife, the elder Cleopatra. Her son by him was with his father at Cyprus, and Physcon, fearing that the son's name might be used to strengthen Cleopatra on the throne, slew him, and sent his head, feet, and hands to her, directing that they should be given her in the midst of an entertainment. In the war which followed, Physcon was victorious, and Cleopatra in her despair sent to Demetrius of Syria, the husband of her eldest daughter, offering him the crown of Egypt if he would come with an army to her aid. Allured by the splendid bribe, Demetrius immediately marched an army through Palestine into Egypt. But, while he was engaged in the siege of Pelusium, Antioch and several other of his own cities revolted from him, and he was obliged to abandon the prospect before him and return the way he came. Cleopatra then fled to seek protection with her daughter the queen of Syria, who then resided at Ptolemais in Palestine. Physcon then regained possession of his throne, which he retained until his death in B.C. 117.
SYRIAN MARCHES LIMITED
The passage and return of the Syrian through Palestine could not but be attended with much annoyance to the Jews, and it may be proper to regard it as in some measure the cause of the embassy which Hyrcanus sent to Rome the same year (B.C. 128), to solicit the renewal of the treaties into which the senate had entered with his predecessors, and to complain of the small attention which Antiochus and Demetrius had paid to its former mandates. The ambassadors were received with the usual favor by the senate, which readily consented to renew the treaty which had been concluded with Simon, and which moreover took upon itself to abrogate the disadvantageous treaty which the Jews had been compelled to make with A. Sidetes. It also decreed that Hyrcanus should hold the towns of Joppa, Gazara, and others beyond the limits of Judea, without paying tribute for them to the Syrian kings; and that the latter should not presume to march armies through Palestine without permission. This last clause was doubtless intended to check the enterprises of the kings of Syria against Egypt. Ambassadors were appointed to see all this executed; and the Jewish deputation were furnished with money to bear their expenses home. Hyrcanus was too sensible of the importance of these favors to neglect the expression of his gratitude; and the next year another embassy was sent to Rome with a present of a cup and shield of gold, which the senate accepted, and passed another decree confirming the former. By these treaties, as well as by the unquiet state of the Syrian kingdom, Hyrcanus was much strengthened in what we may now call his dominions.
DEMETRIUS KILLED
Demetrius was one of those men whom even adversity could not improve. After his restoration, he fell into the same misconduct which had before occasioned him the loss of his kingdom. His subjects again were alienated from him; and readily joined a competitor who was brought forward and supported by P. Physcon, in revenge for the recent attempt of Demetrius to take possession of his kingdom. The young man put forward on this occasion was the son of a merchant of Alexandria, and claimed to be the adopted son of Antiochus Sidetes, or (according to some) of Alexander Balas. He assumed the name of Alexander, but was nicknamed in derision, Zebinas (“the bought one”). Notwithstanding the weakness of his pretensions, he easily succeeded in depriving the universally disliked Demetrius of his kingdom and life, B.C. 126.
ZEBINAS RULES PART OF SYRIA
Zebinas was an equitable and popular ruler; but he did not obtain the whole of the kingdom, as part was retained by Cleopatra--that wife of many husbands who has so often been named. To strengthen her cause, she caused Seleucus, her son by Demetrius, to be proclaimed king of Syria, but retained all power in her own hands; and when in the twentieth year of his age (B.C. 124) he manifested a desire really to reign, she slew him by a javelin with her own hands. A. Zebinas, on the other hand, strengthened his cause by an alliance with John Hyrcanus, who skilfully availed himself of all these troubles to confirm his independence, and to enlarge his dominion.
ZEBINAS DIES AND CLEOPATRA POISONED
Zebinas could not, however, long maintain his position. A very proper and spirited refusal to do homage to P. Physcon for the crown of Syria, lost him the support and procured him the enmity of that monarch, who immediately came to terms with Cleopatra, and furnished her with an army whereby Zebinas was defeated, and ultimately fell into the hands of Ptolemy, who put him to death. Thus Cleopatra became mistress of all Syria, her younger son by Demetrius, Antiochus VIII, surnamed Gryphus (“hook-nosed,” from πγρὺψ, a vulture), being seated on the throne. Soon after (B.C. 120), finding that Gryphus was also disposed to claim the power as well as name of king, she prepared poison for him; but she was detected, and the king compelled his murderous mother to drink the poisoned cup herself.
LATHYRUS MADE KING
Ptolemy Physcon died in B.C. 117, twenty-nine years after his brother Philometor. He left all power in the hands of Cleopatra, his wife and daughter-in-law--sister of the Syrian queen whose doom concluded, the last paragraph. Physcon had by her two sons, Lathyrus and Alexander, and left to Cleopatra the choice of a king from them. She would have preferred the youngest, Alexander; but the voice of the people compelled her to appoint Ptolemy Lathyrus.
CYZICENUS TAKES PART OF SYRIA
Antigonus Gryphus had a half-brother, whom his mother Cleopatra had borne to Antigonus Sidetes. This young prince was sent by his mother to be brought up at Cyzicus on the Propontis, and hence his name of Antigonus Cyzicenus. He soon appeared as a competitor for the Syrian throne, and after various conflicts the brothers agreed in B.C. 112 to divide the empire between them. A. Cyzicenus obtained Coele-Syria and Phoenicia, and fixed his residence at Damascus. Both the kings were heartless libertines; and their relatively uneasy position gave them too much employment, in watching and annoying each other, to permit them to interfere much with the Jews, whose princes well knew how to avail themselves of such opportunities to aggrandize the power of the nation.
HYRCANUS TAKES SAMARIA AND DIES
There is one exception. In B.C. 110 Hyrcanus ventured to besiege Samaria, the inhabitants of which were not Samaritans, properly so called, but were descended from the Syro-Macedonian colony, which Alexander planted there when he rooted out the former inhabitants. The siege was conducted by Hyrcanus himself, with his two sons Aristobulus and Antigonus. They enclosed the city by a wall and a ditch, and all supplies being thus completely cut off, the place was soon reduced to the last extremity from scarcity of food. In this emergency, the besieged sent to A. Cyzicenus, supplicating his aid. He marched himself to afford it; but was met on the way by a detachment of the Jewish army under the command of Aristobulus. In a bloody engagement the Syrians were totally routed, and A. Cyzicenus himself escaped with difficulty. In the next year (B.C. 109) Samaria was taken and totally demolished. This victory, with its results, made Hyrcanus master of all Judea, Samaria, and Galilee, and of several places beyond their limits; and raised the glory of the Hasmonean princes to its height. Hyrcanus spent the rest of his reign without foreign wars, and respected by all the neighboring potentates. He died in B.C. 106, after a reign of thirty years.
ARISTOBULUS TAKES JEWISH NATION
Hyrcanus left the principality to his wife; but Aristobulus, his eldest son, soon possessed himself of the government; and as his mother refused to lay down her authority, he committed her to prison, where she perished of hunger. Having established himself in the principality and high-priesthood, Aristobulus ventured on the very questionable step of assuming the diadem and regal title. And thus (as seems to have been predicted by Zechariah 6:9-15) was brought about that state of things, which early existed in Egypt and other countries, in which the offices of the king and high-priest were united in the same person. Aristobulus availed himself of the disagreements between the two kings of Syria to extend his dominions. He subdued Iturea beyond Jordan, and offered the inhabitants the alternative of circumcision or expatriation. They preferred the former, and accordingly became Jews, and were incorporated with the Jewish nation. Aristobulus fell sick during this campaign, leaving his brother Antigonus to complete the subjection of the country, and the settlement of its affairs. On the return of the latter to Jerusalem, the king was taught to regard him as one who aimed at his life and kingdom, and under that mistaken impression, ordered his death. Discovering his error, he fell sick and died after a reign of only one year, B.C. 105.
JANNEUS TAKES JEWISH NATION
He was succeeded by his brother, the third son of Hyrcanus, Alexander Janneus, whose Hebrew name was probably Jonathan; as the name of “Jonathan” or “King Jonathan,” occurs on some coins in the Hebrew, while the reverse has the legend “King Alexander” in Greek. He had been brought up to Galilee, and from early childhood he had not been admitted to the presence of his father. Alexander pursued the policy of his predecessors, of turning to his own advantage the divisions in the Syrian empire. Nor was he singular in this, for many cities (Tyre, Ptolemais, Gaza, Dora, and others) had contrived to make themselves independent. The three last of the cities we have named, A. Janneus desired to subdue to his own power; which seems to us a very unprincipled design; but it is difficult to find anything like principle in any public transactions of any parties in this most unprincipled age. In B.C. 104 he took the field against Ptolemais, and detached a part of his army against Dora and Gaza. Before this time (namely, in B.C. 107), Ptolemy Lathyrus had been expelled from Egypt by his mother, and withdrew to Cyprus, where he reigned up to the date to which we have now come. To him the beleaguered cities now applied for aid. This he readily granted, and landed in Palestine with an army of 30,000 men. He was very successful, defeating Alexander to a pitched battle on the banks of the Jordan, in which the Jews lost 30,000 men, and then overrunning and furiously ravaging the country, so that the Hasmonean cause seemed on the brink of utter ruin, when Cleopatra, the queen of Egypt, fearing that the conquest of Palestine by Lathyrus would be but a step toward the invasion of Egypt, sent an army to the assistance of Alexander. By this means he recovered his footing, and Lathyrus was compelled to withdraw to Cyprus, B.C. 101. Alexander had gained none of the original objects of the war he had so unjustly commenced, and the nation had suffered greatly. The king soon after paid a visit to the Egyptian queen, to whom he had been so much indebted. This visit had nearly proved fatal to him. This ambitious and unscrupulous woman was advised to put him to death and unite Judea to Egypt: and she was inclining to such suggestions, when the interposition of Ananias, the Jewish commander of her forces, inclined her to a more just and generous policy, and she concluded an alliance with Janneus at Bethshan (Scythopolis).
After Cleopatra had returned to her own country, Alexander began to resume his former projects of reducing to his yoke the towns and fortresses on his borders-pursuing, in sort, the same needlessly aggressive policy which had well nigh been his ruin. Gadara he took after a ten months' siege. He also took the strong fortress of Amathus beyond Jordan; but on his return he was surprised and defeated with the loss of ten thousand men, by the prince of Philadelphia, whose treasures had been deposited there, and returned with disgrace to Jerusalem. He was a Sadducee: this, and his other humiliations, were therefore matters of high satisfaction to the Pharisees, who had great influence with the mass of the people, which they employed with much success, to alienate their affections from Alexander. The king, nothing discouraged, turned his attention to the towns on his southern border. Raphia and Anthedon he took: the conquest of Gaza was more difficult; but at last he won it by treachery, burned it, and massacred the inhabitants, but with so much loss to his own troops, that he returned with little honor and less spoil to Jerusalem.
JANNEUS PELTED WHILE OFFERING SACRIFICES
The long cherished hatred of the Pharisees, and dislike of the people toward the king, broke out openly in the year B.C. 95. He was officiating as high-priest at the feast of tabernacles, and was offering sacrifice upon the great altar, when the people began to pelt him furiously with the citrons which they bore in their hands at that celebration, at the same time assailing him with the most opprobrious expressions. In accordance with the severe principles of the Sadducees, which he had on so many occasions exemplified, he let loose his guard upon the insurgents, by whom six thousand of them were cut down, and thus the disturbance was, for the time, allayed with blood. To prevent such insults in future, he enclosed the priests' court, which contained the altar and sanctuary, by a wooden partition, which excluded the approach of the people, and for his greater security, he took into his pay a body of six thousand foreign mercenaries, who soon became almost his only support.
JANNEUS FAILS
After this, A. Janneus turned his attention to the countries beyond Jordan. In B.C. 94 he made the Arabs of Gilead, and the inhabitants of Moab, tributary. In B.C. 93 he destroyed the strong fortress of Amathus, his former enterprise against which had been followed by his defeat, as lately mentioned. In the next year, while in a campaign against Obodas, the Emir of the Arabs of Gaulonitis, he fell into an ambush in the mountains near Gadara, where his army was driven over the precipices and utterly destroyed, and he himself escaped with difficulty. This disaster embittered the feelings of the already discontented Pharisees, who were at all times jealous even to madness of the national honor. A successful and glorious Sadducee they might have borne; but an unsuccessful one was intolerable. They took up arms, supported by the masses, and broke out into open rebellion, which they maintained for six years, and in which, although repeatedly defeated, their refractory spirit remained un-subdued. At last, after fifty thousand of the malcontents had been destroyed, besides the loss on the other side, the king, although successful, became weary of slaughter, and intestine turmoil, and made every effort and declared his readiness to make any sacrifice for the sake of peace. He sent some of his friends to the assembled people, to know what he could do to satisfy them--“Die!” was the answer, given with such vehemence and fury as showed him that there was no hope of accommodation. The malcontents, on their part, sought the help of the Moabites and the Arabians of Gilead, whom Alexander had made tributary, and whose tribute he was now obliged to remit, to prevent their hostilities. The invitation was then sent to Demetrius Eucerus, king of Damascus. He gladly accepted the call, and entered Judea with an army of forty thousand foot and three thousand horse, with which he overthrew Alexander with the loss of all his Greek mercenaries to a man, B.C. 89. His utter ruin was inevitable, had it not been that six thousand of the Jews themselves, taking compassion upon his distress, deserted from the Syrians, and joined him. This so much alarmed Demetrius, fearing lest the defection should extend, that he withdrew his forces from the country to employ them against his brother Philip. The indomitable spirit of Alexander Janneus, and the large resources which he found in himself, now very conspicuously appeared; for no sooner had the Syrians departed, than he again got together his broken army, and recommenced operations with increased vigor and success against his own discontented subjects. In one great action, fought in B.C. 87, he utterly cut off the greater part of the insurgent army, and shut up the remainder in Bethone, which he besieged and took the year after. On this occasion he was guilty of a most barbarous act, for which the nickname of “Thracian” was justly given to him. He sent eight hundred of the principal captives to Jerusalem, and there crucified them all in one day and in one place, and put their wives and children to death before their eyes, as they hung dying on the crosses; while he sat, feasting with his wives and concubines, within view of the horrid scene, to glut his eyes with their torments. Certainly, the existence of a man who could do this was an evil upon the earth; and it seems alone sufficient to induce a suspicion that there was good cause for the intense dislike with which he was regarded by the people.
JANNEUS DIES
After this Alexander had no more disturbance, and he was enabled to spend three years in recovering the fortresses which had revolted, and in reducing the provinces beyond Jordan which had got loose from his dominion, during the civil war. Returning victorious to Jerusalem in B.C. 82, he abandoned himself to luxury and reveling, which speedily brought on a quartan[409] ague, under which he languished for three years, and of which he died in B.C. 78, at the siege of Ragaba beyond Jordan, in the country of the Gergesenes, in the forty-ninth year of his age, and the twenty-seventh of his eventful reign. That reign might be deemed successful in its ultimate results, if judged only by the enlarged dominion which he left to his successors; for at his death the Jewish kingdom included Mount Carmel and all the coast as far as Rhinocolura; it embraced on the south all Idumea; northward it extended to Scythopolis (Bethshan Mount Tabor; and beyond Jordan it comprehended Gaulonitis, and all the territory of Gadara, including the land of the Moabites on the south, and extending as far as Pella on the east.
[409] Reoccurs every fourth day.
ALEXANDRA TAKES HUSBANDS POWER
Alexander Janneus left the government in the hands of his Queen Alexandra, influenced doubtless by the recent example of the female reigns in Egypt and Syria. She was to enjoy the government while she lived, and was to determine which of her two sons, Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, should succeed her. On the approach of death, Alexander gave her such counsels as he judged best calculated to insure her a peaceable reign. Sensible that most of his own troubles had been produced through the agency of the great control which the Pharisees had acquired over public opinion, he exhorted her above all things to cultivate their favor, and to attempt no public measure without their approval. This advice may have been good; but the motive claims no high commendation. He wished his wife to reign after him; and to secure that private object he was willing that all the energies of the government should be sacrificed, and that all the powers of the state should be thrown into the hands of men whom, whether justly or not, he despised and hated. He also instructed the queen what course to take in throwing herself into the hands of the Pharisees. He counselled her to conceal his death until the capture of the fortress, and then, on the triumphant return to Jerusalem, she was to convene the heads of the Pharisees, and offer to be guided entirely by their counsels in the administration of the government: she was also to lay his dead body before them, and leave it wholly to their discretion whether to treat it with ignominy or honor. “If thou dost but this,” concluded the king, “. shall be sure of a glorious funeral, and thou wilt rule in safety.” Alexandra followed all his directions to a letter; and the event answered to his prediction. The Pharisees were suddenly appeased, as by a miracle; they spoke with profound reverence of the king, whose death they had so often invoked; they lauded to the skies his heroic achievements; and none of all his predecessors had a funeral nearly as magnificent as that of Alexander Janneus.
The Pharisees, having now the upper hand in the state, proceeded to do what any successful party would have done in the same circumstances. They released all the prisoners and recalled all the exiles of their own party and being thus strengthened by the recovery of the ablest men of their body, they delayed not to demand justice against the advisers of the crucifixion of the eight hundred; and certainly, if there were any persons active in advising that dreadful enormity, they richly deserved punishment. Diogenes, the chief confidant of the late king, was the first to feel the wrath and vengeance of the Pharisees, and after he had been cut off, they proceeded to the more obnoxious of Alexander's advisers. The queen, sore against her will, submitted to all their demands, to avoid the worse evils of a civil war.
HYRCANUS MADE HIGH PRIEST
Queen Alexandra appointed to the high-priesthood her eldest son Hyrcanus, a person of mild and inactive disposition, ill qualified to take part in the turmoils of the troubled days in which he was cast. The other son, Aristobulus, was of a different spirit--with the same impulsive energies of character, and nearly as unscrupulous, as his father. He burned with indignation at the degraded, although safe, position which his mother occupied; and in the seventh year of her reign (B.C. 72) he appeared before her at the head of a large party of friends of congenial sentiments, and solicited permission either to leave the country, or to be permitted to retire to the frontier garrison towns, where they might be secure from the malice of the Pharisees. The queen agreed to the latter proposal, and put them in possession of all the fortresses, except Hyrcania, Alexandrium, and Machaerus, where she kept her treasures. Next year Aristobulus was entrusted with the command of an army sent against Damascus, but he returned without doing anything memorable, although he was mindful not to neglect the opportunity of ingratiating himself with the troops.
In the year B.C. 69 some attempts made by Selene (reigning in Ptolemais) to extend her dominions in Coele-Syria, drew the attention of Tigranes, the Armenian king whom, as already related, the Syrians had called to reign over them. He came against her with a large army, subdued Ptolemais, took Selene prisoner, and ultimately ordered her to be put to death at Seleucia on the Tigris. Her sons were at Rome. While Tigranes was engaged before Ptolemais, Alexandra sent an embassy with valuable presents, to obtain his friendship. The rapid progress which the Romans were at this time making in Asia Minor so strongly called his attention to that quarter, that he returned a more favorable answer than might have been expected, and hastened back to his own country. Queen Alexandra died in the same year.
On the death of his mother, the mild and feeble Hyrcanus took possession of the throne. He reigned only three months. His more enterprising and able brother, Aristobulus, had obtained possession of most of the fortresses in the kingdom during the sickness of his mother: the people, also, had by this time grown weary of the tyranny of the Pharisees, and greatly fearing the possible results of their ascendancy over such a person as Hyrcanus, readily declared themselves in favor of his brother: and as the soldiers also deserted to him, Hyrcanus had no alternative but to resign his crown and mitre to Aristobulus; and he agreed, with little reluctance, to lead a private life under his protection. “So,” as Josephus expresses it, “Aristobulus went to the palace, and Hyrcanus to the house of Aristobulus.”
ANTIPATER EXPANDS INFLUENCE
An Idumean originally called Antipas, but better known by the name of Antipater, had by this time become a great man in Judea. He was high in the confidence of Alexander Janneus, and of Queen Alexandra, who had entrusted him with the government of his native province of Idumea. He had amassed considerable wealth, and formed connections with the Arabs to the east, and with the Gazites and Ashkelonites in the west. Such a man might expect, under a weak ruler like Hyrcanus, to benefit largely by the distractions of the country; whereas the firm rule of a man like Aristobulus was calculated to nip all his budding hopes. This consideration decided him to take up the cause of the deposed Hyrcanus, whom he gradually drew into the belief that his brother had designs against his life, and after much solicitation persuaded him to flee to Petra, and claim the protection of the Arabian king Aretas. That prince readily espoused his cause, and brought him back to Judea, with an army of fifty thousand men: and being there joined by such of the Jews as favored the cause of the elder brother, he gave battle to Aristobulus, defeated him, and compelled him with the heads of his party, to take refuge in the temple-mount, and besieged him there, B.C. 66.
So great was the hatred of the besiegers against Aristobulus and his party, that at the feast of the passover, they would allow no animals for sacrifices to be carried into the temple, although Aristobulus had given to them over the walls the full sum they demanded for such permission.
TIGRANES BATTLES THE ROMANS
The great war of the Romans in Asia Minor against Mithridates, king of Pontus, is of importance from its result of bringing all Western Asia under the power of the Romans; but the circumstances of that war have no such connection with our history as to require their exhibition in this place. Tigranes was soon involved in this war; and in B.C. 69 he was obliged to withdraw his forces from Syria to make head against the Romans nearer home.
ASIATICUS SEIZES GOVERNMENT
This gave an opportunity to Antiochus Asiaticus, the son of Selene and A. Eusebes, to seize the government; and, having contracted an alliance with the Roman general, Lucullus, he contrived to retain a part of the empire, until the arrival of Pompey in the East. He arrived to take the command of the Roman armies in the year B.C. 66. While himself employed in the north against Mithridates and Tigranes, Pompey sent Scaurus into Syria. While that general was at Damascus, he received from Aristobulus (then besieged in the temple) an application, with the offer of four hundred talents if he would come to his aid. The offer of a similar sum soon after came from Hyrcanus; but the Roman, considering that it would be easier to frighten away the besieging Nabateans for Aristobulus than to take so strong a fortress for Hyrcanus, determined to accept the offer of the former. He accordingly received the money; and three hundred talents were also given to Gabinius. Scaurus then commanded Aretas to abandon the siege and quit the country, or expect that the Roman arms would be turned against him. Awed by this threat, the Arabian king immediately obeyed; but he was pursued and overtaken in his homeward march by the active Aristobulus, and defeated with great slaughter.
ASIATICUS DENIED POWER BY POMPEY
In B.C. 65, Pompey came into Syria, all the princes of which were prepared to look to him as the arbiter of their fate. Antigonus Asiaticus humbly sued to be confirmed in his kingdom; but he was refused, on the pretext that he was too weak to defend the country against the Jews and Arabs; and that the Romans having overcome Tigranes, Syria became theirs by right of conquest, and they were not disposed to forego the rewards of their toils. In the person of Antigonus XI was deposed the last of a regal dynasty, descended from Seleucus, which had ruled Syria for two hundred and forty-seven years. His dominions, together with Phoenicia, then passed into the condition of a Roman province.
ARISTOBULUS NOT ACCEPTED BY ROME
Twelve kings and many ambassadors repaired to Damascus to render their homage to the illustrious Roman, or to receive from him the award of their fate. Aristobulus, to whom the recognition of his title by the Romans was at this time of great importance, sent an embassy with the present of a golden vine, valued at five hundred talents. But as those who saw this vine subsequently in the capitol at Rome declare that it bore the name of Alexander Janneus, it would seem that he was not successful in his application, unless, as some imagine, the vine had been made by Alexander Janneus and placed in the temple, from which it was taken by his son to be presented to the Romans.
POMPEY INDECISIVE ABOUT JEWISH LEADERSHIP
The next year, B.C. 64, Pompey again returned to Damascus from Asia Minor, with large designs for the southward extension of the Roman power, which had already been established as far as the Caspian in the north. At that place, the competing Jewish princes produced their cause before him: Hyrcanus through Antipater, and Aristobulus through Nicodemus. The delegates were heard, and dismissed in a friendly manner, with orders that the two brothers should appear in person. Unfortunately for Aristobulus, his cause was much prejudiced by the allusion of Nicodemus to the bribes which Scaurus and Gabinius had received, whereby he provoked the resentment of two persons whose influence with Pompey was very great. As ordered, Hyrcanus and Aristobulus appeared at Damascus in the spring of B.C. 63, to plead their own cause before Pompey, and each attended by multitudes of witnesses to prove the justice of their respective claims. A third Jewish party, uninvited and undesired by either of the others, also appeared, in the persons of many Jews of high consideration, who were prepared to plead, and did plead, against both the brothers, that in order to enslave a free people they had changed the form of government from pontifical to regal, contrary to established usage and precedent. Hyrcanus, on his part, rested on his rights as the elder brother, and complained of the usurpation of Aristobulus: the latter pleaded the necessity which the imbecile character of Hyrcanus had imposed upon him. This was precisely the worst plea he could have made; for imbecility of character was, for their own selfish ends, far from being esteemed a disqualification by the Romans, in the princes under their control. However, Pompey did not openly declare his sentiments, but left the matter undecided, until he should have leisure to come in person to Jerusalem and settle it there. But Aristobulus, perceiving clearly that the decision would not be in his favor, withdrew without taking leave, in order to make the requisite preparations, and he thus rendered his case still more desperate.
POMPEY CAPTURES TEMPLE
Pompey was occupied for a time in reducing Aretas and his Nabateans to subjection. This being elected, he marched against Aristobulus, of whose hostile preparations he was well apprized. He found him in the frontier fortress of Alexandrium (which was situated upon the top of a high rock), and well prepared for an attack. On his arrival, Pompey summoned the Jewish prince to his presence; and Aristobulus, afraid of irritating him by a refusal, and relying on his honor, came down and had several interviews with the Roman general, who, in the end, refused to let him go until he had signed an order for the surrender of all the fortresses to the Romans. But, resenting deeply this imposition, Aristobulus was no sooner dismissed than he fled to Jerusalem, and there prepared for a siege. But, when Pompey approached with his army, his resolution forsook him, as well it might; and he went forth to meet the Roman, to whom he tendered his submission, and offered a sum of money to prevent a war. His proposal was accepted; and Gabinius, one of Pompey's lieutenants, whom there has been previous occasion to name, was sent with a body of troops to recover the city and receive the money. But when Aristobulus returned with the Romans, his own party shut the gates against him and them; on which the captive prince was put in chains. Pompey then himself marched to Jerusalem, and the party of Hyrcanus, being the most numerous in the city, and well aware of his favorable dispositions toward them, opened the gates to him. The party of Aristobulus now withdrew into the temple, which was by this time a strong fortress, fully resolved to abide the result of a siege. They held out for three months, and might have done so much longer, but for the remaining superstition respecting the Sabbath. Pompey being apprized that, although on that as on any other day they would stand on their defence if actually attacked, they would not on that day act on the offensive, or disturb any operations short of actual assault, he sagaciously made use of every Sabbath in filling up the ditch and planting his engines, in which he experienced not the least opposition, and this enabled him to make his attacks with more effect on the other days of the week. At last the temple was taken by assault in the first year of the 179th Olympiad, ending in B.C. 63, the same year to which C. Antonius and M. Tullius Cicero were consuls, and on the very day observed with fasting and humiliation on the conquest of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. These dates fix the year from which the direct rule of the Romans over Judea may be dated.
JUDAH PAYS HEAVY TAXES TO ROME
Pompey violated the sanctity of the temple, by intruding with his principal officers into the holy of holies. He was not stricken as Ptolemy Philopator and Heliodorus had been, but it has been remarked by some that he never prospered in any of his subsequent undertakings. By the Jews, of course, this act was deeply resented. Pompey, however, spared the sacred treasury, although it contained two thousand talents; and the sacred utensils, and other articles of great value, were left for the sacred uses to which they had been devoted. But he ordered the walls of Jerusalem to be demolished. Hyrcanus he appointed to be high-priest and prince of the country, on condition that he should submit to the Romans, pay tribute, not assume the crown, nor seek to extend his territory beyond the ancient limits of Judea. All the places beyond those limits which the Jews had conquered were also restored to Syria, which was made a Roman province, and left under the rule of Scaurus as prefect, with two legions to preserve tranquillity. Thus the Jews, from being old allies of the Romans, were at once reduced to the condition of a subordinate principality, and were compelled to pay large tribute to the conquerors.
ARISTOBULUS & TIGRANES HELD IN ROME
Pompey returned to Rome laden with the spoils of conquered nations, and with a long train of royal and illustrious captives to grace his triumph. Among them were Aristobulus, his two daughters, and his two sons, Alexander and Antigonus. Alexander escaped by the way, and returned to Judea. The rest were among the three hundred and twenty-four noble prisoners who graced the triumph of Pompey in B.C. 61. Pompey was the first to discontinue the barbarous custom of putting the captives to death in the capitol after this public exhibition. They were all liberated and sent home at the public expense, with the exception of Tigranes and Aristobulus„ who were detained lest they should excite disturbances in their respective countries.