75. B.C. 54 to 37

B.C. 54 to 37

Chapter V

Timeline View:

1. In the Roman civil war which broke out between Pompey and Julius Caesar, the latter, thinking to promote his own interests and to disturb those of his rival in Syria, liberated Aristobulus, and sent him home with two legions of soldiers to reclaim the crown. But he was poisoned in the way by the adherents of Pompey; by whom also his son, Alexander, who lead begun to raise forces to assist his father, was seized, brought to Antioch, and after a mock trial, beheaded. Two years after, the surviving son, Antigonus, presented himself before Caesar when he returned, through Judaea, from his campaign in Egypt, and solicited to be restored to the principality of his father. He mentioned the claims of his family, its wrongs, and how much it had suffered in his cause. But Caesar was now under a new influence, and he therefore not only rejected the petition, but treated it as an impertinence. The new influence was that of Antipater, who swayed the real power of the province in the name of Hyrcanus. He had employed that power and the near resources of a neighbor, so much to the advantage of the Romans in this campaign, he had devoted himself so sedulously to Caesar, and, withal, he had found occasion to display so much valour and conduct, that Caesar felt grateful to him, and held him in high estimation.

2. Antipater failed not to employ, for the advancement of his own fortunes, the influence he had thus acquired. Caesar was induced to confirm to Hyreanus the full and ancient powers of the high-priesthood and the ethnarchy. This had the effect of indirectly restoring the regal character of the government, which had been impaired by the measures of Gabinius, and of destroying the independent jurisdictions which he had established. To do this, and to do it without a direct decree against a popular measure, appears to have been the real object of this restoration. Hyrcanus personally derived no increase of power from it; for at the same time Antipater himself, who had before been admitted to the dignity of Roman citizenship, was appointed Roman procurator of Judaea, which vested in him all the substantial powers of the state. Caesar also granted permission for rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem which Pompey had destroyed; and at this and other times, such other signal favors were, through Antipater, bestowed by Caesar upon the Jewish nation, that in his time the weight of the Roman yoke was scarcely felt. One of the first acts of the new procurator was to raise his two sons, Phasael and Herod, to stations of trust and distinction. Herod was made governor of Galilee, and Phasael governor of Jerusalem. The former exercised himself in clearing his province of the bands of daring robbers by which it was infested. But his mode of action was so sovereign and arbitrary as to attract the notice of the Sanhedrim, which summoned him to Jerusalem to give an account of his conduct. He came indeed, but he came clothed in purple, with a numerous retinue, and bearing a letter from the president of Syria, with express orders for his acquittal. This, with his haughty and imperious carriage, quite intimidated the assembly, until an address from one of their number kindled their resentment as well at his past as present conduct. Perceiving this, Hyrcanus, who was attached to him, adjourned the assembly, and, as advised by that prince, Herod fled from the city in the following night, and went to Sextus Caesar at Damascus, who bestowed upon him the government of Coele-Syria. Burning with resentments Herod would have marched to Jerusalem to punish the Sanhedrim and depose Hyrcanus, had not his father and brother persuaded him to abandon the design.

3. The greater struggles and confusions in the state of Rome were accompanied by smaller conflicts and troubles in Syria and Palestine; but in all these, it was the lot of the family of Antipater to be always uppermost. After the assassination of Julius Caesar at Rome by Brutus, Cassius, and their confederates, and of his relative Sextus Caesar in Syria by Bassus, the flames of war broke forth anew. Cassius being, like others, obliged to withdraw before the paramount influence of Antony and Octavius in Italy, passed over into Syria, and, seizing that province, made head there against the proconsul Dolabella. Cassius was obliged to raise heavy contributions to maintain the large army he had collected. Judaea was assessed in 700 talents; and Antipater commissioned Herod to raise one-half, and Malichus, one of the principal supporters of Hyrcanns, to collect the other. Herod won high favor with Cassius by the speedy payment of his portion; but Malichus, being more dilatory, would have been put to death, had not Hyrcanus redeemed him by paying 100 talents out of his own coffers. This affair seems to have quickened the bad feeling with which Malichus and other leading Jews regarded the power and authority which Antipater had acquired and was acquiring over the nation. They therefore plotted to destroy him and his whole family; and soon after Antipater was poisoned with a glass of wine, which the high-priest’s brother was induced to give him at an entertainment in the palace. Herod avenged his father, by inducing Cassius to order Malichus to be slain at Tyre by the Roman soldiers. The party of which Malichus had been the head, countenanced by Hyrcanus himself, then made a vehement struggle to relieve themselves from the grasp of Antipater’s sons. They failed, and the failure gave the more strength to Herod and Phasael. Herod upbraided Hyrcanus for the part he had taken in this affair; but he did not come to an open rupture with him, as he wished to bring into his own family the claims of the Asamonean house by a marriage with Mariamne, the high. priest’s accomplished and beautiful grand-daughter.

4. The party adverse to Herod and Phasael, was, however, far from being extinct. It soon found another and more dangerous head in the person of Antigonus, that younger son of Aristobulus, whom there has been more than one occasion to mention. He came to claim his father’s throne; and his claim was well supported. But when Antigonus arrived in Judaea with his army, he received from Herod a complete overthrow, and was obliged, for the time, to abandon his enterprise. The next year, after the victory over Brutus at Philippi, Mark Antony passed over into Asia, to secure that important region for the conquerors. It will be remembered that this celebrated man had formerly served in Palestine with Gabinins, and must have been acquainted with the affairs of the Jewish people, and with the persons of their leaders. A deputation, composed of a hundred influential Jews, came to him at Daphne, near Antioch, with complaints against the usurping sons of Antipater. Antony gave them a hearing, and then turning to Hyrcanus, who was present, asked whom he thought the most competent to govern the state under himself. To the surprise of many, he named the two brothers, influenced possibly by the projected marriage between Herod and his grand-daughter. On this, Antony, who had received gifts from Herod, and who well remembered the services of Antipater, raised Herod and Phasael to the rank of tetrarchs, and committed the affairs of Judea to their administration. Not long after, however, when Antony was at Tyre, another more numerous deputation came to him with the same complaints; but Antony ordered the soldiers to disperse them, which was not done without loss of life.

5. Antigonus was not yet disheartened. The Parthians, for a brief period, became masters of Syria, and held possession of Sidon and Ptolemais. Antigonus engaged their assistance by the promise of a thousand talents and five hundred Jewish women, and advanced at the head of a powerful army against Jerusalem; and after many strong efforts, succeeded in recovering the kingdom. Herod escaped by flight; but Hyrcanus and Phasael were thrown into dungeons. Knowing that his death was determined, Phasael dashed out his brains against the prison walls. Antigonus dared not incur the odium of destroying his aged uncle; but he barbarously cropped off his ears, and sent him far away to Seleucia in Babylonia, in the safe keeping of the Parthians.

6. Herod made the best of his way to Rome, where he found his friend Antony in the very zenith of his power; and was by him introduced to the favorable notice of Octavius, his coadjutor, by an account of the services which Antipater had rendered to Julius Caesar in the Egyptian campaign, and of the esteem in which he had been held by that conqueror. All that Herod came prepared to solicit was, that Aristobulus, the brother of his espoused Mariamne, should have the throne of Judea, purposing himself to govern under him, as he had governed under Hyrcanus. But Antony would hear of nothing less than that he should be king himself, and, with the concurrence of Octavius and of the Senate, he was solemnly inaugurated king of Judea, in the Capitol of Rome. He had still, however, to gain possession of his kingdom, and this he found an arduous undertaking. The Romans were again masters of Syria; but such assistance as Herod could obtain from them did him more harm than good; and the war lingered on with various success for between two and three years, when, finding that he had tolerably well secured Galilee and Samaria, he led his forces against Jerusalem. He was induced to do this, probably, by the promise of efficient aid from Antony, who had now returned to the East. While engaged in the siege, Herod completed his marriage with Mariamne, whom he had espoused four years before, hoping by this step to reconcile the people to his government. He was joined before Jerusalem by Sosius, the president of Syria, whom Antony had sent to his assistance with a powerful army, which raised the whole investing force to above 60,000 men. The city withstood a vigorous siege of above half a year, and was then taken by storm. Exasperated at the obstinate resistance they had encountered, the Roman soldiers pillaged the city, and massacred the inhabitants without mercy. Jerusalem would probably have been destroyed, had not Herod ransomed it with gold. Antigonus surrendered himself to Sosius, and showing less of the hero than had been expected from him, was treated with contempt. He was sent in chains to Antioch, where be was ultimately, at the solicitation of Herod, put to death, with such contumely as had never before been shown by the Romans to a crowned head.

7. Thus ended the Asamonean dynasty, after it had subsisted 126 years. In its later struggles for existence, the most devoted and even obstinate attachment to it was evinced by the great mass of the Jewish people; and it was because nothing would induce them to acknowledge one of another family as king while Antigonus lived, that Herod determined in procuring his death. After that, the Jews sullenly and gradually submitted to what they could not avoid, Herod being upheld by Roman swords.

Period Robes