� 11. Alexandra, B.C. 78-69

§ 11. ALEXANDRA, B.C. 78-69
SOURCES
Josephus, Antiq. xiii. 16; Wars of the Jews, i. 5. Summary in Zonaras, Annal. v. 5.
Rabbinical traditions in Derenbourg, pp. 102-112.
The coins in Madden, Coins of the Jews (1881), p. 91 sq.
LITERATURE
JOH. MÜLLER (praeside G. G. Zeltner), De Alexandra Judaeorum regina tanquam specimine sapientis ex hac gente foeminae. Altdorffi 1711.
EWALD, History of Israel, v. 392-394.
GRÄTZ, Geschichte der Juden, iii., 4 Aufl. pp. 136-150.
HITZIG, Geschichte der Volkes Israel, ii. 488-490.
WELLHAUSEN, Die Pharisäer und Sadducäer (1874), pp. 97-99.
ACCORDING to the latest expression of Alexander’s will, the succession of the throne went to his widow Alexandra, who again nominated her eldest son Hyrcanus high priest.[346] Alexandra, or, as her Hebrew name runs, Salome, B.C. 78-69, was in all respects the direct antithesis of her husband.[347] While he hated the Pharisees, and was hated by them, she befriended them, and committed to them the helm of government. While he was a despot of the real Oriental type, she was a God-fearing ruler, according to the very ideal of the Pharisees. Her rule, measured by the Pharisaic standard, was faultless.
[346] Josephus, Antiq. xvi. 1-2; Wars of the Jews, i. 5. 1.—Only a couple of coins of Alexandra’s are known, bearing the inscription ΒΑΣΙΛΙΣ. ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔ. See de Saulcy, Recherches, p. 106. Cavedoni, Bibl. Numismatik, ii. 23. Levy, Geschichte der jüd. Münzen, p. 61. Madden, History of Jewish Coinage, pp. 70-72. Reichardt, Wiener Numismat. Monatshefte, iii. 1867, p. 111 f. Madden, Numismatic Chronicle, 1874, 308-310. Merzbacher, Zeitschrift für Numismatik, iii. 1876, 201. Madden, Coins of the Jews, p. 91 sq.
[347] On the chronology, see above, p. 272.—On the Hebrew name, see especially Derenbourg, p. 102, for the rabbinical tradition. In Eusebius, Chronicon ad annum Abr. 1941, she is called Alexandra quae et Salina. In accordance with this see the Armenian translation and Jerome; see Eusebius, Chronicon, ed. Schoene, ii. 134, 135. So, too, the imitators and continuators of Eusebius, Chronicon paschale, ed. Dindorf, i. 351 (Ἀλεξάνδρας τῆς Σαλίνας). Syncellus, ed. Dindorf, i. 559 (Σαλίνα ἡ καὶ Ἀλεξάνδρα). Accordingly, in Eusebius, Chronicon, ed. Schoene, i. 130, instead of the Σααλίνα of the common text, we should read, not Σαλλίνα, with Gutschmid, but Σαλίνα. Compare also Jerome, comment. on Daniel 9:24 sqq. (Opp. ed. Vallarsi, v. 687): Alexandra quae et Salina vocabatur. Jerome there translates Eusebius, Demonstr. evangel. viii. 2; but just where these words occur our Greek text is defective.—Josephus calls her only Alexandra. See further, above, p. 295.
Alexander, upon his deathbed, is said to have advised his wife to make peace with the Pharisees.[348] This may be true, or it may not; this at least is a fact, that Alexandra, from the beginning of her reign, took her stand unhesitatingly on the side of the Pharisees, lent an ear to their demands and wishes, and in particular gave legal sanction again to all the Pharisaic ordinances abolished since the time of John Hyrcanus. During these years the Pharisees were the real rulers in the land. “She had indeed the name of regent, but the Pharisees had the authority; for it was they who restored such as were banished, and set such as were prisoners at liberty, and to say all at once, they differed in nothing from lords.”[349] To this period of Pharisaic reaction we may also assign a series of triumphs of the Pharisees, of which a report is given in the rabbinical traditions. But the authentic accounts which are given of these in the Festival-Calendar (Megillath Taanith, i.e. the list of the joyous days of thanksgiving on which fasting was not to be practised) are so brief and enigmatical, that they afford no satisfactory historical basis. And the quite modern Hebrew commentary thereon gives purely worthless fancies.[350] Also the statement of the Mishna, that Simon ben Shetach had once caused eighty women to be hanged in Ascalon, cannot be used for this reason, that that celebrated rabbi had no connection with Ascalon.[351] Historical information is therefore wholly to be derived from Josephus. And the picture of this queen with which he presents us, in respect of vividness leaves nothing to be desired. The Pharisees, conscious of their power, went so far as to cause the execution of the former counsellors of King Alexander who had advised him to massacre the 800 rebels. This despotic proceeding did not involve in ruin the aristocracy of Jerusalem. An embassy representing them, including Alexandra’s own son Aristobulus, approached the queen, and besought her to put a stop to the scheme of the Pharisees; and the queen was obliged, whether she wished it or not, to consent thereto.[352]
[348] Josephus, Antiq. xiii. 15. 5.—According to the Talmud, Sota 22b, in Derenbourg, p. 101, he is said to have given this advice: “Fear neither the Pharisees nor their opponents, but fear the hypocrites who pretend to be Pharisees, whose deeds are those of Zimri, and who claim a reward like that of Phinehas.”
[349] Josephus, Antiq. xiii. 16. 2: Πάντα τοῖς Φαρισαίοις ἐπιτοέπει ποιεῖν, οἶς καὶ τὸ πλῆθος ἐκέλευσε πειθαρχεῖν, καὶ εἴ τι δὲ καὶ τῶν νομίμων Ὑρκανὸς ὁ πενθερὸς αὐτῆς κατέλυσεν ὦν εἰσήνεγκαν οἱ Φαρισαίοι κατὰ τὴν πατρῴαν μαράδοσιν, τοῦτο πάλιν ἀποκατέστησε. Τὸ μὲν οὖν ὄνομα τῆς βασιλειας εἶχεν αὐτή, τὴν δὲ δύναμιν οἱ Φαρισαῖοι· καὶ γὰρ φυγάδας οὗτοι κατῆγον καὶ δεσμώτας ἔλυον, καὶ καθάπαξ οὐδὲν δεσποτῶν διέφερον. Compare also Wars of the Jews, i. 5. 2.
[350] On Megillath Taanith, see above, p. 163.—The passages in Megillath Taanith that here claim attention are § 1, 2, 10, 19, 24. In addition, see Grätz, Geschichte der Juden, Bd. iii., 4 Aufl. pp. 567-572 (note 1). Derenbourg, p. 102 sq. For criticism, consult Wellhausen, Die Pharisäer und die Sadducäer, pp. 56-63.
[351] M. Sanhedrin vi. 4.—Derenbourg, at p. 69, refers this to Simon the Maccabee; but there is opposition thereto. On p. 106 he attributes it to Simon ben Shetach. Compare also Jost, Geschichte des Judenthums, i. 242. Grätz, Geschichte der Juden, iii. 146 f.—Ascalon did not indeed belong to the Jewish territory. See above, p. 306.
[352] Josephus, Antiq. xiii. 16. 2-3; Wars of the Jews, i. 5. 3.
In her foreign policy Alexandra showed circumspection and energy.[353] There are, however, no very important political events to be recorded during her reign. The most important was a military expedition of her son Aristobulus against Damascus, which, however, ended without result.[354] The Syrian empire was then in the hands of the Armenian king Tigranes. He assumed a threatening attitude toward the end of the reign of Alexandra. The danger, however, that thus hung over Judea was arrested, partly by Alexandra purchasing peace by bestowing rich presents, partly and mainly by the Romans having just then made a descent under Lucullus upon the empire of Tigranes, which obliged him to abandon his plans in regard to Judea.[355]
[353] Josephus, Antiq. xiii. 16. 2 and 6; Wars of the Jews, i. 5. 2.
[354] Josephus, Antiq. xiii. 16. 3; Wars of the Jews, i. 5. 3.
[355] Josephus, Antiq. xiii. 16. 4; Wars of the Jews, i. 5. 3.
Upon the whole, Alexandra’s reign was looked upon by the people as one of prosperity. There was peace abroad as well as at home. The Pharisees were satisfied; and since they had the people at their bidding, all expressed themselves in favour of the God-fearing queen. In the Pharisaic tradition the days of Alexandra are naturally represented as a golden age, in which even the soil of the land, as if blessed on account of the piety of the queen, enjoyed a truly miraculous fruitfulness. “Under Simon ben Shetach and Queen Salome rain fell on the eve of the Sabbath, so that the corns of wheat were as large as kidneys, the barley corns as large as olives, and the lentils like golden denarii; the scribes gathered such corns, and preserved specimens of them in order to show future generations what sin entails.”[356]
[356] Taanith 23a, in Derenbourg, p. 111.
But the Pharisees were not yet so exclusively in possession of power that the queen, without risk, could depend upon their support alone. The influence of the Sadducean nobles was not altogether broken. And the discontent of this circle was all the more considerable, from the fact that at its head stood Alexandra’s own son Aristobulus. The queen must herself have felt, toward the close of her life, on what a shifting foundation she had built. When, in her seventy-third year, she fell sick of a serious complaint, and intended to bestow the succession to the throne upon her elder son Hyrcanus, Aristobulus thought that the time had now arrived for unfurling the standard of revolt. He succeeded in getting the strongest fortresses into his possession. As the number of his adherents rapidly grew, the elders of the people[357] and Hyrcanus became sorely distressed, and made representations to the queen that it was necessary to adopt measures against him. The queen granted the necessary authority for this, but died even before the war broke out, in B.C. 69.[358]
[357] τῶν Ἰουδαίων οἱ πρεσβύτεροι.
[358] Josephus, Antiq. xiii. 16. 5-6; Wars of the Jews, i. 5. 4.—The death of Alexandra occurred in the first half of the year B.C. 69.—Compare above, p. 272.