صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

shortly after, upon a false accusation, put him to death. He confined the other three in prison during his life.

When Aristobulus had fully possessed himself of the authority his father had enjoyed, he entered into a war with the Ituræans, and after having subjected the greatest part of them, he obliged them to embrace Judaism, as Hyrcanus had the Idumæans some years before. He gave them the alternative, either to be circumcised and profess the Jewish religion, or to quit their country, and seek a settlement elsewhere. They chose to stay, and comply with what was required of them, and were incorporated with the Jews, both in religious and political affairs. This practice became a fundamental maxim with the Asmonæans. It shows, that they had not a just idea of religion at that time, which does not impose itself by force, and which ought not to be received but voluntarily and by persuasion. Ituræa, inhabited by the people in question, was a part of Colosyria, on the northeast frontier of Israel, between the inheritance of the half tribe of Manasseh on the other side of the Jordan, and the territory of Damascus.*

A distemper obliged Aristobulus to return from Ituræa to Jerusalem, and to leave the command of the army to his brother Antigonus, to put an end to the war he had begun. The queen and her party, who envied Antigonus the king's favour, took advantage of this illness, to alienate the king from him by false reports and vile calumnies. Antigonus returned to Jerusalem soon after the successes by which he had terminated the war. His entry was a kind of triumph. They were then celebrating the feast of the tabernacles. He went directly to the temple with his guards, completely armed as he had entered the city, without giving himself time to change any part of his equipage. This was made a crime with the king; who, otherwise prejudiced against him, sent him orders to disarm himself, and come to him as soon as possible; conceiv ing that, if he refused to obey, it was a proof of some bad design; and in that case, he gave orders that he should be killed. The person sent by Aristobulus was gained by the queen and her partizans, and told him the order quite differently, that the king desired to see him completely armed as he was. Antigonus went directly to wait on him; and the guards, who saw him come in arms, obeyed their orders, and killed him.

Aristobulus, having discovered all that had passed, was violently affected with it, and inconsolable for his death. Tormented with remorse of conscience for this murder, and that of his mother, he led a miserable life, and expired at last in the greatest grief and despair.

SECTION II.-REIGN OF ALEXANDER JANNEUS, WHICH CONTINUED TWENTYSEVEN YEARS.

As

SALOME, the wife of Aristobulus, immediately after his death, took the three princes out of the prison, in which they had been confined by her husband. Alexander Jannæus, the eldest of the three, was crowned. He put his next brother to death, who had endeavoured to deprive him of the crown. for the third, named Absalom, who was of a peaceable disposition, and who had no thoughts but of living in tranquillity as a private person, he granted him his favour, and protected him during his whole life. No more is said of him, than that he gave his daughter in marriage to the youngest son of his brother Alexander, and that he served him against the Romans at the siege of Jerusalem, in which he was made prisoner forty-two years after, when the temple was taken by Pompey.

While all this passed, the two kings of Syria, of whom Grypus reigned at Antioch, and Antiochus of Cyzicum at Damascus, made a cruel war upon each other, although they were brothers. Cleopatra and Alexander, the youngest of her sons, reigned in Egypt, and Ptolemy Lathyrus, the eldest, in Cyprus. * A. M. 3998. Ant. J. C. 106. Joseph. Antiq. xiii. 19. Id. de Bel. Jud. 1. 3. Ant. J. C. 105. Joseph. Antiq. xiii. 20. Id. de Bel. Jud. 1. 3. Id. Antiq. xiv. 8.

, A. M. 3899.

273 Alexander Jannæus, some time after he returned to Jerusalem, and had taken possession of the throne, had set a good army on foot, which passed the Jordan, and formed the siege of Gadara. At the end of ten months, having made himself master of that city, he took several other very strong places, situated also on the other side of the Jordan. But not being sufficiently upon his guard in his return, he was beaten by the enemy, and lost ten thousand men, with all the spoils he had taken, and his own baggage. He returned to Jerusalem in the highest affliction for this loss, and the shame with which it was attended. He had even the mortification to see that many people, instead of lamenting his misfortune, took a malignant joy in it; for, from the quarrel of Hyrcanus with the Pharisees, they had always been the enemies of his house, and especially of this Alexander. And as they had drawn almost all the people into their party, they had so strongly prejudiced and inflamed them against him, that all the disorders and commotions, with which his whole reign was embroiled, flowed from this source.

This loss, great as it was, did not prevent his going to seize Raphia and An thedon, when he saw the coast of Gaza without defence, after the departure of Lathyrus. These two posts, which were only a few miles from Gaza, were kept in a manner blocked up, which was what he proposed when he attacked them. He had never forgiven the inhabitants of Gaza for calling in Lathyrus against him, and giving him troops, which had contributed to gaining the fatal battle of Jordan; and he earnestly sought all occasions to avenge himself upon them.*

As soon as his affairs would permit, he came with a numerous army to be siege their city, Apollodorus, the governor of it, defended the place a whole year with a valour and prudence that acquired him great reputation. His own brother Lysimachus could not see his glory without envy, and that base passion induced him to assassinate the governor. That wretch afterwards associated with some others as bad as himself, and surrendered the city to Alexander. Upon his entrance, it was thought by his behaviour, and the orders he gave, that he intended to use his victory with clemency and moderation. But as soon as he saw himself master of all the posts, and that there was nothing to oppose him, he gave his soldiers permission to kill, plunder and destroy; and immediately all the barbarity that could be imagined was exercised upon that unfortunate city. The pleasure of revenge cost him very dear. For the inhabitants of Gaza defended themselves like men in despair, and killed almost an equal number of his people. But, at length, he satiated his brutal revenge, and reduced that ancient and famous city to a heap of ruins; after which he returned to Jerusalem. This war employed him a year.

Some time after, the people affronted him in the most heinous manner.§ At the feast of the tabernacles, while he was in the temple offering a solemn sacrifice, in quality of high-priest, upon the altar of burnt-offerings, they threw lemons at his head, calling him a thousand injurious names, and among the rest, giving him that of slave; a reproach which sufficiently argued that they looked upon him as unworthy of the crown and pontificate. This was an effect of what Eleazer had presumed to advance, that the mother of Hyrcanus had been a captive. These indignities enraged Alexander to such a degree, that he attacked those insolent people in person, at the head of his guards, and killed to the number of six thousand of them. Seeing how much the Jews were disaffected toward him, he was afraid to trust his person any longer to them, and used foreign troops for his guard, whom he caused to come from Pisidia and Cilicia. Of these he formed a body of six thousand men, who attended him every where.

When Alexander saw the storm which had arisen against him a little appeased by the terror of the revenge he had taken for it, he turned his arms

• A. M. 3904. Ant. J. C. 100.

VOL. IV.

A. M. 3909.
18

† A. M. 3906.
Ant. J. C. 95.

Ant. J. C. 98.
A. M. 3907. Ant. J. C. 97
Joseph. Antiq. xiii. 21.

against the enemy abroad. After having obtained some advantages over them, he fell into an ambuscade, wherein he lost great part of his army, and escaped himself with great difficulty.* At his return to Jerusalem, the Jews, incensed at his defeat, revolted against him. They vainly flattered themselves, that they should find him so much weakened and dejected by his loss, that there would be no difficulty in completing his destruction, which they had so long desired. Alexander, who wanted neither application nor valour, and who be sides, had more than a common capacity, soon found means to oppose them. A civil war ensued between him and his subjects, which continued six years, and occasioned great misfortunes to both parties. The rebels were defeated upon many occasions.t

Alexander, having taken a city where many of them had shut themselves up, carried eight hundred of them to Jerusalem, and caused them all to be crucified in one day; when they were fixed to the cross, he ordered their wives and children to be brought out, and to have their throats cut before their faces. During this cruel execution, the king regaled his wives and concubines in a place from whence they saw all that passed; and this sight was to him and them the principal part of the entertainment. Horrid gratification! This civil war, during the six years that it lasted, cost the lives of more than fifty thousand men on the side of the rebels.

Alexander, after having put an end to it, undertook many other foreign expeditions with very great success. Upon his return to Jerusalem, he abandoned himself to intemperance and excess of wine, which brought a quartan ague upon him, of which he died at the end of three years, after having reigned twenty-seven.§

He left two sons, Hyrcanus and Aristobulus; but he decreed by his will, that Alexandra, his wife, should govern the kingdom during her life, and choose which of her sons she thought fit to succeed her.

SECTION III.-REIGN OF ALEXANDRA, THE WIFE OF ALEXANDER JANNEUS, WHICH CONTINUED NINE YEARS.

ACCORDING to the advice of her husband, Alexandra submitted herself and her children to the power of the Pharisees, declaring to them, that in doing so, she only conformed to the last will of her husband.

By this step she gained so much upon them, that, forgetting their hatred for the dead, though they carried it during his life as far as possible, they changed it on a sudden into a respect and veneration for his memory, and instead of the invectives and reproaches they had always abundantly vented against him, nothing was heard but praises and panegyrics, wherein they exalted immoderately the great actions of Alexander, by which the nation had been aggrandized, and its power, honour, and credit much augmented. By this means, they brought over the people so effectually, whom till then they had always irritated against him, that they celebrated his funeral with greater pomp and magnificence than that of any of his predecessors; and Alexandra, according to the intent of his will, was confirmed sovereign administratrix of the nation. We see from hence, that a blind and unlimited conformity to the power and will of the Pharisees, stood with them for every kind of merit, and made all failings, and even crimes, disappear as effectually as if they had never been; which is very common with those who are fond of ruling.

When that princess saw herself well established, she caused her eldest son Hyrcanus to be received as high-priest; he was then near thirty years of age. According to her promise, she gave the administration of all important affairs to the Pharisees. The first thing they did was to repeal the decree, by which John Hyrcanus, father of the two last kings, had abolished all their traditional

A. M. 3910. Ant. J. C. 94.

†A. M. 3912.
A. M. 3925.

Ant. J. C. 92.
Ant. J. C, 79.

A. M. 3918. Ant. J. C. 86.

|| A. M. 3926. Ant. J. C. 78. Joseph. Antiq. xiii. 23, 24. et De Bell. Jud 1. 4.

constitutions, which were afterwards more generally received than ever. They persecuted with great cruelty all those who had declared themselves their enemies in the preceding reigns, without the queen's being able to prevent them; because she had circumscribed her own power, by putting herself into that of the Pharisees. She had seen in her husband's time what a civil war was, and the infinite misfortunes with which it is attended. She was afraid of kindling a new one, and not knowing any other means to prevent it, than to give way to the violence of those revengeful and inexorable men, she believed it necessary to suffer a less, by way of precaution against a greater evil.

What we have said upon this head, may contribute very much to our having a right sense of the state of the Jewish nation, and of the characters of those who governed it.

The Pharisees always continued their persecutions against those who had opposed them under the late king. They made them accountable for all the cruelties and faults with which they thought proper to blacken his memory. They had already got rid of many of their enemies, and invented every day new articles of accusation to destroy those who gave them most umbrage among such as still survived.*

The friends and partisans of the late king, seeing no end to these persecutions, and that their destruction was sworn, assembled at last, and came in a body to wait on the queen, with Aristobulus, her second son, at their head. They represented to her the services they had done the late king; their fidelity and attachment to him in all his wars, and in all the difficulties with which he had been involved during the troubles. That it was very hard at present, under her government, that every thing they had done for him, should be made criminal, and to see themselves sacrificed to the implacable hatred of their enemies, solely for their adherance to herself and her family. They implored her either to put a stop to such sort of inquiries, or, if that was not in her power, to permit them to retire out of the country, to seek an asylum elsewhere: at least they begged her to put them into garrisoned places, where they might find some security against the violence of their enemies.

The queen was as much affected as it was possible to be with the condition in which she saw them, and the injustice done them. But it was out of her power to do for them all she desired; for she had given herself masters, by engaging to act in nothing without the consent of the Pharisees. How dangerous is it to invest such people with too much authority! They exclaimed, that it would be putting a stop to the course of justice, to suspend the inquiries after the culpable; that such a proceeding was what no government ought to suffer; and that therefore they would never assent to it. On the other side, the queen believed, that she ought not to give her consent, that the real and faithful friends of her family should abandon their country in such a manner; because she would then lie at the mercy of a turbulent faction without any support, and would have no recourse in case of necessity. She resolved, therefore, upon the third point they had proposed to her, and dispersed them into the places where she had garrisons. She found two advantages in that conduct; the first was, that their enemies dared not to attack them in those fortresses, where they would have their arms in their hands; and the second, that they would always be a body of reserve, upon which she could rely upon occasion, in case of any rupture.

Some years after, the queen fell sick of a very dangerous distemper, which brought her to the point of death. As soon as Aristobulus, her youngest son, saw that she could not recover, as he had long formed the design of seizing the crown at her death, he stole out of Jerusalem in the night, with only one domestic, and went to the places in which, according to a plan he had given them, the friends of his father had been placed in garrison. He was received

* A. M. 3931. Ant. J. C. 73. Joseph. Antiq. xiii. 24. et de Bell. Jud. 1. 4.

in them with open arms, and in fifteen days time twenty-two of those towns and castles declared for him, which put him in possession of almost all the forces of the state. The people, as well as the army, were entirely inclined to declare for him, weary of the cruel administration of the Pharisees, who had governed without control under Alexandra, and were become insupportable to all the world. They came therefore in crowds from all sides to follow the standard of Aristobulus; in hopes that he would abolish the tyranny of the Pharisees, which could not be expected from Hyrcanus his brother, who had been brought up by his mother in a blind submission to that sect; besides which, he had neither the courage nor capacity necessary to so vigorous a design, for he was heavy and indolent, void of activity and application, and of a very mean genius.*

When the Pharisees saw that the party of Aristobolus augmented considerably, they went, with Hyrcanus at their head, to represent to the dying queen what had passed, and to demand her orders and assistance. She answered, that she was no longer in a condition to intermeddle with such affairs, and that she left the care of them to the Pharisees. She, however, appointed Hyrcanus her heir, and expired soon after.

As soon as she was dead, he took possession of the throne, and the Pharisees used all their endeavours to support him upon it. When Aristobulus quitted Jerusalem, they caused his wife and children, whom he had left behind him, to be shut up in the castle of Baris,† as hostages against himself. But seeing this did not stop him, they raised an army. Aristobulus did the same. A battle near Jericho decided the quarrel. Hyrcanus, abandoned by most part of his troops, who went over to his brother, was obliged to fly to Jerusalem, and to shut himself up in the castle of Baris: his partizans took refuge in the temple. Some time after, they also submitted to Aristobulus, and Hyrcanus was obliged to come to an accommodation with him.

SECTION IV.-REIGN OF ARISTOBULUS II. WHICH CONTINUED SIX YEARS.

It was agreed by the accommodation, that Aristobulus should have the crown and high-priesthood, and that Hyrcanus should resign both to him, and content himself with a private life, under the protection of his brother, and with the enjoyment of his fortunes. It was not difficult to reconcile him to this; for he loved quiet and ease above all things, and quitted the government after having possessed it three months. The tyranny of the Pharisees ended with his reign, after having greatly distressed the Jewish nation from the death of Alexander Jannæus.

The troubles of the state, to which the ambition of Antipas, better known under the name of Antipater, father of Herod, gave birth, were not so soon appeased. He was by extraction an Idumæan, and a Jew by religion, as were all the Idumæans, from the period Hyrcanus had obliged them to embrace Judaism. As he had been brought up in the court of Alexander Jannæus, and of Alexandra his wife, who reigned after him, he had gained the ascendant over Hyrcanus their eldest son, with the hope of raising himself by his favour, when he should succeed to the crown. But when he saw all his measures broken by the deposition of Hyrcanus, and the coronation of Aristobulus, from whom he had nothing to expect, he employed his whole address and application to replace Hyrcanus upon the throne.§

The latter, by his secret negotiations, had at first applied to Aretas, king of Arabia Petrea, for aid to reinstate himself. After various events, which I pass over to avoid prolixity, he had recourse to Pompey, who, on his return from his expedition against Mithridates, had arrived in Syria. He there took cognizance of the competition between Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, who repaired

↑ Baris

same rock.

* A. M. 3934. Ant. J. C. 70.

sa castle situated upon a high rock, without the works of the temple, which were upon the t A. M. 3935. Ant. J. C. 69. Joseph. Antiq. xiv. 2. et De Bell. Jud. 1-3.

A. M. 3939. Ant. J. C. 65. Joseph. Antiq. xiv. 28. et de Bell. Jud. 1-5.

« السابقةمتابعة »