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thither according to his orders. A great number of Jews went thither also to demand that they should be freed from the government of both the one and the other. They represented, that they ought not to be ruled by kings; that they had long been accustomed to obey only the high-priest, who, without any other title, administered justice according to the laws and constitutions transmitted down to them from their forefathers: that the two brothers were indeed of the sacerdotal line; but that they had changed the form of the government for a new one, which would enslave them, if not remedied.*

Hyrcanus complained, that Aristobulus had unjustly deprived him of his birthright, by usurping every thing, and leaving him only a small estate for his subsistence. He accused him also of practising piracy at sea, and of plundering his neighbours by land. And, to confirm what he alleged against hini, he produced almost a thousand Jews, the principals of the nation, whom Antipater had brought expressly to support, by their testimony, what that prince had to say against his brother.

Aristobulus replied to this, that Hyrcanus had been deposed only for his incapacity; that his sloth and indolence rendered him entirely incapable of the public affairs; that the people despised him; and that he, Aristobulus, had been obliged to take the reins of government into his own hands, to prevent them from falling into those of strangers. In fine, that he bore no other title than his father Alexander had done before him. And in proof of what he advanced, he produced a great number of the young nobility of the country, who appeared with all possible splendour and magnificence. Their superb habits, haughty manners, and proud demeanour, did no great service to his cause.

Pompey heard enough to discern, that the conduct of Aristobulus was violent and unjust, but would not, however, pronounce immediately upon it, lest Aristobulus, out of resentment, should oppose his designs against Arabia, which he had much at heart; he therefore dismissed the two brothers respectfully, and told them, that at his return from reducing Aretas and his Arabihe should pass through Judea, and that he would then regulate their affair, and make the necessary disposition of all things.

ans,

Áristobulus, who fully penetrated Pompey's sentiments, set out suddenly from Damascus, without paying him the least instance of respect, returned into Judea, armed his subjects, and prepared far a vigorous defence. By this conduct he made Pompey his mortal enemy.

Pompey applied himself also in making preparations for the Arabian war. Aretas, till then, had despised the Roman arms; but when he saw them at his door, and that victorious army ready to enter his dominions, he sent an embassy to make his submissions. Pompey, however, advanced as far as Petra his capital, which he took. Aretas was taken in it. Pompey at first kept him under a guard, but at length he was released upon accepting the conditions imposed on him by the victor, who soon after returned to Damascus.

He was not apprized till then of the proceedings of Aristobulus in Judea. He marched thither with his army, and found Aristobulus posted in the castle of Alexandrion, which stood upon a high mountain at the entrance of the country. The place was extremely strong, built by his father Alexander, who had given his name to it. Pompey sent to order him to come down to him. Aristobulus was not much inclined to comply, but he at last yielded to the opinion of those about him, who, apprehending a war with the Romans, advised him to go. He did so, and after a conversation which turned upon his difference with his brother, he returned into his castle. He repeated the same two or three times, in hopes, by that complacency, to gain upon Pompey, and induce him to decide in his favour. But for fear of accident, he did not omit to put good garrisons into his strong places, and to make all other preparations for a vigorous defence, in case Pompey should decree against him. Pompey, who had advice of his proceedings, the last time he came to him, obliged

*Joseph. Antiq. xiv. 5. Id. de Bel. Jud. 1-5.

him to put them all into his hands, by way of sequestration, and made him sign orders for that purpose to all commanders of those places.

war.

Aristobulus, incensed at the violence which had been done him, as soon as he was released, made all haste to Jerusalem, and prepared every thing for His resolutions to keep the crown, made him the sport of the different passions, hope and fear. When he saw the least appearance that Pompey would decide in his favour, he made use of all the arts of complacency to incline him to it. When, on the contrary, he had the least reason to suspect that he would declare against him, he observed a directly opposite conduct. Such was the contrariety visible in the different steps he took throughout this affair.

Pompey followed him closely. The first place where he encamped in his way to Jerusalem, was Jericho; there he received the news of the death of Mithridates, as we shall see in the following book.

He continued his march toward Jerusalem. When he approached, Aristobulus, who began to repent of what he had done, came out to meet him, and endeavoured to bring him to an accommodation, by promising an entire submission, and a great sum of money to prevent the war. Pompey accepted his offers, and sent Gabinius, at the head of a detachment, to receive the money; but when that officer arrived at Jerusalem, he found the gates shut against him, and, instead of receiving the money, he was told from the top of the walls, that the city would not stand to the agreement. Pompey thereupon, not being willing that they should deceive him with impunity, ordered Aristobulus, whom he had kept with him, to be put in irons, and advanced with his whole army against Jerusalem. The city was extremely strong by its situation, and the works which had been made; and had it not been divided within against itself, was capable of making a long defence.

The party of Aristobulus wished to defend the place, especially when they saw that Pompey kept their king prisoner. But the adherents of Hyrcanus were determined to open the gates to that general. And as the latter were much the greater number, the other party retired to the mountain where the temple stood, to defend it, and caused the bridges of the ditch and valley, which surrounded it, to be broken down. Pompey, to whom the city immediately opened its gates, resolved to besiege the temple. The place held out three months, and would have done so much longer, and perhaps compelled the Romans to abandon their enterprise, but for the superstitious rigour with which the besieged observed the sabbath. They believed, indeed, that they might defend themselves when attacked, but not that they might prevent the works of the enemy, or make any for themselves. The Romans knew how to take advantage of this inaction. They did not attack the Jews on those days, but filled up the fosses, made their approaches, and fixed their engines without opposition. They threw down at length a great tower, with which so great a part of the wall fell, that the breach was large enough for an assault. The place was carried by storm, and a terrible slaughter ensued, in which more than twelve thousand persons were killed.

History observes, that during the tumult, cries, and disorder of this slaugh ter, the priests, who were at that time employed in divine service, continued it with surprising firmness, notwithstanding the rage of their enemies, and their grief at seeing their friends and relations massacred before their eyes. Many of them saw their own blood mingle with that of the sacrifices they offered, and the sword of the enemy make themselves the victims of their duty; happy, and worthy of being envied, if they were as faithful to the spirit, as the letter of it! Pompey, with many of his superior officers, entered the temple, and not only into the sanctuary, but into the Sanctum Sanctorum, into which, by the law, only the high-priest was permitted to enter once a year, upon the solemn day of expiation. This was what afflicted and enraged the Jews most against the Romans.

Pompey did not touch the treasures of the temple, which consisted principally in sums that had been deposited there by private families for their better security. Those sums amounted to two thousand talents in specie, without reckoning the gold and silver vessels, which were innumerable, and of infinite value. It was not, says Cicero, out of respect for the majesty of the God adored in that temple, that Pompey behaved in this manner; for, according to him, nothing was more contemptible than the Jewish religion, more unworthy the wisdom and grandeur of the Romans, nor more opposite to the institutions of their ancestors." Pompey, in this noble disinterestedness, had no other motive, than to deprive malice and calumny of all means of attacking his reputation. Such were the thoughts of the most learned of the pagans upon the only religion of the true God. They blasphemed what they knew nothing of..

It has been observed, that till then, Pompey had been successful in all things, but that after this sacrilegious curiosity, his good fortune abandoned him, and that his taking the temple of Jerusalem was his last victory.

SECTION V.-REIGN OF HYRCANUS II. WHICH CONTINUED TWENTY-FOUR YEARS.

POMPEY, having put an end to the war, caused the walls of Jerusalem to be demolished, re-established Hyrcanus, and sent Aristobulus, with his two sons, Alexander and Antigonus, prisoners to Rome. He dismembered several cities from the kingdom of Judea, which he united with the government of Syria, imposed a tribute upon Hyrcanus, and left the administration of affairs to Antipater, who was at the court of Hyrcanus, and one of his principal ministers. Alexander made his escape upon the way to Rome, and returned into Judea, where he afterwards excited new troubles.†

Hyrcanus, finding himself too weak to take the field against him, had recourse to the arms of the Romans. Gabinius, governor of Syria, after having overthrown Alexander in a battle, went to Jerusalem, and reinstated Hyrcanus in the high-priesthood.§ He made great alterations in the civil government, for from monarchial, as it had been, he changed it into aristocratical; but these innovations were of short duration.

Crassus, in his march against the Parthians, always intent upon gratifying his insatiable avarice, stopped at Jerusalem, where he had been told great treasures were laid up. He plundered the temple of all the riches in it, which amounted to the sum of ten thousand talents.

Cæsar, after his expedition into Egypt, having arrived in Syria, Antigonus, who had made his escape from Rome, with his father Aristobulus, came to throw himself at his feet, begged him to re-establish him upon the throne of his father, who was lately dead, and made great complaints against Antipater and Hyrcanus. Cæsar had too great obligations to both, to do any thing contrary to their interests; for, as we shall see in the sequel, without the aid he had received from them, his expedition into Egypt would have miscarried. He decreed that Hyrcanus should retain the dignity of high-priest of Jerusalem, and the sovereignty of Judea, to himself and his posterity after him for ever, and gave Antipater the office of procurator of Judea, under Hyrcanus. By this decree the aristocracy of Gabinius was abolished, and the government of Judea re-established on its ancient footing.

Antipater caused the government of Jerusalem to be given to Phasael his eldest son, and that of Galilee to Herod his second son.

**

Cn. Pompeius, captis Hierosolymis, victor ex illo fano nihil attigit. In primis hoc, ut multa alia, sapientur, quod in tam suspiciosa, ac maledica civitate, locum sermoni obtrectatorum non reliquit. Non enim credo religionem et Judæorum et hostium impedimento, prestantissimo imperatori, sed pudorem fuisse-istorum religio sacrorum a splendore hujus imperii, gravitate nominis vestri, majorum institutis abhorrebat.pro Flacco. n. 67-69.

Cic.

†A. M. 3941. Ant. J. C. 63.

Joseph. Antiq. xiv. 10. Id de Bel. Jud. 1, 6.

A. M. 3947. Ant. J. C. 57.

A. M. 3940. Ant. J. C. 64. TA. M. 3957. Ant. J. C. 47. Joseph. Antiq. xiv. xv. de Bell. Jud 1. 8. **Joseph. Antiq. xiv. 17. de Bell. Jud. i. 8.

Cæsar, at the request of Hyrcanus, and in consideration of the services he had rendered him in Egypt and Syria, permitted him to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, which Pompey had caused to be demolished. Antipater, without losing time, began the work, and the city was soon fortified as it had been be fore the demolition. Cæsar was killed this year.*

During the civil wars, Judea, as well as all the other provinces of the Roman empire, was agitated by violent troubles..

Pacorus, son of Orodes king of Parthia, had entered Syria with a powerful army. From thence he sent a detachment into Judea, with orders to place Antigonus, the son of Aristobulus, upon the throne, who on his side had also raised troops. Hyrcanus, and Phasael, Herod's brother, upon proposal of an accommodation, had the imprudence to go to the enemy, who seized them, and put them in irons. Herod escaped from Jerusalem the moment before the Parthians entered it, to seize him also.t

Having missed Herod, they plundered the city and country, placed Antigonus upon the throne, and delivered Hyrcanus and Phasael in chains into his hands. Phasael, who well knew that his death was resolved, dashed out his brains against the wall, to avoid the hands of the executioner. As for Hyrcanus, his life was granted him: but, to render him incapable of the highpriesthood, Antigonus caused his ears to be cut off: for, according to the Levitical law, it was requisite that the high-priest should be perfect in all his members. After having thus mutilated him, he gave him back to the Parthians that they might carry him into the east, from whence it would not be possible for him to embroil affairs in Judea. He continued a prisoner at Seleucia in Babylonia, till the coming of Phraates to the crown, who caused his chains to be taken off, and gave him entire liberty to see and converse with the Jews of that country, who were very numerous. They looked upon him as their king and high-priest, and raised him a revenue sufficient to support his rank with splendour. The love of his native country made him forget all those advantages. He returned the year following to Jerusalem, whither Herod had invited him to come, but put him to death some years afterwards.§

Herod at first took refuge in Egypt, from whence he went to Rome. Antony was then in the high degree of power, which the triumvirate had given him. He took Herod under his protection, and even did more in his favour than he expected. For, instead of what he proposed, which was at most to obtain the crown for Aristobulus, whose sister Mariamne he had lately married, with the view of only governing under him, as Antipater had done under Hyrcanus, Antony caused the crown to be conferred upon himself, contrary to the usual maxim of the Romans in like cases. For it was not their custom to violate the rights of the royal houses, which acknowledged them for protectors, and to give crowns to strangers. Herod was declared king of Judea by the senate, and conducted by the consuls to the Capitol, where he received the investiture of the crown, with the ceremonies usual upon such occasions.

Herod passed only seven days at Rome in negotiating this great affair, and returned speedily into Judea. He employed no more time than three months in his journeys by sea and land.

SECTION VI.-REIGN OF ANTIGONUS, WHICH CONTINUED ONLY TWO YEARS. It was not so easy for Herod to establish himself in the possession of the kingdom of Judea, as it had been to obtain his title from the Romans. Antigonus was not inclined to resign a throne which had cost him so much pains

* A. M. 3960. Ant. J. C. 44. Joseph. Antiq. xiv. 17. †A. M. 3961. Ant. J. C. 43. Joseph. Antiq. xix. 24, 26. Id. de Bell. Jud. i. 11. Lev. xxi. 16-24. Joseph. Antiq. xv. 2. Aristobulus was the son of Alexandra, daughter of Hyrcanus; and his father was Alexander, son of Aristobulus, brother of Hyrcanus; so that the right of both brothers to the crown was united in his person

T

281

and money to acquire. He disputed it with him very vigorously for almost two years.*

Herod, who during the winter had made great preparations for the following campaign, opened it at length with the siege of Jerusalem, which he invested at the head of a fine and numerous army. Antony had given orders to Sosius, governor of Syria, to use his utmost endeavours to reduce Antigonus, and to put Herod in full possession of the kingdom of Judea.t

While the works necessary to the siege were carrying on, Herod made a tour to Samaria, and at length consummated his marriage with Mariamne. They had been contracted four years to each other; but the unforeseen troubles into which he fell, had prevented their consummating the marriage till then. She was the daughter of Alexander, the son of king Aristobulus, and Alexandra the daughter of Hyrcanus II. She was a princess of extraordinary beauty and virtue and possessed in an eminent degree all the other qualities that adorn the sex. The attachment of the Jews to the Asmonæan family, made Herod imagine, that by espousing her, he should find no difficulty in gaining their affections, which was one of his reasons for consummating his marriage at that time.

On his return to Jerusalem, Sosius and he, having joined their forces, prosecuted the siege in concert with the utmost vigour, and with a numerous army, which amounted to at least sixty thousand men. The place, however, held out against them many months with exceeding resolution; and if the besieged had been as expert in the art of war and the defence of places, as they were brave and resolute, it would not perhaps have been taken. But the Romans, who were much better skilled in those things than they, carried the place after a siege of something more than six months.

The Jews being driven from their posts, the enemy entered on all sides, and made themselves masters of the city. And to revenge the obstinate resistance they had met with, and the pains they had suffered during so long and difficult a siege, they filled all quarters of Jerusalem with blood and slaughter, and plundered and destroyed all before them, though Herod did his utmost to prevent them.‡

Antigonus, seeing all lost, came and threw himself at the feet of Sosius in the most submissive and most abject manner. He was put in chains, and sent to Antony, as soon as he arrived at Antioch. He designed at first to have reserved him for his triumph; but Herod, who did not think himself safe as long as that branch of the royal family survived, would not let him rest until he had obtained the death of that unfortunate prince, for which he even gave a large sum of money.§ He was proceeded against in form, condemned to die, and had the sentence executed upon him in the same manner as common criminals, with the rods and axes of the lictor, and was fastened to a stake; a treatment with which the Romans had never used any crowned head before.

Thus ended the reign of the Asmonæans, after a duration of one hundred and twenty-nine years, from the beginning of the government of Judas Maccabeus. Herod entered by this means upon the peaceable possession of the kingdom of Judea.

This extraordinary, and till then unexampled event, by which the sovereign authority over the Jews was given to a stranger, an Idumæan, ought to have opened their eyes, and rendered them attentive to a celebrated prophecy, which had foretold it in clear terms; had given it as the certain mark of another event, in which the whole nation was interested, which was the perpetual object of their vows and hopes, and distinguished them by a peculiar characteristic from all the other nations of the world, who had an equal interest in it, but

* A. M. 3965. Ant. J. C. 39.

A. M. 3966. Ant. J. C. 38. Joseph. Antiq. 1. xiv. 27. Id. de Bell. Jud. i. 13.
A. M. 3967. Ant. J. C. 37.

Joseph. Antiq. ibid.

Plut. in Anton. p. 932. Dion. Cass. 1, 49, p. 405.

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