Samaritans, and destroyed the temple on mount Gerizin, which had been built by Sanballat.* He then subdued the Idumæans ;† and giving them their choice, whether they would embrace Judaism or quit the country, they very generally embraced the former of those alternatives, and became eventually absorbed in the Jewish nation.‡

As soon as Hyrcanus found himself firmly seated on his throne, he sent an embassy to Rome, to renew the alliance which his father had made with them; and his ambassadors were so well received, that the lordly senate took upon itself to decree the restoration of Gazara and Joppa to the Jews, freeing them from all tribute and dependance upon the Syrians. They also gave them money to bear their expenses, wrote letters to all their tributaries to give them a safe and honourable passage through their respective dominions, and promised to send ambassadors of their own, to see them put in secure possession of the places which they had thus decreed to them.§

The next year Hyrcanus renewed the embassy, by sending Alexander, Numenius, and Alexander, the son of Dorotheus, to return thanks to the senate for this favourable decree, and carrying them valuable presents. The senate thereupon made another decree, confirming all that had been granted in favour of the Jews the preceding year.

Prid. i. 489. 502. ii. 365. See post, in Israel.

+ Judæi sunt, qui a natura ita fuerunt ab initio; Idumæi autem non fuerunt Judæi ab initio, sed Phoenices et Syri, a Judæis autem superati, et, ut circumciderentur, et in unam cum eis gentem coirent, et eisdem legibus subderentur adacti, Judæi sunt nominati. Prid. ii. 366. where see also a full discussion relating to these people.

Consisting of a shield and cup, both of solid gold, and of the value of fifty thousand pieces of their current coin. Prid. ii. 371.

Demetrius Nicator, having regained his liberty, had repossessed himself of the throne of Antioch, on the death of Antiochus Sidetes; but was finally defeated by Zebina,* an impostor, and slain at Tyre.† With this intruder, who obtained possession of a great part of the Syrian empire, Hyrcanus made a strict league and alliance, and availed himself of all these divisions and revolutions for consolidating and establishing his Jewish dominions.‡

Zebina being overthrown by Physcon, king of Egypt, Antiochus Grypus, or Antiochus Epiphanes II., and who was the second son of Demetrius Nicator, succeeded to the throne of Syria, and meditated a war with the Jews, probably in revenge for their alliance with the impostor; but whilst preparing his army, he was prevented from his purpose by a rebellion excited against him by his half brother, Antiochus Cyzicenus.§

During the wars between these rival brothers, and which ended in their dividing the empire between them, Cyzicenus reigning at Damascus, and Grypus at Antioch, Hyrcanus increased in riches and power; and finding himself secure from any attack from the Syrian armies, sent Aristobulus and Antigonus, two of his sons, to besiege Samaria; when the Samaritans sending for assistance to Cyzicenus, he approached the city to raise the siege, but was defeated and pursued as far as Scythopolis by the young Hyrcani. They then renewed the siege, and although an ineffectual attempt to relieve it was made by some troops of Cyzicenus, and Apion or Lathyrus, king of Egypt, it finally surrendered; whereupon

* He was the son of a broker of Alexandria, and feigned himself to be the son of Alexander Balas. Prid. ii. 373.

+ Cleopatra, the wife of Demetrius, was a woman of most infamous character. Prid. ii. 374, 375. 379.

Hyrcanus demolished the place, razed the houses to the ground, and drew trenches backwards and forwards across the ruins, and filled them with water.*

By the treachery of Epicrates, one of the generals of Cyzicenus, Hyrcanus acquired possession of Scythopolis, and the other places which the Syrians then held, and by his conquest of Samaria he became master of all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria; and thus finally established himself in a powerful, and during the remainder of his reign, in a quiet dominion.†

Towards the close of it, however, he involved himself in some uncomfortable disputes between the rival sects of the Pharisees and Sadducees,‡ in consequence of a vainglorious appeal he made to the former at a festival, and of which one of them took a very natural advantage ;§ and in the result, occasioned the loss of his popularity, as well as much inconvenience to himself and his family:|| and dying the next year, was succeeded by his eldest son,

ARISTOBULUS,

IN the office of the high priesthood as well as of the sovereignty.

* "So saith Josephus, and Salianus cavils much at him for it, because Samaria stood upon an high hill. But Benjamin of Tudela, who was on the place, tells us in his itinerary, that there were upon the top of this hill many fountains of water; and from these, water enough might have been derived to fill these trenches." Prid. ii. 384, 385.

+ Prid. ii. 385.

Prid. ii. 397. 434. Where see a full account of all the Jewish sects. || Prid. ii. 396.

Prid. ii. 386.

¶ Josephus alleges he was a prophet, and held communication with God, by the Bath-Kol, or the daughter of a voice; where see a curious description. Prid. ii. 369. 396.

One of the first acts of this prince was to shut up his mother in prison, and starve her to death, in consequence of her claiming a right to reign by virtue of her husband's will:* at the same time putting his three younger brothers into close confinement.†

He then proceeded to subdue the Ituræans, and after the example of his father with the Idumæans, to compel them either to embrace Judaism or abandon their dwellings.‡

On his return from this expedition he fell sick, and left his next brother, Antigonus, in command of the army in Ituræa; when his queen and some of his courtiers, envious of the favour in which Aristobulus held his brother, excited his mind to jealousy against him, and by means of misrepresenting a message to him, were the occasion of the assassination of Antigonus, by the unintentional orders of his brother. But remorse for the act, as well as for the murder of his mother, brought upon him a disease, which terminated his existence, during the first year of his reign.||

|| Prid. ii. 438. “And truly any one would be surprised at Judas upon this occasion. He was of the sect of the Essenes, and had never failed or deceived men in his predictions before. Now this man saw Antigonus as he was passing along by the temple, and cried out to his acquaintance, (they were not a few who attended upon him as his scholars) "O strange !" said he, "it is good for me to die now, since truth is dead before me, and somewhat that I have foretold hath proved false; for this Antigonus is this day alive, who ought to have died this day; and the place where he ought to be slain, according to that fatal decree, was Strato's tower, which is at the distance of six hundred furlongs from this place; and yet four hours of this day are over already, which point of time renders the prediction impossible to be fulfilled." And when the old man had said this, he was dejected in his mind, and so continued. But in a little

407

ALEXANDER JANNEUS.

ON the death of Aristobulus, his three brothers were liberated out of prison, and Alexander, the eldest, succeeded to the throne; but the next or fourth son of Hyrcanus, having made some attempt to supplant him, was put to death.

Alexander, having defeated the people of Ptolemais, and besieged their city, was compelled to raise that siege by the approach of Ptolemy Lathyrus, who then reigned in Cyprus.

Having enticed that prince into a treaty with him, they both fell on Zoilus of Dora, and Straton's tower; but Lathyrus having discovered that Alexander was intriguing with Cleopatra, his mother who reigned in Egypt, declared war against the Jewish prince, and defeated him in a pitched battle, with the loss of thirty thousand men, committing acts of the greatest cruelty.+

Cleopatra, having marched her forces to the relief of Alexander, took Ptolemais; but was so capricious that she would have seized upon Alexander and his territories, if she had not been dissuaded from it by Ananias, one of her generals, who was both a countryman and kinsman of the Jewish prince, and who returning safe to Jerusalem and recruiting his army, laid siege to Gadara;‡ which he took after a siege of ten months; and afterwards, Amathus, another city beyond

time news came that Antigonus was slain in a subterraneous place, which was itself also called Strato's tower, by the same name with that in Cæsarea, which lay by the seaside; and this ambiguity it was that caused the prophet's disorder." Jos. iii. 258. ii. 235.

Now Om Keis. Irby and Mangles relate that the ancient pavement of the city is still to be seen, and the traces of the chariot wheels visible in the stones; p. 296.

Prid. ii. 443.