THE WARS OF THE JEWS
OR
THE HISTORY OF THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM
Book I: Chapter 8
ALEXANDER, THE SON OF ARISTOBULUS, WHO RAN AWAY
FROM POMPEY, MAKES AN EXPEDITION AGAINST HYRCANUS; BUT
BEING OVERCOME BY GABINIUS HE DELIVERS UP THE
FORTRESSES TO HIM. AFTER THIS ARISTOBULUS ESCAPES FROM
ROME AND GATHERS AN ARMY TOGETHER; BUT BEING BEATEN BY
THE ROMANS, HE IS BROUGHT BACK TO ROME; WITH OTHER
THINGS RELATING TO GABINIUS, CRASSUS AND CASSIUS. 1.
IN the mean time, Scaurus made an expedition into
Arabia, but was stopped by the difficulty of the
places about Petra. However, he laid waste the country
about Pella, though even there he was under great
hardship; for his army was afflicted with famine. In
order to supply which want, Hyrcanus afforded him some
assistance, and sent him provisions by the means of
Antipater; whom also Scaurus sent to Aretas, as one
well acquainted with him, to induce him to pay him
money to buy his peace. The king of Arabia complied
with the proposal, and gave him three hundred talents;
upon which Scaurus drew his army out of Arabia 10
2. But as for Alexander, that son of Aristobulus
who ran away fromPompey, in some time he got a
considerable band of men together, and lay heavy upon
Hyrcanus, and overran Judea, and was likely to
overturn him quickly; and indeed he had come to
Jerusalem, and had ventured to rebuild its wall that
was thrown down by Pompey, had not Gabinius, who was
sent as successor to Scaurus into Syria, showed his
bravery, as in many other points, so in making an
expedition against Alexander; who, as he was afraid
that he would attack him, so he got together a large
army, composed of ten thousand armed footmen, and
fifteen hundred horsemen. He also built walls about
proper places; Alexandrium, and Hyrcanium, and
Machorus, that lay upon the mountains of Arabia.
3. However, Gabinius sent before him Marcus
Antonius, and followedhimself with his whole army; but
for the select body of soldiers that were about
Antipater, and another body of Jews under the command
of
Malichus and Pitholaus, these joined themselves to
those captains that were about Marcus Antonius, and
met Alexander; to which body came Oabinius with his
main army soon afterward; and as Alexander was not
able to sustain the charge of the enemies’ forces, now
they were joined, he retired. But when he was come
near to Jerusalem, he was forced to fight, and lost
six thousand men in the battle; three thousand of
which fell down dead, and three thousand were taken
alive; so he fled with the remainder to Alexandrium.
4. Now when Gabinius was come to Alexandrium,
because he found agreat many there en-camped, he
tried, by promising them pardon for their former
offenses, to induce them to come over to him before it
came to a fight; but when they would hearken to no
terms of accommodation, he slew a great number of
them, and shut up a great number of them in the
citadel. Now Marcus Antonius, their leader, signalized
himself in this battle, who, as he always showed great
courage, so did he never show it so much as now; but
Gabinius, leaving forces to take the citadel, went
away himself, and settled the cities that had not been
demolished, and rebuilt those that had been destroyed.
Accordingly, upon his injunctions, the following
cities were restored: Scythopolis, and Samaria, and
Anthedon, and Apollonia, and Jamnia, and Raphia, and
Mariassa, and Adoreus, and Gamala, and Ashdod, and
many others; while a great number of men readily ran
to each of them, and became their inhabitants.
5. When Gabinius had taken care of these cities, he
returned to Alexandrium, and pressed on the siege. So
when Alexander despaired of ever obtaining the
government, he sent ambassadors to him, and prayed him
to forgive what he had offended him in, and gave up to
him the remaining fortresses, Hyrcanium and Macherus,
as he put Alexandrium into his hands afterwards; all
which Gabinius demolished, at the persuasion of
Alexander’s mother, that they might not be receptacles
of men in a second war. She was now there in order to
mollify Gabinius, out of her concern for her relations
that were captives at Rome, which were her husband and
her other children. After this Gabinius brought
Hyrcanus to Jerusalem, and committed the care of the
temple to him; but ordained the other political
government to be by an aristocracy. He also parted the
whole nation into five conventions, assigning one
portion to Jerusalem, another to Gadara, that another
should belong to Amathus, a fourth to
Jericho, and to the fifth division was allotted
Sepphoris, a city of Galilee. So the people were glad
to be thus freed from monarchical government, and were
governed for the future by all aristocracy.
6. Yet did Aristobulus afford another foundation
for new disturbances. Hefled away from Rome, and got
together again many of the Jews that were desirous of
a change, such as had borne an affection to him of
old; and when he had taken Alexandrium in the first
place, he attempted to build a wall about it; but as
soon as Gabinius had sent an army against him under
Siscuria, and Antonius, and Servilius, he was aware of
it, and retreated to Macherus. And as for the
unprofitable multitude, he dismissed them, and only
marched on with those that were armed, being to the
number of eight thousand, among whom was Pitholaus,
who had been the lieutenant at Jerusalem, but deserted
to Aristobulus with a thousand of his men; so the
Romans followed him, and when it came to a battle,
Aristobulus’s party for a long time fought
courageously; but at length they were overborne by the
Romans, and of them five thousand fell down dead, and
about two thousand fled to a certain little hill, but
the thousand that remained with Aristobulus brake
through the Roman army, and marched together to
Macherus; and when the king had lodged the first night
upon its ruins, he was in hopes of raising another
army, if the war would but cease a while; accordingly,
he fortified that strong hold, though it was done
after a poor manner. But the Romans falling upon him,
he resisted, even beyond his abilities, for two days,
and then was taken, and brought a prisoner to Gabinius,
with Antigonus his son, who had fled away together
with him from Rome; and from Gabinius he was carried
to Rome again. Wherefore the senate put him under
confinement, but returned his children back to Judea,
because Gabinius informed them by letters that he had
promised Aristobulus’s mother to do so, for her
delivering the fortresses up to him.
7. But now as Gabinius was marching to the war
against the Parthians, he was hindered by Ptolemy,
whom, upon his return from Euphrates, he brought back
into Egypt, making use of Hyrcanus and Antipater to
provide every thing that was necessary for this
expedition; for Antipater furnished him with money,
and weapons, and corn, and auxiliaries; he also
prevailed with the Jews that were there, and guarded
the avenues at Pelusium, to let them pass. But now,
upon Gabinius’s absence, the other part of Syria was
in motion, and Alexander, the son of Aristobulus,
brought the Jews to revolt again. Accordingly, he
got together a very great army, and set about killing
all the Romans that were in the country; hereupon
Gabinius was afraid, (for he was come back already out
of Egypt, and obliged to come back quickly by these
tumults,) and sent Antipater, who prevailed with some
of the revolters to be quiet. However, thirty thousand
still continued with Alexander, who was himself eager
to fight also; accordingly, Gabinius went out to
fight, when the Jews met him; and as the battle was
fought near Mount Tabor, ten thousand of them were
slain, and the rest of the multitude dispersed
themselves, and fled away. So Gabinius came to
Jerusalem, and settled the government as Antipater
would have it; thence he marched, and fought and beat
the Nabateans: as for Mithridates and Orsanes, who
fled out of Parthin, he sent them away privately, but
gave it out among the soldiers that they had run away.
8. In the mean time, Crassus came as successor to
Gabinius in Syria. Hetook away all the rest of the
gold belonging to the temple of Jerusalem, in order to
furnish himself for his expedition against the
Parthians. He also took away the two thousand talents
which Pompey had not touched; but when he had passed
over Euphrates, he perished himself, and his army with
him; concerning which affairs this is not a proper
time to speak [more largely].
9. But now Cassius, after Crassus, put a stop to
the Parthians, who were marching in order to enter
Syria. Cassius had fled into that province, and when
he had taken possession of the same, he made a hasty
march into Judea; and, upon his taking Taricheae, he
carried thirty thousand Jews into slavery. He also
slew Pitholaus, who had supported the seditious
followers of Aristobulus; and it was Antipater who
advised him so to do. Now this Antipater married a
wife of an eminent family among the Arabisus, whose
name was Cypros, and had four sons born to him by her,
Phasaelus and Herod, who was afterwards king, and,
besides these, Joseph and Pheroras; and he had a
daughter whose name was Salome. Now as he made himself
friends among the men of power every where, by the
kind offices he did them, and the hospitable manner
that he treated them; so did he contract the greatest
friendship with the king of Arabia, by marrying his
relation; insomuch that when he made war with
Aristobulus, he sent and intrusted his children with
him. So when Cassius had forced Alexander to
1302 come to terms and to be quiet, he returned to
Euphrates, in order to prevent the Parthians from
repassing it; concerning which matter we shall speak
elsewhere. 11
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