SECT. IV.

The History of the Jews, from their being subdued by the Romans to the Reign of Herod the Great.

HYRCAN had no sooner obtained a deliverance from his rival brother than he relapsed into his former indolence, and left the care of his affairs to Antipater, who failed not to turn it to the advantage and aggrandisement of his own family.

B. C.

Alexander, son of Aristobulus, con57. trived, in the mean time, to escape from Rome, and to return into Judea; where he soon raised a powerful party, and an army of ten thousand foot and fifteen hundred horse. He also began to fortify several eminent fortresses near the foot of the Arabian mountains, and augmented the number of his followers so rapidly, that Hyrcan, being in no condition to oppose him, was compelled to call in the Romans, in order to suppress this new invader. A body of troops being immediately sent from Syria, Alexander. was obliged to retire into the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, where he was defeated with the loss of three thousand men. From thence he removed to Alexandrion, and was closely besieged by Gabinius, till at length he was dismissed with pardon and impunity, through the exquisite prudence of his mother, who had insinuated herself into the Roman general's favour. Gabinius ordered the fortress to be destroyed, with those of Machaeron and Hyrcanson, that they might no longer be an occasion of fresh revolts; and conducted Hyrcan

to Jerusalem, for the express purpose of reinstating him in his pontifical dignity. He then divided the province into five districts, and established a separate court of judicature in each, by which means the government was transformed into an aristocracy; and the Jews, who had been hitherto governed by their own monarchical pontiffs, fell under the subjection of a race of tyrants.

Soon after this event, Aristobulus found means to escape from prison, and to enter Judea with his son Antigonus. Here he was joined by a considerable number of Jews, who offered to assist him in rebuilding the castle of Alexandrion. A detachment of Romans, however, cut off the greatest part of his adherents, and drove the rest into the ruinated fortress of Machaeron; whence Aristobulus and his son were sent, covered with wounds, to the same prison in which they had been confined after Pompey's triumph.

Gabinius being invited next year into Egypt to assist Ptolemy Auletes in the recovery of his crown, Alexander seized that opportunity of entering Judea, at the head of a considerable army, and taking an ample revenge on the Romans wherever he found them. His successes were however of short duration, as Gabinius hastened towards him on the first account of his invasion, and defeated him in the vicinage of Mount Tabor with the loss of ten thousand men.

B. C.

Crassus, succeeding Gabinius, in the government of Syria, found the whole pro- 54. vince in peace, a circumstance which gave him leisure to pursue his favourite design of invading the Parthians. But previously to his departure on that expedition, he plundered the temple at Jerusalem of every thing that was va

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luable,

luable, not excepting the most sacred utensils, The whole amount of this sacrilegious pillage is said to have been upwards of two millions sterling.

52.

On the death of this monster of impiety,

B. C. Cassius led the poor remains of his army to suppress the incursions which the victorious Parthians now made in that province. From thence he marched into Judea, where he besieged the city of Taricha on the south shore of the lake Gennezareth, whither Pitolaus had retreated with the surviving remnant of Alexander's faction. The place being reduced, Pitolaus was put to death by the counsel of Antipater, and thirty thousand individuals were taken pri

soners.

About three years after the reduction of B. C. 49. Tarichæa, Julius Cæsar became master of Rome, when thinking that Aristobulus might render him some service against Pompey, he set him at liberty, and sent him into Palestine at the head of two legions, to overawe the Syrians; but some of Pompey's partisans contrived to poison him, and by that means frustrated Cæsar's politic design. The news of his return into Judea induced his son, Alexander, to raise some forces to join him on his arrival; but Metellus Scipio, son-in-law to Pompey, caused the unfortunate prince to be seized and brought before his tribunal at Antioch, where he was immediately doomed to suffer decapitation.

In the mean time, the war between Cæsar and Pompey afforded the Jews an opportunity of ingratiating themselves with the former, who was then waiting impatiently in Egypt for new levies under Mithridates the Pergamenian. These being

unable

unable to break through Pelusium, he was obliged to stop at Ascalon for new reinforcements; till the arrival of Antipater at the head of three thousand Jews, with some other succours, drawn from Armenia, Mount Libanus, and Syria, enabled him to carry the city of Pelusium by assault. In return for this well-timed assistance, and the gallantry of the Jewish commander, Cæsar confirmed Hyrcan in the pontificate, entailed the principality of Judea on his posterity for ever, and ordered a pillar to be erected, whereon various beneficial grants were confirmed to the Jewish nation. He also conceived a particular esteem for Antipater, and gave him some unequivocal marks of friendship, by presenting him with the freedom of Rome, making him procurator of Judea, and advancing him to a distinguished post in the army.

Antigonus, hearing of these particulars, hastened to the dictator, and presented an accusation against the new favourites, representing the misfortunes his family had suffered, and petitioning for the restoration of his father's principality. Antipater, however, defended his own cause and that of Hyrcan with such forcible eloquence, that the accuser was repulsed, as a factious and turbulent person; and the late decree in favour of his enemies was engraved on brazen tables, to be hung up in the temples of Ascalon, Tyre, and Sidon, as well as in the capitol at Rome, whither Hyrcan soon afterwards sent ambassadors to renew his alliance with that nation, and to obtain a promissory decree for rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem.

Antipater on his return from Tyre, whither he had accompanied his patron, exerted himself to restore the Jewish state to its ancient model, and

to repair the fortifications of Jerusalem. He bestowed the government of that metropolis on his eldest son Phasael, and made Herod his second son governor of Galilee. The former neglected nothing that could render him popular in his new office; and the latter soon signalised himself by the extirpation of a dangerous banditti, that had long infested the country; so that Antipater had the satisfaction of seeing his sons become the darlings of the nation, without apparently lessening any part of their respect to Hyrcan, who still seemed to be at the head of all national concerns.

This rapid augmentation of power in Antipater's family was, however, by no means pleasing to the generality of the people, who regarded Herod's conduct, with respect to the banditti, as highly culpable in itself, and prelusive of future tyranny. They accordingly prevailed on their high-priest to summon Herod before him and the sanhedrim; but the appearance of that young hero on the day of audience, gave them to understand that he came not as a private person, much less as a culprit in expectation of an unfavourable sentence. He was clothed in purple, attended by a numerous retinue, and provided with letters from Sextus Cæsar, which seem to have been calculated to intimidate the sanhedrim, rather than to recommend his cause to the pontiff who was already sufficiently in his interest. These circumstances struck such an awe into the court, that none of his accusers ventured for some time to open their lips; but at length Sameas, a man of known wisdom and integrity, boldly stepped forward, and arraigned him, not only for his former crime, but for his present audacity, in attempting to frighten his judges, instead of exculpating