ftobulus, was gained by the queen and her cabal, and told him the order quite differently; that the king defired to fee him completely armed as he was. Antigonus went directly to wait on him; and the guards who saw him come in his arms, obeyed their orders and killed him.

Ariftobulus, having discovered all that had paffed, was violently affected with it, and inconfolable for his death. Tormented with remorfe of conscience for this murder, and that of his mother, he led a miserable life, and expired at last in the highest grief and despair.

SECT. II. Reign of ALEXANDER JANNEUS, which continued twenty-feven years.

(c)

SA

ALOME, the wife of Ariftobulus, immediately after his death, took the three princes out of the prison, into which they had been put 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. As for the third, named Absalom, who was of a peaceable difpofition, and who had no thoughts but of living in tranquillity, as a private person (d), he granted him his favour, and protected him during his whole life. No more is faid of him, than that he gave his daughter in marriage to the youngest son of his brother Alexander, and that he ferved him against the Romans at the fiege of Jerufalem, in which he was made prifoner forty-two years after, when the temple was taken by Pompey.

Whilft all this paffed, the two kings of Syria, of whom Grypus reigned at Antioch, and Antiochus of Cyzicum at Damafcus, made a cruel war upon each other, although they were brothers. Cleopatra, and Alexander the youngest of her fons, reigned in Egypt, and Ptolemy Lathyrus, the eldeft, in Cyprus.

Alexander Jannæus, fome time after he returned to Jerufalem, and had taken poffeffion of the throne, had set a good (c) A. M. 3899. Ant. J. C. 105. Jofeph. Antiq, xiii. 20. Id de bel Jud. i. 3.

(d) Id. Antiq. xiv. 8.

a good army on foot, which paffed the Jordan, and formed the fiege of Gadara. At the end of ten months, having made himself master of that city, he took feveral other very strong places, fituated alfo on the other fide of the Jordan. But not being fufficiently upon his guard in his return, he was beat by the enemy, and loft ten thousand men, with all the spoils he had taken, and his own baggage. He returned to Jerufalem in the highest affliction for this lofs, and the fhame with which it was attended. He had even the mortification to fee, that many people, instead of lamenting his misfortune, took a malignant joy in it. For from the quarrel of Hyrcanus with the Pharifees, they had always been the enemies of his house, and especially of this Alexander. And as they had drawn almoft the whole people into their party, they had fo ftrongly prejudiced and enflamed them against him, that all the diforders and commotions with which his whole reign was embroiled, flowed from this fource.

(b) This lofs, great as it was, did not prevent his going to feize Raphia and Anthedon, when he faw the coaft of Gaza without defence, after the departure of Lathyrus.

Thofe two pofts, which were only a few miles from Gaza, kept it in a manner blocked up, which was what he propofed 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 his gaining the fatal battle of Jordan; and he earneftly fought all occafions to avenge himself upon them.

(i) As foon as his affairs would permit, he came with a numerous army to befiege their city. Apollodorus, the governor of it, defended the place a whole year with a valour and prudence that acquired him great reputation. (k) His own brother Lyfimachus could not fee his glory without envy; and that base paffion induced him to affaffinate the governor. That wretch afterwards affociated with fome others as bad as himself, and furrendered the VOL. IX.

(b) A. M. 39c4. Ant. J. C. 100. (k) A. M. 3907. Ant. J. C. 97.

N

city

(i) A. M. 3906. Ant. J. C. 98,

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 foon as he faw himself master of all the posts, and that there was nothing to oppofe him, he gave his foldiers permiffion to kill, plunder, and deftroy; and immediately all the barbarity that could be imagined was exercised upon that unfortunate city. The pleasure of revenge coft him very dear; for the inhabitants of Gaza defended themselves like men in despair, and killed him almost as many of his people as they were themselves. length he fatiated his brutal revenge, and reduced that ancient and famous city to an heap of ruins; after which he returned to Jerufalem. This war employed him a year.

But at

(1) Some time after the people affronted him in the moft heinous manner(m). At the feast of the tabernacles, whilft he was in the temple, offering a folemn facrifice, in quality of high-prieft, upon the altar of burnt-offerings, they threw lemons at his head, calling him a thoufand injurious names, and amongst the reft giving him that of Slave; a reproach which fufficiently argued, that they looked upon him as unworthy of the crown and pontificate. This was an effect of what Eleazer had prefumed to advance, that the mother of Hyrcanus had been a captive. Thefe indignities enraged Alexander to fuch a degree, that he attacked thofe infolent people in perfon, at the head of his guards, and killed to the number of fix thousand of them. Seeing how much the Jews were difaffected in regard to him, he was afraid to truft his perfon any longer to them, and used foreign troops for his guard, whom he caused to come from Pifidia and Cilicia. Of thefe he formed a body of fix thoufand men, that attended him every where.

(2) When Alexander faw the ftorm which had rose against him a little appeafed by the terror of the revenge he had taken for it, he turned his arms against the ene

(2) A. M. 3909. Ant. J. C. 95. 7) A. M. 3910. Ant. J. C. 94.

my

(m) Jofeph. Antiq. xiii. 21.

my abroad. After having obtained fome advantages over them, he fell into an ambufcade, wherein he loft the greatest part of his army, and efcaped himfelf with great difficulty. (0) At his return to Jerufalem, the Jews, incenfed at this defeat, revolted against him. They flattered themselves, that they fhould find him fo much weakened and dejected by his lofs, that they fhould find no difficulty in completing his deftruction, which they had fo long defired. Alexander, who wanted neither application nor valour, and who befides had a more than common capacity, foon found troops to oppose them. A civil war enfued between him and his fubjects, which continued fix years, and occafioned great misfortunes to both parties. The rebels were beaten and defeated upon many occafions.

(p) Alexander, having taken a city wherein many of them had fhut themselves up, carried eight hundred of them to Jerufalem, and caufed 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 faw all that paffed; and this fight was to him and them the principal part of the entertainment. Horrid gratification! This civil war, during the fix years that it lafted, had coft the lives of more than fifty thousand men on the fide of the rebels.

Alexander, after having put an end to it, undertook many other foreign expeditions with very great fuccefs. Upon his return to Jerufalem, he abandoned himself to intemperance and excefs of wine, which brought a quartan ague upon him, of which he died at three years end, after having reigned twenty-feven (q).

He left two fons, Hyrcanus and Ariftobulus; but he decreed by his will, that Alexandra his wife fhould govern the kingdom during her life, and choose which of her fons fhe thought fit to fucceed her.

N 2

(0) A. M. 3912. Ant. J. C. 92. (9) A. M. 3925. Ant. J. C. 79.

SECT.

(p) A. M. 3918. Ant. J C. 86,

SECT. III. Reign of ALEXANDRA, the wife of ALEXANDER JANNEUS, which continued nine years. HYRCANUS, her eldest fon, is high-priest during that time.

() A

CCORDING to the advice of her husband,

Alexandra fubmitted herself and her children to the power of the Pharifees, declaring to them, that in doing fo the only conformed to the laft will of her hufband.

By this ftep fhe gained fo much upon them, that forgetting their hatred for the dead, though they carried it during his life as far as poffible, they changed it on a fudden 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 immo-. derately 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 fo 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 predeceffors; and Alexandra, according to the intent of his will, was confirmed fovereign administratrix of the nation. We fee from hence, that a blind and unlimited conformity to the power and will of the Pharifees, stood with them for every kind of merit, and made all failings, and even crimes, difappear as effectually as if they had never been; which is very common with thofe who are fond of ruling.

When that princefs faw herself well established, she caused her eldest fon Hyrcanus to be received as highprieft: he was then near thirty years of age. According to her promife, fhe gave the adminiftration of all important affairs to the Pharifees. The first thing they did was to repeal the decree, by which John Hyrcanus, father of the two laft kings, had abofifhed all their traditional .confti

(r) A. M. 3926. Ant. J. C. 78. Jofeph. Antiq xiii. 23, 24, et de bell. Jud. I. 4.