1
[
159]
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 2
[
160]
But as for Alexander, that son of Aristobulus who ran away from Pompey,
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.
[
162]
However, Gabinius sent before him Marcus Antonius, and followed himself
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.
[
164]
Now when Gabinius was come to Alexandrium, because he found a great
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.
[
167]
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.
[
171]
Yet did Aristobulus afford another foundation for new disturbances.
He fled 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.
[
175]
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.
[
179]
In the mean time, Crassus came as successor to Gabinius in
Syria.
He took 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].
[
180]
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 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.
3