Free The Age of the Maccabees (Illustrated) by Annesley Streane Page A

venture to place it upon the coins struck in his
reign. His successors till the time of Pompey continued the regal title. It is
doubtful whether he actually was called “Friend of the Greeks”. This, at any
rate, expressed his line of action. His Greek leanings, however, did not
prevent him from extending the Jewish territory in a northerly direction and
Judaizing the inhabitants. The chief event of his reign was this expedition
against the Itureans, a large section of whom he compelled to submit to
circumcision and conform to the other requirements of the Law. Probably it was
mainly Galilee that he thus annexed, extending in this way his country’s
dominions northwards, as his father had done into the opposite region.
Continued invasions in the same direction would have given the caravan roads
leading from the land of the Euphrates to Egypt into the hands of the Judeans,
which possessions, combined with the warlike courage of the inhabitants and the
defensive condition of the fortresses, might have permitted Judea to attain an
important position among the nations.
    The accounts which we
possess of Aristobulus are in the main drawn from hostile sources. The Greeks,
indeed, whose friendship he cultivated, seem naturally to have taken a
favorable view of his character. The Pharisees, with whose party he completely
broke, did not admit that he was possessed of any virtue. They attribute to him
the deaths of his mother and brother, Antigonus. The latter, with, or more
probably without, the sanction of Aristobulus, was slain in the palace, and the
tragic circumstances of his end are said to have had such an effect on the
already weak health of the ruler that his own death quickly ensued (105 BC).
    He was succeeded by his
brother Alexander Janneus. The latter was a Grecized form of the Hebrew
Jonathan, with Jannai as an intermediate stage. He and his brothers were
released from the prison to which Aristobulus had consigned them, by the widow
of the late ruler, Salome or Alexandra. It is almost certain that she gave him
her hand in wedlock as well. If so, we see that he did not hesitate to violate
the law that the high priest should not marry a widow. This falls in with the
general character of his reign, in which the kingly side is much more prominent
than the priestly. Simon ben Shatach, however, brother of the queen, soon
assumed a prominent position, and thus the Pharisees’ influence was powerful
throughout the reign.
    Janneus inherited the
vehemence and warlike inclinations of many of his forbears, without possessing,
to an equal extent, the prudence which had characterized the more distinguished
of the Maccabees. He succeeded, however, in extending his dominion, with the
help of his Pisidian and Cilician mercena¬ries, and without any very grievous
disaster. At this time the rivals for the Syrian throne, Grypus and Cyzicenus,
were too busily engaged with each other to cause him muchdisquietude in his
attempt to acquire a firmer hold upon the coast towns. His troops overran the
district of Gaza, while he himself proceeded to carry on a vigorous siege of
Ptolemais, a city the possession of which was highly important for trading
purposes. A further inducement no doubt consisted in the fact that it contained
a large body of Jewish colonists.
    At this time (circ. 105
BC) Ptolemy Lathyrus had been driven from Egypt by his mother Cleopatra, the
revolution being probably, in part at least, effected by the help of Egyptian
Jews, with whose interests Cleopatra had identified herself. Lathyrus, who had
taken up his abode in Cyprus, viewing the intestine troubles of Syria,
bethought himself of retrieving his own fortunes by the attempt to bring
Palestine again under the Egyptian dominion. Ptolemais refused to receive him.
Janneus sought to keep him in play with friendly expressions, while he sent to
Egypt to warn Cleopatra and request aid. Lathyrus, discovering Janneus’s real
policy, attacked and routed him atAsophon, near the