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1. We have related the affairs of queen Alexandra, and her death,
in the foregoing book and will now speak of what followed, and
was connected with those histories; declaring, before we proceed,
that we have nothing so much at heart as this, that we may omit
no facts, either through ignorance or laziness; for we are
upon the history and explication of such things as the greatest
part are unacquainted withal, because of their distance from our
times; and we aim to do it with a proper beauty of style, so far
as that is derived from proper words harmonically disposed, and
from such ornaments of speech also as may contribute to the
pleasure of our readers, that they may entertain the knowledge of
what we write with some agreeable satisfaction and pleasure. But
the principal scope that authors ought to aim at above all the
rest, is to speak accurately, and to speak truly, for the
satisfaction of those that are otherwise unacquainted with such
transactions, and obliged to believe what these writers inform
them of.
2. Hyrcanus then began his high priesthood on the third year of
the hundred and seventy-seventh olympiad, when Quintus Hortensius
and Quintus Metellus, who was called Metellus of Crete, were
consuls at Rome; when presently Aristobulus began to make war
against him; and as it came to a battle with Hyrcanus at Jericho,
many of his soldiers deserted him, and went over to his brother;
upon which Hyrcanus fled into the citadel, where Aristobulus's
wife and children were imprisoned by their mother, as we have
said already, and attacked and overcame those his adversaries
that had fled thither, and lay within the walls of the temple. So
when he had sent a message to his brother about agreeing the
matters between them, he laid aside his enmity to him on these
conditions, that Aristobulus should be king, that he should live
without intermeddling with public affairs, and quietly enjoy the
estate he had acquired. When they had agreed upon these terms in
the temple, and had confirmed the agreement with oaths, and the
giving one an. other their right hands, and embracing one another
in the sight of the whole multitude, they departed; the one,
Aristobulus, to the palace; and Hyrcanus, as a private man, to
the former house of Aristobulus.
3. But there was a certain friend of Hyrcanus, an Idumean, called
Antipater, who was very rich, and in his nature an active and a
seditious man; who was at enmity with Aristobulus, and had
differences with him on account of his good-will to Hyrcanus. It
is true that Nicolatls of Damascus says, that Antipater was of
the stock of the principal Jews who came out of Babylon into
Judea; but that assertion of his was to gratify Herod, who was
his son, and who, by certain revolutions of fortune, came
afterward to be king of the Jews, whose history we shall give you
in its proper place hereafter. However, this Antipater was at
first called Antipas, and that was his father's name also; of
whom they relate this: That king Alexander and his wife made him
general of all Idumea, and that he made a league of friendship
with those Arabians, and Gazites, and Ascalonites, that were of
his own party, and had, by many and large presents, made them his
fast friends. But now this younger Antipater was suspicious of
the power of Aristobulus, and was afraid of some mischief he
might do him, because of his hatred to him; so he stirred up the
most powerful of the Jews, and talked against him to them
privately; and said that it was unjust to overlook the conduct of
Aristobulus, who had gotten the government unrighteously, and
ejected his brother out of it, who was the elder, and ought to
retain what belonged to him by prerogative of his birth. And the
same speeches he perpetually made to Hyrcanus; and told him that
his own life would be in danger, unless he guarded himself, and
got shut of Aristobulus; for he said that the friends of
Aristobulus omitted no opportunity of advising him to kill him,
as being then, and not before, sure to retain his principality.
Hyrcanus gave no credit to these words of his, as being of a
gentle disposition, and one that did not easily admit of
calumnies against other men. This temper of his not disposing him
to meddle with public affairs, and want of spirit, occasioned him
to appear to spectators to be degenerous and unmanly; while.
Aristo-bulus was of a contrary temper, an active man, and one of
a great and generous soul.
4. Since therefore Antipater saw that Hyrcanus did not attend to
what he said, he never ceased, day by day, to charge reigned
crimes upon Aristobulus, and to calumniate him before him, as if
he had a mind to kill him; and so, by urging him perpetually, he
advised him, and persuaded him to fly to Aretas, the king of
Arabia; and promised, that if he would comply with his advice, he
would also himself assist him and go with him]. When Hyrcanus
heard this, he said that it was for his advantage to fly away to
Aretas. Now Arabia is a country that borders upon Judea. However,
Hyrcanus sent Antipater first to the king of Arabia, in order to
receive assurances from him, that when he should come in the
manner of a supplicant to him, he would not deliver him up to his
enemies. So Antipater having received such assurances, returned
to Hyrcanus to Jerusalem. A while afterward he took Hyrcanus, and
stole out of the city by night, and went a great journey, and
came and brought him to the city called Petra, where the palace
of Aretas was; and as he was a very familiar friend of that king,
he persuaded him to bring back Hyrcanus into Judea, and this
persuasion he continued every day without any intermission. He
also proposed to make him presents on that account. At length he
prevailed with Aretas in his suit. Moreover, Hyrcanus promised
him, that when he had been brought thither, and had received his
kingdom, he would restore that country, and those twelve cities
which his father Alexander had taken from the Arabians, which
were these, Medaba, Naballo, Libias, Tharabasa, Agala, Athone,
Zoar, Orone, Marissa, Rudda, Lussa, and Oruba.
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