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1. 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. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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].
9. 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.
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