The Reign of Queen Alexandra

So Alexandra, when she had taken the fortress, acted as her husband had advised her. She spoke with the Pharisees and put everything into their power, both as to the dead body and as to the affairs of the kingdom, and so she calmed their anger against Alexander and made them well disposed and friendly toward him. They then went among the multitude and made speeches to them, setting out the deeds of Alexander and telling them that they had lost a righteous king; and by their praise they brought the people to mourn and grieve for him, so that he had a more splendid funeral than any of the kings before him. Alexander left two sons, Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, but bequeathed the kingdom to Alexandra. Of these two sons, Hyrcanus was unfit to manage public affairs and preferred a quiet life, but the younger, Aristobulus, was an active and bold man. As for Alexandra herself, she was loved by the multitude because she seemed displeased at the wrongs her husband had committed.

So she made Hyrcanus high priest because he was the elder, but much more because he did not care to meddle in politics; and she let the Pharisees do everything, and ordered the multitude to obey them. She also restored the practices that the Pharisees had introduced according to the tradition of their forefathers, which her father-in-law Hyrcanus had abolished. So she had the name of ruler, but the Pharisees had the power. For it was they who brought back exiles and set prisoners free, and, to put it in a word, they were no different from masters. Still, the queen also took care of the affairs of the kingdom. She gathered a great body of mercenary soldiers and made her own army twice as large, so that she became a terror to the neighboring tyrants and took hostages from them. The whole country was at peace except for the Pharisees. They disturbed the queen, urging her to kill those who had persuaded Alexander to put the eight hundred men to death. Then they themselves cut the throat of one of them, Diogenes, and after him they did the same to others, one after another, until the most powerful men came into the palace, and Aristobulus with them; for he seemed displeased at what was being done, and it was plain that if he had the chance he would not let his mother go on in this way. These men reminded the queen of the great dangers they had come through and the great things they had done, by which they had shown the steadiness of their loyalty to their master, so that they had received the greatest marks of favor from him. They begged her not to dash their hopes entirely. For now, after escaping the dangers that came from their enemies in war, they were being cut down at home by their enemies like cattle, with no redress whatever. They said too that if their adversaries would be satisfied with those already killed, they would bear what had been done patiently, out of their loyalty to their masters. But if they must expect the same in future, they begged her above all to release them from her service; for they could not bear to seek any means of safety without her consent, but would gladly die at the palace gate rather than be guilty of disloyalty. It would be a great disgrace, they said, both to themselves and to the queen, if, neglected by her, they should be taken in by her husband’s enemies. For Aretas the Arabian, and the local rulers, would give anything to get such men as foreign troops, men whose very names had perhaps been terrible to them before their voices were heard. But if they could not obtain this, their second request was that, if she had decided to prefer the Pharisees to them, she would post each of them in her fortresses. For if some divine power bore a constant grudge against Alexander’s house, they at least would show their loyalty, even living there in a humble station. [a]

As these men said this, and called on Alexander’s spirit to pity those already killed and those in danger, all the bystanders burst into tears. Aristobulus above all made his feelings plain and reproached his mother bitterly. Yet these men had themselves been the cause of their own misfortunes, since they had allowed a woman who, against all reason, was mad with ambition to reign over them, when there were sons in the prime of life. So Alexandra, not knowing what she could do with any decency, entrusted the fortresses to them, all except Hyrcania, Alexandrium and Machaerus, where her chief treasures were. A little while after, she sent her son Aristobulus with an army to Damascus against Ptolemy, the son of Mennaeus, who was such a bad neighbor to the city; but he did nothing worth mentioning there and so returned home. [e]

About this time news came that Tigranes, the king of Armenia, had broken into Syria with three hundred thousand soldiers and was coming against Judea. This news, as may well be supposed, terrified the queen and the nation. So they sent him many very valuable presents, and envoys as well, while he was besieging Ptolemais. For Queen Selene, also called Cleopatra, then ruled over Syria, and she had persuaded the inhabitants to shut out Tigranes. So the Jewish envoys pleaded with him and begged him to decide nothing harsh about their queen or nation. He praised them for the respect they paid him from so great a distance and gave them good hopes of his favor. But as soon as Ptolemais was taken, news came to Tigranes that Lucullus, pursuing Mithridates, had failed to catch him, since he had fled into Iberia, but was laying Armenia waste and besieging its cities. When Tigranes learned this, he returned home. [g]

After this, when the queen had fallen dangerously ill, Aristobulus resolved to try to seize the government. So he slipped away secretly by night with only one of his servants and went to the fortresses where his friends, who had been friends since his father’s days, were stationed. He had long been displeased with his mother’s conduct, and now he was much more afraid that at her death their whole family would fall under the power of the Pharisees; for he saw how incapable his brother was, who was to succeed to the government. No one knew what he was doing except his wife, whom he left at Jerusalem with their children. He came first to Agaba, where Galaestes, one of the powerful men mentioned before, was, and was received by him. When day came, the queen found that Aristobulus had fled. For a while she supposed that he had not left in order to start a revolt. But when messengers came one after another with the news that he had taken the first fortress, then the second, and then all of them, for as soon as one had begun they all went over to him, then the queen and the nation were in the greatest confusion. For they knew it would not be long before Aristobulus could establish himself firmly in the government; and what they feared most was that he would take revenge for the outrages his house had suffered from them. So they resolved to take his wife and children into custody and keep them in the fortress that stood over the temple. Now a great crowd of people flocked to Aristobulus from all sides, so that he had something like a royal retinue about him. For in about fifteen days he took twenty-two strongholds, and this gave him the means of raising an army from Lebanon and Trachonitis and from the local rulers. For men are easily led by the stronger side and readily submit to it; and besides, they thought that by giving him their help when he could not have expected it, they would share as much as anyone in the advantages of his being king, since they would have been the cause of his gaining the kingdom. The elders of the Jews, and Hyrcanus with them, went in to the queen and asked her to give them her views on the present state of affairs. Aristobulus, they said, was in effect lord of almost the whole kingdom, since he held so many strongholds; it was absurd for them to take counsel by themselves while she was alive, however ill she was; and the danger would be upon them before long. But she told them to do what they thought best. They still had many advantages left, she said: a nation in good heart, an army, and money in their treasuries. As for herself, she had little concern for public affairs now, when the strength of her body was already failing her. [i]

A little while after she had said this to them, she died, having reigned nine years and lived seventy-three in all. She was a woman who showed none of the weakness of her sex. She was formidable beyond most in her ambition to rule, and by her deeds she showed at once that her mind was fit for action and how little understanding is shown by the men who keep failing in matters of government. For she always valued the present above the future, and put everything second to ruling with a firm hand; and for the sake of this she had no regard for what was honorable or right. In the end she brought the affairs of her house to such misfortune that the power she had won at the cost of very many dangers and hardships was taken from it not long afterward. This came from her desire for what does not belong to a woman, from her siding with those who were hostile to their family, and from leaving the government without men to care for it. Her conduct of affairs while she lived filled the palace after her death with calamities and disturbance. Yet although this had been her way of governing, she kept the nation in peace. Such was the end of the affairs of Queen Alexandra. What befell her sons Aristobulus and Hyrcanus after her death I will go on to tell in my next book. [j]