Hyrcanus Flees to Aretas

We have related the affairs of Queen Alexandra and her death in the preceding book, and we will now speak of what followed and was connected with those events. Before we go on, we declare that we have nothing so much at heart as this: to leave out no fact, either through ignorance or through weariness. For we are writing the history and explanation of things that most people do not know because they are so remote from our own times; and we aim to do it with a fitting beauty of style, so far as that comes from well-chosen words, harmoniously arranged, and from such other ornaments of speech as may add to the pleasure of our readers, so that they may take in the knowledge of what we write with some enjoyment and delight. But the chief aim that authors ought to have above all else is to speak accurately and truthfully, for the sake of those who do not otherwise know of such events and must believe what these writers tell them. [a]

Hyrcanus, then, took the kingdom in the third year of the hundred and seventy-seventh Olympiad, when Quintus Hortensius and Quintus Metellus, called Metellus of Crete, were consuls at Rome. Aristobulus at once began to make war against him, and when they came to battle at Jericho, many of Hyrcanus’s soldiers deserted him and went over to his brother. At this Hyrcanus fled into the citadel, where Aristobulus’s wife and children had been imprisoned by his mother, as we have said already; and those of the opposing side who had fled into the temple enclosure were attacked and overcome. Then Hyrcanus sent proposals to his brother for settling matters between them, and laid aside his enmity on these terms: that Aristobulus should be king, and that he himself should live without meddling in public affairs and should enjoy in peace the property he already had. They agreed on these terms in the temple, confirmed the agreement with oaths and by giving each other their right hands, and embraced in the sight of the whole multitude. Then they departed, Aristobulus to the palace, and Hyrcanus, as a private man, to the former house of Aristobulus. [c]

But there was a certain friend of Hyrcanus, an Idumean called Antipater, who was very rich and by nature an active and factious man. He was hostile to Aristobulus and at odds with him because of his goodwill toward Hyrcanus. It is true that Nicolaus of Damascus says that Antipater was descended from the leading Jews who came out of Babylon into Judea; but he says this to please Herod, Antipater’s son, who by a certain turn of fortune later became king of the Jews, whose history we will give in its proper place hereafter. This Antipater, however, was at first called Antipas, and that was his father’s name too. Of the father they relate that King Alexander and his wife made him governor of all Idumea, and that he made friends of the neighboring Arabians, Gazaeans and Ascalonites, winning them over with many large gifts. Now this younger Antipater was suspicious of the power of Aristobulus and afraid of some harm he might do him because of his hatred for him. So he stirred up the most powerful of the Jews, talking against Aristobulus to them in private. It was unjust, he said, to overlook the conduct of Aristobulus, who had got the government unrighteously and had thrown out of it his brother, who was the elder and ought to keep what belonged to him by right of birth. He kept making the same speeches to Hyrcanus, and told him that his own life would be in danger unless he took care to get himself out of the way; for he said that Aristobulus’s friends missed no opportunity of advising him to kill Hyrcanus, since only then would he be sure of keeping his rule. Hyrcanus did not believe these words, being good by nature and too considerate to accept slanders against other men readily. This temper of his, which kept him from meddling in public affairs, and his lack of spirit, made him seem ignoble and unmanly to those who watched him; while Aristobulus was of the opposite temper, an active man with a great and lofty spirit. [e]

Since Antipater saw that Hyrcanus paid no attention to what he said, he never stopped, day after day, inventing crimes against Aristobulus and slandering him to Hyrcanus as if he wanted to kill him. And so, by pressing him constantly, he at last advised and persuaded him to flee to Aretas, the king of Arabia, promising that if he followed his advice, he himself would help him as his ally. When Hyrcanus heard this, he said that it would be to his advantage to flee to Aretas. Now Arabia is a country that borders on Judea. So Hyrcanus first sent Antipater to the king of Arabia to get assurances from him that when he came to him as a suppliant, he would not hand him over to his enemies. When Antipater had received these assurances, he returned to Hyrcanus at Jerusalem. Not long afterward he took Hyrcanus with him, slipped out of the city by night, and after a long journey brought him to the city called Petra, where the palace of Aretas was. Being a close friend of that king, he urged him to bring Hyrcanus back into Judea, and he kept on urging this every day without letting up, offering him presents for it as well. At last he persuaded Aretas. Moreover, Hyrcanus promised him that when he had been brought back and had received his kingdom, he would restore to him that country and the twelve cities that his father Alexander had taken from the Arabians. These were Medeba, Naballo, Libias, Tharabasa, Agala, Athone, Zoar, Orone, Marissa, Rudda, Lussa and Oruba. [h]