The Brothers Before Pompey

A little later Pompey came to Damascus and was marching through Coele-Syria, and envoys came to him from all Syria, from Egypt, and from Judea as well. Aristobulus had sent him a great gift, a golden vine worth five hundred talents. Strabo of Cappadocia also mentions this gift, in these words: “There came also an embassy from Egypt, and a crown worth four thousand gold pieces; and from Judea, whether you call it a vine or a garden — they named the piece of work Terpole, ‘Delight.’ We ourselves have seen this gift set up at Rome, in the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, with an inscription: ‘Of Alexander, king of the Jews.’ It was valued at five hundred talents, and it is said that Aristobulus, the ruler of the Jews, sent it.” [a]

A little later envoys came to him again, Antipater for Hyrcanus and Nicodemus for Aristobulus. Nicodemus went so far as to accuse those who had taken money, Gabinius first and then Scaurus, the one three hundred talents and the other four hundred; and so he made these men enemies of Aristobulus too, besides the others he had. Pompey ordered those in dispute to come to him at the beginning of spring, and then brought his army out of its winter quarters and set out for the territory of Damascus. On the way he demolished the citadel at Apamea, which Antiochus Cyzicenus had fortified, and looked into the country of Ptolemy son of Mennaeus. Ptolemy was a wicked man, no better than his relative by marriage Dionysius of Tripoli, who had been beheaded; but he bought off the punishment for his crimes with a thousand talents, and Pompey paid his soldiers with that money. He also destroyed the stronghold of Lysias, where Silas, a Jew, was tyrant. Then he passed through the cities of Heliopolis and Chalcis, crossed the mountain that divides what is called Coele-Syria from the rest of Syria, and came to Damascus. [e]

There he heard the cases of the Jews and of their leaders, Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, who were at odds with each other, while the nation was at odds with both. The nation did not want to be ruled by kings: it was the custom of their forefathers, they said, to obey the priests of the God they honored, but these two, though descended from priests, were trying to change the nation’s government to another form, so that it would become enslaved. Hyrcanus complained that although he was the elder, Aristobulus had robbed him of his birthright, and that he held only a small part of the country, Aristobulus having taken the rest by force. He also charged that the raids on their neighbors and the piracy at sea were his brother’s doing, and said the nation would never have revolted if Aristobulus had not been a man of violence and disorder. More than a thousand of the most respected Jews backed him in these charges; Antipater had arranged it. Aristobulus answered that Hyrcanus had lost power because of his own nature, which was idle and for that reason despised; as for himself, he had taken power out of necessity, for fear it would pass to others, and he bore the same title his father Alexander had borne. He called as his witnesses young and rather arrogant men, whose purple robes, long hair, ornaments and other finery disgusted people; they wore them as if they were not going to stand trial but marching in a parade.

When Pompey had heard them and had condemned Aristobulus for his violence, he spoke mildly to them for the time being and sent them away. He said that when he came into their country he would settle every matter, once he had first looked into the affairs of the Nabateans. Meanwhile he ordered them to keep quiet, and at the same time he courted Aristobulus, so that he would not turn the country against him and cut off his passage. Yet that is just what Aristobulus did. Without waiting for anything Pompey had told him, he went to the city of Deilon and from there set out for Judea. [h]

Pompey was angry at this. Taking the army he had been leading against the Nabateans, and auxiliaries from Damascus and the rest of Syria, together with the Roman legions he had with him, he marched against Aristobulus. Passing by Pella and Scythopolis, he came to Coreae, which is where Judea begins for one traveling through the interior. Aristobulus had taken refuge in Alexandrium, a very beautiful fortress built on the top of the mountain there, and Pompey sent him orders to come to him. Many urged him not to make war on the Romans, so he came down, argued his right to the throne against his brother, and went back up to the citadel, as Pompey allowed him to. He did this two or three times. On the one hand he nursed his hope of the kingdom and pretended he would obey Pompey in whatever he ordered; on the other he kept withdrawing to his fortress, so as not to lower himself and to prepare a base for war, fearing that Pompey would hand the government over to Hyrcanus. But when Pompey ordered him to surrender the fortresses and to write to the garrison commanders in his own hand, since they had been forbidden to accept any other order, he obeyed. Yet he withdrew to Jerusalem in resentment and began preparing for war. Not long after, as Pompey was leading his army against him, some men arrived from Pontus on the road and reported the death of Mithridates, brought about by his son Pharnaces. [i]