Aristobulus Taken Again

Aristobulus now escaped from Rome to Judea and set about rebuilding Alexandrium, which had lately been demolished. Gabinius sent soldiers against him, with Sisenna, Antonius and Servilius in command, to keep him from occupying the place and to capture him. Many of the Jews flocked to Aristobulus because of his old renown, and also because they always delighted in upheaval. One Pitholaus, a lieutenant at Jerusalem, deserted to him with a thousand men. But many of those who joined him were unarmed. Aristobulus had decided to withdraw to Machaerus, so he sent these away, since they had no means and would be of no use to him in what he meant to do; he took with him the armed men, about eight thousand, and set off. The Romans fell on them hard. The Jews fought nobly and with spirit but were beaten, and when the enemy overpowered them they were put to flight. About five thousand of them were killed; the rest scattered and tried to save themselves as best they could. Aristobulus still had more than a thousand men, and with them he escaped to Machaerus and fortified the place. Though things were going badly for him, he clung to his hopes all the same. But after holding out against the siege for two days and receiving many wounds, he was taken captive and brought to Gabinius, together with his son Antigonus, who had escaped from Rome with him. Such was the fortune of Aristobulus. He was sent back to Rome and kept there in chains, having been king and high priest for three years and six months; he was a brilliant man and a great-souled one. The senate, however, released his children, because Gabinius wrote that he had promised this to their mother when she handed over the fortresses; and so they went back to Judea. [a]

Gabinius was marching against the Parthians and had already crossed the Euphrates, when he changed his mind and decided to turn back into Egypt and restore Ptolemy to the throne. This has been told elsewhere too. On the campaign Gabinius sent out against Archelaus, Antipater supplied him with grain, weapons and money. It was he, too, who won over to Gabinius the Jews beyond Pelusium and made them his allies, for they guarded the ways into Egypt. When Gabinius came back from Egypt, he found Syria sick with faction and disorder. For Alexander the son of Aristobulus had seized power by force a second time and had made many of the Jews revolt. He was marching through the country with a great army, killing every Roman he came upon, and was besieging those who had fled together to the mountain called Gerizim. [b]

Finding Syria in this state, Gabinius sent Antipater, who was a shrewd man, to the rebels, to see whether he could cure them of their madness and persuade them to return to a sounder way of thinking. When he came, he brought many of them to their senses and back to their duty. But he could not restrain Alexander, for Alexander had an army of thirty thousand Jews. He met Gabinius, engaged him, and was beaten, losing ten thousand men near Mount Tabor. [d]

Gabinius settled the affairs of the city of Jerusalem as Antipater wished, and then marched against the Nabateans and defeated them in battle. Mithridates and Orsanes, Parthian fugitives who had come to him, he sent away under escort, though it was given out that they had escaped from him. Then, having done great and brilliant deeds in his command, Gabinius left for Rome and handed over his office to Crassus. Nicolaus of Damascus and Strabo of Cappadocia both write of the campaigns of Pompey and Gabinius against the Jews, and neither says anything that the other does not. [e]