Hyrcanus Comes Home

Now after Herod was in possession of the kingdom, Hyrcanus the high priest, who was then a captive among the Parthians, came back to him, set free from his captivity in the following way. Barzapharnes and Pacorus, the Parthian generals, had taken captive Hyrcanus, who was first made high priest and afterward king, and Herod’s brother Phasaelus, and carried them off into Parthia. Phasaelus could not bear the disgrace of being in chains, and thinking that death with glory was better than any life whatever, he became his own executioner, as I have related before. [a]

When Hyrcanus was brought into Parthia, King Phraates treated him very gently, having already learned what an illustrious family he came from. For this reason he released him from his chains and gave him a home at Babylon, where there were Jews in great numbers. These Jews honored Hyrcanus as their high priest and king, as did all the Jewish nation living as far as the Euphrates, and this respect pleased him greatly. But when he was told that Herod had received the kingdom, new hopes came over him. He had himself always been kindly disposed toward Herod, and he expected that Herod would remember the favor he had received from him: when Herod was on trial and in danger of a death sentence being passed on him, Hyrcanus had delivered him from that danger and from all punishment. So he spoke to the Jews about it, eager to go to Herod. But they tried to keep him among them and begged him to stay with them, reminding him of the kindnesses and honors they showed him, and that the honors they paid him were in no way less than those they could pay either to their high priests or to their kings. And what should weigh with him still more, they said, was this: he could not hold those dignities there because of the maiming of his body that Antigonus had inflicted on him; and kings are not in the habit of repaying men for kindnesses they received while they were private persons, since the height of their fortune usually works no small change in them. [b]

But although they urged these arguments on him for his own good, Hyrcanus still wished to leave. Herod also wrote to him and urged him to ask Phraates and the Jews there not to begrudge him the royal power, which he would hold jointly with Herod himself; for now was the proper time for Herod to repay him for the favors he had received from him, having been brought up by him and saved by him too, and for Hyrcanus to receive it. And as he wrote this to Hyrcanus, he also sent Saramallas, his ambassador, to Phraates with many presents, and asked him in the most courteous way not to stand in the way of his gratitude toward his benefactor. But this zeal of Herod’s did not spring from that motive. Because he had been made ruler of that country without any just claim to it, he was afraid, and with good enough reason, of a change in his fortunes, and so he made all the haste he could to get Hyrcanus into his power, or rather to put him out of the way altogether; and this last he accomplished afterward.

So when Hyrcanus came, full of confidence, with the permission of the king of Parthia and at the expense of the Jews, who supplied him with money, Herod received him with every possible respect, gave him the first place at public gatherings and set him above all the rest at feasts, and in this way deceived him. He called him his father, and tried by every means possible to keep him from any suspicion of a treacherous design against him. He also did other things to secure his rule, which nevertheless stirred up trouble in his own family. For, wary of making any illustrious person high priest of God, he sent for an obscure priest out of Babylon named Ananelus, and gave him the high priesthood. [e]

But Alexandra could not bear this insult. She was the daughter of Hyrcanus and the wife of Alexander, the son of King Aristobulus, and had borne Alexander children. The son was very handsome and was called Aristobulus; the daughter, Mariamne, was married to Herod, and was famous for her beauty as well. This Alexandra was much disturbed, and took very hard this insult offered to her son: that while he was alive anyone else should be sent for to receive the dignity of the high priesthood. So she wrote to Cleopatra (a musician helped her by arranging to have her letters carried) asking her to intercede with Antony, in order to obtain the high priesthood for her son. [f]

But as Antony was slow to grant this request, his friend Dellius came into Judea on some business. When he saw Aristobulus, he stood amazed at the boy’s height and good looks, and no less at Mariamne, the king’s wife, and he openly praised Alexandra as the mother of most beautiful children. When she came to talk with him, he persuaded her to have portraits painted of them both and to send them to Antony, for when he saw them he would deny her nothing she asked. Alexandra was elated by his words and sent the portraits to Antony. Dellius also talked extravagantly, and said that these children seemed to be born not of men but of some god or other. His aim in doing so was to lure Antony into lewd pleasures with them. Antony was ashamed to send for the young woman, since she was Herod’s wife, and avoided it because of the reproaches he would get from Cleopatra on that account; but he sent, in the most decent way he could, for the young man, adding this, however: unless Herod thought it a hardship to do so. When this letter was brought to Herod, he did not think it safe to send one so handsome as Aristobulus, in the prime of life (for he was sixteen years old) and of so noble a family; and above all not to Antony, the most powerful man among the Romans, who would abuse him in his love affairs, and who besides openly indulged himself in such pleasures as his power allowed him without restraint. So he wrote back to him that if this boy were merely to leave the country, everything would be in a state of war and uproar, because the Jews were hoping for a change in the government and for another king over them. [g]

When Herod had excused himself to Antony in this way, he resolved not to let the boy or Alexandra be treated with complete dishonor. And his wife Mariamne pressed him hard to restore the high priesthood to her brother; and he judged it to his own advantage to do so, because once the boy had that dignity he could not leave the country. So he called his friends together and told them that Alexandra was secretly conspiring against his royal power, and was trying, through Cleopatra, to bring it about that he would be deprived of the government and that through Antony this youth would have charge of public affairs in his place. He said that what she was doing was unjust, since she would at the same time deprive her own daughter of the dignity she now had, and would bring disturbance on the kingdom, which he had taken great pains to win and had gained at extraordinary risk. Yet, though he well remembered her wicked schemes, he would not stop doing what was right himself, but would even now give the youth the high priesthood; and he had set up Ananelus earlier only because Aristobulus was then so very young a child. He said this not at random but, as he thought, with the best judgment he had, in order to deceive the women and the friends he had called in to consult. Alexandra, out of great joy at this unexpected promise and out of fear because of the suspicions she was under, burst into tears and made the following defense of herself. As for the high priesthood, she said, she had been very much concerned at the disgrace her son was under, and so had done her utmost to obtain it for him; but as for the kingdom, she had made no attempt at it, and if it were offered her, she would not accept it. Now she would be content with her son’s dignity, while Herod himself held the civil government, and through his remarkable ability in governing she would have security for all the rest of her family. She was now won over by his kindnesses, gratefully accepted this honor he had shown her son, and would be entirely obedient from now on. And she asked him to pardon her if the nobility of her family, and the freedom of speech it allowed her, had made her act too hastily and imprudently in her resentment at the slight. So when they had spoken thus to each other, they came to an agreement, and all suspicions, so far as appeared, vanished. [h]