Antony Makes the Brothers Tetrarchs

After Cassius had left Syria, another sedition broke out in Jerusalem. Helix rose against Phasael with an army, wanting to avenge Malichus on Herod by striking at his brother. Herod happened to be with Fabius, the general at Damascus, and as he set out to help his brother he was held back by illness. Meanwhile Phasael got the better of Helix by himself. He reproached Hyrcanus with ingratitude, both for the help he had given Helix and for looking on while Malichus’s brother seized the fortresses; for he had taken a great many already, among them Masada, the strongest of all. [a] Yet nothing could hold out against Herod’s might. As soon as he recovered, he took back the other fortresses and let Malichus’s brother go from Masada as a suppliant. He also drove out of Galilee Marion, the tyrant of Tyre, who had already seized three of its strongholds. The Tyrians he captured he spared, every one of them, and some he even sent away with gifts, winning goodwill for himself in the city and hatred for the tyrant. Marion had been granted his tyranny by Cassius, who had parceled out all Syria into tyrannies. Out of hatred for Herod he joined in bringing back Antigonus, the son of Aristobulus, and he did so chiefly because of Fabius, whom Antigonus had won over with money and had as a helper in his return. All the costs were supplied by Antigonus’s brother-in-law Ptolemy. [c]

Herod met them in battle at the passes into Judea, won the fight, drove Antigonus out, and returned to Jerusalem, loved by all for his success. Even those who had paid him no attention before now attached themselves to him because of his marriage into Hyrcanus’s family. Earlier he had married a woman of the country, of no obscure family, named Doris, by whom he had Antipater. Now he married Mariamne, the daughter of Alexander son of Aristobulus and granddaughter of Hyrcanus, and so became a member of the king’s family. [d]

When Caesar and Antony had killed Cassius near Philippi, Caesar went back to Italy and Antony to Asia. Among the other cities sending embassies to Antony in Bithynia came the leading men of the Jews. They accused Phasael and Herod of holding power by force, leaving Hyrcanus only an honorable title. Herod was there to answer, and having won Antony over with no small sums of money, he so disposed him that he would not even give his enemies a hearing. So they parted for that time. Later a hundred Jews in positions of authority came to Antony at Daphne near Antioch, when he was already enslaved by his love for Cleopatra. Putting forward those among them most powerful in rank and eloquence, they accused the brothers. Messala answered them in the brothers’ defense, and Hyrcanus stood beside him because of his ties of marriage with them. Antony heard both sides and then asked Hyrcanus who were the fittest to rule. Hyrcanus preferred Herod and his party. Antony was pleased, for he was a guest-friend of their family from their father’s time, having been warmly received by Antipater when he came into Judea with Gabinius. He appointed the brothers tetrarchs and entrusted them with the government of all Judea.

When the envoys protested angrily, Antony arrested fifteen of them and put them in prison, and he was ready to put them to death; the rest he drove away with insults. At this a greater disturbance broke out in Jerusalem, and they sent envoys again, a thousand of them, to Tyre, where Antony was staying on his way to Jerusalem. As these men were shouting, he sent the chief magistrate of Tyre out against them, with orders to punish any he caught and to help establish the authority of the tetrarchs he had appointed. Before this, Herod went out to the beach with Hyrcanus and urged them at length not to bring destruction on themselves and war on their country by reckless quarreling. When they grew still angrier, Antony sent out armed troops, who killed many and wounded many more. Hyrcanus saw to it that the dead were buried and the wounded cared for. Yet those who escaped would not keep quiet; they threw the city into such turmoil that they provoked Antony into killing the prisoners as well.