Gabinius Puts Down Alexander

Meanwhile Scaurus invaded Arabia. He was kept away from Petra by the difficult terrain, but he ravaged much of the surrounding country, though even there he suffered great hardship, for his army was starving. To meet this need Hyrcanus came to his help, sending him supplies by way of Antipater. Scaurus then sent Antipater, who knew Aretas well, to persuade Aretas to pay money to end the war. The Arab king agreed to give three hundred talents, and on those terms Scaurus led his army out of Arabia. [a]

As for Alexander, the son of Aristobulus who had escaped from Pompey, in time he gathered a considerable force, pressed hard on Hyrcanus, and overran Judea. He seemed likely to bring Hyrcanus down quickly; he had already come to Jerusalem and dared to begin rebuilding the wall that Pompey had thrown down. But Gabinius, who had been sent into Syria as Scaurus’s successor, proved his courage here as in many other matters and marched against Alexander. Alexander, afraid of his attack, raised a larger army, ten thousand heavy infantry and fifteen hundred horsemen, and fortified suitable strongholds: Alexandrium, Hyrcanium, and Machaerus near the mountains of Arabia. [d] Gabinius sent Mark Antony ahead with part of the army and followed himself with his whole force. Antipater’s picked troops and the other Jewish corps, commanded by Malichus and Pitholaus, joined the officers with Mark Antony and went to meet Alexander, and not long afterward Gabinius arrived with the main body. Alexander could not withstand the enemy forces once they were combined, and he fell back. But when he was already near Jerusalem he was forced to fight. He lost six thousand men in the battle, three thousand killed and three thousand taken alive, and fled with the rest to Alexandrium. [e]

When Gabinius reached Alexandrium he found many men camped there. Before fighting, he tried to win them over by promising pardon for their past offenses. When they would accept no reasonable terms, he killed many of them and shut the rest up in the fortress. In this battle the commander Mark Antony distinguished himself; he always showed himself brave, but never so much as here. Gabinius left troops to take the fortress and went around himself, settling the cities that had not been ravaged and rebuilding those that had been destroyed. At his command Scythopolis, Samaria, Anthedon, Apollonia, Jamnia, Raphia, Marisa, Adoreus, Gabala, Ashdod and many others were resettled, and settlers gladly flocked to each of them. [f] After seeing to these cities he returned to Alexandrium and pressed the siege so hard that Alexander, despairing of everything, sent envoys to him. He begged pardon for his offenses and handed over the fortresses he had taken, Hyrcanium and Machaerus, and later surrendered Alexandrium as well. Gabinius demolished all of them at the urging of Alexander’s mother, so that they could not serve again as a base for a second war. She was there to soften Gabinius, out of fear for her family held captive in Rome, her husband and her other children. After this Gabinius brought Hyrcanus back to Jerusalem and entrusted the temple to his care, but he placed the rest of the government under the leadership of the aristocracy. He divided the whole nation into five councils: one he assigned to Jerusalem, another to Gadara, a third was to be attached to Amathus, the fourth was allotted to Jericho, and for the fifth Sepphoris, a city of Galilee, was appointed. The people were glad to be freed from the rule of one man, and from then on they were governed by an aristocracy. [g]

Not long afterward, however, Aristobulus gave them a fresh start of troubles. He escaped from Rome and once more rallied many of the Jews, some eager for change, others long attached to him. First he seized Alexandrium and tried to rebuild its walls. But when Gabinius sent an army against him under Sisenna, Antony and Servianus, he learned of it and withdrew toward Machaerus. He discharged the useless crowd and led on only the armed men, about eight thousand. Among them was Pitholaus, the second in command at Jerusalem, who had deserted to him with a thousand men. The Romans followed, and when battle was joined Aristobulus’s men held out for a long time, fighting bravely. At last they were overpowered by the Romans. Five thousand fell; about two thousand fled to a hill; and the remaining thousand, with Aristobulus, cut through the Roman line and drove on together to Machaerus. There the king spent his first night in the ruins. He hoped to raise another army if the war would give him a respite, and he fortified the stronghold, though poorly. But when the Romans attacked, he held out for two days, beyond his strength, and then was taken. He was brought in chains to Gabinius together with his son Antigonus, who had escaped from Rome with him, and from Gabinius he was sent back to Rome. The senate imprisoned him but sent his children back to Judea, because Gabinius had informed them by letter that he had promised this to Aristobulus’s wife in return for the surrender of the fortresses. [h]

Gabinius was setting out on a campaign against the Parthians when Ptolemy stood in his way. Turning back from the Euphrates, Gabinius restored Ptolemy to Egypt, and for everything the expedition needed he made use of Hyrcanus and Antipater. Antipater supplied money, weapons, grain and auxiliaries, and he persuaded the Jews of that region, who guarded the approaches at Pelusium, to let Gabinius through. But with Gabinius gone, the rest of Syria was stirred up, and Alexander the son of Aristobulus again led the Jews into revolt. He gathered a very large army and set out to kill all the Romans in the country. Gabinius was alarmed — he was already back from Egypt, hurried there by these disturbances — and sent Antipater ahead to some of the rebels, whom he won back. But thirty thousand still stayed with Alexander, who was himself eager to fight. So Gabinius went out to battle. The Jews met him, and in the fighting near Mount Tabor ten thousand of them were killed and the rest of the crowd scattered in flight. Gabinius came to Jerusalem and arranged the government as Antipater wished. From there he marched out and defeated the Nabateans in battle. As for Mithridates and Orsanes, who had fled from Parthia, he sent them away secretly, but told his soldiers that they had escaped. [j]

Meanwhile Crassus came to succeed Gabinius and took over Syria. For his campaign against the Parthians he stripped away all the rest of the gold of the temple in Jerusalem, and he carried off the two thousand talents that Pompey had left untouched. But he crossed the Euphrates and perished there, he and his army with him. This is not the time to speak of those events. [k] After Crassus, Cassius, who had escaped into the province, checked the Parthians as they were setting out to cross into Syria. Having secured the province, he hurried against the Jews. He took Taricheae and enslaved some thirty thousand Jews, and he put to death Pitholaus, who was rallying the rebel followers of Aristobulus; it was Antipater who advised the killing. [l]

Antipater had married a woman of a distinguished family from Arabia, named Cypros, and four sons were born to him: Phasael; Herod, who was later king; and besides these Joseph and Pheroras; and a daughter, Salome. He made friends of powerful men everywhere through kindness and hospitality, and above all he attached the king of the Arabs to himself through this marriage alliance, so that when he took up the war against Aristobulus he sent his children to that king for safekeeping. Cassius, meanwhile, forced Alexander to keep quiet under a treaty and returned to the Euphrates to stop the Parthians from crossing it. Of this we shall speak elsewhere.