power over the pitude, that when they fay any theng ngai. & ne ki g, or against the highpric, they sized only the re Now Hyrcanus was a difciple of thes, and greatly be by them. And when he once invre i them to à ic.d, and tertained them, vay Findly, where faw ich nà g mour, he began to fay to them, th they : w he w fir is to be a right, ous man, and to do :ll props wher might please God which was the profeffior of de Pie de alic. However, he delirad, that if they blervida'm 'ten ing in any point, and golog cat of the event vray, they we id call him back ar lepnet Cord Op woch cafion they 1tted to his being exurely vio with whieh o tion he was well pleafed there, whofe name was delighting in fedivous prati es. Pie man aid, free thou defirelt to know the truth it hou wilt be fighter as in cer wit, lay down tur a'qu prief lined, and coment i vieli with the civi, gover vent of the poule.' Ad when we delid to know for what caufe be light to by lown the high pr' A= boon ? che o her replied, We hi e heard it fr a cli men. that thy mother had been a capovo uider the reign of Autiochu, Papua (28 This fory was faile, and Lyicams vas provoked agandn.; and all the Palices had a voye indignation zeama hir. 6. Now there was in Jonghon, a very gren hiem i o' Hyrcanus's, but of the fect of the Sacduc20s, while notions the Live contrary to thole of the Paurifers. He told iyreanus, at Eleazar had call fuch a reproze', upo human ang to the common ter, ments of all the Pharides, that this wouli be made mou feit if he world but all thom the quaâion what punithmen, try thought als man, delery ¿' portat he migh depend upon it, that the reproach was olid on b their approbaton, if they we for juninag bum as his cria. deferved ie ander, that “ Huipes and ben ds, bat a'. * diinct femt to pati. ⠀ proaches with death." Ara indeed the bailes. othe, occasion Je not aut 15 he fera this gentle Peace, Hyeons was vely a gry, and thongua tha this men r, proach 4 bua be teir approbation. this locatto chielly iritated him, nd funced him fo far, that be Jade him lerve the party of the Charis, el A abolith the decrees they had impeted on the people, and to puth those that obferved them. From this tonics able time it was hatred which he and his fons met with from the multitude: but of these matters we fhall fpeak hereafter. What I would now explain is this, that the Pharifees have delivered to the people a great many observances by fucceffion from their fathers, which are not written in the laws of Mofes; and for that reason it is that the Sadducees reject them, and say, that we are to esteem those obfervances to be obligatory which are in the written word, but are not to oblerve what are derived from the tradition of our forefathers. And concerning these things it is that great difputes and differences have arisen among them, while the Sadducees are able to perfuade none but the rich, and have not the populace obfequious to them, but the Pharifees have the multitude of their fide. But about these two sects, and that of the Effens, I have treated accurately in the fecond book of Jewish affairs. 7. But when Hyrcanus had put an end to this fedition, he after that lived happily, and adminiftered the government in the best manner for thirty-one years, and then * died; leaving behind him five fons. He was efteemed by God worthy of the three greatest privileges, the government of his nation, the dignity of the high-priesthood, and prophecy; for God was with him, and enabled him to know futurities; and to foretel this in particular, that as to his two eldeft fons, he foretold that they would not long continue in the government of public affairs; whofe unhappy catastrophe will be worth our defcription, that we may thence learn how very much they were inferior to their father's happiness. Here ends the high priesthood, and the life of this excellent perfon John Hyrtanus; and together with him the holy theocracy, or divine government of the Jewish nation, and its concomitant oracle by Urim. Now follows the profane and tyrannical Jewish monarchy, first of the Aflamoneans or Maccabees, and then of Herod the Great, the Idumean, till the coming of the Messiah. See the note on Antiq. B. III. ch. viii. 9. Hear Strabo's teftimony on this occafion, B. XVI. page 761, 762. "Thofe, fays he, that fucceeded Mofes continued for fome time in earneft, both in righteous actions, and in piety; but after a while, there were others that took upon them the high priesthood; at firft fuperftitious and afterward tyrannical persons. Such a prophet was Mofes, and those that succeeded him, beginning in a way not to be blamed, but changing for the worse. And when it openly appeared that the government was become tyrannical. Alexander was the first that fet up himfelf for a king inftead of a prieft; and his fons were Hyrcanus and Ariftobulus." All in agreement with Jofephus, excepting this, that Strabo omits the first king Ariftobulus, who reigned but a fingle year, leems hardly to have come to his knowledge. Nor indeed does Ariftobulus, the fon of Alexander, pretend that the name of king was taken before his father Alexander took it himself, Antiq. B. XIV. ch. iii. § 2. See also chap. xii. fec. 1. which favour Strabo alfo. And indeed, if we may judge from the very different characters of the Egyptian Jews urder high priests, and of the Paleftine Jews under kings, in the two next centuries we may well fuppofe, that the divine Shechinah was removed into Egypt, and that, the worshippers at the temple of Onias were better men than those at the temple of jerufalem, CHAP. XI. How Ariftobulus, when he had taken the Government, first of all put a diadem on his head, and was most barbaroudly cruel to his mother and his brethren; und how, after he had flah Antigonus, he himself died. § 1. OW when their father Hyrcanus was dead, the eldeft fon Ariftobulus, intending to change the government into a kingdom, for fo he refolved to do, firft of all put a diadem on his head, four hundred eighty and one years and three months after the people had been delivered from the Babylonith flavery, and were returned to their own coun. try again. This Ariftobulus loved his next brother Antigonus, and treated him as his equal, but the others he held in bonds. He alfo caft his mother into prifon, because the difputed the government with him, for Hyrcanns had left her to be miftrefs of all. He also proceeded to that degree of barbarity, as to kill her in prifon with hunger; nay, he was alienated from his brother Antigonus by calumnies, and added him to the reft whom he flew, yet he feemed to have and affection for him, and made him above the reft a partner with him in the kingdom. Thofe calumnies he at firft did not give credit to, partly bocaufe he loved him, and fo did not give heed to what was faid against him, and partly becaufe he thought the reproaches were derived from the envy of the relaters. But when Antigonus was once returned from the army, and that feat was then at hand when they make tabernacles to [the honour of] God, it happened that Ariftobulus was fallen fick, and that Antigonus went up moft fplendidly adorned, and with his foldiers about him in their armour, to the temple, to celebrate the feaft, and to put up many prayers for the recovery of his brother, when fome wicked perlons, who had a great mind to raise a difference between the brethren, made ufe of this opportunity of the pompous appearance of Antigonus, and of the great actions which he had done, and went to the king, and fpitefully aggravated the pompous fhew of his at the feaft, and pretended that all thefe circumstances were not like those of a private perfon; that these actions were indications of an affection of royal authority; and that his coming with a ftrong body of men must be with an intention to kill him; and that his way of reasoning was this, that it was a filly thing in him; while it was in his power to reign himself, to look upon it as a great favour that he was honoured with a lower dignity by his brother. 2. Ariftobulus yielded to thefe imputations, but took care both that his brother fhould not suspect him, and that he himfelf might not run the hazard of his own fafety; fo he ordered his guards to lie in a certain place that was under ground, and dark (he himself then lying fick in the tower which was called Antonia), and he commanded them, that in cafe Antigonus came in to him unarmed, they thould not touch any body, but if armed, they should kill him; yet did he fend to Antigonus, and defired that he would come unarmed; But the queen, and thofe that joined with her in the plot against Antigonus, perfuaded the meffenger to tell him the direct contrary; how his brother had heard that he had made himself a fine fuit of armour for war, and defired him to come to him in that ar-, mour, that he might fee how fine it was. So Antigonus fufpecting no treachery, but depending on the good-will of his brother, caine to Ariftobulus armed, as he uled to be, with his entire armour, in order to fhew it to him; but when he was come at a place which was called Strato's Tower, where the paffage happened to be exceeding dark, the guards flew, him; which death of his demonftrates that nothing is ftrong-. er than envy and calumny, and that nothing does more certainly divide the good-will and natural affections of men than thofe paffions. But here one may take occafion to wonder at one Judas, who was of the fect of the Effens, and who never miffed the truth in his predictions; for this man, when he faw Antigonus paffing by the temple, cried out to his companions and friends, who abode with him as his fchollars, in order to learn the art of foretelling things to come," That it was. good for him to die now, fince he had fpoken falfely about Antigonus, who is ftill alive, and I fee him paffing by, although he had foretold he should die at the place called Strato's Tower, that very day, while yet the place is fix hundred furlongs off, where he had foretold he fhould be flain; and fill this day is a great part of it already paft, so that he was in danger of proving a falfe prophet." As he was laying this, and that in a melancholy mood, the news came that Antigonus was flain in a place under ground, which itself was called allo Strato's Tower, or of the fame name with that Cefarea which is feated at the fea. This event put the prophet into a great diforder. 3. But Ariftobulus repented immediately of this flaughter of his brother; on which account his difeafe increased upon him, and he was difturbed in his mind, upon the guilt of luch wickednefs, infomuch that his entrails were corrupted by his, intolerable pain, and he vomited blood: At which time one of the fervants that attended upon him, and was carrying his blood away, did, by divine providence, as I cannot but fup • Herce we learn, that the Effens pretended to have rules whereby men might foretel things to come, and that this Judas the Effen, taught those rules to his fchollars: but whether their pretences were of an aftrological or magical nature, which yet in fuch religious Jews, who were utterly forbidden fuch arts, is no way probable, or to any Bath Col, fpoken of by the latter Rabbins, or otherwife, I cannot tell. See of the War, B. II. ch viii. § 13, vol, !!!. VOL. II. N pofe, flip down, and fhed part of his blood at the very place where there were fpots of Antigonus's blood there flain, ftill remaining; and when there was a cry made by the spectators, as if the fervant had on purpose fhed the blood on that place, Ariftobulus heard it, and enquired what the matter was? And as they did not anfwer him he was the more earneft to know what it was, it being natural to men to fufpe&t that what is thus concealed, is very bad: So upon his threatening, and forcing them by terrors to fpeak, they at length told him the truth; whereupon he fhed many tears, in that disorder of mind which arofe from his confcioufnefs of what he had done, and gave a deep groan, and faid, "I am not therefore, I perceive, to be concealed from God, in the impious and horrid crimes I have been guilty of, but a fudden punifhment is coming upon me for the thedding the blood of my relations. And now, O thou most impudent body of mine, how long whit thou retain a foul that ought to die, in order to appease the ghofts of my brother and my mother? Why doft thou not give it all up at once? And why do I deliver up my blood drop by drop to thofe whom I have fo wickedly murdered ?" In faying which laft words, he died, having reigned a year. He was called a lover of the Grecians; and had conferred many benefits on his own country, and made war against Iturea, and added a great part of it to Judea, and compelled the inhabitants, if they would continue in that country, to be circumcifed, and to live according to the Jewith laws. He was naturally a man of candour, and of great modefty, as Strabo bears witness, in the name of Timagenes; who fays thus: This man was a perfon of candour, and very ferviceable to the Jews, for he added a country to them, and obtained a part of the nation of the Itureans for them, and bound them to them by the bond of the circumcifion of their genitals." CHAP. XII. How Alexander, when he had taken the Government, made an Expedition against Ptolemais, and then raifed the Siege out of fear of Ptolemy Lathyrus; and how Ptolemy made War against him, because he had fent to Cleopatra to perfuade her to make War against Ptolemy, and yet pretended to be in FriendShip with him, when he beat the Jews in the Battle. $ 1. by the Greeks, was called Alexandra, let his brethren out of prifon (for Ariftobulus had kept them in bonds, as we have faid already,) and made Alexander Janneus king, who was the fuperior in age, and in moderation. This child hap pened to be hated by his father as foon as he was born, and could never be permitted to come into his father's fight till he WHEN Ariftobulus was dead, his wife Salome, who, |