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soon as Pompey had filled up the valley, he erected high towers upon the bank, and brought those engines which they had fetched from Tyre, near to the wall, and tried to batter it down; and the slingers of stones beat off those that stood above them, and drove them away; but the towers on this side of the city made very great resistance, and were indeed extraordinary both for largeness and magnificence.

4. Now here it was that upon the many hardships which the Romans underwent, Pompey could not but admire not only at the other instances of the Jews' fortitude, but especially that they did not at all intermit their religious services, even when they were encompassed with darts on all sides; for, as if the city were in full peace, their daily sacrifices and purifications, and every branch of their religious worship, was still performed to God with the utmost exactness. Nor indeed, when the temple was actually taken, and they were every day slain about the altar, did they leave off the instances of their divine worship that were appointed by their law; for it was in the third month of the siege before the Romans could even with great difficulty overthrow one of the towers and get into the temple. Now he that first of all ventured to get over the wall, was Faustus Cornelius, the son of Sylla; and next after him were two centurions, Furius and Fabius; and every one of these was followed by a cohort of his own, who encompassed the Jews on all sides, and slew some of them as they were running for shelter to the temple, and others as they, for a while, fought in their own defence.

5. And now did many of the priests, even when they saw their enemies assailing them with swords in their hands, without any disturbance, go on with their divine worship, and were slain while they were offering their drinkofferings, and burning their incense, as preferring the duties about their worship to God, before their own preservation. The greatest part of them were slain by their own countrymen, of the adverse faction, and an innumerable multitude threw themselves down precipices; nay, some there were who were so distracted among the insuperable difficulties they were under, that they set fire to the buildings that were near to the wall, and were burnt together with them. Now of the Jews were slain twelve thousand; but of the Romans very few were slain, but a greater number was wounded.

6. But there was nothing that affected the nation so much, in the calamities they were then under, as that their holy place, which had been hitherto seen by none, should be laid open to strangers; for Pompey,* and those that were about him, went into the temple itself, whither it was not lawful for any to enter but the high priest, and saw what was reposited therein, the candlestick with its lamps, and the table, and the pouring vessels, and the censers, all made entirely of gold, as also, a great quantity of spices heaped together with two thousand talents of sacred money. Yet did not he touch that money, nor any thing else that was there reposited; but he commanded the ministers about the temple, the very next day after he had taken it, to cleanse it, and to perform their accustomed sacrifices. Moreover, he made Hyrcanus high priest, as one that not only in other respects had showed great alacrity on his side during the siege, but as he

Thus, says Tacitus, Cn. Pompeius first of all subdued the Jews, and went into their temple, by right of conquest, Hist. b. v. chap. ix. nor did he touch any of its riches, as has been observed on the parallel place of the Antiquities, b. xiv. chap. iv. § 4. out of Cicero himself.

had been the means of hindering the multitude that was in the country from fighting for Aristobulus, which they were otherwise very ready to have done; by which means he acted the part of a good general, and reconciled the people to him more by benevolence than by terror. Now, among the captives, Aristobulus's father-in-law was taken, who was also his uncle: so those that were the most guilty he punished with decollation; but rewarded Faustus, and those with him that had fought so bravely, with glorious presents, and laid a tribute upon the country and upon Jerusalem itself.

7. He also took away from the nation all those cities they had formerly taken, and that belonged to Celosyria, and made them subject to him that was at that time appointed to be the Roman president there; and reduced Judea within its proper bounds. He also rebuilt Gadara,* that had been demolished by the Jews, in order to gratify one Demetrius. who was of Gadara, and was one of his own freed men. He also made other cities free from their dominion that lay in the midst of the country, such, I mean, as they had not demolished before that time, Hippos, and Scythopolis, as also Pella, and Samaria, and Marissa; and besides these, Ashdod, and Jamnia, and Arethusa: and in like manner dealt he with the maritime cities, Gaza, and Joppa, and Dora, and that which was anciently called Strato's Tower; but was afterward rebuilt with the most magnificent edifices, and had its name changed to Cesarea by king Herod. All which he restored to their own citizens, and put them under the province of Syria; which province, together with Judea, and the countries as far as Egypt and Euphrates, he committed to Scaurus as their governor, and gave him two legions to support him; while he made all the haste he could himself to go through Cilicia, in his way to Rome, having Aristobulus and his children along with him, as his captives. They were two daughters and two sons; the one of which sons, Alexander, ran away as he was going; but the younger, Antigonus, with his sisters, were carried to Rome.

CHAP. VIII.

Alexander, the Son of Aristobulus, who ran away from Pompey, makes an Expedition against Hyrcanus; but being overcome by Gabinius, he delivers up the Fortresses to him. After this Aristobulus escapes from Rome, and gathers an Army together; but being beaten by the Romans, he is brought back to Rome; with other things relating to Gabinius, Crassus, and Cassius.

§ 1. In the mean time, Scaurus made an expedition into Arabia, but was stopped by the difficulty of the places about Petra. However, he laid waste the country about Pella, though even there he was under great hardship; for his army was afflicted with famine. In order to supply which want, Hyrcanus afforded him some assistance, and sent him provisions by the means of Antipater; whom also Scaurus sent to Aretas, as one well acquainted with him, to induce him to pay him money to buy his peace. The king of Arabia† complied with the proposal, and gave him three hundred talents; upon which Scaurus drew his army out of Arabia.

The coin of this Gadara, still extant, with its date from this era, is a certain evidence of this its rebuilding by Pompey, as Spanheim here assures us.

Take the like attestation to the truth of the submission of Aretas king of Arabia, to Scaurus the Roman general, in the words of Dean Aldrich. "Hence (says he) is

2. But as for Alexander, that son of Aristobulus who ran away from Pompey, in some time he got a considerable band of men together, and lay heavy upon Hyrcanus, and overran Judea, and was likely to overturn him quickly; and indeed he had come to Jerusalem, and had ventured to rebuild its wall that was thrown down by Pompey, had not Gabinius, who was sent as successor to Scaurus into Syria, showed his bravery, as in many other points, so in making an expedition against Alexander; who, as he was afraid that he would attack him, so he got together a large army, composed of ten thousand armed footmen, and fifteen hundred horsemen. He also built walls about proper places, Alexandrium, and Hyrcanium, and Macherus, that lay upon the mountains of Arabia.

3. However, Gabinius sent before him Marcus Antonius, and followed himself with his whole army; but for the select body of soldiers that were about Antipater, and another body of Jews under the command of Malithus and Pitholaus, these joined themselves to those captains that were about Marcus Antonius, and met Alexander; to which body came Gabinius with his main army soon afterward; and as Alexander was not able to sustain the charge of the enemies' forces, now they were joined, he retired. But when he was come near to Jerusalem, he was forced to fight, and lost six thousand men in the battle; three thousand of whom fell down dead, and three thousand were taken alive; so he fled with the remainder to Alexandrium.

4. Now, when Gabinius was come to Alexandrium, because he found a great many there encamped, he tried, by promising them pardon for their former offences, to induce them to come over to him, before it came to a fight; but when they would hearken to no terms of accommodation, he slew a great number of them, and shut up a great number of them in the citadel. Now Marcus Antonius, their leader, signalized himself in this battle, who, as he always showed great courage, so did he never show it so much as now; but Gabinius, leaving forces to take the citadel, went away himself, and settled the cities that had not been demolished, and rebuilt those that had been destroyed. Accordingly, upon his injunction, the following cities were restored: Scythopolis, Samaria, Anthedon, Apollonia, Jamnia, Raphia, Marissa, Adoreus, Gamala, Ashdod, and many others; while a great number of men readily ran to each of them, and became their inhabitants.

5. When Gabinius had taken care of these cities, he returned to Alexandrium, and pressed on the siege. So when Alexander despaired of ever obtaining the government, he sent ambassadors to him, and prayed him to forgive what he had offended him in, and gave up to him the remaining fortresses, Hyrcanium and Macherus, as he put Alexandrium into his hands afterwards: all which Gabinius demolished, at the persuasion of Alexander's mother, that they might not be receptacles of men in the second war. She was now there in order to molify Gabinius, out of her concern for her relations that were captives at Rome, which were her husband and her other children. After this Gabinius brought Hyrcanus to Jerusalem, and committed the care of the temple to him; but ordained derived that old and famous Denarius belonging to the Emilian family [represented in Havercamp's edition,] wherein Aretas appears in a posture of supplication, and taking hold of a camel's bridle with his left hand, and with his right hand presenting a branch of the frankincense tree, with this inscription, M. Scaurus Er. Sc. and beneath, Rex Aretas."

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