Alexander Jannæus

ALEXANDER JANNÆUS, the third Son of John Hircanus. John Hircanus left three Sons, or five, according to Josephus¹. He had a particular affection for Antigonus and Aristobulus, but could not endure his third Son Alexander, because he had dream’d that he would reign after him; which extremely afflicted him, inasmuch as according to the order of nature, he could not come to the Crown till after the death of his two Brothers. The event justified the truth of this dream. Antigonus never reigned, and Aristobulus but for a very short time;² so that after his death, Salome, or Alexandra his Widow, set Alexander at liberty, whom Aristobulus had kept in prison ever since their Father’s death³, and made him King in his room in 3899. before J. C. 101. before the vulgar Æra 105. As soon as Alexander was seated on the Throne, he put to death one of his Brothers, who had formed a design upon his life, and heaped great honours on another, called Absalom, who was contented with a private condition, and lived peaceably, and retired from all publick business.

Alexander was of a warlike enterprizing genius; as soon as he had regulated the affairs of his dominions, he marched with an army against Ptolemaïs. The inhabitants of the City gave him battle, but he repulsed them; and compell’d them to shut themselves up in the place where he laid close siege to them. The besieged seeing themselves pressed, had recourse to Ptolemy Lathyrus, who having been forced out of the Kingdom of Egypt by his Mother Cleopatra, continued in the Isle of Cyprus. Lathyrus promised to come to their assistance, and to this end fitted out a strong fleet. In the mean time, Demænetus, who had great credit in Ptolemaïs, persuaded the Inhabitants that it was much more for their advantage to carry on the war against the Jews, and run all the hazards of it, than to receive Ptolemy, and thereby throw themselves into certain and inevitable slavery. The people of the town submitted to these reasons, and ordered thanks to be returned to Ptolemy for the offer of his assistance.

Ptolemy Lathyrus was already at sea, when he received this news; notwithstanding which he advanced as far as Sicaminum, a City situated over-against Ptolemaïs, where he landed his army, which was composed of about thirty thousand horse and foot. They of Ptolemaïs persisted in refusing to receive him into their City; during which time the Deputies of Gaza came to him on the part of Zoilus Tyrant of Dora, and of Strato’s Tower, desiring him to come to their assistance against Alexander Jannæus, King of the Jews, who laid waste all their Country.

Ptolemy was overjoyed at this opportunity of making an honourable retreat from before Ptolemaïs. In the mean while, Alexander, not thinking it advisable to hazard an engagement with Ptolemy, withdrew with his troops into their quarters, and underhand sollicited Cleopatra, Ptolemy’s Mother, to be of his party, making outward professions of a desire to live well with her Son, and offering him four hundred talents to deliver up Zoïlus, with assurances that he would resign to him the several pieces of land which Zoilus was possess’d of in the Country. Ptolemy was not long without perceiving that Alexander played with him; for which reason he began the war In the Year of the World 3900. before J. C. 100. before the Vulg. Æra 104.against him with more vigour than before.

He attacked and took some places in Galilee. Alexander marched against him, and gave him battle near Asophus, which was not far from Jordan⁴. But Ptolemy In the year of the World 3901, before J. C. 99, before the vulgar Æra 103.killed thirty thousand of his Men, or fifty thousand, if Timagenes, who is cited in Josephus, is to be believed. After this victory Ptolemy met with no more resistance in the Country. He made every where great havock, and spread the terror of his name throughout all the Province. After this, his Mother Cleopatra fearing lest so much success should make him too powerful, equipp’d a large Fleet, and sent her Son Alexander into Phœnicia, where he was very well received by the People of that Country, who forsook Ptolemy’s party, but appearing before Ptolemaïs, he was obliged to lay siege to it; and Cleopatra came to his assistance, to hasten the taking of the City.

In the Year of the World 3902, before J. C. 98, before the vulgar Æra 102.Alexander Jannæus, as his affairs then stood, thought it impossible to procure any succour but from Cleopatra. He went therefore to her Camp before Ptolemaïs, carrying great presents with him, and was received there as an unhappy Prince, who was Ptolemy’s Enemy, and had no other refuge but the Queen’s protection. Some of Cleopatra’s friends would have persuaded her to seize upon Judæa; but Ananias, one of her Generals, who was by birth a Jew, diverted her from it, by remonstrating to her, not only the injustice and unworthiness of such a proceeding, in robbing thus a Prince who was her Ally, and came to throw himself into her arms; but likewise that it would make her odious to all the Jews in the world, who would detest such a piece of perfidiousness. Cleopatra being moved with these reasons, made an alliance with Alexander Jannæus, in the City of Scythopolis; and thereupon Alexander marched with his troops into Cœle-Syria, where he took the Town of Gadara, after a siege of ten months, and after that Amathus, which was one of the best fortresses in the Country, where Theodorus the Son of Zeno had lodged every thing most valuable that he had, as in a place of good security. In the Year of the World 3903. before J. C. 97. before the vulg. Æra 101. In the year of the World 3906. before J. C. 94. before the vulg. Æra 98.This Theodorus falling suddenly upon Alexander’s army, killed ten thousand of his men, and plundered all his baggage.

This Misfortune was not sufficient to shake the courage of this Prince, he besieged Raphia and Anthedon, Towns lying upon the Mediterranean, and made himself Master of them. From thence he marched against Gaza, attacked it, and ravaged all the neighbouring Country. But Apollodotus, who commanded in the Town, having made a sally in the night, fell furiously upon Alexander’s Camp, put the Jews into disorder, and had the advantage as long as night lasted; but as soon as it was day, the Jews discovering who they were, (for they thought at first that it was Ptolemy Lathyrus, who was come to the assistance of Gaza) recovered spirit, and killed near a thousand of the Enemy: notwithstanding which, they did not surrender up the place, but chose rather to expose themselves to the last extremities, than submit to the Hebrews. But after a long resistance, having lost their Captain Apollodotus, the Town was taken and sacked, not however without great loss on the Jews side, for they of Gaza seeing there was no hope of quarter, sold their lives very dearly. Alexander return’d to Jerusalem a year after he began the siege of Gaza.

In the Year of the World 3907, be - fore J. C. 93. before the vulgar Æra 97.When he returned to Jerusalem, he did not find all that peace which he had reason to expect there. The Jews revolted from him⁵, and upon the feast of Tabernacles, while he was preparing to sacrifice as High-priest, according to custom, the People who were assembled in the Temple had the insolence to throw limons at him; for it is usual with the Jews, during this festival, to carry branches of Palm-trees and Limon-trees in their hands, as tokens of joy. To these insults they added reproaches, telling him, that as he had been a captive, he was not worthy to go up to the holy Altar, and offer solemn Sacrifices. Alexander, provoked with these affronts, put the seditious to the sword, and killed about six thousand of them. Afterwards he caused a partition made of wood to be erected about the Altar and the inner Temple, to prevent the People from coming so far as the Altar where the Priests performed their functions: And farther, to defend himself for the future against any such attempts, he took guards into his pay from Pisidia and Cilicia; for as he was no lover of the Syrians, he would have none of them in his service.

He made war afterwards against the Moabites and Ammonites, and having conquer’d them, obliged them to pay tribute to him. After that he attacked Amathus, the fortress beyond Jordan, which has been above mentioned, and razed it, Theodorus the Son of Zeno not daring in the mean time to encounter him. Upon another occasion, making war with Obeda, King of the Arabians, he fell imprudently into an ambuscade that was laid for him near Gadara, beyond Jordan; and having suffered himself to be inclosed by a troop of Camels in steep places, he had much ado to disengage himself, without any company, and got back to Jerusalem.

There he found the Jews more animated against him than ever, and was obliged to make war against them for six years, and kill above fifty thousand of them. All his endeavours to be reconciled with them were of no other use than to irritate them still more; so that having one day asked them what they would have him do in order to live well with them, and acquire their good-will, they answer’d all with one voice, that he had nothing to do but to kill himself, and at the same time sent deputies to Demetrius Eucærus, to desire succours from him against their King⁶.

Eucærus coming into Judæa⁷, join’d his army with the rebellious Subjects of Alexander, and encamped at Sichem. Alexander marched against him at the head of an Army consisting of six thousand two hundred foreign troops, and twenty thousand Jews, who continued faithful to him. Eucærus had in his Army three thousand horse and forty thousand foot. The two Kings did what they could mutually to weaken one another; Eucærus by debauching the foreign troops which were in Alexander’s pay; and Alexander by taking off those Jews from the party of Eucærus who had joined his Army. But neither of them succeeding in his design, they were obliged to come to a pitch’d battle, in which all the advantage was on the side of Eucærus, the foreign troops belonging to Alexander being defeated so entirely, that not one of them was left; and this Prince was forced to fly for shelter to the Mountains.

This misfortune, which, in all appearance, must have ruined totally the affairs of Alexander, was what most contributed to his re-establishment. Six thousand Jews, who were touched with the unhappy condition of their King, came to join him; and Demetrius, content with the first advantage he had gained, retired into Syria, and left the rebels to make war against their King with their own forces. Alexander had the better of them in all skirmishes, and at last having shut up the briskest of them in a place called Bethom, he forced them, made them prisoners, and carried them to Jerusalem, where he order’d eight hundred of them to be crucified before him, during a great entertainment which he had made for his friends; and before these unhappy wretches expir’d, he commanded their wives and children to be murder’d in their presence. This was an unheard-of and excessive cruelty; and upon this occasion the People of his own party called him Thracides, that is to say, as cruel as a Thracian. A body of eight thousand mutineers, who still kept the field, frighted with this execution, secur’d themselves in places strong by situation, and left the King at peace in his dominions.

Antiochus, sirnamed Dionysius⁸, having conquer’d the Kingdom of Damascus, resolved to make an irruption into Judæa: Alexander Jannæus having intelligence of his design, and being unwilling to run the hazard of a battle, gave orders for the making good intrenchments from Antipatris to Joppa, which was the only place thro’ which they could penetrate into his Country; and having added a wall to these works, with wooden towers at proper distances, for about an hundred and fifty furlongs in length, he put a stop to Antiochus, and his enterprize miscarried. This Prince, having only burnt the wooden towers, thought it convenient to return, and bend his arms against the King of the Arabians, in which war he was killed.

After his death, the people of Damascus made a present of the Crown to Aretas, who came into Judæa, attack’d Alexander, and overcame him near Adida, in the plain call’d Sephala, to the East of Gaza and Anthedon. After this the two Kings made peace upon certain conditions. Aretas return’d In the Year of the World 3918, before J. C. 81, before the vulgar Æra 85. In the Year of the World 3920. before J. C. 80. before the vulgar Æra 84. In the year of the World 3921. before J. C. 79. before the vulgar Æra 83. Deut. iii. 4, 13, 14. In the Year of the World 3923 before J. C. 77. before the vulgar Æra 81.to Damascus, and Alexander went and besieged Dia, or Dium, in Arabia, near Pella, in the region of Decapolis⁹; and having taken it, he led his army to Essa,¹⁰ where Zeno had lodged all that was most valuable belonging to him. He hemm’d in the place with a triple wall, and having taken it, he march-ed against Gaulan and Seleucia. These he took, and at the same time made himself master of the Valley of Antiochus, and the Fortress of Gamala. He accused Demetrius of several crimes, who was the proprietor of all these parts, and having taken possession of them, he returned in triumph to Judæa, after an absence of three years, which he had employed in these expeditions.

The Jews received him with joy, by reason of his great successes; and under his reign the dominion of the Hebrews was extended over many Cities which had been conquered by him. After this Alexander, having drank to great excess, fell sick, and having for three whole years laboured under a quartan fever, without intermitting however his military exercises; his strength was at last quite exhausted, and he died in the country of Gerasa, while he was besieging the Castle of Ragaba, situated beyond the river Jordan. Ragaba is probably the same with Argob of Bashan, which is mentioned by Moses.

The Queen his Wife observing him to be near his end, and foreseeing all she had to fear from a mutinous people not easily to be governed, her Children not being as yet of age to take upon themselves the conduct of affairs, Alexander told her under these perplexities, that if she had a mind to reign in peace, she should in the first place conceal his death from the Soldiery, till Ragaba was taken; in the next place, that when she returned to Jerusalem, she should give the Pharisees some authority in the State, and some share in the Government; that she should send for the principal of them, and shew them his dead body; that she should tell them they might use it as they pleased, and treat it with all manner of indignities, in revenge for the ill treatment they had received from him; and for the rest, that she would do nothing henceforward in the Government without their advice and participation.

He added, if you do thus, you may be assured, that they will make a very honourable funeral for me, and that you will reign in peace, supported by the credit and authority which they have acquired among the people. Having said these words, he expired, at the age of eight and forty, and after a reign of seven and twenty years; in the year of the World 3926. before J. C. 74. before the vulgar Æra 78. He left two Sons, Hircanus and Aristobulus, who disputed for the Kingdom and High Priesthood, till the time of Herod the Great; and by their division were the cause of the intire ruin of their family, and of Herod’s elevation.

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