In this list I would like to show how Judah was almost swept into rebellion, after which Mi Yeshorna. And again the same formula repeats - who among the descendants of the Hasmoneans decides (why? Like this!) to rebel, no less and no more than, in the great Roman Empire. And what did the one who said: "That's not how you build a wall!"
In this list I would like to show how Judah was almost swept into rebellion, after which Mi Yeshorna. And again the same formula repeats - who among the descendants of the Hasmoneans decides (why? Like this!) to rebel, no less and no more than, in the great Roman Empire. And what did the one who said: "That's not how you build a wall!"
In 62 BC, Pompey returned to Rome after having settled all the affairs of the empire in the east, befitting the title he had earned from it, and with him a number of captives, hostages - Judah Aristobulus and his family, which included two sons, one of whom was named Alexander who escaped from the Romans on his way to Rome, while his brother Matthias Antigonus, younger than him, as well as two daughters were brought to Rome for honor in Pompey's expedition.
Scaurus, who was entrusted on Pompey's behalf with the province of Syria and in general with Judea, embarked on wars of conquest in the Petra region, for economic and geopolitical reasons, was helped by overall logistical-gastronomic support for his army under the guidance of Yochanan Hyrcanus the Hasmonean, also here for clear personal political reasons.
Did Yehuda know peace after licking the bleeding wounds of her rebellion for a long time? Definately not. And who woke up now? He is the son-of-the-son-of-the-son-of..., and it is the son of Yehuda Aristobulus, Alexander, who escaped from the Roman Sheba stronghold, when in his veins flowed the current of anti-Roman rebellion, which was like a drink from his father's bones, and this from his father, and further.
It seems that the strong belief in God is what underlies the will of the majority of the Hasmoneans to oppose the Romans, despite the fact that they were supposed to know the power differences between them and the Romans, and more than that, they knew secretly in their hearts, it seems, what a heavy price the Jewish public might pay their whims and the abyss of their faith. But perhaps, their being sons of the assimilated, Greekized Hasmonean family, and the proof, among other things, is evidenced by the fact of their Greek names, slightly spoiling the above assumption, unless they separated, artificially-pragmatically, between Matthew and the Maccabees (Yehuda, Jonathan, Eleazar and Shimon) and the Hasmoneans. In any case, we will try to find another reason for their rebellion.
Hyrcanus, the son of Yanai, obviously could not have Alexander and the latter as if sought to take advantage of the quasi-loophole between the departure of Pompey and the temporary succession of Scauros, in order to sabotage the continuation of Roman control. He tried, first, to restore the walls of Jerusalem that had been breached by Pompey in his time, and in the process collapse the rule of his uncle Yohanan Hyrcanus, but failed due to the number of Roman interventions in the place. And then, like Judah the Maccabee and his younger brother Jonathan, against the Seleucids, he set out to wander throughout Judah in order to recruit supporters for his rebellious ideas. He managed to establish a militant militia of foot and cavalry of several thousand men and fortified three Hasmonean strongholds - Alexandrian (Sartaba), Horkania in the north of the Judean Desert between Bethlehem and the Dead Sea, and Makhver, founded by Alexander Yanai and located about eight kilometers east of the Bank the eastern side of the Dead Sea. On the one hand, it is about the points far from the Roman centers of control, and on the other hand, a provocative attempt to provoke the Romans who sought to take over the Nabatean trade, and perhaps this, economically and pre-politically, was also his intention, as we learn from the history of rebellions in general in history up to the present day.
But the luck of the rebellious Alexander ran out (and why didn't he take this into account at all) and he was confronted by skilled Roman forces under the command of Gabinius, commissioner of Syria between 57 and 55 BC. These defeated the rebel army and beat it shin-on-thigh.
Alexander surrendered immediately and asked, in exchange for the surrender of all the fortresses he had strengthened, a pardon for all his actions. His mother joined in this request with great entreaty. In the end the Romans got sick of him and Gabinius returned Hyrcanus, Alexander's uncle, to Jerusalem and entrusted him with guarding the Temple and probably confirmed him the status of the high priesthood and established an aristocratic regime in the city.
And that was not the end of the Roman punishment - the former Judea split into five administrative units, Sanhedrins as Josephus Ben Mattathias calls it from the Greek lexicon. When the largest and perhaps the only one controlled by the Jews was Jerusalem.
Yes, Hasmonean Judah paid a heavy price for her rebellions and tasted the bitterness of the Roman divide-and-rule system.
Are the troubles over? no and no! In 56 BC, the rebel Aristobulus escaped from Rome and made his way to Judea. His first plan was to restore the Alexandrian citadel, which had been destroyed not long ago. He was joined by many Jewish admirers, and as Yosef ben Matthieu refers to them as those who "always rejoiced in rebellions" (Kadmoniot Ha'Yudeim 92, 171) or "those who yearn for upheavals" (The Jewish Wars XNUMX:XNUMX:XNUMX). The Romans followed them with military forces, who defeated, tried and massacred many of them. And from this, Aristobulus was forced to retreat to the fortress of Mekvar and with him only a small part of his warriors, about a thousand men. Mechver surrendered after only two days, and Aristobulus, who was seriously wounded, was led honorably to the Roman camp.
In his writing, Yosef ben Matthew highlighted an interesting paragraph that appeared in his book "The Wars of the Jews" and implicitly, indirectly in his essay "The Antiquities of the Jews". In the first, Aristobulus is defined and crowned no less and no more as "king", and in the second Josephus takes the trouble to point out that Aristobulus served as king and high priest for three and a half years. It seems strange since Shlomzion Alexandra, his mother, assigned the office of the High Priesthood and indirectly also the monarchy to his elder brother Yohanan Hyrcanus, and Aristobulus did not assign anything "due to his hot temper" as evidenced by Joseph ben Matthew. But in the end Yohanan Hyrcanus was forced to give up his royal crown (so according to the "Jewish Wars") and perhaps also his ministry (so according to "Jewish Antiquities"). It was around 59/60 BC. In any case, until the moment when Pompey leaves the region for Rome with Aristobulus imprisoned/captive with him, Aristobulus is not mentioned as king.
Moreover, twice they escaped from Roman captivity, and in the same period. In the first Alexander fled before they reached Rome and in the second his father Aristobulus and his son Antigonus with him. Here, too, a kind of mystery, since his son did not remember the time when it was reported that the father, Aristobulus, had fled Rome. In any case, it seems strange in light of the discipline of Roman procedures which was very tight. And maybe there was some kind of intentionality here. That is,
If we dismissed the main cause of their rebellion as the strong belief in God, we were forced to locate other fields of influence. Was it a pro-rebellious education, which some of them considered to be a dinkota version, because Yohanan Hyrcanus was completely different from the somewhat tyrannical spirit of his brothers and his successors from him onwards. And perhaps, without stumbling into Roman conspiratorial paranoia, the Romans did not pay particular attention to the arrest/imprisonment of the descendants of the Hasmoneans, so that when the time came they would come to Judah, try to incite a rebellion and be punished. This trend is in line with the sacred Roman principle of "pretext for war" in order to sanctify the military punishment and minimize as much as possible the resistance of the people to the rule of Rome.
Are the Hasmonean troubles over? Absolutely not. On the one hand, when Gabinius was on his way to attack the Parthians in 55 BC, and from there he headed towards Egypt, fueled by logistical and gastronomic assistance from Hyrcanus and Antipaterus (father of Herod) and even military indirectly by persuading the Jewish forces that guarded the passageways of Pelusion in the eastern arm of the Nile Delta to allow Gabinius pass safely through the passage. And then a new rebellion arose in Judea at the initiative of Alexander ben Aristobulus. The rebels were defeated by the Roman army near Mount Tabor in Galilee and scattered everywhere. Aristobulus was poisoned by Pompey's loyalists and his son Alexander was also killed. He was sentenced to death for sedition by the express order of Pompey in a Roman court in Antioch and his head was beheaded with an ax as is customary in sentencing dangerous rebels. All this happened in 49 BC. His brother Antigonus, his sister Alexandra and another sister were placed under the protection of Ptolemy son of Menaeus, ruler of Chalcis.
In the meantime, after Pompey was murdered in Egypt, Julius Caesar followed him, but he got involved militarily and called for help. This was provided by Antipater, who personally saved Julius Caesar while giving his life for him. Antipater therefore won praise and a high personal status. Through his efforts, the high priesthood was granted-confirmed to Yohanan Hyrcanus and in addition he was awarded the title of Atanarchis, that is, ruler of the people.
Well friends, why did they drag Judah and Yehudia, the Hasmonean descendants? After all, the kingdom of Yanai and Alexandra's inheritance could have enjoyed many years of peace, growth and prosperity.
