Aristobulus I
Judaea Becomes a Kingdom and Aristobulus a King
13.301–310
After their father Hyrcanus died, the eldest son, Aristobulus, saw fit to transform the government into a kingdom, which he judged to be the best form of rule. He was the first to put a diadem on his head, four hundred and eighty-one years and three months after the time when the people had been delivered from Babylonian captivity and returned to their own country. Of all his brothers, Aristobulus loved only his brother Antigonus, who was closest to him in age. He considered him worthy of a position like his own, whereas he kept his other brothers in chains. He also imprisoned his mother because she disputed with him about the royal power of government, for her husband Hyrcanus had left her with authority over all things pertaining to the realm. Aristobulus was so cruel that he caused his mother to die in prison of starvation. He was also alienated from his brother Antigonus by calumnies, and killed him, even though he had such great affection for him that he had made him his associate in the kingdom. At first, he [Aristobulus] did not give any credence to those calumnies, partly because he loved him [Antigonus] and thus did not give heed to what was said against him, and partly because he thought the reproaches were derived from the envy of the relaters [of the calumnies]. But on one occasion, when Antigonus returned from a campaign with glory during the festival when they make tabernacles [Sukkot], it happened that Aristobulus had fallen sick. Arrayed in great splendor, and with his heavily armored soldiers, Antigonus went up to the Temple to celebrate the feast and to pray for his brother’s recovery. Some wicked men, eager to stir up rivalry among the brothers, took this opportunity—of Antigonus’ pompous appearance and of his great achievements—to do so. They told the king about his brother’s display at the festival, exaggerating the pomp of his appearance, saying that he behaved unlike a private person but rather like someone who imagined himself a king and that he had arrived with a strong army with the intention to kill Aristobulus; for after all, it was a silly thing for him to share the power, when he could rule himself.
The Murder of Antigonus
Reluctantly, Aristobulus began to believe these charges but was careful not to let his brother suspect him, lest he jeopardize his own safety. So he ordered his guards to lie in a dark underground passage, as he [Aristobulus] was lying sick in the tower which was later called Antonia. He commanded them that if Antigonus came to him unarmed, no one should harm him, but if he came wearing his armor, they should kill him. He sent to Antigonus and requested that he come [to him] unarmed. However, the queen, and those who joined with her in the plot against Antigonus, persuaded the messenger to tell Antigonus the opposite: that his brother had heard that he had made himself a fine suit of armor for war and desired him to come to him in that armor, that he might see how fine it was. So Antigonus, suspecting no treachery, but relying on his brother’s goodwill, came to Aristobulus armed, just as usual, wearing all of his armor, in order to show it to him. When he reached the so-called Strato’s Tower, where the passageway happened to be exceedingly dark, the guards killed him. His death demonstrates that nothing is stronger than envy and calumny, and that nothing more clearly divides the goodwill and natural affections of men than those passions. [ . . . ]
Aristobulus’ Remorse and Fatal Illness
13.314–319
But Aristobulus immediately regretted murdering his brother, on which account his disease increased. The guilt of his wickedness affected him, so much so that his entrails were corrupted by intolerable pain, and he vomited blood. One of the servants who waited on him was carrying his blood away—by divine providence, as I cannot but suppose—and slipped and spilled part of his blood at the very place where spots of Antigonus’ blood still remained from his murder. And when a cry went up from the spectators, as if the servant had spilled the blood on that very spot on purpose, Aristobulus heard it and wanted to know what happened. When they did not answer him, he was all the more eager to know what happened, it being natural to suspect that what is thus concealed is very bad. After he threatened them, they told him the truth, at which point he shed many tears. Out of a guilty conscience for what he had done, he gave a deep groan and said, “I am not therefore, I perceive, to escape the notice of God in committing such impious and horrid crimes, but a sudden punishment has come upon me for shedding the blood of my kin. And now, O most impudent body of mine, how long will you keep a soul that ought to die, in order to appease the ghosts of my brother and my mother? Why do you not give it all up at once? And why do I deliver up my blood drop by drop to those whom I have so wickedly murdered?” And soon after he spoke these last words he died, having reigned one year. He was called a lover of the Greeks [philhellene], had conferred many benefits on his own country, made war against Ituraea [inhabitants of the region of Mount Lebanon] and added a great part of it to Judaea, and compelled the inhabitants, if they would continue in that country, to be circumcised and to live according to the Jewish laws. He was naturally a man of candor and of great modesty, as Strabo bears witness, in the name of Timagenes [a first-century BCE historian], who writes: “This man was a person of candor and very serviceable to the Jews, for he acquired additional territory for them, obtained a part of the nation of the Itureans for them, and bound them to them by the bond of circumcision.”
Translated byWilliam Whiston, adapted byCarol Bakhos, in consultation withRalph Marcus.
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 2: Emerging Judaism.
