When
High Priest John Hyrcanus of Jerusalem died in 104 BCE, he was survived by his
wife and five sons. The office of high priest, at the time, was controlled by
the Maccabee/Hasmonean Dynasty, and therefore the sons of John Hyrcanus vied
over the succession. Aristobulus, the eldest of the sons, succeeded in a
contested play for power. He proclaimed himself to be the new high priest, but,
to get what he wanted, he reportedly had to imprison his mother and three of
his four brothers. Once in power, Aristobulus became the first member of the
Hasmonean Dynasty to not only call himself high priest, but also to adopt the
title of king.
King
Aristobulus showed little mercy to his mother and siblings while they were
imprisoned and what they experienced was in no way a cozy house-arrest.
Instead, conditions were so harsh that Aristobulus’ mother reportedly died in
prison from malnourishment and mistreatment. As for the one brother who was
allowed to walk free, his fate was worse than his brothers. This last sibling,
named Antigonus, was said to have eventually been assassinated by Aristobulus.
Tyrannical
King Aristobulus, fortunately for his family, did not rule for long. Perhaps
his conscience was plagued by guilt over the deaths of his mother and brother,
or maybe the authoritarian treatment of his family was inspired by a madness
brought on by illness. Whatever the case, King Aristobulus I reportedly fell
deathly ill by 103 BCE. Josephus, a Jewish priest and historian from the 1st
century, presented a colorful account of the king’s death in his text, The
Jewish War:
“As
for Aristobulus, remorse for the abomination he had committed precipitated an
immediate sickness. Thoughts of the murder kept troubling his mind, and he fell
into a decline: eventually pure concentrated anguish corroded his guts, and he
vomited a copious quantity of blood….in a moment he was dead. He had been king
for no more than a year” (The Jewish War, I.81-84).
After
the death of Aristobulus, the king’s surviving siblings were released from
prison. Unfortunately, these finally-freed brothers started a new cycle of
bloodshed. The eldest of the brothers, Alexander, claimed the vacated titles of
high priest and king in yet another disputed succession. To enforce his claim, Alexander
ordered the death of a rival brother.
Written
by C. Keith Hansley
Picture
Attribution: (Aristobulus I from Guillaume Rouillé's Promptuarium Iconum
Insigniorum, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).
Sources:
- Josephus’ The Jewish War, translated by Martin Hammond. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017.
- http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/1768-aristobulus-i
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Aristobulus-I
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