The Tale Of Mad King Aristobulus I

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

The Morbid Bank Of High-Priest John Hyrcanus

John Hyrcanus, a member of the Maccabee/Hasmonean Dynasty, ruled Jerusalem from 135 to 104 BCE. Around the same time as John Hyrcanus’ ascendance, the Jewish state was invaded by the Seleucid Empire, from which the Hasmonean Dynasty of high priests had rebelled in 167 BCE. Antiochus VII, leader of the Seleucids, marched his army to the walls of Jerusalem in 135 or 134 BCE, intending to bring the Jewish realm back into a state of vassalage. A siege ensued, in which both the attackers and defenders suffered from inadequate supplies. As neither side was in an ideal situation to continue the siege, Antiochus VII and John Hyrcanus opened up peace negotiations. For these talks, the high priest needed to find more resources that he could use as leverage in the bargain. As the story goes, John Hyrcanus obtained these bargaining chips from a morbid source.

Josephus, a Jewish priest and historian from the 1st century, wrote about how John Hyrcanus responded to the siege of Antiochus VII. In The Jewish War, Josephus wrote, “Hyrcanus opened the tomb of David, the wealthiest of kings, and extracted more than 3,000 talents. He spent 300 on bribing Antiochus to raise the siege, and used the residue to hire a force of mercenaries—he was the first Jew to adopt this practice” (The Jewish War, I.61). What Josephus biasedly called a bribe, other ancient historians instead interpreted as a submittal by John Hyrcanus to the demands of Antiochus VII. Yet, the high priest of Jerusalem was indeed able to negotiate favorable terms for himself. Although John Hyrcanus, in the negotiations, apparently recognized Seleucid power and agreed to some demilitarization, he also convinced Antiochus VII to recognize Maccabee/Hasmonean rule in Jerusalem, and to allow the dynasty to continue exercising autonomy.

John Hyrcanus’ early concessions worked out in the long run, as he was able to regain lost ground after the death of Antiochus VII in 129 BCE, at which point the Seleucid Empire fell into a succession crisis and civil war. Along with the mercenaries paid by the treasure from King David’s tomb, John Hyrcanus also added a further check against foreign threats by reportedly making some sort of partnership or alliance with Rome.

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Picture Attribution: (Hoard of ancient gold coins, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• Josephus’ The Jewish War, translated by Martin Hammond. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017.
• http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/7972-hyrcanus-john-johanan-i 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Hyrcanus-I 
• https://www.livius.org/articles/person/antiochus-vii-sidetes/ 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Antiochus-VII-Sidetes 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Flavius-Josephus 
• https://www.ancient.eu/King_David/

The Unwise Charge Of Eleazar

After the death of Antiochus IV of the Seleucid Empire in 164 BCE, his successor, Antiochus V, decided that one of the first goals of his reign would be to crush a rebellion in Jerusalem that was led by the theocratic Hasmonaean dynasty. The rebellion was reportedly raised by a man named Matthias (or Mathathias) in 167 BCE, and his son, Judas Maccabaeus (hence the Biblical Books of the Maccabees). Judas was the rebellion’s first great priest-general, beginning his heyday around 164 BCE, not long before Antiochus V came to power.

Around 162 BCE, Antiochus V launched his attack against Jerusalem, reportedly mobilizing tens of thousands of infantry, thousands of cavalry, and nearly one hundred elephants for the assault. Judas Maccabaeus led the Jewish forces out to intercept the Seleucids at Beth-Zechariah, but the battle did not go as planned. The rebel forces showed poor discipline during the encounter, and Judas Maccabaeus’ own brother, Eleazar, was said to have been greatly responsible for the Jewish army’s untimely breakdown in order and morale. According to the Books of the Maccabees and the Jewish historian, Josephus, Eleazar was tempted by the thought of glory into making a rash and foolish charge during the battle of Beth-Zechariah. As the story goes, he hoped to quickly assassinate Antiochus V in the heat of battle, and therefore he scoured the field of carnage for the tallest elephant, presuming that the Seleucid king would be riding atop the most formidable beast. When he spotted the tallest elephant, he vowed to take it down at all cost, and neither friend nor foe was able to stop him from reaching the animal. Josephus, relying on the Books of the Maccabees, recorded this scene in his own text, The Jewish War, and also added a moral to the story at the end of the odd tale:

“So he rushed out far ahead of his own lines and hacked his way through a mass of the enemy to reach the elephant. Unable to get near the supposed king because of his height from the ground, Eleazar struck at the underbelly of the beast, which brought it collapsing down on top of him. He was crushed to death. He had put hope of glory before life itself, but it came to nothing more than a heroic failure. In fact the man riding the elephant was a commoner” (The Jewish War, 1.43-44).

Ultimately, in his attempt to assassinate Antiochus V, Eleazar only managed to assassinate himself—for even the elephant’s commoner rider likely could have survived the fall. After the incident, the Seleucid army’s chain of command remained intact and unconfused, whereas Eleazar’s breaking from rank and subsequent death left the Jewish forces in a state of disarray and demoralization—after all, he was a member of the rebellion’s leading family, and he was likely one of Judas Maccabaeus’ military lieutenants. As the battle continued, the Jewish forces could not regain momentum or advantage and Antiochus V won the day. The Seleucids continued their march into Judea and Judas Maccabaeus was able to do little to stop Antiochus V from occupying Jerusalem before the end of 162 BCE.

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Picture Attribution: (Battle of Zama, by Cornelis Cort, 1567, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• Josephus’ The Jewish War, translated by Martin Hammond. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017.
• https://www.livius.org/articles/person/antiochus-v-eupator/ 
• https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095417227 
• https://www.britannica.com/topic/Maccabees 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Antiochus-IV-Epiphanes