part of his conduct which was not in accordance with the law (so Josephus), one of the
extreme section of the Pharisees,27 at a feast given to the party, called upon Hyrcanus to
be content with secular power, and to resign the Pontificate, on the ground that he was
disqualified for it, because his mother had been a captive of war. Even the Talmud admits
that this report was calumnious, while it offered a gratuitous insult to the memory of a
really noble heroic woman, all the more unwarrantable that the Pontificate had, by public
decree, been made the case if the charge now brought had been other than a pretext to
cover the hostility of the Chasidim. The rash avowal was avenged on the whole party. In
the opinion of Hyrcanus they all proved themselves accomplishes, when, on being
questioned, they declared the offender only guilty of 'stripes and bonds.' Hyrcanus now
joined the Sadducees, and although the statement of the Talmud about the slaughter of
the leading Pharisees is incorrect, there can be no doubt that they were removed from
power and exposed to persecution. The Talmud adds this, which, although
chronologically incorrect, is significant, 'Jochanan the High-Priest served in the
Pontificate eighty years, and at the end of them he became a Sadducee.' But this was only
the beginning of troubles to the Pharisaic party, whic h revenged itself by most bitter
hatred - the beginning, also of the decline of the Maccabbes.
27. Josephus calls him Eleazar, but the Talmud (Kidd. 66 a) Jehudah ben Gedidim, for
which Hamburger would read Nedidim, the sect of 'the solitaries,' which he regards as
another designation for the extreme Chasidim.
Hyrcranus left five sons. To the oldest of them, Aristobulus (in Hebrew Jehudah) ,he
bequeathed the Pontificate, but appointed his own widow to succeed him in the secular
government. But Aristobulus cast his mother into prison, where she soon afterwards
perished - as the story went, by hunger. The only one of his brothers whom he had left at
large, and who, indeed, was his favourite, soon fell also a victim to his jealous suspicions.
Happily his reign lasted only one year (105-104 b.c.). He is described as openly
favouring the Grecian party, although, on conquering Iturĉa, a district east of Lake of
Galilee,28 he obliged its inhabitants to submit to circumcision.
28. By a curious mistake, Schürer locates Iturĉa north instead of east of the Lake of
Galilee, and speaks of 'Jewish tradition' as drawing such a dark picture of Aristobulus.
Dr. S. must refer to Josephus, since Jewish tradition never named Aristobulus (Neuest.
Zeitg. p. 118).
On the death of Aristobulus. I., his widow, Alexandra Salome, released his brothers from
prison, and apparently married the eldest of them, Alexander Jannĉus (or in Hebrew
Jonathan), who succeeded both to the Pontificate and the secular government. The three
periods of his reign (104-78 b.c.) seem indicated in the varying inscriptions on his
coins.29 The first period, which lasted eight or ten years, was that in which Jannai was
engaged in those wars of conquest, which added the cities on the maritime coast to his
possessions.30 During the time Salome seems to have managed internal affairs. As she
was devoted to the Pharisaic party - indeed one of their leaders, Simeon ben Shetach, is
said to have been her brother (Ber.18 a) - this was the time of their ascendency.
Accordingly, the coins of that period bear the inscription, 'Jonathan the High-Priest and
the Chebher of the Jews.' But on his return to Jerusalem he found the arrogance of the
Pharisaic party ill accordant with his own views and tastes. The king now joined the