ROMAN TRIUMPH.
Aristobulus was carried to Rome, where, with his two sons, he was compelled to grace the triumph of Pompey. Bitter must have been the humiliation of the ambitious Asmonean prince when following the triumphal chariot of his heathen conqueror through streets thronged with eager multitudes! In vain might he long that the earth would open before him to hide his disgrace from the curious gaze of unpitying eyes! They who exalt themselves shall be abased. Aristobulus long remained a prisoner in Rome; and when at length political changes in that city seemed to open to him a path to freedom and to power, his ambitious career was suddenly closed by poison, administered to him as he was returning to his country, 49 b.c.
Hyrcanus bore the name of ruler in Jerusalem, but the real power lay in the hands of the ambitious Antipater, the Idumean, who enjoyed great favour with the Romans. Phasael, his eldest son, was made governor of Jerusalem; Herod, his second son, governor of Galilee. The latter, who afterwards sat on the throne of Judea under the title of Herod the Great, was a man of singular energy and courage, as well as of political talent. He strengthened his influence with the Jews by marrying Mariamne, the beautiful grand-daughter of Hyrcanus, and thus allying himself to the royal family of the Asmoneans.
In the year 40 b.c., Antigonus, son of Aristobulus, assisted by the Parthians, made a desperate effort to win the regal power, in aspiring to which his father had lost first his freedom and then his life. Antipater the Idumean was dead—he also had perished by poison; and his son Herod was absent from Judea, when the Parthians marched upon Jerusalem, plundered the country round, seized upon the city, and made Antigonus king. Hyrcanus and Phasael were delivered up in chains to the mercy of the conqueror. Phasael, knowing his death to be determined upon, in desperation dashed out his own brains against the walls of his dungeon. Antigonus spared the life of Hyrcanus, his dethroned uncle; but cut off his ears, that he might be for ever disqualified from being high priest, as no one with a member imperfect was capable of holding the office.
Herod, hearing of the dethronement of Hyrcanus and the death of his own brother Phasael, hastened to Rome, to seek there for help from his powerful allies. Aided by them, he brought a large force into the field, and besieged the new king in Jerusalem, 38 b.c. It was not till the next year that the city was taken, as it was desperately defended by the Jews. At length the Romans entered on every side, and filled all the streets with blood and slaughter, till Herod himself interceded for the people, exclaiming that the Romans would make him king only of a desert.
Antigonus, seeing that all was lost, surrendered himself to the enemy. Herod did not consider himself secure in the kingdom which was bestowed upon him by his Roman allies, as long as one prince of the blood-royal remained alive on the earth. With great difficulty he obtained from the Roman general a decree condemning Antigonus to death. The sentence was executed on the unhappy prince; and beneath the axe of the lictor perished the last king of the male line of the Asmonean race. We have now followed the thread of the history of that race from its first glorious commencement to the period when, stained as it was with blood, and darkened with crime, we trace by it only the miseries and wrongs of unfortunate princes in the realm once ruled by their fathers. We behold in that history the end of ambition. The descendants of the noble Mattathias were great until they aspired to be greater, and glorious until they ceased to seek God’s glory rather than their own.
| CONTEMPORANEOUS EVENTS. | |
|---|---|
| 107-38 b.c. | |
| b.c. | |
| Cataline’s conspiracy at Rome | 66 |
| Cæsar’s invasion of Britain | 55 |
| Battle of Pharsalia | 48 |
| Death of Cæsar | 44 |