HEBREW INSCRIPTION.
Tomb of Beni Ḥezir.
THE KIDRON TOMBS
The third monument of this group is yet farther south, and is now called the “Tomb of Zechariah.” It is entirely rock cut, and similar to “Absalom’s Tomb” except in having a pyramidal roof. It has also the same bold corbelled cornice. The fourth tomb is north of the village of Silwân, and is rarely noticed in early accounts. It was called by de Vogüé the “Egyptian Tomb,” because it has a corbelled cornice—like the others—which he regarded as Egyptian. This kind of cornice is not only found with Greek pillars in the other instances, but it also occurs in the Ḥaram at Hebron, in connection with Herodian masonry. The tomb has no other adornment outside; on the inside it has a ridge ceiling.[222] There is no reason to suppose that it is any older than the other three. To the left of the door there are two marks cut in the rock. M. Clermont-Ganneau regards them as letters, and thinks that the height of the door was increased, cutting off the rest of the text. The marks are much weathered, and it is doubtful if they are letters at all. Nor could I find (after careful examination) any sign of the door having been altered. They are certainly not Egyptian signs, and if accepted would still prove nothing towards the improbable theory of Egyptian origin.
A brief account of the Roman conquest of the holy city will close this narrative of the Greek age in Jerusalem. The power of Rome was constantly increasing in the north, as she successively defeated Mithridates of Pontus and Tigranes of Armenia; and Pompey in 65 B. C. deposed Antiochus Asiaticus, last of the Seleucidæ, and set up Antiochus of Commagene in north-eastern Syria—a ruler half Greek, half Persian, whose remarkable tomb, with its valuable Greek texts, has been found on the Taurus north of Samosata.
POMPEY
Judea had been wisely ruled for nearly ten years by Salome Alexandra, the widow of Alexander Jannæus, supported by the Pharisees, who are first noticed as a Jewish sect in the time of Jonathan, but who now became the leaders of the nation, adding many traditions—which often seem to be of Persian rather than of Hebrew origin—to the law of Moses. The quarrels of the degenerate sons of Alexander Jannæus, after the death of their mother in 69 B. C., gave a pretext to Pompey for interference in Jewish affairs. They at first agreed that Aristobulus the elder should be high-priest, and Hyrcanus the younger king. But the latter called to his aid the powerful Arab king Aretas (or Ḥârith) from Petra, and Aristobulus offered Pompey a bribe of 400 talents for his support. So Scaurus was sent by the great conqueror of Armenia to settle the affairs of the Jews.[223]
Hyrcanus had been persuaded by Antipater the Idumæan, whom his father had made commander in Edom,[224] to flee to Petra, and he thence returned with his Arab allies to besiege his brother in Jerusalem. Scaurus commanded them to depart, and leaving Aristobulus in the city, he returned to Damascus. Pompey, having subdued Tigranes, soon followed and marched to Jericho.[225] Aristobulus was ready to submit to Pompey’s demand that he should surrender his strongholds, but the Jerusalem Jews refused to admit the Roman envoy Gabinius within the walls of Jerusalem. The city at this time is described as having strong walls, and was only weak on the north, where there was no deep outer valley. The patriotic party and the unhappy Aristobulus held the Temple, defended on the north by the citadel afterwards called Antonia, which had a deep ditch dug beneath great towers, and was also protected by a natural valley. The ditch still exists, and will be noticed again. The valley is to the east, and is an affluent of the Kidron, the existence of which was unknown before the excavations of Sir Charles Warren on the north and north-east sides of the Ḥaram enclosure. The defenders also broke down the bridge leading from the upper city to the Temple hill, and—though the natural slopes of the ridge of Moriah were still visible on the west side—it is possible that there was already a wall between the city and the Temple. The voussoirs of this bridge lie jammed in the rock-cut aqueduct, 20 feet below the later Herodian pavement.
Pompey attacked on the north, and, having broken in, besieged the Antonia citadel, partly filling in the fosse. Banks were raised, and battering-rams and catapults from Tyre battered the wall. On the fatal day of the fast or 27th of the 3rd month of the year 63 B. C. the Temple fell. But Pompey—unlike the rapacious Crassus, who plundered its riches in 55 B. C., when on his way to meet his fate in Parthia—refrained from pillaging it, though he entered the Holy of Holies, and saw in the holy place, the golden table, golden altar, and seven-branched lamp, with many other treasures. Jerusalem was made tributary to Rome; Hyrcanus was set up in the stead of Aristobulus as high-priest; and five local councils were established in Palestine under Gabinius, one of these being in the Holy City.