Antiquities of the Jews — Book 14, Chapter 1

1. We have related the affairs of queen Alexandra, and her death, in the
foregoing book and will now speak of what followed, and was connected
with those histories; declaring, before we proceed, that we have nothing
so much at heart as this, that we may omit no facts, either through
ignorance or laziness; 1 for we are upon the history and explication of
such things as the greatest part are unacquainted withal, because of
their distance from our times; and we aim to do it with a proper beauty
of style, so far as that is derived from proper words harmonically
disposed, and from such ornaments of speech also as may contribute to
the pleasure of our readers, that they may entertain the knowledge of
what we write with some agreeable satisfaction and pleasure. But the
principal scope that authors ought to aim at above all the rest, is to
speak accurately, and to speak truly, for the satisfaction of those that
are otherwise unacquainted with such transactions, and obliged to
believe what these writers inform them of.

2. Hyrcanus then began his high priesthood on the third year of the
hundred and seventy-seventh olympiad, when Quintus Hortensius and
Quintus Metellus, who was called Metellus of Crete, were consuls at
Rome; when presently Aristobulus began to make war against him; and as
it came to a battle with Hyrcanus at Jericho, many of his soldiers
deserted him, and went over to his brother; upon which Hyrcanus fled
into the citadel, where Aristobulus's wife and children were imprisoned
by their mother, as we have said already, and attacked and overcame
those his adversaries that had fled thither, and lay within the walls of
the temple. So when he had sent a message to his brother about agreeing
the matters between them, he laid aside his enmity to him on these
conditions, that Aristobulus should be king, that he should live without
intermeddling with public affairs, and quietly enjoy the estate he had
acquired. When they had agreed upon these terms in the temple, and had
confirmed the agreement with oaths, and the giving one another their
right hands, and embracing one another in the sight of the whole
multitude, they departed; the one, Aristobulus, to the palace; and
Hyrcanus, as a private man, to the former house of Aristobulus.

3. But there was a certain friend of Hyrcanus, an Idumean, called
Antipater, who was very rich, and in his nature an active and a
seditious man; who was at enmity with Aristobulus, and had differences
with him on account of his good-will to Hyrcanus. It is true that
Nicolaus of Damascus says, that Antipater was of the stock of the
principal Jews who came out of Babylon into Judea; but that assertion of
his was to gratify Herod, who was his son, and who, by certain
revolutions of fortune, came afterward to be king of the Jews, whose
history we shall give you in its proper place hereafter. However, this
Antipater was at first called Antipas, 2 and that was his father's name
also; of whom they relate this: That king Alexander and his wife made
him general of all Idumea, and that he made a league of friendship with
those Arabians, and Gazites, and Ascalonites, that were of his own
party, and had, by many and large presents, made them his fast friends.
But now this younger Antipater was suspicious of the power of
Aristobulus, and was afraid of some mischief he might do him, because of
his hatred to him; so he stirred up the most powerful of the Jews, and
talked against him to them privately; and said that it was unjust to
overlook the conduct of Aristobulus, who had gotten the government
unrighteously, and ejected his brother out of it, who was the elder, and
ought to retain what belonged to him by prerogative of his birth. And
the same speeches he perpetually made to Hyrcanus; and told him that his
own life would be in danger, unless he guarded himself, and got shut of
Aristobulus; for he said that the friends of Aristobulus omitted no
opportunity of advising him to kill him, as being then, and not before,
sure to retain his principality. Hyrcanus gave no credit to these words
of his, as being of a gentle disposition, and one that did not easily
admit of calumnies against other men. This temper of his not disposing
him to meddle with public affairs, and want of spirit, occasioned him to
appear to spectators to be degenerous and unmanly; while. Aristobulus
was of a contrary temper, an active man, and one of a great and generous
soul.

4. Since therefore Antipater saw that Hyrcanus did not attend to what he
said, he never ceased, day by day, to charge reigned crimes upon
Aristobulus, and to calumniate him before him, as if he had a mind to
kill him; and so, by urging him perpetually, he advised him, and
persuaded him to fly to Aretas, the king of Arabia; and promised, that
if he would comply with his advice, he would also himself assist him and
go with him. When Hyrcanus heard this, he said that it was for his
advantage to fly away to Aretas. Now Arabia is a country that borders
upon Judea. However, Hyrcanus sent Antipater first to the king of
Arabia, in order to receive assurances from him, that when he should
come in the manner of a supplicant to him, he would not deliver him up
to his enemies. So Antipater having received such assurances, returned
to Hyrcanus to Jerusalem. A while afterward he took Hyrcanus, and stole
out of the city by night, and went a great journey, and came and brought
him to the city called Petra, where the palace of Aretas was; and as he
was a very familiar friend of that king, he persuaded him to bring back
Hyrcanus into Judea, and this persuasion he continued every day without
any intermission. He also proposed to make him presents on that account.
At length he prevailed with Aretas in his suit. Moreover, Hyrcanus
promised him, that when he had been brought thither, and had received
his kingdom, he would restore that country, and those twelve cities
which his father Alexander had taken from the Arabians, which were
these, Medaba, Naballo, Libias, Tharabasa, Agala, Athone, Zoar, Orone,
Marissa, Rudda, Lussa, and Oruba.