A. C. 106.

bulus and Antigonus, commenced his reign, a feeble attempt was made by his younger brother to interrupt the succession. The treason was punished by the death of its author; while upon Absalom his only surviving brother, who was content with the tranquillity of a private station and retired from all public employment, Alexander heaped continual favours, and manifested to him invariable kindness and confidence.

Was the reign of Alexander eventful?

The life of Alexander was full of extraordinary vicissitudes and remarkable events. In the first year of his reign he besieged Ptolemais; the citizens implored the life of Ptolemy Lathyrus, who, expelled by his mother Cleopatra from the kingdom of Egypt, reigned in the island of Cyprus. Ptolemy landed in Palestine, and though the citizens of Ptolemais closed their gates against him, he listened to the representations of the deputies from Gaza, and of Zoilus who maintained himself in Dora and in Straton's Tower, and marched against Alexander. The Jewish prince was defeated with the loss of thirty thousand men; and would have been utterly ruined, had not Cleopatra, who trembled at the victorious progress of Ptolemy, given him timely and effectual assistance. The warlike and enterprising spirit of Alexander would not suffer him to remain in repose. He marched into Colo-Syria, besieged and took the city of Gadara; flushed with success, he proceeded to Amathus one of the strongest fortresses in the country, where Theodorus the tyrant or prince of Philadelphia had lodged his most valuable property as in a place of absolute security. Alexander obtained temporary possession of the fortress, but sustained a terrible defeat from Theodorus, who regained all his treasure, captured all the baggage and plunder of Alexander, and killed ten thousand of his men. The constancy of Alexander was by no means shaken by his misfortunes; he recruited his army; he took the towns of Raphia and Anthedon, both situated on the Mediterranean Sea; and he laid close siege to the celebrated city of Gaza, while he ravaged the surrounding country. But Apollodotus, a skilful and gallant soldier, commanded in the town;

the defence was obstinate; at the termination of a year the progress of Alexander had been small; and his army was almost ruined by a desperate sally made in the dead of the night. Sedition, however, arose in the city; Apollodotus was murdered by his own brother, and the place was betrayed. Alexander entered the city, and abandoned the inhabitants to the fury of his men. When the citizens perceived that no quarter was given to them by the exasperated conqueror, they fought with the rage of despair; many of the men of of Alexander were slain; the resistance terminated only when the defenders had ceased to breathe; and the victorious prince testified his mortification aud resentment, by reducing this great and ancient city to a heap of ruins.

Did the Pharisees disturb the reign of Alexander?

The malignity of the Pharisees distracted the whole reign of Alexander, and sometimes appeared to shake the foundations of his throne. When he returned to Jerusalem from the siege of Gaza, as he was preparing, as high-priest as well as prince, to preside at the sacrifices offered at the great feast of tabernacles, the people, inflamed by the surmises and slanders of the Pharisees, not only pelted him with a kind of citron which they were accustomed on this occasion to carry, but cried aloud, with an allusion to the calumny of Eleazar against Hyrcanus, that such a slave was unworthy of either the pontifical or regal dignity. Alexauder was so irritated by these insults that he commanded the troops to fall upon the people; the streets of Jerusalem were stained with the blood of six thousand Jews; to prevent the recurrence of such insults for the future, he inclosed the court of the priests within a wooden wall, and surrounded his person with foreign mercenaries, that he might no longer be dependent upon a people by whom he was both hated and feared.

What effects were produced by the dissension of Alexunder and his subjects?

Their mutual exasperation produced the most tragical effects. When after some foreign expeditions, in which he defeated the Moabites and Ammonites, took

the fortress of Amathus near which he had formerly suffered a signal defeat, and had almost been taken prisoner in an ambuscade by an Arabian prince, he was compelled to make war upon his seditious people who had organised a regular rebellion. Such was the animosity of his subjects against him, that when he one day inquired of them, what he could do to obtain their good will, they unanimously replied, that he had nothing to do but to kill himself. Fifty thousand people were destroyed by this civil war in six years, and innumerable calamities were entailed upon the Jewish nation. The rebels requested the assistance of Demetrius Euchærus, who had established himself in the sovereignty of Damascus: Demetrius gladly acceded to their request; he marched into Judæa, joined the rebels, and inflicted such a terrible defeat upon Alexander, that he was compelled to flee from the field of battle, and to take refuge in the mountains alone.

How did Alexander overcome his rebellious subjects? The misfortunes and destitution of the sovereign -excited the commiseratiou of some of the troops and the people, and Alexander soon found himself again at the head of a powerful army. Demetrius retreated from Judæa; and Alexander, being now left at liberty to devote all his resources to crush the rebellion, determined to exact a terrible revenge. He defeated the insurgents in the open field, and shut up the most desperate of them in Bethune. The place was taken, and a scene of unparalleled horror ensued. Eight hundred of the principal rebels were taken to Jerusalem; they were ali crucified at one time and in one place; in the presence of these unhappy wretches, and before they expired, their wives and children were butchered by the soldiers; while Alexander, seated at a banquet with his friends near the place of execution, feasted his eyes upon the torments of his expiring enemies. This terrible example completely quelled all resistance against Alexander, and he was never molested by any other mutiny during the rest of his reign. This tranquillity at home enabled him to extend his conquests abroad: and such was his success, that, when after the absence of three years he returned to Jerusalem, he swayed his sceptre over dominions

more extensive than had ever submitted to the au thority of the Jews, except in the times of David and Solomon.

What was the cause of Alexander's death and what was his character?

The excesses and intemperance of Alexander, at length destroyed his constitution and brought him to the grave. When he was dying, conscious that a turbulent people were not likely to submit without sedition and rebellion, to a woman, and to children under age, he exhorted Alexandra his queen to give A. C. 78. the Pharisees some share in the government, and even to appease their resentment by surrendering to them his dead body, and by allowing them to treat it with every indignity as some atonement for the injuries and cruelties he had inflicted upon their sect. Alexander Jannæus died in the forty-ninth year of his age, and in the twenty-eighth of his reign. He was a prince valiant, enterprising, and politic, indefatigable both in the council and the field, and he respected, at any rate, the rites and institutions of religion; but he was despotic and inhuman, ambition was his ruling passion, and his criminal debaucheries accelerated his dissolution.

How did Alexandra follow the dying advice of her husband and what was the consequence of the measures she adopted?

Alexandra followed the advice of her husband, the triumphant Pharisees were transported with A. C. 78. joy, they extolled the deceased king as a mighty conqueror and a sincere patriot, they bestowed upon him the most magnificent funeral obsequies, and they were so intoxicated with the change, that they above all things applauded him, for leaving his government in the hands of Alexandra. The admission of the Pharisees to power was an event of great importance; and it furnishes a satisfactory explanation of those passages in the New Testament, in which they are represented to have been intimately connected with the administration of government, and to have exercised a most commanding influence over the minds of the people.

What effect was produced during the government of Alexandra by the ambition and malignity of the Pharisees?

Under the reign of Alexandra, since no foreign enemy excited alarm, the whole country might have remained in profound tranquillity, had it not been for the vindictive and arrogant proceedings of the Pharisees. This insolent sect soon evinced their determination to effect the extermination of all the friends of Alexander; and would have accomplished their purpose, had it not been for the firmness of the young Aristobulus, the second son of the late king. This brave young prince obtained the virtual command of the frontier garrisons; by a successful expedition to Damascus he ingratiated himself with the troops; and although his wife and children were retained by the Jews he continued to increase his military power. The regency of the queen, after it had continued nine years was terminated by her death in the seventyfourth year of her age, and a civil war immediately followed.

SECTION IV.

POMPEY, GABINIUS, AND CRASSUS IN JUDEA.

WHO succeeded Alexandra in the government of Judæa?

HYRCANUS II. the eldest son of Alexander

Jannæus and Alexandra, succeeded to the A, C. 69 regal and pontifical dignities.

Did Hyrcanus long retain his station?

Aristobulus approached, fought, and conquered his brother; and the mild and unambitious Hyrcanus, was easily persuaded to abandon the cares of a dangerous and precarious sovereignty for the security and peace of private life.

By whom was the party of Hyrcanus sustained after his resignation?

The resignation of Hyrcanus was not the extinction