The Feud of Aristobulus and Hyrcanus: Pompey and the Coming of Rome

After the death of Queen Shlomtzion (Salome Alexandra), under whom the sages had regained influence, her sons could not share power. The elder, Hyrcanus II, was mild and became High Priest; the younger, Aristobulus II, was decisive and seized the crown. Civil war followed. Hyrcanus fled to the Idumean governor Antipater, father of the future king Herod, and together they brought a Nabatean army to besiege Hyrcanus's own brother in Jerusalem.

At that moment Pompey appeared in the east. Both sides sent envoys with money and promises; a third delegation came from the people, asking to be rid of both brothers and restored to priestly government. Pompey heard them all and decided in Rome's favour. In 3697 the legions besieged Jerusalem. Aristobulus's supporters held the Temple Mount for three months; the Romans raised a siege ramp, working on Sabbaths when the defenders would not interfere with construction.

When the city fell, thousands died; the priests, witnesses reported, went on serving at the altar and fell where they stood. Pompey entered the Holy of Holies—where only the High Priest entered, and only once a year—and found, to his astonishment, no statue and no image. He left the treasury untouched, but independence was over. Judea became a tributary of Rome.

After Alexander the divergence of the chronologies nearly disappears: both rest on the same Greek and Roman documents. The remainder of a year or two is the difference between the traditional count and the date refined from external sources.