Person
Yehuda Aristobulus I יהודה אריסטובלוס
the first Hasmonean to put on a crown; he reigned one year
His father left rule to his wife and the high priesthood to his eldest son. Aristobulus took both: he put his mother in prison, where she starved, imprisoned his brothers, and had the one he loved, Antigonus, killed on a slander. Josephus writes that he died in torment of remorse, having reigned one year.
He was the first of the Hasmonean house to call himself king. Before him the title was "High Priest and leader"; the crown turned a priestly family into a dynasty. It is years like these that Ramban's reproach points to: power taken without the blessing ate the house from within faster than any enemy outside.
On the timeline
Places
Sources
Rishonim
- Ramban on Genesis 49:10 — why the whole Hasmonean house perished
Documents of the period
- Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 13:301–319 — the crown, the death of his mother and brother, his death within a year
- Josephus, The Jewish War 1:70–84 — the same account in brief
Basis: documents and evidence.