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.Demetrius was on the whole successful after an engagement in which the loss on each side was severe.Janneus withdrew to the mountain country, and was joined by a number, said to have been 6,000, of deserters from Demetrius.They divined the latter’s intentions of annexation, and apparently did not desire, whatever might be Janneus’s faults, that their country should again have experience of the Syrian yoke.Under these circumstances Demetrius hastened homewards, and Janneus proceeded to seize and punish with great cruelty those who had maintained so prolonged a resistance to his rule.For the rest of his reign the Pharisees were crushed.Judea now became for a short time the seat of war between the most powerful of the claimants to the Syrian throne, Antiochus XII (Dionysus) and the Nabatean king, Aretas.The latter, after a victory over Antiochus, vanquished Janneus, but was persuaded by concessions of territory to withdraw.For the next three years Janneus’ success in arms, and in the consequent acquisition of fresh territory for his country, was such, that when in 81 BC he returned to his capital, he was received with enthusiasm by the people who had so long opposed his rule.His health was undermined by a long course of excesses, and while seeking to repress outbreaks of disaffected subjects in 78 BC he died at the age of 49 years.It was one of the results of the peculiar warfare of the Hasmonean princes that Palestine gradually became studded with fortresses or castles apart from the main seats of their ancient history or civilization, and commanding the passes in which they entrenched themselves against their enemies.Such had been Modin under Mattathias and Judas, and Masada under Jonathan; such was Hyrcaneum under John Hyrcanus; such, under Alexander Janneus, was Macherusbeyond the Dead Sea, and Alexandreum in the mountains between Samaria and the Jordan valley, which subsequently became the recognized burial-place of the later princes of the Hasmonean family, as Modin earlier had been of the first.But Hyrcanus and Alexander were interred, in regal or pontifical state, in tombs which long bore their names close to the walls of Jerusalem.If extent of dominion be a test of prosperity, Janneus may certainly claim credit for winning a considerable number of cities with their neighboring territories.Also, in spite of his carelessness in regard to Pharisaic ritual or traditions, he insisted that those whom he conquered should accept Judaism,on the penalty of devastation of territory and large destruction of life.Accordingly he left the kingdom larger than it had been at any time since the Exile.This work of conquest however proved at the same time a work of destruction.It did not lead, as once the conquests of Alexander the Great had done, to the furtherance, but to the extinction, of Greek culture.For in this respect Alexander Janneus was still always a Jew, who subjected the conquered territories, as far as they went, to Jewish modes of thought and manners.If the cities in question would not consent to this, they were laid waste.Such was the fate which befell the greatand hitherto prosperous coast towns and the Hellenistic cities on the east of the Jordan.The Romans, Pompey and Gabinius, were the first to rebuild again those ruins, and re-awaken in them a new prosperity.THE REIGN OF ALEXANDRA (78—69 BC)WHEN Alexander was dying, he is said to have advised his wife Alexandra, on whom the sovereignty now devolved, to cultivate the favor of the Pharisees.According to one account, his words were, “Fear neither the Pharisees nor their opponents, but fear the hypocrites who pretend to be Pharisees, whose deeds are those of Zimri, and who claim a reward like that of Phinehas”.Strongly supported by the Pharisees, she succeeded in keeping her kingdom free throughout her reign not only from internal feuds, but to a large extent also from foreign attack.Josephus speaks of her as “a sagacious woman in the conduct of great affairs, intent always on the gathering of soldiers together, so that she in¬creased the army by one-half, and procured a great body of foreign troops, till her own nation became powerful at home and terrible to foreign potentates”.She had two sons, Hyrcanus the elder, an indolent person, who succeeded to the high priesthood, and Aristobulus, energetic and ambitious.The latter she sent upon an expedition against Damascus, which, however, was not fruitful in results of any kind.Danger also threatened on the part of Tigranes, king of Armenia.Alexandra promptly sent him presents, thereby to procure freedom from attack.These might easily have failed to be effectual, had it not been for the fact of the gradual advance of the Romans in Tigranes’ direction, and his knowledge that the insatiable legions were watching in the rear.The time was now almost come when the eagles would find their way across the frontiers of Judea itself, and the period of its independence would finally close.As regards home administration, Simon ben Shatach, who during the reign of Aristobulus had headed the opposition to that king’s Sadducean policy and tastes, was now in full favor with royalty [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]