wounded on the one side and the other. At length, overcome by numbers, Judas was slain, and the rest fled away. And Jonathan and Simon took Judas their brother, and buried him in the sepulchre of their fathers in the city of Modin. And all the people of Israel bewailed him with great lamentation, and they mourned for him many days. And they said: "How is the mighty man fallen, that saved the people of Israel !”

The sovereignty after this continued in the family of the Maccabees, who, through many a hard-won battle, maintained their independence, until the Roman empire began to gain a footing in Asia, and supplanted the kingdoms which Alexander's generals had founded.

§ 85. Hyrcanus and Aristobulus plead their claims before the Roman General Pompey.

We now pass over a period of a hundred years (B.C. 161 to 63), during which time the family of the Maccabees maintained, by force of arms, the constitution of Esdras and the observance of the law of Moses; and we return to a scene which gives an instructive insight into the way in which sin and wickedness were silently preparing the yoke of a foreign dominion for the faithless people. Alexander Jannæus, the high priest, after a life of cruelty and ambition, died, and his two sons, Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, disputed the succession. Hyrcanus, the elder, had the people on his side; but Aristobulus, the younger, from his superior talents and activity, gained over the priests and chief men of the nation. Fighting and bloodshed followed.

POMPEY, THE ROMAN GENERAL.

495

At this time Pompey, the Roman general, was carrying on a war in Asia against Mithridates, the Parthian king, with a well-appointed Roman army, and all the petty sovereigns and princes of the country came and paid their court to him. Amongst others, Hyrcanus and Aristobulus each sought to gain the favour of Pompey for themselves. This was a degradation very unworthy of descendants of the hero Judas Maccabeus, to appear thus as suppliants before a heathen; but to forsake God, as they had done, is to forsake the fountain of liberty and true honour.

Hyrcanus alleged before Pompey that his brother was a pirate by sea and a robber by land, and that he had dispossessed him of all his land and property. Aristobulus, on the other hand, said that the only reason why Hyrcanus had been set aside was that his laziness and incapacity caused him to fall into contempt with the people. The sad truth, however, appeared from the statement that a deputation of the Jews came to make against both, "that it had been formerly the usage of their nation to be governed by the high priest of the God whom they worshipped, who, without taking any other title, administered justice according to the laws received from their fathers; that it was true that the brothers were of the priestly family, but they had changed the former manner of the government, and had introduced another form, that they might thereby bring the people into slavery."

Pompey deferred giving his decision, and the two rival parties in Judea continued their animosities.

$86. (B.c. 63.) Pompey, the Roman general, takes Jerusalem, and profanes the Temple.

Aristobulus having in vain attempted to gain Pompey over to his side, suddenly withdrew the same year to Jerusalem, determined to declare his independence. But when Pompey's army came to besiege the town, his courage failed, and he went out to offer terms of submission and a sum of money. Pompey accepted the terms, and sent his lieutenant to receive the

THE SIEGE OF JERUSALEM.

497

money. Those inside, however, would not stand to the agreement, as having been made without their consent. Pompey, not enduring to be mocked, put

Aristobulus under arrest, and the siege began. The party of Aristobulus retired to the temple, and against this Pompey directed his operations. After three months it was taken; and when the soldiers were in possession, Pompey and the chief officers of his staff

went all over the building to view it, and caused the most sacred parts to be opened into which they entered. Even the Holy of Holies, where none but the high priest was allowed by law to go in once a year, was profaned by them. This took place in the same month on which the temple of Solomon had been burnt by the Chaldæans.

Aristobulus was taken prisoner to Rome; but after this profanation, Pompey, hitherto successful in all his enterprises, never gained another victory; and fifteen years afterwards he tried to enter Egypt as a refugee, but was assassinated on landing, and his head sent as a present to his rival, Julius Cæsar.

87. How the sceptre departed from Juda, according to the prophecy of the patriarch Jacob, and how the time fixed for the

coming of the Messias began to draw near.

Herod, surnamed the Great, who overthrew the constitution established by Esdras, and who brought the Jews finally under the dominion of the Romans, by being made king of Judea by a decree of the Senate (B.C. 40), was born (B.c. 72) of a noble family in Idumea. The family name was Antipas, which his father changed to Antipater, to give it a Greek form. His father rose to political importance as a partisan of Hyrcanus, and was thus able to introduce his son Herod to political life at an early age. Herod had the discernment to see that the Roman interest was the only way to power, and he therefore paid court most assiduously to each Roman general as they succeeded each other in command of the army of Asia. To gain