From this short explanation,the reader will understand that it was no easy task to rule this country where the balance of power was held by several conflicting groups of religious fanatics.
The Maccabees did their best,under very trying circumstances.
During the first hundred years,they succeeded fairly well.
But with John Hyrcanus,the last of the great leaders of this dynasty came to the throne.
His unworthy son,Aristobulus,the “Friend of the Greeks,”was entirely incompetent,and with him the period of decline began.
It greatly angered him that his Jewish subjects would not let him assume the title of King,although he really held all the powers usually associated with that name.
To the Pharisees,however,with their love for detail and their respect for tradition,such small distinctions were matters of the gravest importance.
The Jews had accepted the rule of the Judges because the Judges had always most carefully abstained from claiming the royal title.
Now a man who was not even a descendant of David insisted that he be given a title which was only very occasionally used for Jehovah himself.
The Pharisees were in a fury,and Aristobulus,looking around for some support,foolishly enough made common cause with their enemies.
To make the situation still more complicated,this incident was followed by one of those family quarrels which were so common in those early days.
The mother and the brothers of the new “King”took the side of his enemies.
It came to open warfare.
The mother was killed.
A little later,through the mistake of an over-zealous officer,Antigonus,the favourite brother of Aristobulus,was stabbed to death.
Trying to make his subjects forget these unpleasant incidents by some excitement of a different nature,Aristobulus next began a campaign against his powerful northern neighbours.
He got hold of the greater part of the old Kingdom of Israel,which had been extinct these last four centuries.He did not revive the name Israel,but called the conquered land Galilee,after one of the districts in the northern hills.
What future plans Aristobulus had,we do not know,for he was taken sick and died after a reign of only one year.
He was succeeded by his brother,Alexander Jannaeus,the third son of John Hyrcanus.
This young man had been in exile ever since he had been old enough to attract the attention of his father,who thoroughly detested him.He ruled for almost thirty years and when he died,the entire kingdom had been wasted away.
Like Aristobulus,the young prince made the fatal mistake of taking sides in the quarrels between the two religious parties.And following the example of his ancestors,he tried to extend his territories at the expense of his neighbours.
Although he was as unsuccessful abroad as he was at home,he never learned from experience.
His wife,Alexandra,was no better.She became a tool of the Pharisees and the actual government of the country was in the hands of a small kitchen cabinet of clever leaders who ruled Judah and Galilee for the benefit of their own friends.
That they might the better maintain their hold upon the country,the Pharisees encouraged Alexandra to appoint Hyrcanus,her elder son and one of their most tractable pupils,High Priest.
This was not at all to the liking of Aristobulus,the younger boy,who had been called after his uncle and who had inherited many of the less desirable qualities of that defunct and unregretted relative.
When the Pharisees,carried away by their own success,began a reign of terror and tried to execute the Sadducean leaders,Aristobulus proclaimed himself the defender of the Sadducean cause.
The Sanhedrin,or Council,continued to be dominated by the Pharisees,but Aristobulus and the Sadducees got hold of several very important country towns and soon they were strong enough to threaten the safety of Jerusalem.
At this moment Alexandra died.
Her sons were left with a depleted treasury and a country split wide open by civil strife.
There was nothing new in the situation.
This turbulent little corner of the world had forever been in a turmoil of some sort.
But times and circumstances,as we have said before,had changed.
A thousand or five hundred years before,no one had cared what those Semitic tribes were doing,provided they stayed within their own boundaries.
But the greater part of western Asia was now in the hands of the Romans,who had inherited the empire of Alexander.
They were mainly interested in a steady and uninterrupted flow of taxes.
As most revenue in that part of Asia was derived from trade,they insisted upon that outward semblance of peace and orderliness without which no credit (and therefore no commerce)was possible.
A certain king of Pontus,in Asia Minor,by the name of Mithridates,had just tried to interfere with the Roman policy.After a long and disastrous war,he had been forced to commit suicide and his empire had been added to the Republic.
Oblivious of the fate of this rich and powerful tyrant,Hyrcanus and Aristobulus continued to quarrel and caused such a disturbance that Rome heard about it.
The general commanding the troops in the east was ordered to proceed to Jerusalem and report upon conditions.When he reached the city,Aristobulus and his friends were inside the temple and Hyrcanus with his followers was outside,laying a formal siege to the sacred building,which was really a very strong fortress.
As soon as the Romans appeared upon the scene,both princes asked for their support.
The Roman general,with that cold understanding of complicated issues so characteristic of his race,decided that it would be much easier to defeat Hyrcanus,whose troops were out in the open,than Aristobulus,who was hiding behind the high walls of a steep rock.
He drove away Hyrcanus,and by this simple process,Aristobulus became ruler of the land of Judah and of Galilee.
But not for long.