The sanctuary, which hitherto had been inaccessible and screened from
view, suffered gross outrage. Pompey, with several of his staff,
penetrated into the inner court and saw things which it was unlawful for
any save the high priests to behold. There stood the golden table, and
the holy candlestick,[86] and the cups for libations, and a mass of
spices;[87] besides these, in the treasury was the sacred money
amounting to two thousand talents. Yet Pompey out of piety touched none
of these, acting here again in a manner worthy of his noble nature.
On the following day he gave orders to those in charge of the Temple to
cleanse the precincts and to offer to God the offerings prescribed by
the Law. The high priesthood he restored to Hyrcanus, in gratitude for
his other services and chiefly because he had restrained the Jews of the
country from taking up arms for Aristobulus. Those who had been
responsible for the war were beheaded; Faustus and all who had gallantly
scaled the wall received at his hands the appropriate rewards of valour.
Jerusalem he made tributary to Rome, and the cities of Cœle-Syria which
had in times past been subdued by the inhabitants (of the metropolis)
were taken from them and placed under a governor[88] appointed by
himself; and the whole nation, whose power had until then been greatly
increasing, was strictly confined within its own bounds. He rebuilt
Gadara, which had recently been destroyed,[89] to gratify his freedman
Demetrius who was a Gadarene. The other cities—Hippos, Scythopolis,
Pella, Dium, Samaria, also Marisa, Azotus, Jamnia and Arethusa—he
restored to their inhabitants. These, as well as the cities which had
been razed, were all in the interior of the country. On the sea-board
Gaza, Joppa, Dora and Strato’s Tower—afterwards magnificently rebuilt by
Herod and embellished with harbours and temples under the new name of
Cæsarea—all these were liberated by Pompey and attached to the province
(of Syria).
Jerusalem owed this calamity to the quarrels of Hyrcanus and
Aristobulus. We lost our liberty and became subject to the Romans; we
were forced to give back to the Syrians the territory which we had taken
from them by our arms. Moreover, within a short period the Romans
exacted from us over ten thousand talents. The kingship, formerly a
privilege bestowed on those who were high priests by right of birth, now
passed into plebeian hands;[90] of this we shall speak in due course.
Pompey then handed over Cœle-Syria with the rest of Syria,[91] from the
river Euphrates to Egypt, to Scaurus, leaving him two Roman legions, and
departed for Cilicia _en route_ for Rome. He took with him Aristobulus
as a prisoner with his children.—_Ant._ XIV. 4. 4 f. (71-79).
Footnote 86:
Or “lampstand.”
Footnote 87:
Another reading has “silver vessels.”
Footnote 88:
Or “prætor.”
Footnote 89:
By the Jews (_B. J._ parallel passage).
Footnote 90:
The Herodian family (Idumæans).
Footnote 91:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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