[Sidenote:  Jos.  War, I, 6:2, 3] Now the others who opposed Aristobulus were afraid, when he thus unexpectedly came to power.  This was especially true of Antipater, whom Aristobulus hated of old.  He was by birth an Idumean and one of the chief men of that nation on account of his ancestry and riches and other authority that belonged to him.  He urged Hyrcanus to flee to Aretas, king of Arabia, and to retrieve the kingdom.  When he had prepared them both beforehand he took Hyrcanus by night away from the city and escaped to Petra, which is the royal capital of Arabia.  Here he put Hyrcanus into Aretas’s care.  He prevailed with him to give him an army to restore him to his kingdom.  This army consisted of fifty thousand footmen and horsemen which Aristobulus was not able to withstand, but was defeated in the first encounter and was driven out of Jerusalem.  He would have been taken by force, if Scaurus, the Roman general, had not come and opportunely raised the siege.  This was the Scaurus who was sent into Syria from Armenia by Pompey the Great when he was fighting against Tigranes.  As soon, therefore, as Scaurus arrived in the country, ambassadors came from both the brothers, each of them desiring his assistance.  But Aristobulus’s three hundred talents blocked the way of justice.  When Scaurus had received this sum, he sent a herald to Hyrcanus and the Arabians, and threatened them with the resentment of the Romans and Pompey unless they raised the siege.  So Aretas was terrified and retired from Judea to Philadelphia.

[Sidenote:  Jos.  War, I, 6:4-5] When Hyrcanus and Antipater were thus deprived of their hopes from the Arabians, they fled to Pompey for assistance and besought him to show his disapproval of the violent action of Aristobulus and to restore to him the kingdom, as it justly belonged to him.  Aristobulus was also there himself, dressed in regal attire, but Pompey was indignant at his behavior.  When Hyrcanus’s friends also interceded strongly with Pompey, he took not only his Roman forces but also many of his Syrian auxiliaries and marched against Aristobulus.  But when he had passed by Pella and Scythopolis and had come to Korea, he heard that Aristobulus had fled to Alexandrium, which was a stronghold fortified with the greatest magnificence, and situated upon a high mountain, and he sent to him and commanded him to come down.  So Aristobulus came down to Pompey and when he had made a long defence of the justness of his rule, he returned to the fortress.  Pompey however commanded him to give up his fortified places and forced him to write to each of his governors to surrender.  Accordingly he did what he was ordered to do, but being displeased, he retired to Jerusalem and prepared to fight with Pompey.