in 56 Aristobulus himself and his son Antigonus, and in 55 Alexander again.  Antipater was never able to hold his own; Roman intervention was in every case necessary.  The division of the Hasmonaean state into five “aristocracies” by Gabinius had no effect in diminishing the feeling of national unity cherished by the Jews of Palestine.  Once again, after the battle of Carrhae, a rising took place, which Cassius speedily repressed.

In 49 the great Roman civil war broke out; Caesar instigated Aristobulus against Antipater, who in common with the whole East had espoused the cause of Pompey.  But Aristobulus was poisoned by the opposite party while yet in Italy, and about the same time his son Alexander was also put to death at Antioch; thus the danger to Antipater passed away.  After the battle of Pharsalus he went over to Caesar’s side, and soon after rendered him an important service by helping him out of his difficulties at Alexandria.  By this means he earned the good-will of Caesar towards the whole body of the Jews and secured for himself (or Hyrcanus) a great extension of power and of territory.  The five “synedria” or “aristocracies” of Gabinius were superseded, the most important conquest of the Hasmonaeans restored, the walls of Jerusalem, which Pompey had razed, rebuilt.

However indisputable the advantages conferred by the rule of Antipater, the Jews could not forget that the Idumaean, in name of Hyrcanus, the rightful heir of the Hasmonaeans, was in truth setting up an authority of his own.  The Sadducaean aristocracy in particular, which formerly in the synedrium had shared the supreme power with the high priest, endeavoured to restore reality once more to the nominal ascendancy which still continued to be attributed to the ethnarch and the synedrium.  “When the authorities (hoi ’en telei) of the Jews saw how the power of Antipater and his sons was growing, their disposition towards him became hostile” (Josephus, Antiquities, xiv. 9, 3).  They were specially jealous of the youthful Herod, to whom Galilee had been entrusted by his father.  On account of the arbitrary execution of a robber chief Ezechias, who perhaps had originally been a Hasmonaean partisan, they summoned him before the synedrium, under the impression that it was not yet too late to remind him that he was after all but a servant.  But the defiant demeanour of the culprit, and a threatening missive which at the same time arrived from Sextus Caesar demanding his acquittal, rendered his judges speechless, nor did they regain their courage until they had heard the stinging reproaches of Sameas the scribe.  Yet the aged Hyrcanus, who did not comprehend the danger that was threatening himself, postponed judgment upon Herod, and gave him opportunity to withdraw.  Having been appointed strategus of Coelesyria by Sextus Caesar in the meanwhile he soon afterwards appeared before Jerusalem at the head of an army, and the authorities were compelled to address themselves in a conciliatory manner to his father and to Phasael his brother in order to secure his withdrawal.