Jerusalem capitulated; in the
negotiations for peace the surrender of all the external
possessions of the Jews was insisted upon; the suzerainty of the
Syrians became once more a reality (I35). But in 130 the powerful
Antiochus Sidetes fell in an expedition against the Parthians, and
the complications anew arising in reference to the succession to
the Syrian throne placed Hyrcanus in a position to recover what he
had lost and to make new acquisitions. He subjugated Samaria
and Idumaea, compelling the inhabitants of the latter to accept
circumcision. Like his predecessors, he too sought to secure the
favour of the Romans, but derived no greater benefit from the
effort than they had done. After a prosperous reign of thirty
years he died in 105. By Josephus he is represented as a pattern
of all that a pious prince ought to be; by the rabbins as
representing a splendid high-priesthood. The darkness of the
succeeding age lent a brighter colour to his image.
The external splendour of the Hasmonaean kingdom did not at once
die away,--the downfall of the Seleucidae, which was its negative
condition, being also a slow affair.
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