Judah Aristobulus, the son
of Hyrcanus, who reigned for only one year, was the first to
assume the Greek title of royalty; Ituraea was subdued by him,
and circumcision forced upon the inhabitants. His brother Jonathan
(Jannaeus) Alexander (104-79), in a series of continual wars,
which were never very prosperous, never-theless succeeded in adding
the whole coast of Philistia (Gaza) as well as a great portion of
Peraea to his hereditary dominions. /1/
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1. A number of half-independent towns and communes lay as tempting
subjects of dispute between the Seleucidae, the Nabathaeans or
Arabs of Petra, and the Jews. The background was occupied by the
Parthians and the Romans.
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But the external enlargement of the structure was secured at the cost
of its internal consistency.
From the time when Jonathan, the son of Mattathias, began to carry
on the struggle no longer for the cause of God but for his own
interests, the scribes and the Asidaeans, as we have seen, had
withdrawn themselves from the party of the Maccabees There can
be no doubt that from their legal standpoint they were perfectly
right in contenting themselves, as they did, with the attainment
of religious liberty, and in accepting Alcimus.
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