Alexandra Salome

ALEXANDRA SALOME. - Hasmonean queen, b. in 140, d. in 67 B.C. She was the wife of Aristobulus I (v.); since he had died (103 B.C.) without children, A. conferred the high priesthood and the royal dignity on Alexander Jannaeus, the eldest of the three brothers-in-law; she became his wife and bore him the sons Hyrcanus and Aristobulus. In 76 B.C. Alexander died and left her the kingdom in turmoil because of the fierce persecution unleashed against the Pharisees. A., on the advice of her husband, came to terms with the powerful party that lorded it over the years of her reign (76-67 B.C.). She assigned the high priesthood to Hyrcanus, weak and incapable, disregarding the bold Aristobulus, who went over to the Sadducean opposition party, and, on the occasion of a serious illness of his mother, attempted a coup. A. died at the age of 73, confessing to her followers her own inability to hold back the new threatening current. The Pharisees regarded A. as the ideal sovereign. At her death, however, with the civil war between her two sons, the decline of the Hasmonean dynasty begins.

Salvatore Garofalo