ARISTOBULUS. — Name of various members of the Hasmonean dynasty, of whom two were kings and a third was a claimant to the throne of Judaea.
- A. I (his Jewish name was Judah), eldest son of John Hyrcanus, assumed power and, first among the Hasmoneans, the title of king at his father’s death (105 B.C.). Flavius Josephus recounts, in a manner open to question, the tragedy of his family. He is said to have imprisoned all his closest relatives and to have caused his mother to die of starvation. After having his co-regent brother Antigonus put to death, he is said to have died of grief in 104 B.C.
In a successful campaign against the Ituraeans, he added a large part of their territory to Judaea and forcibly converted them, imposing circumcision and the Law upon them (Flavius Josephus, Antiquitates Judaicae, XIII, 11, 1-3).
- A. II, nephew of the preceding, son of Alexander Jannaeus and Queen Alexandra, led a very adventurous life. Already in revolt against his mother, who preferred his inept brother Hyrcanus (II), he organized a rebellion. After her death in 67 B.C., he defeated his brother at Jericho, forced him to renounce the kingship and the high priesthood, and, having taken Jerusalem, proclaimed himself king and high priest there.
During the first two years of his peaceful reign, he pursued the strong policy of his mother, relying on the Pharisees. Soon, however, the cunning Antipater (q.v.), governor of Idumaea, ensnared the feeble Hyrcanus in his schemes, making him an unwitting instrument, and first summoned Aretas III, king of the Nabataeans, and then Pompey to his aid. Matters were complicated further, especially by Aristobulus’s inconsistent conduct toward Pompey. In 63 B.C. he was defeated by Pompey, who took Jerusalem and subjected Judaea to Rome, uniting it with Syria.
A. was taken prisoner to Rome. Having managed to escape, in 56 B.C. he unexpectedly reappeared in Palestine to attempt to reclaim the kingdom with his son Antigonus (q.v.). But Gabinius suppressed the insurrection and A. was returned to Rome. In 49 B.C. he was freed by Caesar and sent with two legions into Judaea to fight against Pompey. He was poisoned in Syria by Pompey’s partisans.
- A. (III), son of an Alexander, born to A. II and Alexandra, was the brother of Mariamme, wife of Herod the Great. At the age of seventeen he was proclaimed High Priest. But a year later, Herod, jealous of his popularity and perhaps suspecting him of aiming at the throne with his mother’s support, had him drowned in a bath at Jericho (35 B.C.; Flavius Josephus, Antiquitates Judaicae, XV, 5, 3-4). He was the last of the Hasmoneans.